About China blogosphere, travel, and entrepreneurship

Those fine thin lines. Telling us where to wait while the guy in front gets served. Telling you what not to do lest you risk undesired consequences. Fine thin lines are part of everyday life in both the West and in China — and a quick comparison between the two is always something of interest.

The West: A Line is Always a Line

In the West, a line is always a line. In particular, the Swiss have taken it to perfected extremes; the Swiss are amongst the most law-abiding people I’ve ever seen. The average Swiss (by that I mean someone in his or her 30s or older) obeys all rules, never honks when not allowed to do so, waits in line, and pays his or her taxes on time. The Law is seen as something that is always present, always in force, and never to be toyed around with.

In probably what is the most extreme example I’ve experienced, I sent a letter to the US (this was back in 1999) with just CHF 1.40 of stamps (they needed CNY 1.60). The letter was forwarded to the US, but I got a reminder (a kind one at that) from the Post Office that I needed to stick in a CHF 0.20 stamp to repay the bits I didn’t pay before.

CHF 0.20 isn’t much — it’ll only get you ketchup at the local McDonald’s. Yet there I was, obediently sticking in a CHF 0.20 stamp — and sending the reminder back to the Post Office.

China: The Line is a Line, But…

In China, a line is a line, but — you see, I use the word but. The “but” factor is big in China. If there’s an exception, that exception will nearly always be used.

China does have a Constitution, which is regularly (but also healthily) updated, and its collection of laws is impressive, to say the least. Yet those fine thin lines are less visible to a Chinese. As a result, you get the “grey factor”: violations that aren’t grave, but are nonetheless troublesome — as they’re illegal. Did that taxi driver stop on (not in front of) a pedestrian crossing? The lady walks across the street, undeterred; nobody complains.

Yet the taxi driver did make a mistake. It’s just that it’s not too big. Nobody really notices. And that’s the odd thing in China: unless something is really big, nobody really cares.

Cuntrasts

I’m using the Rhaeto-Rumansh word for “contrasts” because of what you’re about to see below. You’d expect relatively more chaotic China to be a hotbed of flagrant violations of this or that rule or law. In fact, quite a number of people are keeping bus lanes the way they are — for buses only. A CNY 200 fine might be the deterrence here, but increasingly, more and more Chinese drivers are of the opinion that the traffic code is no longer written on toilet paper, and so are leaving the lanes for buses to use. (A few “special cars”, though — mainly those with folks “in power” — still dot the lanes from time to time…)

Something we’d like to see more: bus lanes that actually serve their real purpose…

Compare this with what seems to be shoufa Switzerland (shoufa (守法) being Chinese for “law-abiding” — I had to get the S’s right).

The Swiss… crossing the line, too…

You see that Beemer obviously flirting with that “verboten” (forbidden) hard shoulder. This is rare in Switzerland, where even littering can get you yelled at. Yet when I was in Switzerland late last year, I found a German car speeding past me at what must have been 170 km/h.

Which reminds us that even in a supposedly all-legal society, we still have those people not playing by the rules…