Life and Travel in China

A few days ago I received a promotional email from a Chinese supplier from Shenzhen, it was about some consumer electronics. It was some kind of group email, but in the sender name they wrote in Chinese ?? (bo-lan) meaning Poland. There would be nothing strange about it, if not for the fact that the content of the email was in Russian!!! As you can see, some Chinese still think that Russian is spoken in Poland, or that we are even a Soviet republic ;-). Unfortunately, there are a lot of ambiguities and black holes in Chinese history and geography lessons, and then there are such effects. I wonder how the Chinese would feel if I wrote to them in Japanese and were surprised that they weren't part of Japan? They would definitely be furious.

The visit of the Polish delegation to China, headed by the Speaker of the Sejm, Ewa Kopacz, is underway... It seems to me that Poland is about 10 years too late for such talks, negotiations, cooperation plans and joint investments. We isolated ourselves from China for too long and were offended by the entire Middle Kingdom: the famous boycotts of the Olympics, our 'protection' of Tibet and the invitations of the Dalai Lama. The Chinese have a lot of disadvantages. Now our politicians, seeing an opportunity in China, are trying to suck up. And the Chinese authorities don't care much about it, because neither the prime minister nor the president meet the Polish delegation! The Chinese media does not say anything about this visit at all. More important is Xi Jinping's visit to Costa Rica and Mexico, and later to the USA. It may sound unpleasant, but Poland is a third-rate partner for China. They care about poor African countries - where there are various deposits, they care about cooperation with Germany and France - where there are large sales markets and imports are more efficient than in Poland. Moreover, our legal and tax system is too complicated and I already know cases of Chinese companies that fled Poland or significantly limited their activities. We have been offended against China for too long to now suddenly build a great partnership and friendship - this is how I assess it. Of course, this is slowly changing, although the whole world is doing excellent business in the Middle Kingdom, and we are still talking about human rights and communism. "Poland is the Christ of nations" - this is how we must save China, even if it deepens our economic crisis! Let's fight for a free Tibet, let's separate Taiwan, independence for Inner Mongolia, the Uighurs also deserve something! I'm being ironic, of course, I just mean that we often get involved in things that are not our own. The ideas are beautiful, but are they right in the face of unemployment, the crisis in Poland, and the bankruptcy of many small and medium-sized companies?!

I have met various people in China and I have the impression that they are divided into those who are aware and unaware of what country and what system they live in. Those who are aware, for example from Hong Kong, have access to free media, know what Tiananmen is, what the situation in Tibet is, etc. Of course, there are also educated people in China who often travel around the world and they are also aware of how China functions. Most often, however, these are wealthy people, careerists and this system does not bother them in any way. Moreover, everyone has a huge patriotism, or even nationalism, instilled in them - this can be seen, for example, during anti-Japanese demonstrations. And of course there is a huge, largest group of unaware people. For them, it is enough to have more food than in the 1950s, they have the opportunity to obtain small pensions, and the younger ones think that work and money are all that a person needs to be happy... and so they unconsciously function like cogs in the machine of a totalitarian state. There is too much injustice in China, and what comes to light is quickly censored. Everything is swept under the carpet, and on this carpet are the rich Chinese, the multi-million communist party and a modern army ready for anything.

In China, theoretically, maternity leave lasts about 3.5 months. In practice, things vary. A week ago, a friend gave birth to her second child, a long-awaited son, previously there was a daughter. This is an important event for her husband's family and her parents. They still maintain the tradition that having a son is of great importance for the entire family and its future. Coming back to the topic of maternity leave... my friend was already responding to work emails almost three days after giving birth and was basically working from home. Children are traditionally cared for mainly by grandparents. I can imagine that as soon as a baby is born, you take it to grandma's and take the laptop on your lap... the world has gone crazy! Parenting in China is very unusual. As I wrote once - new parents can leave the child thousands of kilometers away from them (in the grandparents' house) and simply return to work in some factory or company in another part of China. Another option is boarding schools and kindergartens, where children see their parents once or twice a year, which is terrible. Where should they come from? Probably from TV ;-).

It may be hard to believe, but there are people in China who have never even left their village. I'm not just talking about some mountainous areas, outside civilization, but about ordinary villages in Hunan or Jiangsu provinces. This most often applies to older people, but also to middle-aged people. Their life is very simple, and the world ends and begins within their village. This is also partly due to certain regulations from the recent past. Often, people from rural areas could not simply enter cities or special economic zones, they had to have appropriate documents. I remember back in 2003, the car from Changzhou couldn't come to Shanghai to pick us up. In Shenzhen, buses from outside were also checked by the military; the Chinese had to show proof of their city address or another document confirming their purpose of staying in this metropolis. That's one of the reasons why people didn't even have the habit of 'pushing' into the city. Currently, there are no such restrictions (apart from permanent residence and registration), but many older people cannot read, do not know what the metro is, confuse buses and simply get lost outside the borders of their home village. I myself had the opportunity to observe how an elderly lady wanted to return by bus and ran to the bus stop in the direction from which she came. It was incomprehensible to her that she should go across the street.