Little stories or details on the run.

Money money Mao
The faces of different Chinese ethnic people on the banknotes are little by little replaced for a single image: that one of Chairman Mao. We find the same face softly smiling in all the new Yuan notes.

Hong Kong
The city looks like an amusement park. The streets are narrow and the buildings are of dozens of floors high, reaching hundreds of meters sometimes. The neon signs blink, hundreds of people strolling around, it ’ s normal to rub each other continuously.
There is money all over the place: big cars, luxury brands such Vuitton and Channel...

I am there, I stay there
People squish in public transport, they shove and push. When the bus is full, no one descends to allow those journey mates who want to get off.
In the subway pictures illustrate the good behavior to follow: let the people get off the carriage before push to get on it. But nothing is done, everyone squish each other since the moment the doors are opened. To have a chance to get off, one has to be quick, to preview the move and to reach the doors before you arrive to your destination. Young guards with portable speakers encourage travelers to line-up shouting out loud the slogans of security, and catch the tricksters who go on the opposite walkway at counter-sense.

Saw on TV:

• A counting baby. You give him an addition and he bounces reveling the result. «   8+9   » and he bounces 17 times.
• There is a contest TV-show for foreigners. They have to explain in Chinese why they love China (one presumes they love China, if not they will not be on the show). For the girls there is an extra quiz: they have to sing a song.
• « I'm young, I'm coffe » . A commercial proclaims the wonderful effects of coffee in young Chinese. It ’ s night time, darkness has arrived, and three images in background: a tired secretary in front of a pile of folders; teenager in front of a computer monitor; and a 8/10 years old child facing his homework, all of them really drowsy. Suddenly a can of Brend coffee falls in front of them and their faces enlighten. In the country of “little-scruple” , where children keep awake late in the night to make their homework: it ’ s all-normal. And when we «help» them to get addicted to caffeine to be awake: that ’ s a good thing.
• December 17th, the Xmas atmosphere here is similar to that of Halloween in France: an imported celebration. A TV commercial for Pizza Hut shows a one-child family in an elevator. A couple gets in the elevator with a tray on the hands. The cute child with sweet voice asks, «what ’s that?» , the parents answer smiling that it ’ s a turkey. Another couple gets in the elevator even happier because their turkey is much bigger. Another stop and 3 young guys arrive. They carry such a huge turkey that they can ’ t even come in the elevator.Pizza Hut tells that the yummiest taste is found in their special Christmas Pizza where the waiters wear red-and-white Santa ’ s hat.

Saw on the street
A seller of walnuts. A woman and two men stop by with the clear intention of buying from him. The vendor serves them up. The woman get mad, it ’ s too much in the plastic bag and she realizes that they don ’ t even know if the nuts are good … so they all catch one and through them on the floor trying to crash them under the feet. Some of them fail, catch another walnut and start over. The vendor watch them do. Eventually they leave with a kilo of walnuts.

Mamma Mia! Chinese electronics...
For those who like to buy risky electronic ware, remember the following tips:

• We don ’ t know if the brand name on the object is real.
• We never know what is the quality of it.
• The lifetime of a product range from some months to some days.

For instance: we have bought two MP4 players from the Chinese brand « Newman » (we mention it because we have to), supposedly the first mark of the sector in China. The boxes displays that their products accomplish UK and ISO international quality standard tests. In less than one month we had to change them 7 times!!! (Chinese never give money back). One after another, the players showed their malfunctions of fabrication, impossible to use them for more than a week.