What makes you feel uncomfortable in China?

[Tara Braska]

What are the things/customs/culture ( anythings) make you feel uncomfortable in China? No toilet paper in toilets ? Or always drink hot water? I think this could be very interesting. 

[skylee]

The Great Firewall of China.

Dirty toilets.

[tooironic]

The worst thing is the bureaucracy. Anything that involves going through some kind of system or process always takes much longer than you expect. But this is something that locals have to endure as well.

[abcdefg]

Being "grilled" immediately by people you have just met. I realize now that it's an acceptable way of starting a casual interchange, but it still often comes across as intrusive and marginally rude.

 

"How much did your shoes cost?" is not one of my favorite conversation starters when I'm back in the US.

[Kenny同志]

A number of things (in no particular order):

 

lack of 公德, for example queue jumping, littering (including airmailing rubbish), being noisy in public places

propaganda language

bureaucracy

pollution

brainwashing

brainwashed people

fraud in business and academic research

ridiculous/unfair laws and regulations

money-worship mentality of the vast majority 

ridiculously low rates for translation

[Goshujinchama]

Nothing in particular.

 

But I don't really like:

- people get in the metro before you have the time to get down. no matter how many times the announcement says: 先下后上. Nearly nobody listens to this.

(same goes for elevators... and it's even more annoying... if possible)

- everybody has their head stuck in the cellphone now and the rate of people giving their seat to elderly or people in need has dropped to 1%

- laowais complaining with their first world problem. I mean, you work as an expat in China and make God knows how much money... and yet you complain that yogurt in China has too much sugar.   

[Demonic_Duck]

Couples. Holding hands.

 

ON THE GODDAMN ESCALATORS.

[grawrt]

 

- laowais complaining with their first world problem. I mean, you work as an expat in China and make God knows how much money... and yet you complain that yogurt in China has too much sugar. 

 

I'm totally guilty of this lol. But only because I wanted to plop yogurt on my food (non-dessert)

[Lu]

- everybody has their head stuck in the cellphone now and the rate of people giving their seat to elderly or people in need has dropped to 1%

Shame them. It works. If you have a friend with you, complain loudly to your friend in Chinese about people not standing up for the elderly anymore. If you don't have a friend handy, apologise loudly to a nearby elderly person that you would love to yield your seat to them but unfortunately you don't have a seat.

As to the yoghurt, try the type you buy on the street in earthen cups. It's one of the few things that hasn't changed in ten years and it's still great.

[imron]

ON THE GODDAMN ESCALATORS.

This, this, a thousand times this.

[daofeishi]

A lack of a functioning civil society and civic-mindedness. 

 

In order to get a well-functioning society, you need to allow people to take responsibility for improving on it, but there is a huge void of functioning non-governmental organizations that 

* work to improve the lives of people on the low social rungs, like migrant workers and the homeless 

* work to protect the weak, abused and exploited, like people in abusive relationships and children 

* work to protect the rights of the sick, the disabled and the mentally ill 

* speak out against exploitative behavior, such as immoral business practices or corrupt officials  

* facilitate a discussion within important societal arenas such as economics, education, religion, law, politics and public policy  

* allow like-minded people to come together to work on their common interests within art, science, sports and other arenas   

* oversee the political institutions 

 

And since there's no functional civil society, there's very little civic-mindedness. To many people, their responsibility to people outside of themselves seems to stop at their immediate family. 

 

Hong Kong seems like it's very different in that respect. I remember one of the things that made the biggest impression on me the first time I was in Hong Kong was a huge billboard making people aware of a hotline for women in abusive relationships. I haven't seen anything like it, on billboards or elsewhere, in the mainland. 

[aone]

 Any one could clarify why  - Couples. Holding hands. ON THE GODDAMN ESCALATORS -   makes you feel uncomfortable?  'cause I have done such a thing   

[MPhillips]

They want to rush past you, treating the escalator as a staircase, instead of as the relaxing means of non-pedal locomotion that the escalator's inventor intended it to be!

[imron]

In many countries, escalator etiquette is such that people who want to stand still, all stand to one side, leaving a passage on the other side for people who want to walk up the escalators.

 

If a couple is holding hands on the escalator, then they are more than likely blocking the path of people who would like to pass.

[imron]

instead of as the relaxing means of non-pedal locomotion that the escalator's inventor intended it to be!

The thing is, people who want to relax can relax - just be courteous enough not block the path of people who want the exercise.

[MPhillips]

My husband says people who want exercise should take the one going the wrong way--now that's Exercise!

[aone]

TKS Imron & MPhilips.  I've done a search about the etiquette concerning taking the escalator and found this:

 

乘坐自动扶梯，应靠右侧站立，空出左侧通道，以便有急事的人通行；应主动照顾同行的老人与小孩踏上扶梯，以防跌倒；如须从左侧急行通过时，应向给自己让路的人致谢。

 

It says, the left side is for persons in a hurry. If one wants exercise, I believe, there is always an option, namely,the stairs.  

 

As for me, if I want to pass and someone blocks the path,I will say "借过" or “麻烦让一下”.  

 

Anyhow, will behave myself from now on.

[imron]

As for me, if I want to pass and someone blocks the path,I will say "借过" or “麻烦让一下”.

The problem is that invariably the couple holding hands and blocking the way is three or four people ahead and the person behind them wasn't bothered enough and so just stands there blocking too, as does the person behind them and now even if you ask them to move aside there is no room for them to go.

If you want to hold your partner's hand it's fine - just make sure one is on the upper step and one is on the lower, and there's still a clear path beside you.

There's no reason everyone should have to wait on the leisure of people who want to relax.

[AdamD]

- People on the street gobbing an inch from my foot

- That shrill beeping noise on trains that induces aneurysm: "THE DOORS ARE CLOSING THE DOORS ARE CLOSING THE DOORS ARE CLOSING LOOK PEOPLE IN THE NEXT PROVINCE NEED TO BE FULLY AWARE OF THIS"

- The way people's respect for the elderly disintegrates the second they're driving a car or scooter

 

I deal with 先下后上 by just pushing through people to get off. Nobody even notices.

 

The hands-across-the-escalator thing is so endemic to Melbourne (where I live) that it doesn't stand out for me in China, although that doesn't make it any more bearable.

[Kenny同志]

補充：

 

the guanxi culture

communism

widespreadness of 共產中文 and other kinds of crappy Chinese

bad education and healthcare systems