Our Cozy Western World

Every individual who comes to China is going to be caught off guard by some aspect of this country. For some it might have been the food. They have eaten at Chinese restaurants in their home country a million times and come here to realize that it is not what they expected. Others thought they had a good grasp on the language, only to arrive here and realize that they don’t understand a word being said to them. For me, it was the lack of personal space. Getting on the subway for the first time, I saw fifteen people squeeze into an area that I was sure could only fit another five max. One of the books I read this semester was entitled China Road. The author explained his experience living here in China: “Over time, I have become inoculated against Chinese noise. This is the sort of thing that used to infuriate me. What are you doing, kid, crooning out of tune in my ear? And what is the driver doing playing that music so loud in the first place? …You go back to the United States or Europe, and wonder why people are jumping up and down with annoyance at some minor noise or irritation… We have such low thresholds of annoyance in our cozy Western world” (Pg 146). Isn’t that so true?

In our cozy Western world, we are used to getting what we want, when we want it. We often go to fast-food restaurants and are irritated when there is a mess up in the order, delaying us an ‘entire’ minute. Surfing the web, we are annoyed if the web page takes more than a few seconds to load. Have you ever been driving down the free-way and had someone slower than you in the passing lane? All these situations are so minor, and yet at times we get upset over them. I believe we could all learn an important lesson from the Chinese, and choose not to make a big fuss over things that don’t really matter.