Boomer Angst: A visit to China helps American size up the situation
Ain’t no Big Gulps in China.
After more than a week in this amazing country of 1.3 billion souls, I can report firsthand that the Chinese, as a group, are not big gulpers. Shanghai is a sophisticated, modern metropolis with millions of people milling about on the streets sporting clothes that would be right at home in the U.S.
Just one thing is missing from their ensembles. The throngs aren’t schlepping monster-sized drinks as they go about their merry ways. No 32-ounce plastic cups of soda. No mega-mugs of coffee. No half-gallon jugs of water.
This despite the 3,500 KFC and 1,300 McDonald’s restaurants in China. Not to mention the Dairy Queens and Starbucks. So it’s not as if huge drinks aren’t available. But you simply don’t see the Chinese imbibing, at least not on the go. The only liquid generally served at meals is soup. Afterward there’s hot tea, served in cups we’d consider small.
To accommodate uber-thirsty American and Canadian tourists, restaurants and hotels serve one beverage per customer at meals to tour groups like the one I’m with. You’re offered a choice of the local beer, Sprite, Coke or bottled water — served in a juice glass. Want a refill? That costs extra.
Think about the traditional Chinese tea sets. There’s a lovely pot and six or eight teeny, bowl-shaped cups. We attended a tea ceremony in the scenic town of Guilin and were instructed to finish our tea in exactly three sips. Which wasn’t tough, since the Lilliputian cups wouldn’t hold a thimble-full more.
Your perspective on size is influenced by your culture, I’m finding. A slim tumbler seems an adequate-sized drink to the Chinese but seems woefully small to Americans. On the other hand, a guide remarked she was from “a medium-sized city, only 4 million people.” A city of 100,000 was described by another guide as “a small village.” No surprise they feel that way, as more than 100 cities in China boast populations of at least 1 million.
The largest metropolitan area in the world today is Chongqing (say it chong-ching), with 33 million residents. Each year another 500,000 people move in. You see 20- and 30-story apartment buildings cheek by jowl, hundreds and hundreds of them as far as the eye can see. An estimated 250 “private cars” are added to the road in Chongqing every day, not counting trucks or company cars.
Visiting China quickly disabuses you of the notion that the world revolves around us, us, us, in the United States. This excerpt from a textbook, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures From a Developing World, sums it up nicely:
If the World Were a Village of 100 People …
61 would be Asian.
12 would be African.
10 would be European.
10 would be Latin American.
6 would be North American.
1 would be Australian.
17 would speak Mandarin Chinese, while only 9 would speak English.
70 would be illiterate, and only 1 would have a college education.
50 would be malnourished, and 33 would have no access to clean, safe drinking water.
Sort of makes my petty gripes and grievances seem like chump change.
Guess I can manage to survive on little gulps.
