I try for honesty and relatability. I probe by giving examples and then asking related questions. I’m easy to talk to and like to connect with other people. That’s how I ended up talking to a guy in a long, long Costco checkout line yesterday. A double line went down past the clothing on one side and a single line on the other. I was in the other.
To be fair, he started the conversation with stating the obvious. And I agreed. And then with obvious time to kill and because he was an old Asian man, my favourite type to talk to, I ended up making a new friend, sharing stories of China a decade age, two decades ago and other trivia that only two old guys can do.
When I was in Shanghai, I read in the trade magazine how they were having their third annual Jazz festival and their fourth annual farm machinery show. Everything was new. And I remember how I would wait for that gentle knocking at my door every morning when my breakfast was delivered. I would turn on the TV and eat warm 蛋饼 and drink warm 豆浆 while I watched some government sponsored documentary about water management. It was the only thing on in English.
China used to be wonderful. It was so hopeful. And foreigners, for a while, after China got rid of the special fares on the trains, and the only certain hotels we could stay at, we were welcomed as benevolent friends (and curiosities.) But that all changed and now I won’t go back.
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