Quote:
Originally Posted by Moogs
I am convinced the Chinese have no concept of hygiene, quality control for ingestible products, or business ethics.
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Spot on. I've been living here for over 8 months and nothing has convinced me otherwise.
Hygiene? Nope. You know all the stereotypes about Chinese peoples' teeth? They're true, more often than not. Also, they don't shower often, but that's because they barely sweat at all, so they get some leeway there.
Quality control? Nope. Shit's broken here all the time. If something "kinda works," I just accept it as being good enough and don't bother trying to get it fixed, because the bureaucracy behind getting things fixed is incredible.
Ethics? HELL no. I don't even need to explain this one, especially to you, Moogs.
China should be considered a toxic wasteland by food companies in North America and Europe - the food I eat here is grown by local people and cooked by local people, but the stuff from factories? I don't trust it. I know I eat food from factories here too, but I try to focus on just getting basic vegetable and meat dishes from small, family-owned restaurants. These people buy their ingredients from the markets in this area, and those markets sell food that was grown by farmers in this province. I can go to the same markets that restaurant owners go to, so I feel relatively safe eating at those places.
But man, things here are really bad sometimes. Like I said, the bureaucracy is incredible. My mother (who also spent quite a bit of time here) described it well when she told me that pretty much no one ever thinks ahead or considers the possible consequences of their actions. This ranges all the way from minor decisions that people make every day to huge decisions by big companies. Things like idiots pushing their way onto crowded buses and trains before letting others get off first (if you would wait two seconds there would be more room for you, dumbass). Or then there's the small English school for children I visited - they brought five potential teachers in to see the school, and then said that they needed four of us to come in and teach within three days. Most of us had plans and couldn't make it, and they were all confused and didn't know what to do. Of course if they had thought ahead, they would have brought in eight or ten potential teachers in order to make sure they'd have four teachers on short notice.
So yeah, sometimes I wonder how China has become as powerful as it is, with most people in the country stumbling along blindly. I think it's mainly because the government is unencumbered (for better or for worse, mostly for worse) by the democratic process, and because most people here are poor and will take any work they can get while never questioning whether things ought to be different.