So this weekend, I went again to Guangzhou. A large group of us had a going away shindig for one of the foreigners in our group, and needless to say, it was good times. Let me get into something I’ve avoided for a long time in Toronto. Yes, something I am ashamed to admit. You see, I do like to go for hangover tea...usually I am a die hard Second Cup fan. Second Cup is the Canadian equivalent of Starbucks, and I’m sorry to say, all you hipsters reading this…but I am a Cupper, not a Bucker (not a paid advertisement). Now, given my lack of options for hangover tea, I had to cave into a Starbucks, sadly. I decided to treat myself to a cup of tea. A cup of tea, you say? No problem, it’s, what, $1.50 CDN for one? I go into the Starbucks, and feel like I’ve stepped back into North America, momentarily. Ahh, the smell of coffee and cakes…and what the? Sesame seed lattes? I’ve tried some weird shit here. This week I think I’m gonna try fried bugs…but that’s besides the point. What I mean is that I am very adventurous, but today I just wanted a good old tea.

$24 RMB…what? That’s about $3.50, $4, here. Not a whole lot, and I’m no cheapskate, but let’s get into value. I’m not an economist here, but I know that for $24 RMB I can buy half a week of groceries, or take a cab across the city…or get a manicure, or buy a pretty decent dish at a seafood restaurant. What I’m getting at is that a little goes a long way here, so it’s not necessary to be decadent, yet apparently, a regular cup of tea is pretty decadent by Chinese living standards.

So then suddenly many things clicked in my mind. I now began to understand why my Chinese coworkers were so keen to offer me McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. It’s not because the food is good. It’s because it’s seen as a status symbol. Only the very well-to-do here can afford to eat at these big-name globalization joints. So, it costs money to be Westernized, and they’re proud to flaunt it. Which is hilarious, because when I think of McDonald’s, I think of an unwilling young mother trying to tame her three screaming children who want more French fries in their Happy Meals. I think Supersize Me. And I think obesity. So I think it’s interesting that in one area these super chains are considered a symbol of wealth, and another, a symbol of welfare. The disparity is really surprising..

I find this very interesting. This will be me going off on a tangent of Westernization, or attempting to avoid doing so. This is some of the offerings of food during a corporate yacht event. It was quite a nice affair, including networking, speeches and general schmoozing. The food was a lovely array of tropical lychees, dragonfruit and melon. You can see here that there are also some strange (to a Westerner) dried fruit called waxberries. In contrast there are Pringles. But not just any Pringles...seaweed Pringles. Why? It is the Chinese-ifying of a most Western classic...or is it vice versa? Taking up on Western 'delicacies' of fast food and packaged junk food is the most prevalent way I see the Chinese trying to 'come into their own' globally. Now this may sound far-fetched, stemming from a simple picture of food...but it's an observation I've had of several things here.

Let's go further into the yin and yang of it: on one hand, there is the very convenient Wal-mart, a dept store that sells most everything, located in the lovely city I live in. On the other hand, there are dept. stores here where one must check out individually at every dept. and pay then and there. On one hand, everyone here drives a car or motorbike. On the other hand, some of the traffic rules are 'honk your horn until the pedestrian gets out of the way to avoid getting hit'. Then, with those same traffic rules, where people drive the opposite direction on a highway to get to a side street, are some high-tech hwy cameras to monitor the traffic (the irony?). I have heard on more than one occasion, "Oh this is good, but I don't know if it is good enough for a foreigner." WHAT? Why are there two standards for everything, doubling the way everything is done here? That is something I fail to understand. So you see, one side is, China is trying very hard to go global. The other side is, in parallel, opposite standards exist. So one can never really be sure about the actual outcome when one thing is being stretched by another in a different direction. Please do NOT get me wrong. I am not saying one is better than the other (East or West). I am merely saying each are different, and I see the tension and the pull, as China struggles to find its footing in globalization. In the West, we may scorn upon the Wal-marts and McDonald's spreading like wildfire, but it seems here, they proudly announce, "We even have a Wal-mart!".....anti-globalization activists beware!