When you first arrive you're pretty much always greeted with a smile by everyone who crosses your path. Except the customs officer but then I think that's a global thing and these people are hand picked for their inability to sympathise with others. Most of the time you are a curiosity; other times a possible source of income. Whatever the motive, the Chinese are friendly people.
But sometimes they're not.
It really doesn't take that long to see an aggressive act. However these acts rarely come to blows, well not when there are Chinese arguing. Rather, it usually ends up being a stand off where both parties scream at one another.
I guess it's just another great example of the all powerful face and once they're committed to a course of action (usually being wronged in these cases) than it's difficult to back down. That's because there's inevitably an audience to the shouting match.
Arms flail about, gesturing to apparently important objects that prove their side of the story. It's a dramatic performance so understandably witnesses move in closer for a ring-side view. Some will give their opinion – in a shouting, face turning red and spittle flying kind of way. And pretty soon you have a gathering that most likely resembles a family reunion of the likes last seen when the Capulets and Monteguets got together for Christmas.
From the few I've witnessed it seems the women tend to get the loudest. This isn't justified at all when I compare it to the Shanghainese women I know but apparently in the greater Chinese world Shanghainese women have a bad reputation. They're supposed to be bossy, greedy women who have beaten their men into submission. And apparently when not beating their men they're out arguing with anyone who crosses their path.
I rarely see the results of these matches as they just take way too long to get anywhere and my attention span is a good 2 to 3 seconds – on better days. They'll argue even if they were in the wrong, even with witnesses and all.
Case in point was when a friend crossed the street. Pretty simple you would think, even though to cross the street she had to make her way across a bike lane. Although she was in the midst of a conversation, she checked to see who was coming, which was easy to do given these lanes were mono directional and clearly marked as so.
Unfortunately she was knocked over by a man travelling in the wrong direction. Thankfully nothing serious happened but he did have the nerve to argue as to why she would cross the lane without checking for bikes travelling against the traffic in the wrong direction. Sometimes, the bigger arguments (whereby with "bigger" I mean where damage to vehicles or people has occurred) can end with the handing over of cash in order to make amends.
That's the way it's done here – where people will wait, usually with a policeman acting as adjudicator, until a sum is agreed on. And just like an primary school when a single member of the class performed a naughty act, nobody was going home until it was settled.
Sometimes cash can be a means of paying a debt and dropping an issue, as was discovered by an American co-worker.
He was riding his push bike to work one brisk spring morning and was brought to a sudden and rather unpleasant stop (if indeed you call somersaulting and crashing on the footpath unpleasant). So in order to get out of the situation with the least amount of hassle, the driver responsible asked him what he thought was a fair price and, once received, paid it.
Of course sometimes the inevitable does happen and words give way to violence. However, from what I have witnessed and heard these have been primarily between Chinese and westerners, where the art of chest puffing and bluff are not so well refined, or even understood by different cultures. By the way, I'm not saying physical fighting doesn't flair up between groups of Chinese but it seems to be kept quiet. You know, don't air our dirty laundry and such.
For all of the ex-pats who call Shanghai home, from time to time we lapse into what we commonly call a "China moment" (or "China day" if it's particularly long). It's basically when the differences of living here become overwhelming, which gives way to feelings of frustration or even unsolicited bursts of anger. Over time you tend to deal with it a little better, even if the city still finds a way to creep under your skin like a bug in a horror film. If Shanghai was a bug it would be a dung beetle, spending way too much time dealing with crap for it's own good, yet still making it work.
So I could sympathise with the western guy who, while on his bike, had a parking truck edge him out to the point where there was nowhere else for him to go but into the railing separating the road and footpath. It was an inconsiderate act, unfortunately just another in a city that has more than its fair share of them. So he banged on the truck and let out a verbal tirade at the driver as he strode toward the cabin, itching for a confrontation. To the driver this was a challenge and he responded in kind.
Shouting soon gave way to shoving and being smaller, the driver ended up being more of a shove-ee as opposed to a shove-er. This was probably the worst thing the cyclist could have done, as in front of a small, yet growing crowd, the truck driver lost face. He stamped off back to the truck's cabin, seemingly defeated. But lose of face being what it was, he soon emerged clutching a metal rod in order to gain the upper hand.
The cyclist, seeing his victory was a little more short lived than he originally hoped, did the smartest thing he could and vacated the scene quick smart.
I also witnessed an incident at a nightclub where a western guy (usually the common denominator in these types of stories) fuelled with enough alcohol to drown his sense of reason insisted on entering when it was clear he was not wanted. Kindly letting him know this were four bouncers. And true to type they were big boys with necks as wide as their heads and all the charm of a cold-blooded reptile.
At first, the westerner was doing a fine impersonation of a sticky piece of chewing gum that was reluctant to be thrown away. He'd be pushed away and he'd return, shoved back only to come again. Due to their frustration, all this gum impersonating achieved was provoke the bodyguards into more and more aggressive tactics. Things flared up to the point that as soon as they were outside, the unwanted guest was thrown down a small flight of steps. What this chap hoped to achieve by coming at the guards again is beyond me but for his effort he was rewarded with bike security chains.
This seemed enough to change his mind as he was chased amongst the queues of taxis on the street. He soon lost them for two very good reasons: 1. by then he most likely felt he was running for his life and 2. he was being pursued by gorillas as wide as they were tall, so they were more likely built for inflicting damage rather than speed.
In any large city these things happen but considering its size Shanghai is rather peaceful. There aren't a lot of cities in the world where you feel safe walking around at 4am. I should know as I've done that enough. I see it as my sworn duty to petrol the streets at odd hours in order to find out what's really going down. Call it my civic duty if you will.
At whatever time there's always someone around and I don't mean in a creepy way either. Actually, out of respect to my adopted city here I try to keep my creepiness down to a minimum. The Chinese aren't big on creepiness by the way and it never gets you a date. No, I take that back as I've seen plenty of creepy guys on dates with local girls.
What I'm trying to say is that accidents, and the arguing, recriminations and bribes that go with it, happen but violence appears to be a little harder to come by. No, I don't like to seek it but I get the feeling it's a little more difficult to find here but then again it always depends on how hard you look. Of course, that's all dependant on your lifestyle (so I suppose if I was a gangster not able to find violence I wouldn't be doing very well) and general disposition.
Obviously violence happens, as remember you can get anything in Shanghai, but not to the degrees it does in many other places. It seems a good old fashioned screaming match will do the trick for the average, angry Shanghainese.
