Strangely warm and humid
Awhile back I wrote a post about the 'bragging rights' that the Chinese feel about how many holidays they get per year. They come up with a huge number, from the fact that they count the weekends as holidays. The underlying assumption here is that weekends are days that everyone could potentially be working, and the sad reality is that many people do exactly that. 7 days a week.
This afternoon I was at the apartment office taking care of some business with my landlord, and it all went rather smoothly which is a rarity in China, and appreciated when it happens. So we all stuck around for awhile longer and chatted in Mandarin, and they were rather impressed that I could do such a thing. At that point, I threw in the fact that I also taught high school math which got more 'oohs' and 'ahh's. Just love it.
Anyways, later in the conversation, one of the workers told me about how the Chinese view weekends. This verified what I had long suspected. That is to say, the concept of rest on the weekends is seen as a Western tradition and it works differently in China. Literally, works. The sad reality is that even if they could take breaks and relax on the weekend, they would choose to work instead since that's a way to amass more fortune
The conversation went something like this.
Worker #1: So you must be a pretty smart guy teaching math to the senior high students
Me: Not really, it's just a job, something that pays the bills. (It also finances my bicycle travel hobby and other long-term investment plans)
Worker #2: Ah cmon don't be modest, there's a lot of teachers who can't do this, as the level of math at the senior grade is most difficult and they won't just hire anyone to teach it.
Me: True enough I guess
Worker #2: If someone else wanted to teach that level, and they weren't up to par, the school would be like, 'Why do we need you?' and 'What's the use of you?' So you must be pretty good
Me: Thanks.
Worker #2: By the way, did you know that most of the Chinese high school math and English teachers do side tutoring jobs on the weekend and make more money?
Me: It doesn't surprise me they would do something like that.
Worker #2 They don't tell their employers of course, but they arrange 'upgrade classes' (BU KE, not sure how to translate it) where groups of students pay 150 RMB an hour and they help prepare for the massive university entrance tests.
Me: Ah I see, yes, a long time ago I used to do similar things. I was working in 2003 as an English teacher during the weekdays out in a school called YUCAI in Jiading district (the boonies). Then on weekends I had a side job teaching adults. The side job gave me more money than my real job.
Worker #1 We can arrange that here too. You want to make some extra money? We can easily get a training class going on the weekends with other staff workers who want to speak English.
Me: Thanks a lot, but these days I'm busy and don't have time for it. Unlike in 2003, my teaching hours are long and it's really a full time job. Plus I'm doing other things on the weekends so I wouldn't be interested in more jobs and work.
I then described the stuff I do and the workers interpreted it as recreation, fun, and enjoying life.
Then a worker said, "Yes, that's the difference between Chinese and Western culture. You guys like to do fun activities on the weekends and rest, but here it's different."
I said, "True, I understand, but isn't the weekend supposed to be for having fun and resting? You can still work from Monday to Friday."
One of the workers said, "That's what you guys do in the West, work Monday to Friday and rest on the weekend, but here in China, we work all days."
And that was the end of the conversation.
Keep in mind I've had many Chinese friends in the past tell me that foreigners enjoy life and they don't because they face a 'heavy burden'. This isn't news at all, but the full gravity of the situation really hit me today that even on the weekends where they COULD rest, they choose not to, as it would be lost opportunities to make money.
They must think I'm a lost cause because I've got enormous money-making potential as a white guy who can speak Mandarin and teach high-level mathematics, among other things, but I'm squandering the opportunities to make a fortune since I'd rather take it easy on the weekends. Fool of fools I am.
And even if I did make all this potential money, I would then be criticized because I'm spending too much of the money and not saving up to buy a house and get married. Note the order !!
Many times a taxi driver will ask how much money I make, I tell him, then he calculates the yearly income and also how long it would take to buy a house with what I'm making. When he finds out that I haven't bought a house in Shanghai, he wonders why not, and asks where all the money is going. I point out that a lot of the money gets spent on small comforts every day and it adds up. Such as the taxi I happen to be riding in this very instant. The irony of that moment is not lost on either one of us, and we laugh.
Even so, I know for a fact where my money is really going. In a word: travel. I've seen more of China than most local Chinese have, and they are the ones who tell me this when I put together an abridged list of all the cities I have been to. Spending all that money on travel is something I have not regretted for an instant, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
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