Trains run on time in China, but other schedules aren’t so precise.
The start of the new semester at Henan University of Technology was more chaotic than a Pussy Riot concert. Students were scheduled for multiple classes at the same time, teachers were sent to the wrong rooms, textbooks never arrived and class rosters were about as accurate as a Fox News report on President Obama.
One day, I had back-to-back American Literature classes. One class had seven students, while the other had 40. And a bunch of students showed up who weren’t registered for either class.
One of my students had three classes scheduled for the same period, and I walked into several empty classrooms because my students were told to go to a different building.
I’m a pretty easy grader, but the university’s schedulers definitely deserve an F.
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When I asked my students what they did during their semester break, the most popular answers were eating, sleeping and shopping. Next on the list were watching TV and playing video games. Can you say slacker in Chinese?
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All the food carts that used to line the shopping street in front of my apartment complex have been banished to a side street where they’re less conspicuous.
A Chinese friend of mine asked several vendors what happened and they said they were ordered to move by the dreaded chengguan, a quasi-police force that often uses strong-arm tactics to enforce local health, safety and environmental regulations.
The vendors said they were told that the main street had become too crowded after new rapid-transit bus stops were installed nearby. That may be true, but sometimes chengguan seem to harass vendors just for the sport of it.
Several vendors in China have been beaten to death by chengguan, and one was executed for killing two enforcers even though he claimed it was self-defense.
