Someone recently attached a pink box to a building just outside my apartment complex. The box, which is plugged into a wall, is decorated with a poster of budding flowers and a drawing of connected hearts. It includes Chinese instructions and a slot where you can insert a card.
I had no idea what it was until a few days ago, when my colleague Jennifer told me, “It’s a condom dispenser.’’
Jennifer learned from another teacher that students (and some of their elders) can get free condoms by inserting their national ID cards into the slot. I haven’t seen anyone use it yet, but knowing how shy my students are, they’re probably showing up in disguises or in the middle of the night.
I asked our office assistant Amber to translate the instructions into English. She said one of the requirements is that the person getting the condoms must be between 18 and 60 years old.
I don’t know if that means you’re too old to have sex after 60, geezers never get STDs or guys my age are in no danger of getting anyone pregnant.
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The American owner of a popular Zhengzhou bar had to postpone his “grand reopening’’ because his new furniture didn’t arrive on time.
“Chinese logistics = oxymoron,’’ he told his social-media followers.
I agree.
For example, my local convenience store has two cash registers, but they’re never used at the same time even when there’s a long line of customers and a half-dozen employees are standing in the aisles doing nothing.
It’s a problem you see every day in China. Workers follow a strict routine that almost never varies. If you ask them to adapt to a new situation or do something they haven’t been specially trained for, they are usually baffled. I’m convinced it’s the byproduct of an education system and culture that discourages individualism and freethinking.
Until that changes, China will remain a nation that manufactures products that were invented or developed somewhere else.
