03.13.07
To Cheat or Not to Cheat
I have a yard! This may not seem like much, but having a yard in front of your house in China is like having a personal parking space for your Suburban in New York City. It ain’t that common. The yard is modest, approximately 20 feet by 20 feet, and it is surrounded by a wooden fence. Like most things in China, the fence wasn’t intended to last very long, and in only 3 years since it was built, the white paint has washed off, and the wood has rotted. On nearly every fence in the apartment complex, hinges have fallen out of the rotten wood, and the gates to nearly all the fences are missing. Nobody else seems to mind, but when you have a dog and are trying to take advantage of the fact that you are part of the .0001% of the Chinese populace who has a piece of land connected to your home which is neither cement nor farmland, it can be quite annoying.
After several unsuccessful attempts at fixing the fence (every time I hammered in a nail, the wood crumbled in my hands), I settled on finding a carpenter to build a new gate. I figured this wouldn’t be too difficult, as China has a labor pool larger than most countries’ entire populations. But after two hours of asking around repair shops, and inquiring with construction workers, I still could not find anybody to fix the fence. What I did accidentally find however, was a street only a 20 minute walk from my house which had several small restaurants including one with food from Jiangxi province. Jiangxi cuisine, with its strong flavors and liberal use of chili peppers, is a welcome break from Fuzhou food which is bland and/or sweet. I had traveled there last May Day, and instantly feel in love with the food. Although Jiangxi borders Fujian, Jiangxi food is relatively sparse in Fuzhou, compared with other ‘foreign’ Chinese styles.
It was after one o’clock and the restaurant was virtually empty. The Chinese are particular about meal times, and lunchtime in Fuzhou is from 11 to 12. Eating at the “wrong time” can draw looks of concern and disbelief from Chinese people unaccustomed with our lax Western eating schedules. When I walked in, the cooks were sitting at a table eating the lunch they had cooked for themselves (There are no break rooms in China). Being the only customer, and a 6-foot white guy with a beard at that, the cooks looked up from their meal, and immediately asked me where I was from. I told them I was American, and asked if they were from Jiangxi, as was indicated by the sign. They said they were, and asked if I had been there. They were excited when I told them I had visited their hometown of Nanchang, and even more receptive when I told them how I thought their food in Jiangxi was much tastier than the food in Fuzhou.
The owner of the restaurant was a woman in her late 40’s who had been standing behind the counter. As I chatted with the men at the table, the owner handed me a menu. I was looking over the dishes on the menu, when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the food which the cooks had been eating at the table. It looked and smelled exactly like what I had eaten during my trip to Jiangxi. Rather than ordering off the menu, I ordered what the cooks were eating, sour chopped beans with mashed pork （酸豆角肉末）, dry wok cabbage （干锅包菜）, and processed bamboo with pork （笋干炒肉丝）. All three of these dishes were chocked full of hot peppers. I asked what the price of the dishes were and the owner told me it would be 13 kuai for the beans and pork, 10 kuai for the cabbage, and 12 kuai for the bamboo. After ordering, I walked down the street to buy a drink.
When I returned to the restaurant, my food still wasn’t ready, so I picked up the menu, and began plotting the next meal at my newest restaurant score. As I was glancing through the menu, one item caught me by surprise. It was the sour chopped beans with mashed pork. The manager had told me they were 13 kuai, but according to the menu, they were 10 kuai. I politely brought this to her attention.
“Oh, that price on the menu is the old price.” she explained.
“Old price?”
“Yes, the price of beans at the market has gone up, so now instead of 10 kuai, it’s 13.”
I am well aware that the value of the RMB has been fluctuating of late, but I certainly hadn’t heard anything about a sudden spike in the price of domestically grown beans, especially not one of 30%.
“We just haven’t changed the menu,” she continued.
“Um-hmm,” I responded, unconvinced. I continued scrolling through the menu until I found…dry wok cabbage, 8 kuai. Now I was getting angry.
“Excuse me lao ban (polite term for “boss),” it says here that the dry wok cabbage is 8 kuai, but you told me 10. She sensed I had caught her in a lie, but in an attempt to keep face replied,
“Oh, that’s the old price too. Sorry about that.”
I looked for the processed bamboo with pork, but couldn’t find it on the menu, so I didn’t have an argument on it, (12 kuai is actually a pretty standard price for that dish) but I was still perturbed.
When the food was ready, the owner counted up the total. It came to 32 kuai: 12 kuai for the bamboo, 10 kuai for the beans and pork, and 8 kuai for the cabbage, plus 2 kuai for 2 servings of rice. Although she hadn’t admitted that she had tried to cheat me, and she didn’t apologize, at least she had charged me the fair price without me having to argue. I was willing to put the whole thing behind me…that was until I handed her a 100 kuai bill, plus two one kuai coins. She put my money into the cash drawer, and then out of her wallet, pulled out two 10 kuai bills and a fake 50. Fake money is not uncommon in China, and usually comes from shady ATMs or taxi drivers. If you know what to look for, it’s not difficult to tell the real from the counterfeit, and this bill felt like it was fresh of the laser jet. This was the first time I have ever been handed fake money from an owner of a small business.
I told her to give me a different bill, and she pulled out another suspiciously crispy 50 from her wallet. Before she could hand it to me, I gave her a dirty look, and she pulled out a another bill which was a little older, worn in, and obviously legal tender. I took the bill and my food, and left without saying “thank you.”
The last thing I want to do is to use this incident as a caricature for all Chinese people. Every country has its assholes (or “bad eggs” as they are called in Chinese), and China (and the US) are no exceptions. However, it does seem to me that this type of behavior is quite common in the PRC, with “Well, it was your own fault for lettin em screw ya,” being the prevailing attitude. And it’s not just because I am a foreigner either. I have seen Chinese do it to other Chinese as well.
I have several un-scientific possible explanations for this behavior . One is that because of China’s recent history of famines and hardship (50’s, 60’s and 70’s), it is possible that at those times one might have had to cheat simply in order to survive. In the past 30 years, China’s economic situation has improved drastically, but people’s mindsets have not been able to keep pace with the rapid economic change, thus these values still exist.
My other possible explanation is that because of China’s dense population and ubiquitous small businesses, Chinese entrepreneurs always focus on the current sale—Maximize profit on the first transaction, because there might not be a second. Whereas in the US, businesses are more focused on the relationship with the customer—Build a good relationship, even if it involves loss up-front, and the customer will come back again. One example of this mentality is that in China, no matter how terrible the service has been, how many times the order was screwed up, or how many hairs, insects, or miscellaneous animal parts I didn’t order have ended up in my food, never once have I received a free meal, or even a discount, due to a kitchen error. This concept can be taken to the extreme—Rip off the customer the first time, because he might not come back anyway, even if he is satisfied.
My final explanation deals with Chinese views of relationships. Confucianism and the concept of hierarchy are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. One’s ‘position’ in relation to another bears considerably more significance than it would in the West, and I have seen Chinese people do things for friends and family that I would never expect Westerners to do. This treatment is also extended towards guests. For example, if a Chinese person had a house with one bed and one guest, and a house guest came for the weekend, the guest would never sleep on a couch. The host would sleep on the couch, and insist that his guest slept in the bed. To ask the guest to sleep on the couch (a normal practice by Western standards) would be rude and unacceptable in China.
As a foreigner in China, you are a de facto guest any place you go, and the Chinese treat you as such. My first month in China, I was constantly bombarded with gifts, flowers, expensive tea, free banquets, and presidential treatment. My former colleague Wily described it best when he said, “I’m only a teacher, but sometimes they treat me like I’m Mao Zedong.”
On the other hand, the treatment of (non-foreign) strangers is quite disturbing to Western eyes. Strangers never greet one another, shop attendants are almost always rude and unhelpful, and when somebody is publicly injured (i.e. car/bike accident) people will often walk right by without even offering help.
To boil it down to a simple overgeneralization, Chinese treat their friends, family, and guests, on the whole more hospitably than Westerners, but they treat strangers like lepers with BO. In the West, where one’s ‘position’ is not as important, our treatment of strangers is more open, but our actions towards friends, family, and guests, are not at par with the Chinese. To break it down to an even simpler overgeneralization, Westerners value equality, while Chinese value hierarchy.
The tendency to cheat strangers could be an extension of this. Customers are strangers, hence social responsibility to them is lower in China than it would be in the West, just as social responsibility to friends, family, and guests is lower in the West than it is in China.
Again, these are only possible suggestions to what happened today. One event is often not indicative of a larger trend. It’s possible that the owner of the restaurant was merely a part of that large demographic of dishonest people who can be found in any locale. However, I also do believe that the concept of honesty is culturally defined. To what degree this varies across different cultures I am still wondering. There certainly are situations in our culture where cheating and lying are permitted as well. When I describe the events at the Jiangxi restaurant to other Chinese people, they all take my side and insist that the shop owner’s behavior was unacceptable. But regarding a behavior as unacceptable does not always mean one will refrain from partaking in it himself. So is it possible that cheating and lying would be more acceptable in one culture than another? Furthermore, do economics play a role in determining what level of honesty is acceptable? Does a society plagued by famine and underdevelopment, by default bring arise to dishonesty, simply as a means of Darwinian survival?
I am still contemplating whether or not to return to the restaurant. One option is to firebomb the place, but I imagine that would get me kicked out of China. Melody suggested explaining the situation to the owner, and rather than picking a fight, turn it into a learning experience for them, and hopefully return one day as a customer. I’m thinking this is probably a more productive option…and that cabbage was soooo good. I’m open to suggestions.
John B
said,
March 13, 2007 at 7:44 pm
I say find another place with good cabbage.
I can’t say that I like anyone who tries to cheat me, but I have an especially low tolerance for people who try to cheat me because I’m not Chinese. If you’re an equal opportunity cheater then I don’t mind that much, but racists deserve a their own special little place in the netherworld.
There is a tremendous tolerance for cheating in China, though, particularly if it doesn’t directly involve money. The vast majority of college students wouldn’t bat an eye if a friend asked them to write a paper or sit a test for them. My pet theory is that the lack of empathy towards others (which rears its ugly head in the examples of coldness toward strangers you mentioned above) makes the sort of reasons that we learn for not cheating on a test (i.e., “you’re making it unfair for all the kids that don’t cheat”) unconvincing to Chinese students.
In my time here I’ve found that most things that people do make sense if you imagine the actor’s viewpoint as “I’m the only person in the whole world that really matters.” Some of it’s probably Darwinian, and some of it is just the rotting that years of abuse by those in power has caused.
Todd Wesselhoeft
said,
March 14, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Racism! I know it’s harsh. But bottom line is that you and many of us haphazardly labeled ‘white devils’ are the easy target of what we have rarely found in our home countries. I find it liberating to finally see what so many people of various ethnic decent have had to struggle with for generations. We can easily chalk it up to a cultural rift or a lack in education, but the real reason is that they see us as an easy target, as the other. This is unacceptable and rasict in nature.
We have two choices, akin to your blog on the gratuitous, often derogatory ‘hello’; learn from it and move on, or harbor it inside and let it and so many simple difficulties that can often taint our outlook on China as a whole ruin this wonderful place. For what we see and how we not only act but react in the face of intolerance is a mirror into how we will ultimately conduct our lives.
I’ll get off my soapbox for a minute and tell you straight, I would not go back. Service is imperative!
Benjamin Ross
said,
March 14, 2007 at 10:39 pm
It’s interesting that “racism” has come up in a few comments. When I was writing the article, I wanted to emphasize that I have seen Chinese do this to other Chinese too, and I don’t think this “problem” is strictly confined to dealing with foreigners. On average, we are certainly easier targets, but I think if these same people in the restaurant had a Chinese customer who looked gullible, they would have tried pulling the same stunts. Any 中国人 care to comment?
James
said,
March 16, 2007 at 10:28 am
人总是会说谎，至少Jim Carrey演的 Liar Liar 里面的美国人也说谎。
作为中国人，消费时的确也是会被同胞欺骗的。如果你较真的话，你可以打96315消费者投诉电话，但这样的话，你下次再去这个店铺，人家一定不欢迎你了。那么，如果这家店铺就在你家附近，不可避免你以后还是要去消费的话，一般中国人也就容忍了。毕竟，这家店铺最终结账时还是没有多收你的钱，你就当作什么都没发生，这样，你金钱上既不吃亏，心理上也不会太受伤。
而作为美国人，提出的意见比较倾向于不再去消费。作为美国人，你可以逃避，回你的祖国。可是，作为中国人，你又能去哪里呢？所以，希望大Ben同志做一回传道士，传输给他爱和平等的思想，这样，你就不会让中美贸易之间，美方的贸易逆差进一步扩大，同时，我们作为陌生消费者，以后有机会去那家小店，也不至于被宰了。
Chet
said,
March 16, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Usually when one gives all the possible reasons for a human related event it turns out that every one of those reasons, plus a few not thought of, contribute to it. Certainly Chinese culture and China’s evolutionary basis are different from that of the West. Add to this the fact that China’s 5000 years of civilized culture has itself impacted what the genes of the present day Chinese express. That is, genes provide the basis for culture, but culture molds genes given enough generations. This is certainly possible after 250 generations of civilized life in China (how many generations does it cost a human breeder of another species to create a new breed?). The result is that in China, dearth, the result of continuous overpopulation, has bread individuals adapted to the powerful Chinese family system because such a system was more fit (those practicing it survived to have more children) than those that were more individualistic. The ethic of such a lifestyle is to trust only family and close friends and do business only with them if possible, but to regard strangers as members of a outgroup of families whose duty is to get as much from you as possible for the least effort. When a Chinese is cheated, this “particularistic morality,” which says that good is what is good for one’s family, tells him to learn from the mistake, it was his fault for not being careful. He certainly doesn’t “firebomb” the perp, he doesn’t do any thing that could get a deadly feud going–that isn’t good for the family.
But in the West, our background is very different. First we don’t have 5000 years of continuous genetic exposure to civilization. Like the Chinese our hunting-gathering forebears gained tool-making and strategizing intelligence (how do we plan for the next bitter winter) but we don’t yet have a leaning toward particularistic morality based on survival in competition with other families. Westerners could be likened to polar bears in that their hunting economy involved ambushing seals or fish more than running down herd animals with your buddies. This required individual effort, a group being actually counterproductive. So we became more individualistic and monogamous by nature since a lone hunter also couldn’t support a harem. We also needed to trust strangers and receive alms, since a lone hunter needs to hole up for the night with whomever he runs across to avoid both becoming food for a bear or wolf pack, and he also needs help at times from a hunter who has been more successful. This made our nature follow a “universal morality,” an ethic of the golden rule. And it confired on us an instinct, an emotional need, to go out of our way to punish the stranger who cheated us, or was ungenerous, because this was necessary for the loose ’society” of lone hunters and their nuclear families to survive. Hence we now feel a need for revenge for every little rip-off, when a Chinese would say “what would my family get from such an act?” These genetic drivers only pull at us Westerners more strongly–they don’t determine exactly how we will act. They just give an evolutionary explination for why the Chinese and we have an average behavior difference, and why the feeling behind it exists.
All three of the explanations in your text bear on this average difference between Western and Asian populations. Add, that a heierarchical “authoritarian” nature is an ougrowth of competition between families for scarce resources over millenia, while in the West we have had a relitively low population and kept our individualist’s need for elbow room, and you can assemble a game plan for success in China. First, put on the air of an important person. Being a white foriegner is a big plus. Add a suit or other power clothing. Walk and talk like a powerful man, but sparingly, like status is second nature to you. Be nice under the standard of your “status.” Say you are living in the area when you come in (and you intend to bring lots of capital and technology to this very neighborhood). Some small questions about family may help to inject you into the closed circle. Expect that the person you deal with will get away with all they can, anyway, so don’t give him wiggle room. You won’t ever again just say, “I want what’s on that guy’s plate.” you’ll say, “Where on the menu is that dish?” Above all, never get angry. Our Western propensity toward a threat display of readyness to reak altruistic punishment on a malefactor is looked on as the depth of low breeding in China. Your success in China will prove that her genetic population differences with the West are nothing that divides us, but just makes life interesting.
Matt
said,
March 16, 2007 at 1:42 pm
As is my wont, I’ll wield my economists’ scalpel and chalk it all up to incentives. After all, if it were culturally deterministic, Chinese nationals operating restuarants abroad would engage in similar behavior, though, wouldn’t they? That they don’t reflects a different set of incentives.
For example, rent in China is quite low so it isn’t expensive to maintain a business even with a minimum of customers. Therefore, restaurants don’t really have the same incentives to attract new customers and retain current ones as do restaurants where the stakes of failure are higher.
Also, while labor is cheap, the labor market isn’t very flexible. People have an enormous amount of job security relative to those in different economies, so the incentive to provide good service or to work hard is diminished.
After all, compare the behavior of waiters in Chinese restaurants on the mainland with those in Hong Kong and in overseas communities. All are products of the same Confucian culture, yet their behavior is demonstrably different.
So in sum- I suppose my point is that economy trumps culture. But I’m sure someone could convince me with a rebuttal.
Matt
said,
March 16, 2007 at 1:57 pm
James, would you mind writing your comments in English? I don’t want to be rude, but it certainly seems like you have interesting things to say and a fair percentage of Ben’s readership cannot read Chinese. If you have time, you can write your comments in two languages….I could use the practice after all!
James
said,
March 16, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Hi,Matt.I’m so sorry that I’m very poor in English.I can barely read some English.But I cann’t write in English properly.So,I have to write in Chinese.Ben is a good interpreter.If he’s free, I hope he can translate some so that I can learn more English as well.
Matt
said,
March 18, 2007 at 2:29 pm
James, apologies if I was rude. Your English is much better than you think. Take it from me as a former English teacher. Don’t be shy!
Best regards.
Chet
said,
March 18, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Matt’s point about the ascendancy of economics should be amplified in the context that economics translates to survival in the evolutionary sense. One can have more kids if one is successful and the math of human multiplication causes the numbers of the economically successful (and their genes) to ramp unintuitively fast. For example, most all of us have the blood of past kings and emperors in us to a greater proportion than their numbers alone would warrant. 16 million Chinese have Gengis Khan’s genes in them. Economic success in the civilized environment of competing families would give the edge to the more intelligent and the more loyal to their clan, resulting in greater reproductive success. We certainly evolved as flexible strategizers, so the owners of restaurants in areas where economic survival wasn’t as dependant on having happy repeat customers would certainly adapt to a gouging, niggling, less customer-friendly mode. What needs to be remembered is that conditions change, so even places like Hong Kong are a blip in time and place with respect to the great long Chinese experiment in fashioning a more fit civilized human. The genes then, can only call out the mean best behavior, the flexible strategizer can then vary behavior, within limits, around the mean as he perceives best suits his goal of acquiring more resources with which to have a bigger family. In dealing with Chinese (or Western) flexible strategizers you need to be one, as well. You can’t learn without making mistakes, so if the restaurant has food that can’t be beat at a competitive menu price, go back armed with your experience-earned knowledge and enjoy getting what you want at the best price, then proclaim yourself a successful strategizer.
It was brought to my attention that Ben may have made a mistake in assuming that the dish he pointed to was the same as the one he saw on the menu. Restaurant workers, in the off hours, eat the leftovers cobbled from the previous meal time. What Ben thought was a dish on the menu may have been that dish with an added ingredient that would have made it more expensive. The owner may have been flustered when confronted, and resorted to a lie as many of us do when cornered, even when later we realize the truth would have better served our defense.
On the other hand, the accusation that the owner was trying to pass counterfeit seems very serious. Shouldn’t Ben be expecting a query from the Chinese equivalent of the FBI soon? Or is counterfeiting money as commonplace in China as is the counterfeiting of everything else, so that even the government expects the customer to do the whole job of protecting himself?
Benjamin Ross
said,
March 18, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Just to clear things up, there was no ambiguity in my ordering. I saw the dishes that they were eating, asked their names in Chinese, and when I checked the menu, the names were exactly the same as they had told me. If it had been the case that the dishes they were eating had been slightly different (possibly added ingrediants) and the prices were higher, and the boss had told me this, I would have understood, and there would not have been an issue. However, instead she made up a BS excuse, saying that the price of beans had gone up. This, coupled with the fact that she purposely gave me fake cash, leads me to the conclusion I was deliberately being set up.
As for the issue of fake money, this is quite common in China. Word on the street is that fake bills are passed off by taxi drivers, since the customers have no way of returning if they discover the bill to be fake. I have been warned about this many times by Chinese friends. (As I mentioned in my post, Chinese people are victims of these scams often as well).
Ironically, I have never received fake cash from a taxi driver, however, I have received fake 100 RMB notes from ATM’s on 3 separate occasions. All of which were from well respected national banks (Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China).
There really isn’t anything you can do about it. If you call the authorities the perpetrator will probably just deny it. And if you tell them you got a fake from an ATM, there is no way to prove it. So, yes, in essence the customer has to do the whole job of protecting himself.
It was brought to my attention that Ben may have made a mistake in assuming that the dish he pointed to was the same as the one he saw on the menu. Restaurant workers, in the off hours, eat the leftovers cobbled from the previous meal time. What Ben thought was a dish on the menu may have been that dish with an added ingredient that would have made it more expensive. The owner may have been flustered when confronted, and resorted to a lie as many of us do when cornered, even when later we realize the truth would have better served our defense.
Kate
said,
March 18, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Chet, I’m actually quite disturbed by your comments. As I am reading your comments, you are arguing that behavior is largely an expression of genetics and that in human societies “the strong survive.” There is a name for the ideas you are expressing–Social Darwinism–and it was used as a justification for discriminatory eugenics policies and actions around the world in the early 20th century (including those of the Nazis) and is now largely considered not only obsolete but racist.
Take your comments to their logical conclusion–that there are some people “better bred” than others–and you can see how problematic this becomes. I encourage you to do some reading on the subject of Social Darwinism and eugenics (if you have not already) so that, if you continue to believe that it explains cultural differences and articulate that belief, you aren’t surprised when people have strong reactions to your arguments.
b. cheng
said,
March 20, 2007 at 4:07 pm
I tend to like the first explanation. To me, the Cultural Revolution era and the havoc that it created across China is to blame for much of the lack of civility and caring for your fellow man that exists in China today.
Unfortunately, they may have thought you were just a one time visitor and attempted to take a bit more money off of you or maybe presumed that though you could speak Chinese you couldn’t read it (especially since you didn’t order from the menu).
What can I say? This sort of thing just has to be considered another “China moment.”
Bart
said,
March 21, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I’m sure every foreigner in China has their own stories like this, and we’re never quite sure if they are trying to cheat us just because we are “rich, naive” foreigners. Often, a Chinese person in the same situation would’ve received the same treatment. My Chinese friends say that people from outside the city are targets for cheating, and I guess we are on the extreme end there – not only from another city, but from another country and culture, and that fact is advertised by the way we look and speak (few of us non-Chinese have a ‘perfect’ Chinese accent).
However, there are just as many example of blatant racism. Racism that would end up with you or your company in court in the West. Such as when I took my family to Beijing and wanted them to experience a ‘genuine Chinese’ massage – the cheapest we could find, which was advertised as 10 RMB on a sign outside. The owner of this establishment said outright to my Chinese wife “you’re 10 RMB, but they’re 30.” After being in that situation before several times, I know the only response that will leave me satisfied is to practice some of the derogatory Chinese words I’ve learned and leave. There is no negotiating.
Imagine the fuss that would cause if a massage joint in the West said that to a Chinese customer.
Lawrence Sheed
said,
March 26, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I think all visibly foreign looking foreigners been in this situation, usually listening to the chinese blatantly telling each other charge the laowai more.
I find the country folks in the big city are usually less inclined to rip you off (or they rip you off for what they think is a lot, but really isn’t).
You have to build up a relationship before you get a deal here.
If you weren’t so direct about her “mistake”, she might have had a chance to say oops. People will generally dig themselves into a bigger hole when caught in a lie.
That said, she sounds like a greedy so-and-so as she tried to stiff you on the fake money too. Karma will eventually get her if that is her daily way of doing things.
If you like the place, go back (during lunch hours) and give the laobanya a chance to save some face. Only pay the price thats on the menu. If she raises a fuss, ask all the other clients rather loudly (but calmly) what they are paying, and never go back again.
fred
said,
May 7, 2007 at 12:25 am
May I suggest walking in to the restaurant with your shirt rolled half way up your torso, man purse tucked gently under your armpit. Proceed to seat yourself at a table without acknowledging anyone. Prior to sitting at the table produce the loudest possible noise that you can whilst pulling as much phlegm as possible from your lungs and spitting on the floor beside your table. Then clear each nostril. Next, you should proceed to insult the staff and customers in a loud a voice as possible (This lets them know you, an important man, have arrived). Demand the best bei jiu for under 30rmb and proceed to drink it as fast as possible. Pick an appropriate time to order the same dish as before. Somewhere in the middle of your meal either piss or puke on the remaining dishes and ask for the maidan. When the bill arives make a big scene, force them to give you a 5 quai discount and pay the bill. stumble gracefully in to a taxi. Problem solved.
Best of luck mate.
Malcolm
said,
May 20, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I like to study the chinese language- one phrase I found to ring true for businessmen in China (and Asia): wujian bu shang: If you ain’t evil, you ain’t a businessman.
In any case, I assure you: the chinese rip off each other left and right. I know this because…. I am ethnic Chinese. The concept is simple: if you’re in a position of weakness (e.g. you’re not local to a particular city), someone will try to rip you off. And the fact is, even if you ARE local to a city, some fool will still try to rip you off- odds are lower though. A white person is going to get ripped off because he’s obviously not local- the common denominator for cheating is really having the weak bargaining chip (=lack of “hangqing” knowledge), not race.
Avoid this by asking how much something is, before you buy it. That puts you in a position of strength- the seller has the pressure of giving you a reasonable price, or you just walk (may not work as well when price differentials are 3rmb though). You also avoid bait and switch, which is common in many countries, and prevalent in China. You may not be able to avoid all conflicts in China (fact of life here), but you want to try to reduce the probability of getting worked up into a dander by some uneducated, greedy fool.
Law Office of Todd L. Platek
said,
May 24, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Ben, Ben, Ben… don’t get so worked up over stuff like this. Same stuff happens here in NY. It’s not ethnic, just economic. I used to get pissed off in Taipei in the 1970’s when I would buy chocolate milk in the mornings, and sometimes it would be sour. I would ask the boss, usually the hard-as-nails “lao ban niang”, how come the milk was sour? The answer was simple and straight-forward : she had just turned the cooler’s electricity on a half-hour ago, so the milk needed time to get cold again. (The fact that it had turned rancid overnight in the heat, since she always turned off the cooler at 11:30 p.m., was beyond her control — hey, look, she had to save money on electricity, right? After all, no customers buy when the shop is closed!!)
I didn’t throw a tantrum, or break the windows, or deck her, or do any of a thousand other fantasy-satisfying vengeful acts. I laughed, and after that, I would ask her each morning whether the chocolate milk was fresh to drink, and believe it or not, Ben, she always laughed and told me the truth each day, either warning me not to buy it, or saying it was fine to drink.
P.S.: I got this special treatment because I was white, spoke fluent Chinese and was friendly. She never warned any Chinese not to buy that rancid milk!
So, if you think Chinese are racist, use it to your advantage. Personally, I do not think Chinese are racist. People are people, and usually worse to their own kind than to others.
Shanghai Roundeye
said,
May 28, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I’m with you on the customer service rants. As a bar/restaurant manager I have to deal with my staff attempting to rip off clients as well as the bar. The other night some friends came to the bar and sat at a couch table. The staff supervisor told the waiter to tell my friends that they had to purchase a minimum 400rmb to sit at the table. The thing is that there is no charge for sitting at these places and my friends were really confused. They asked me about why the waiter was demanding they spend 400rmb or buy a bottle of alcohol (about the same price). I was so angry that I had to sit in the office and calm myself down before finding which little asshole was responsible. When it turned out that the waiter was directed to do this by the person that is normally my right-hand man I was astonished. I asked the staff aupervisor why he had told the waiter to do this and he repliedl, “They didn’t look like would spend much money.” After holding my breath and counting to 10 I explained the concept of creating a comfortable environment that made customers want to come back instead of trying to sqeeze every last jiao out of them.
I overheard him say in Chinese to my boss that I must just be mad because they were my friends. To my relief, my boss told him he was an idiot and that she didn’t care who the customers were and that you can’t treat customers like that.
That being said, my boss is pretty Western for a Chinese person and understands Western service standards. I see this “rip off the forigner” attitude in many places in Shanghai but the bar scene is the worst. Waiters and bartentders make 50 to 70 rmb a night average. What better source of extra income then an inebriated foriegner?
LT
said,
July 15, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I think Melody is quite sincere, but frankly, a little quaint and cute. Does she not think that owner new what she was doing? That it was wrong?
I’m quite impressed that you caught the owner with the second bill attempt, that was pretty rock’n. I would probably have folded at that point.
LT
said,
July 15, 2007 at 6:23 pm
BTW, the first fake Y50 note I got was from a taxi driver. It was very early in the morning, I was traveling, it was dark. Bingo!
Al
said,
October 29, 2007 at 8:18 am
Hey Ben, TIC (This is China) man. Just have to get used to it. I am of chinese heritage but grew up outside China. Even though I speak Mandarin perfectly but I do exhibit sort of an accent. Even so, many shop owners still try to rip me off. I usually get the right pricing by virtue of being in China for years. The important thing is, if you get to your expected and acceptable price range, do not look back and kick yourself for not getting the best deal. About fake bills, my store once received 4 fake 100 bills. They got pass the checking machine and I realized these were pro-level fakes. The people using it are probably from organized crime since we got all of them in 2 days from different people, buying the cheapest thing on the menu. Half the bills are from a real 100 RMB bill. Personally, I only once got a fake 20 RMB note in all my years in China. The fact I am in Shanghai also helps since people here are so paranoid about fake bills.