Day 3

Day 3 and I'm actually starting to like drinking hot water! This is unexpected but I guess if you force yourself to only drink one thing, eventually you have to start liking it. Here, kids are given hot water from a very young age, just like we are in given cold in the West, so it's no surprise that they struggle to drink cold when older.

The difference though, is that the Chinese believe that cold water is bad for you, where as we simply prefer the taste and cooling nature of cold water. This had me wondering about many differences in the way both Chinese and English people think.

This week, I started to learn to write in Chinese. My friend and colleague has been kind enough to help me and explain the best way in which to learn. But, as a left hander, I was told that I must write with my right hand and not my left. When I questioned this, I was simply told that the right hand was better for writing, no one could give me a better explanation. I have tried to make sense of this... When writing Chinese characters there is a specific stroke pattern in which to write each character. For a left hander, this involves writing strokes from left to right where naturally they would write from right to left. So some would say that there is a logic to the right handed writing theory.

However, from a very young age I have been left handed, naturally I can do things better with my left than my right. In China, parents will stop their children from writing with their left hand. They can eat with their left, hold table tennis bats with their left, but they must write with their right. Because it is better to do so.

If you question the logic or try to argue that if naturally you are left handed you will naturally be better at doing things, including writing, than with the right, then many Chinese get defensive and feel attacked. This is the same with so many Chinese logics. If you question anything that goes against their way of thinking, simply trying to understand why something is as they believe, they are defensive.

Many English believe that China is communist country, after living here, I can say that that's really not the case. But after talking to, working with and becoming friends with many Chinese people, I can certainly say that the government is a dictatorship that certainly has control over it's people and their way of thinking.

That's not to say that all Chinese believe's and ways of thinking are simply a crazy government control, sometimes we simply won't understand why something is so, look at acupuncture, once thought to be nonsense and now available in the UK, on the NHS.

So for now, I will continue drinking my hot water and I will learn to write with my right hand. After all, right now, I'm in China....