Before Superman, there was Chinaman (woman)

Look at the Chinese!
See them go!
Zipping through the traffic on the crowded city streets,
Meandering their way through the bicycles, cars and motor bikes
And the sardine-packed train
Without a hair out of place. Completely unscathed.
Can you picture it? I wish I could draw them crossing the road, all with little capes (which is pretty much similar to the ponchos which they wear on rainy days anyway!). Think of all the speeding traffic going 4 ways and the brave (reckless?) Chinese just chionging their way through and cursing when a car or bike gets in their way! *chortle*

Yesterday while on the crowded train I had a revelation.
The secret to how the Shanghainese remain tall and slim despite the oily and salty food is… the train.
Being packed into an over-crowded train day in day out is like a huge human compressor. (Jes suggested we all wear a bag pack in the front to ‘retain some personal space’.)
Uh huh.
And don’t forget all the energy they expend shoving the crowd in front of them out of the way to get in and out of the train.
I don’t know why they have ‘door open’ buttons on the lift when noone uses them. I think they’re too used to rushing in and out of the train and using brute force to keep the doors open. But good thing the buttons are still there. I use them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just observing.
It’s interesting ainnit.

In freakonomics there was a part about how one guy studied the human traffic along one of new york’s busiest streets and analysed how come despite the immense crowd, people rarely collided. I can’t remember what he called this, but anyway, he should come here. I bet the Chinese are even better at it. This is real street-smartness.

I read in some magazine that in preparation for the Olympics, China declared April 11 ‘Queuing Day’ which will also happen on the 11th of every month. Apparently they chose 11 for its orderliness… in two lines. Cute eh. My friends hate the trains and can’t wait for the Chinese to learn to be more refined. I think cleaning up China too much would be a pity. Then it’ll just be like any other city in the world. Like forcing these savvy innovative Chinese into a standard western mold.

Maybe now we should be glad that we have a relatively long train ride to and from work every day. And that we walk so much. We’re going to come back as Chinese Xenas (all the muscles built from shoving crowds) and we’ll have the superhuman power of – Jaywalking.