Not eating wild snakes

[thebiggest]

I try to limit the dinners I attend with Lam that involve people I don’t know for a variety of reasons. My odd eating habits and political opinions often throw a wrench into Chinese sociality which depends upon eating together as a way to gloss over differences and create guanxi (relationships). The dinner I had last Thursday is one such example

Comments

[thebiggest]

Tx for the sympathy.

Very very few and most of them have to do with rarity as well. There is one particularly tea bush where a given leaf costs about $1,200.00 to turn into tea. There is also flora only found in rapidly disappearing "exotic" ecosystems - for example some of the rarer orchids or mushrooms. There are also some dishes which because of their difficulty to make (like puffer fish which done incorrectly will kill you) that also count. I once had a dish that was mostly made of taro root that was apparently really expensive. Didn't appreciate it as much as I would have liked because I was already totally full, but being told my Lam and our host for the evening that it was the most expensive thing on the menu, I kind of stuffed it into my mouth and hoped I didn't explode.

[sunpony]

Yeah, those kooky cross-cultural moments of non-understanding (as opposed to MISunderstanding). Isn't it great that your anthropological training taught you how to deal with those moments? :-)

As Dan said, I think this story shows a lot of the strengths that allow you to live in China and not go dotty. Your eye for detail and your ability to assess the situation is key, and comes through very strongly here. It does suck that you can't express yourself as you wish, at the moment, but your writing gives you an outlet that lets you reflect on these moments. As you said, most people's minds can't be changed, and most social compromises do not entirely satisfy anyone. It's really no different here, we just have a different array of meanings and applications. . . .

So, when are we going to see No Wild Snake For Me, Thanks: The Adventures of an Anarchist Expat in China on the bookshelves?

[thebiggest]

Yeah. Wish there was some situation where being a "highly trained" anthropologist actually did help.

Answer: Not until after this next semester anyway. :-)

[meverettlane]

In America, you could have just done a Samuel L. Jackson imitation:

"I'm tired of these motherf***ing snakes in my motherf***ing soup!"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/ in case you need the referent :)

[thebiggest]

hmm. Didn't see the movie (probably because it didn't make its way into the Chinese anti-intellectual property market), but I think I can guess the referent. Too bad I'm not a hip, tall, black man. Might have worked here in China too - even without the referent.