DisOrientated - A Weblog by Philip Sen - Preserving Pretended Authority

May 26, 2004

Preserving Pretended Authority

In my admittedly cackhanded efforts to comprehend Chinese culture - since, after all, that is what I am here to do - I've been criticised for numerous reasons. Not least is the simple but common 'you are a foreigner' jibe.
However, I think I've cracked something here.

It's something that applies to a large proportion of the human race, but I think is particularly applicable in China, at least in Shanghai. Acknowledgments to academically-orientated colleague Steven Sorensen who dubbed it 'the preservation of pretended authority'.

Everyone's at it, but in few places is it in more evidence than the corner of Chifeng Lu metro station.

Where Chifeng Lu meets Zhongshan Bei Lu resides a man known to us as 'traffic Hitler'. Dressed in a tasteful brown uniform, it it this guy's lot to direct the operation of the crossroads. A thankless and even dangerous task, given the torrential rain, insidious pollution and a driving mentality more akin to flying a Tie-Fighter around the Death Star than anything related to even self-preservation (let alone the preservation of others).

But despite his lowly position this chap goes into his job with tremendous gusto. He has the energy of a neurotic puppy on steroids. If he's not piercing the air with whistle blows he's flapping his arms and yelling at people and cars to bend to his will. All day, every day, rain or shine.

Nothing can move at the crossroads - not cars, not bikes, not people - unless permission is obtained from Traffic Hitler. The funny thing, for somone with such manic drive is he's completely ineffective.

I'm nearly 30 years old. Evolution has kindly provided me with binocular 3-D vision and a reasonable intellect. My forward-facing eyes allow me to judge distances and estimate speeds. I thus consider myself capable of crossing even a busy and dangerous road.

But step off the pavement at the wrong moment for him and he'll actually push you into incoming traffic to put you back in your place. Meanwhile, cars are merrily zipping through the traffic lights behind his back.

I must get some photos one day.

It's the same it seems in other strata of society. At the university, we have a person whose specific job appears to be to leave unhelpful memos on our desks, whisper incoherently and suspiciously and generally make life difficult. We foreigners thus disregard everything she does, even sometimes when it's stuff that's actually useful or right.

Same goes for the government. Block Google? It's because it can. Not going to stop me using the search engines, or for that matter seeking out the BBC Website etc.. It does it to show that it's in charge even if what it does is ultimately ineffective.

So is this a matter of simple incompetence or a hierarchical awareness, a general cultural thing? Holding on to one's little corner, Canute-like trying to hold back the tide? Or have I completely misunderstood again. Go on, do your stuff ironophobes.

Posted by Sendover at May 26, 2004 07:59 PM | TrackBack

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