Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Strange Superstitions, Odd Suppositions


Construction Worker Dies on the Job; Entire Building Razed.

So read a headline my eyes happened to light upon recently. Apparently, because this man fell to his death the building would be haunted by his spirit and no one would live there. The entire building was razed and then built anew.

This particular tidbit was of great interest to me because I live in a virtually deserted construction area. Of course, I would want to know if the area, or even my building in particular is going to be haunted. And if so, I would want it to be haunted by friendly ghosts, not angry ones whose corporeal presences have plummeted to their death.

Setting Off Fireworks at the Completion of a New Building.

In China, construction goes on ‘round the clock. At night the area is bathed in floodlights and the work continues. The crews generally work 12 hours on and 12 hours off. Easy to see how a worker could fall to his death after working 8, 10 or even 11 and a half hours. The work is exhausting, especially when you consider a lot of the means of getting the job done harken back two centuries: sledgehammers, wheelbarrows, shovels and picks rather than any modern, air or power driven tools. No fall arrest systems and only recently has there been a nod to safety by implementing hard hat laws. Now that winter is here you see construction workers wearing closed toed shoes but in the height of summer, most workers labored in flip flops or sandals.

Thus it is quite surprising that no more people have lopped off toes or fingers than there have been. So, after completion of a building, fireworks are set off: to celebrate the completion of a building – presumably without having to raze it and start all over again. At least, that’s what I thought.

Until I became enlightened. It seems the firecrackers are set off at newly completed edifices for the same purpose that they are set off on Chinese New Year: to ward off evil spirits. At any time of the day or night I’m likely to hear the popping and ‘POW’ing of fireworks being set off somewhere in what will eventually be a neighborhood.

Now I’m confused. Why must they raze a building when a construction worker dies, when, after completion of any new building fireworks are lit to ward off evil spirits? Wouldn’t the fireworks do the job, even if someone does plummet to their death?

Too Close to the Source

Modern Chinese engineers have finally realized that their old, PCB-filled transformers are not healthy or safe. In older neighborhoods power goes out routinely: poor connections at the source, transformers failing, feeder cables and power lines getting frayed from waving and rubbing against each other in the wind and exposure to the elements are all factors that contribute to this phenomenon. So, our new housing area actually has a switchgear and the power lines run underground. That is indeed a step in the right direction.

However, many of the teachers who have bought apartments in this new complex are complaining that the switchgear emits unhealthy radiation or, at least, magnetism. They fear exposure to it. Some are even demanding their deposits back. Others are requesting the right to buy an apartment further away from the switchgear.

It is not like the switchgear is located smack in the middle of the housing area. It is across the street, in its own little brick building. All of the cables are shielded and the cabinet is insulated. There are no windows or doors facing the housing area. The whole fear of magnetism and/or radiation comes from an old superstition.

New Home Smells are Bad for Pregnancy

OK, I concede there is a measure of validity to this one. The glue used on laminate flooring, the whitewash on the walls, the caulk in between the tiles… yes, all of these toxins can be bad for anyone, not just pregnant women.

My dear friends Chris and Julia, who are expecting their baby in April, right around the time Darrell and Samantha are expecting theirs have put off moving in to their apartment in the new housing area until after New Year – Chinese New Year, that is. They do not want to expose their baby to potentially dangerous smells. I completely understand that.

However, because their old apartment sold relatively quickly they had to rent an apartment on the fly. They are now living on the fifth floor of an old apartment building at the back of campus, over ‘vendor alley’ where all of the street vendors peddle their food. Fried food, for the most part. It is a tiny place, just big enough for one young couple with the reality of parenthood only 5 months away.

I visited them in their temporary digs one afternoon and walked away wondering. While I do agree with them that ‘new home smells’ are dangerous, wouldn’t mold infested, damp, garbage-smelling quarters five flights up be more dangerous? At least in the new place they can open a window and get relatively fresh air. In the place they are staying now, if they open a window they get smoke and grease vapors from the food vendors in the alley below.

And that alley is just that: an alley. Narrow, dank and dark, with a garbage pit at the head of it and a dead end at the tail of it. It just seems to me that it might be healthier for Julia and the baby to live in the new place.

Too Much Sun is Bad

Although I’ve now lived in China for a little over a year I am still amazed at people’s – especially women’s – reluctance to expose themselves to the sun, even if avoiding such exposure means sitting over a hot bus engine cowl.

It was such a sight to see! When I returned to Wuhan this summer, the temps were still high enough to earn the rating ‘uncomfortable’. Nevertheless women, rather than take a seat by the window with sun streaming through chose to sit at the back of the bus, over the engine, where there was no sun. I have actually gotten on buses where no one was sitting on the right side of the bus because the sun shone through those windows. Everyone was crowded on the left side of the bus, even choosing to stand when there was no seat available on the shady side, rather than park themselves by a UV repellent piece of glass. That made if very difficult for drivers of double decker buses to balance their passenger loads. They had to yell at the passengers to distribute themselves more evenly or risk tipping over.

I’ve seen women sit on the sunny side of the buses when they’ve been ordered to fan out. Before they would take a seat they would actually open their umbrella ON THE BUS to protect themselves from the sun – while sitting next to a UV blocking window.

How far does this go? And how vitamin D deficient are these women? I can answer the former: as far as needed to quell the odd supposition. I cannot address the latter at all.

Of course you know about the ‘drink more hot water’ and perhaps you know about ‘reading while eating is bad for your health’ suppositions, which I still consider odd in the extreme, even though they were explained to me (see ‘Drink More Hot Water’ entry posted in March). I don’t believe I’ve told you why reading while eating is considered bad for your health.

Reading While Eating is Bad for Your Health

I learned of this odd supposition while still living in the Concrete Bunker – the new name I’ve accorded to my former quarters. One of my students had come by and, as was possible then she simply pushed open the window to look in my apartment. She saw me eating lunch while reading a book, a common practice of mine. She chided me for reading while eating, saying it was bad for my health. A bit of investigating taught me that the Chinese believe that, if you read a book you are not focusing on your food and thus not appreciating all of its wonders or healing benefits.

When Sam clarified this supposition I gave it some thought. And then, I had to make the obvious assertions. 1. When families dine together they talk throughout the entire meal. Are they focusing on the food or the conversation? 2. Any Chinese home I had been invited to had the television blaring while we ate. And, having recently dined in a super fancy restaurant with Evan and his parents, I can attest that each private dining room comes equipped with a large, plasma TV that diners can watch while eating. So, according to these common practices, it is OK for me to converse or watch TV while I eat, but not read a book.

I’d rather read a book. Preferably one about China’s strange superstitions and odd suppositions. I probably should get caught up on them.

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