I was sitting on a park bench yesterday afternoon and watched as a small kitten single handedly destroyed a perfectly pleasant picnic on the lawn in front of the university’s main building for two Chinese girls. This kitten wasn’t messing around. It was hungry. And a little curious.
It was about 6 in the evening. I had twenty minutes to kill before my Chinese class and I was just arriving at the campus from work that afternoon. I stopped off at the East Gate of the campus and grabbed a coffee, 12 kuai, the best coffee in town, from this small shack next to a fried rice joint. Take out only. I took the coffee and walked across the huge lawn that sprawls neatly in front of the main campus’ main building, the Guanghua Tower. On nice days, students lay out on the lawn, picnic, play games, and hang out here. It is a great spot for people watching and for spending a few moments collecting your thoughts after a long day. Benches are hard to come by here as this area is so popular. But I found one facing the lawn. I darted across the large grassy space and claimed my prize.
Sprawled in front of me were the usual collection of students. A young Chinese student and his girlfriend were smooching awkwardly in one section. A grandmother had propped up her stroller and let her toddler run around with a balloon. And off to my left a couple of Chinese girls, undergraduate college students probably, had laid out a blanket, secured the corners with their shoes, and set out some food. There were some plastic containers of recently barbecued meet from one of the ubiquitous street food vendors outside the gate, a few bags of chips, and two six packs of beer cans, one Suntory, the other Tsing Tao. One of the girls was pretty normal looking, with thick glasses and relatively subdued. The other girl was pretty chubby and more lively. They were enjoining themselves.
Behind me there was another young Chinese couple taking photos of a small kitten with their smart phones. Lets get into this a bit. First thing worth noting: Fudan University is infested with cute stray cats. Don’t take this the wrong way and I have no way of proving this, it is all conjecture, but I’ve heard that stray critters don’t last too long in Chinese cities. I’ve heard all kinds of things, that illegal street food vendors hunt down stray dogs, cats, rats, whatever, to bulk up the meat in their trays, or that the police collect all stray animals and put them down to reduce the spread of disease. Either way, I’ve never seen stray dogs, cats, or even any rats in this or any other Chinese city. Except that their are tons of stray cats on Fudan’s campus. My theory is that the students are very tolerant of cute kittens and want to have them around all the time. So if I was a stray cat, I’d live here too. And they really are cute, there’s no denying that. The other point worth mentioning here is that Chinese youngsters love to take photos with their smart phones, like really love it. Especially of cute stuff. Every day, walking around the campus to and from classes, I’ll see a Chinese girl up close to a flower, taking a photo, then taking a selfie of herself with the flower, and then repeating, over and over and at all angles until her smart phone is filled with the same photo, over and over again, or so it seems to me. Or she’ll make her boyfriend take a photo of her with the flower, over and over again. Cats aren’t spared photos either. A cat will wander through the park and trailing it will be a small crowd of students, snapping away, petting it, throwing food at it, etc.
This was happening behind me on the bench. A young couple was stooped over a cute kitten, brown and black stripes, like a tiger, bright green eyes, very adorable. They were taking photos and petting it. They had had enough and casually walked away. The cat started wandering toward me, popped out from under my bench and walked through my legs and stopped to survey the lawn spread in front of me. It spotted the picnicking girls to my left. It had a mission. I sat back, relaxed, and watched the show.
The kitten slowly, casually, with some swagger in its tail, wandered over to the girls who were facing away from me. They never saw it coming. The girl with the thick glasses was taking a swig of a beer and the chubby girl had one hand in an open bag of chips. They were chatting quietly. The kitten stealthily, carefully stepped onto the blanket, split the girls, and aimed for the open containers of barbecued meat in the middle. Then I heard at first a very quiet, and then very quickly getting louder, collective “Eeeeeehhhhhhhwwwwwww…” as the girls became exasperated at the thought of the kitten touching their food. “别过来! 别过来!” Bie guolai! Bie guolai! Don’t come over here! said the chubby one, clearly the more exasperated of the two. The chubby girl started making lots of whiny noises, took her bag of chips and a couple of containers of meat and stood up, eyeing the cat at a safe distance. The girl with the thick glasses did the same, but remained seated.
The kitten all the while completely ignored the girls and their whining and began to poke around. It found a nice open container of meat, settled down into the folds of the blanket, and began to dig in. The chubby girl from a distance began whining a little more loudly and then made some whimpering noises and began to bend her knees a little, bobbing up and down in helplessness. The seated girl, now equally whiny, began to swat the air around the kitten, hoping that the shooing motion would be enough to dissuade the kitten. It was not. The kitten just stood there as if to say, “Give me food or give me love.” Apparently the girls had no interest in actually touching the kitten and therefore the kitten had no incentive to move. This little kitten had effectively rained on their parade. Both girls, awkwardly paralyzed and whiny, held as much food in the air as they could. The chubby girl, tiring of this state of non-picnicking, started to eat a bit of the meat from the container she was holding, and then finally took out her smart phone, snapped a photo of the kitten, before returning to her post off the blanket, and back to her whimpering.
This went on for literally 15 minutes, nearly the whole time I was sitting there. Eventually the kitten started to get antsy. The chubby girl stood there, watching the seated girl squirm around the now mobile kitten. Then the kitten started walking towards the chubby girl, who made more noises of exasperation, and started trotting around the blanket, trying to avoid the approaching kitten. The seated girl said something to the chubby girl who responded, “我怕! 我怕! 我怕!” Wo pa! I’m scared! and then finally offered the kitten a conciliatory prize by tossing a piece of meat away from the blanket and into the grass a little ways off. The kitten took the bait and was finally preoccupied, away from the picnic. The chubby girl took back her seat, both girls eyeing the kitten warily.
Satisfied with my bout of free entertainment, I picked up my bag and my coffee and headed off to class.
So as not to dominate this post with kittens and picnics, I saw something pretty interesting today at lunch. On Mondays, after my morning class, I have about a half hour to get some lunch before I hop the subway downtown to get to work for the afternoon. I usually eat up in the Fudan area as opposed to downtown because it’s much cheaper. There is a small side street that runs the length of the academic building where my class is located and along the street are some really small, cheap, outdoor food shops and vendors. They prop up tables and stools along the sidewalk in nice weather and for this reason, I like to go down there for a quick bite of lunch, sit in the sun, and relax a little before work. Sitting and eating on the sidewalk is another great way to people watch—something I do often.
Today, as I was waiting for my 特色蛋炒饭, te se dan chaofan, specialty egg fried rice, to cook up on the wok of a small food stall under an umbrella tent, I noticed that along the sidewalk were some huge piles of dirt and garbage, but garbage from construction materials as opposed to rubbish. The piles had been neatly brushed into large heaps in a few spots along the sidewalk and they’ve been there a long time. Either no one has the manpower to move them or perhaps the money to hire someone else to move them. Instead, they’ve become sort of a fixture of the sidewalk and of the view from the pop up tables set out at lunch time. But this time, I noticed that from these heaps of dirt and garbage were sprouting some small plants, neatly collected into groups as if it was a make-shift garden. Little metallic stands were aiding the little plants in vertical growth. And small fence-like materials were set up to protect them. I thought it was really interesting and took a few photos with my phone when I heard from off to my right, “朋友! pengyou, friend (pause…)朋友! (another pause…) 朋友!” Finally realizing I was being summoned in the friendliest of ways and immediately fearing I had done something offensive by taking photos of their cultivated garbage mounds, I turned to say, “你好,” nihao, hello, and found my rice master holding up a spoonful of some red peppers, grounded in a fine powder, with a mischievous grin on his face. I said, “啊. 可以吧” ah, keyi ba, ah, yeah go for it, and satisfied he dumped the spoonful of powder in the rice.
I’m not sure what the little plants are for. Probably not for eating, there wasn’t enough there. But I was somehow comforted by the thought of the local shopkeepers making best use of their dirt mounds, cultivating and encouraging life in this micro-hostile atmosphere, bits of greenery surrounded by crumbles of dirt, broken cement blocks, and wires, if even because, why not?
With that bit of positivity now fresh in my mind, I picked up, grabbed a fresh papaya juice for the road, and walked to the subway.
It was about 6 in the evening. I had twenty minutes to kill before my Chinese class and I was just arriving at the campus from work that afternoon. I stopped off at the East Gate of the campus and grabbed a coffee, 12 kuai, the best coffee in town, from this small shack next to a fried rice joint. Take out only. I took the coffee and walked across the huge lawn that sprawls neatly in front of the main campus’ main building, the Guanghua Tower. On nice days, students lay out on the lawn, picnic, play games, and hang out here. It is a great spot for people watching and for spending a few moments collecting your thoughts after a long day. Benches are hard to come by here as this area is so popular. But I found one facing the lawn. I darted across the large grassy space and claimed my prize.
Sprawled in front of me were the usual collection of students. A young Chinese student and his girlfriend were smooching awkwardly in one section. A grandmother had propped up her stroller and let her toddler run around with a balloon. And off to my left a couple of Chinese girls, undergraduate college students probably, had laid out a blanket, secured the corners with their shoes, and set out some food. There were some plastic containers of recently barbecued meet from one of the ubiquitous street food vendors outside the gate, a few bags of chips, and two six packs of beer cans, one Suntory, the other Tsing Tao. One of the girls was pretty normal looking, with thick glasses and relatively subdued. The other girl was pretty chubby and more lively. They were enjoining themselves.
Behind me there was another young Chinese couple taking photos of a small kitten with their smart phones. Lets get into this a bit. First thing worth noting: Fudan University is infested with cute stray cats. Don’t take this the wrong way and I have no way of proving this, it is all conjecture, but I’ve heard that stray critters don’t last too long in Chinese cities. I’ve heard all kinds of things, that illegal street food vendors hunt down stray dogs, cats, rats, whatever, to bulk up the meat in their trays, or that the police collect all stray animals and put them down to reduce the spread of disease. Either way, I’ve never seen stray dogs, cats, or even any rats in this or any other Chinese city. Except that their are tons of stray cats on Fudan’s campus. My theory is that the students are very tolerant of cute kittens and want to have them around all the time. So if I was a stray cat, I’d live here too. And they really are cute, there’s no denying that. The other point worth mentioning here is that Chinese youngsters love to take photos with their smart phones, like really love it. Especially of cute stuff. Every day, walking around the campus to and from classes, I’ll see a Chinese girl up close to a flower, taking a photo, then taking a selfie of herself with the flower, and then repeating, over and over and at all angles until her smart phone is filled with the same photo, over and over again, or so it seems to me. Or she’ll make her boyfriend take a photo of her with the flower, over and over again. Cats aren’t spared photos either. A cat will wander through the park and trailing it will be a small crowd of students, snapping away, petting it, throwing food at it, etc.
This was happening behind me on the bench. A young couple was stooped over a cute kitten, brown and black stripes, like a tiger, bright green eyes, very adorable. They were taking photos and petting it. They had had enough and casually walked away. The cat started wandering toward me, popped out from under my bench and walked through my legs and stopped to survey the lawn spread in front of me. It spotted the picnicking girls to my left. It had a mission. I sat back, relaxed, and watched the show.
The kitten slowly, casually, with some swagger in its tail, wandered over to the girls who were facing away from me. They never saw it coming. The girl with the thick glasses was taking a swig of a beer and the chubby girl had one hand in an open bag of chips. They were chatting quietly. The kitten stealthily, carefully stepped onto the blanket, split the girls, and aimed for the open containers of barbecued meat in the middle. Then I heard at first a very quiet, and then very quickly getting louder, collective “Eeeeeehhhhhhhwwwwwww…” as the girls became exasperated at the thought of the kitten touching their food. “别过来! 别过来!” Bie guolai! Bie guolai! Don’t come over here! said the chubby one, clearly the more exasperated of the two. The chubby girl started making lots of whiny noises, took her bag of chips and a couple of containers of meat and stood up, eyeing the cat at a safe distance. The girl with the thick glasses did the same, but remained seated.
The kitten all the while completely ignored the girls and their whining and began to poke around. It found a nice open container of meat, settled down into the folds of the blanket, and began to dig in. The chubby girl from a distance began whining a little more loudly and then made some whimpering noises and began to bend her knees a little, bobbing up and down in helplessness. The seated girl, now equally whiny, began to swat the air around the kitten, hoping that the shooing motion would be enough to dissuade the kitten. It was not. The kitten just stood there as if to say, “Give me food or give me love.” Apparently the girls had no interest in actually touching the kitten and therefore the kitten had no incentive to move. This little kitten had effectively rained on their parade. Both girls, awkwardly paralyzed and whiny, held as much food in the air as they could. The chubby girl, tiring of this state of non-picnicking, started to eat a bit of the meat from the container she was holding, and then finally took out her smart phone, snapped a photo of the kitten, before returning to her post off the blanket, and back to her whimpering.
This went on for literally 15 minutes, nearly the whole time I was sitting there. Eventually the kitten started to get antsy. The chubby girl stood there, watching the seated girl squirm around the now mobile kitten. Then the kitten started walking towards the chubby girl, who made more noises of exasperation, and started trotting around the blanket, trying to avoid the approaching kitten. The seated girl said something to the chubby girl who responded, “我怕! 我怕! 我怕!” Wo pa! I’m scared! and then finally offered the kitten a conciliatory prize by tossing a piece of meat away from the blanket and into the grass a little ways off. The kitten took the bait and was finally preoccupied, away from the picnic. The chubby girl took back her seat, both girls eyeing the kitten warily.
Satisfied with my bout of free entertainment, I picked up my bag and my coffee and headed off to class.
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| Not THE perpetrator, but a troublemaker, no doubt |
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| What wet flowers look like when taken at close range with an iPhone |
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| The action took place here, from my vantage point on the bench |
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| Presumably Fudan students' smartphones are filled with pictures like this |
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| A mini panorama of the lawn in front of the Guanghua Tower |
Today, as I was waiting for my 特色蛋炒饭, te se dan chaofan, specialty egg fried rice, to cook up on the wok of a small food stall under an umbrella tent, I noticed that along the sidewalk were some huge piles of dirt and garbage, but garbage from construction materials as opposed to rubbish. The piles had been neatly brushed into large heaps in a few spots along the sidewalk and they’ve been there a long time. Either no one has the manpower to move them or perhaps the money to hire someone else to move them. Instead, they’ve become sort of a fixture of the sidewalk and of the view from the pop up tables set out at lunch time. But this time, I noticed that from these heaps of dirt and garbage were sprouting some small plants, neatly collected into groups as if it was a make-shift garden. Little metallic stands were aiding the little plants in vertical growth. And small fence-like materials were set up to protect them. I thought it was really interesting and took a few photos with my phone when I heard from off to my right, “朋友! pengyou, friend (pause…)朋友! (another pause…) 朋友!” Finally realizing I was being summoned in the friendliest of ways and immediately fearing I had done something offensive by taking photos of their cultivated garbage mounds, I turned to say, “你好,” nihao, hello, and found my rice master holding up a spoonful of some red peppers, grounded in a fine powder, with a mischievous grin on his face. I said, “啊. 可以吧” ah, keyi ba, ah, yeah go for it, and satisfied he dumped the spoonful of powder in the rice.
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| I always seem to take photos of food after I've eaten most of it. My plate of specialty egg fried rice |
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| A close-up of the dirt pile, not easily seen are the plants on the lower left and upper right |
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| The dirt piles sitting on the sidewalk, in between some store fronts to the right and the street off to the left |
With that bit of positivity now fresh in my mind, I picked up, grabbed a fresh papaya juice for the road, and walked to the subway.
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