So, David Sedaris was in Beijing for three days before he told us the most noticeable thing about it was the excrement everywhere. To be fair, it is a rather prominent and surprising feature, and he also didn't use the word "excrement." He noted the many striking ways it's different from Japan (read: not clean and not polite), and acknowledged the difficulty with taxis and language. While he did tell the room full (and I do mean full - every seat in the theater space was sold out) of Beijing expats that his impressions wouldn't keep him from returning, I did feel mildly protective of the city. And also a little judged. I think this is maybe a sign that I actually now accept that I live here. Also, that I don't like being judged.
We did hear some lovely stories from his newest book, however, and an entertaining quote that reminded me of at least a career-related reason I enjoy being in China:
"That's education in the United States - a kid can't read, so we put sneakers on a horse."
No comments:
Post a Comment