bu hao.

Most of my time here, I have struggled to discern enough words in Chinese to have a conversation with a taxi driver beyond "yes, turn right" and "stop here." It figures that my first actual conversation with a Chinese cab driver revolved around whether or not I work in an, ahem, less than legitimate profession.

I admit that I do not entirely adhere to all of China's social norms - for example, I often ask questions at meetings, which is rarely done by the Chinese employees in my company, who are, I'm told, afraid to be considered trouble makers if they do so. I am conspicuous as a foreigner regardless of what I do, and I admit that I sometimes take advantage of the expectation that I will behave ridiculously as an excuse to do so (ie. we might have joined several other ex-pat bar patrons in singing Bohemian Rhapsody at an unfortunate volume on my birthday weekend). However. Of all of the verging-on-questionable public behaviors I have exhibited, my taxi driver reprimanded me for kissing my date goodbye before getting into the cab. I am personally not a fan of PDA, and tend to draw the line at holding hands or (something I've been told is old-fashioned) linking arms, but nevertheless, I don't consider a quite chaste goodbye kiss to be publicly inappropriate. My taxi driver disagreed.

The entire ride, he questioned my line of work, and when I told him I was a teacher (Essentially - what I actually do is a little complicated for me to explain in Chinese yet, but that's about it), he was particularly astonished that I would display such behavior in plain view of the world.

I'm fairly certain he asked if I was going to give him a kiss before getting out of his cab.

He did repeatedly kiss his hand and touch the ceiling (like I do in the states when passing under a yellow light) and then shake a finger at me saying "bu hao. bu hao." (Not good, not good)

I might have been offended by his line of questioning and scolding if a) I hadn't been in China where this sort of bluntness is commonplace and b) I hadn't found the whole thing so entertaining.

Ah, China.