Word: training
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Strange, surely, but about the only truly odd tradition I encounter during five weeks in China. By plane, train and car, from the prospering coastal provinces to the country's heartland, where the agricultural reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping ten years ago began a miraculous economic transformation, to Beijing and a village not far from the capital that is infinitely poorer than towns a thousand miles farther inland, I find little that is charming or especially exotic. Just a mostly drab and dusty country, a perfect backdrop for the tedious and too often unrewarding nature of daily life. Still...
Since bureaucratic sadism is familiar to everyone everywhere, I was somewhat prepared for the denial of a simple request during the 600-mile, 18-hour train trip to Beijing. But I was not prepared for the sheer delight visible on the conductor's face when she said, "Meiyou, the rule does not permit turning on the lights before 7 p.m. and it's only 6:30. You will just have to wait 30 minutes...
...impossible to describe the complete pleasure her smile conveyed. Perhaps she gets a bonus for being a particularly petty bureaucrat. Perhaps she resents foreigners and their privileges. A Chinese train's best accommodations, the "soft sleeper" compartment, in which two bunk beds actually sport linen, are reserved for foreigners and high party and government officials. I could understand her hating such preferential treatment, but then again, she and her colleagues do pretty well because of it. For notwithstanding my status as a foreigner, the "soft sleeper" car was "sold out" until a kind official laid a carton of cigarettes...
When winos name their poison, two of the most called-for brands are Thunderbird and Night Train Express, favored for their high alcohol content (18%) and low price ($2.29 for a 750-ml bottle). The two wines account for less than 3% of total sales for California's giant E. & J. Gallo winery, but they have become an increasing source of controversy for the company. Last week Gallo said that it had voluntarily told its distributors to stop selling the wines to liquor stores in skid-row areas in U.S. cities...
Meanwhile, each passing year finds fewer and fewer Poles alive who remember a day, fifty years ago, when a husband, brother or father disappeared mysteriously on a train heading east...