A real fellow-townsman or a fake?
A Chinese saying goes that when two fellow-townsmen meet far away from their place they will be driven into tears. It’s definitely true according to my own experience, but this time, it didn’t seem the case.
On the second afternoon during our stay in Qingdao, which is a cool and beautiful coastal city in eastern China, our bus was guided into the yard of a jewel store. The tourists, all from the same town where I live, flowed out of the bus and were led directly into an inner room in the store. When I got in, all had been seated. They sat along three of the walls, leaving out the one on which a huge picture of Mount Fuji, the symbol of Japan, was hanging. In the middle of the room there were two large tables, with a young man sitting at the one before the picture. He had several jade rings before him.
The man introduced himself as a graduate from Beijing Mineral University who had had jewels as his major. He told us some simple ways to judge the quality of jades and examined some trinkets handed to him from the guests. But he kept making false judgments, mistaking those worth 500 for 5 and vice versa. When he heard that we were from Jiangsu, he said gladly that his boss was also from the province.
Some of us smiled knowingly, and one said to him with confidence: “If we had told you that we were from Zhejiang, then your boss’s place must have changed to Zhejiang.”
We laughed and the young man said something insisting that he was telling the truth. Just then, another man came in. “Well, the boss is coming!” The young man said and then he exited. The new comer was young, too, but a little older and was small, having glasses on his nose. He spoke Mandarin, which was a little strange, suggesting the accent of a Chinese who was born overseas.
“You are from Jiangsu, aren’t you? My father is also from Jiangsu.” He said. We made no response. The play was going on, we thought. Let’s see what this man would put on.
“He is from Nanjing, Jiansu province,” he continued, “what about you?”“We’re from Nanjing, too.”“Really? Which part of Nanjing? ” He seemed delighted, “Our old home is in Gaocun!”We were right from Gaocun!
“Ah! My fellow townsmen!” He became obviously very excited. Rising from his seat, he went to his left and shook hands strongly with those sitting on that side and then turned and went to the left. The scene was moving. If you had ever been far away from your home and met some people from your town, I bet your whole heart would have gone to the boss. We were overwhelmed with wonder and forgot we were in a shop.
But soon we recovered and began to doubt again. Yet what he said next swept almost everybody’s doubts.
“My father had a tour back to our hometown the year before. He went fishing with his friends. When people go to Gaocun, they can go fishing. Right?” Right. Fishing is our favorite sport and the first choice of amusement of those from other places. “Our Gaocun is a very beautiful place.” He went on: “Our crabs are very famous, right? When people here tell me their lobsters are delicious, I always tell them that what’s really delicious is my hometown’s crabs!” True! But though our crabs are famous, we don’t think they’re so famous that everyone from every corner of the country knows about them. This guy must know something about Gaocun!
“My father was born in a village called Tuanjie. Is there such a place there?” Yes, there is! And there was someone among us who seemed right from that village. “We know a person named Kong Deli, do you know him?” Yes, we know! “He’s in Charge of fishery there, right?” Right! “We have an aunt who still lives there. She’s called Chen Xiuying. Do you know her?” Seeing that no one seemed to know, he added: “She used to a teacher and now retires at home?” Still no one knew, but we all believed there must be such a woman, only we didn’t know. We don’t know the name of most of the old women in our place and retired women teachers are many. Few of us were in doubt now!
The following conversation was right the kind that can only happen between two tearful fellow townsmen. He told us that they were now living in Malaysia. He was the second son of his father. His father had four stores in China. The other three were respectively in Tianjing, Shanghai, and Fujian. His father would soon open another store in Nanjing.
He said that his old man went to college in Nanjing Forestry University (Yes, Nanjing indeed has this university!) After graduation, he first served in the army as an interpreter in Hainan for two years. It was there that his father got by chance a deal treating jewels and in which he earned his first bucket of gold. He then left the army and became a businessman. Before he moved to Malaysia, he grew rubber plants in Guanxi province when the rubber was badly needed as it was in the war…
“My father hates Japanese the most.” The young boss continued. “I hang this picture there,” he pointed to the picture behind him, “not because I like it, but because the Japanese that come to my store like it. I price all my items at thousands not because they are worth that sum of money, but because the Japanese would like to stop and have a look only when I price that high. If any of you want to buy something from here, I’ll give it to you at the original price.”
“Please stay here for the evening, you all,” finally he invited, “I’ll treat you with lobsters. I want you to ask me to eat crabs when I’m back to Gaocun… If any of you want to visit Malaysia, please tell my father. He will cover your expense for flight tickets! Now you can go outside and see if you need something. If you find anything that you’re interested, please directly tell me. I’ll…”
We rose and went out of the room.
Most of us returned straight to the bus, for the whole process had only confirmed them that the shop was not the right place to buy things in. But some remained and began searching through those shining and attractive objects. The boss accompanied them, introducing, offering preferential prices that were very desirable and ordering around the shop assistants. I was following and watching. At one time, the boss asked me in curiosity: “Why are they all gone? Are they hungry?” “Maybe…I don’t know.” I felt very sad, for my fellow tourists had taken their cordial townsman for a cheater!
I didn’t want to buy anything, so after a few minutes, I left and joined my wife and the kid who were already in the bus. We waited there for the several buyers that were purchasing in the shop. At the same time, a small controversy broke out among us. I was surprised to find that they agree almost unanimously that the “townsman” was fake and trying to deceive. Only two of us held the opposite opinion. I was especially indignant of my fellow tourists’ irrational suspicion. There were three or four of us who finally bought things from the shop. When the bus started and they overheard the negative comments from others, they became very nervous. They feared that they had been cheated.
Whether I had been fooled or not, it’s a sad fact that Chinese people’s credibility is among possibly the lowest. We can hardly trust each other. People doubt government officials while officials doubt the people they govern; the boss doubts his employees and the employees doubt the boss…buyers always doubt sellers. Professional cheats permeate this society. Mary and Tim, if you happen to read this article, could you please tell me what’s the case in Canada and American?
Dear friends, this is a detailed and truthful record of the incident. If you were among us, would you choose to believe the boss or not?
Charles
