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Emulating American lifestyle is off base
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A few weeks ago, after a day of hard work, I left the office and decided to treat myself to a three-course dinner at a Russian restaurant. Its borscht, bloody red and truly made of beetroot, had been on my wish list for quite a while.
Half an hour later, I arrived at the restaurant. In its decoration and background music, it felt very Russian. Two young Slavic lads, both Russian-speaking, served appetizers.
I ordered my long-sought borscht with a spoon of sour cream on the side, Moscow salad and Chicken Kiev, as well as a bottle of Kvass. Then I placed the napkin on my knees waiting, quietly.
What I saw next surprised me. The Slavic lad who handed me the menu minutes earlier was drinking a can of cola produced by an American beverage giant.
Why? The restaurant has its homemade kvass, which in my eyes is much better and healthier than what he drank.
I checked the menu again and found several kinds of soft drinks, including many American brands.
The restaurant offers different kinds of colas but only one kind of kvass.
It seemed a bit ironic, but Chinese restaurants are no better. China and Russia have histories dating back thousands of years, whereas the United States emerged only in 1776. Nevertheless, many of us live more and more American-like, or at least wish to do so. When people among us get rich, they very likely will live in an American way — with a big house with garden and swimming pool, luxurious car plus a golden retriever or a lab.
Ending up as dogs
There is an old Chinese saying, “Set out to be tigers but end up as dogs.”
If we follow we will never be tigers.
When car dealers introduced recreational vehicles to Chinese consumers, they immediately became the latest status symbol of wealth, despite the different infrastructures in China and the US.
Without fully equipped RV camps and driver’s licenses for vehicles longer than 6 meters, Chinese multi-millionaires can go nowhere with their new big toys.
American colas have become available at almost every restaurant and convenience store in many cities since they re-entered the mainland market. Why? People love to drink them or, even worse, they are accustomed to the flavor.
But to typical Chinese, drinking tea has been a healthy habit for thousands of years. Unfortunately, many of us have willingly embraced the unhealthy way of life associated with something like coke.
On the other hand, many in America are reversing course. New York City’s Board of Health approved a ban on colas and other sodas larger than 16 ounces (473 ml) in September 2012 to combat obesity and diabetes.
At a time that more and more Chinese are installing barbecue grills in their backyards or rooftop terraces, many of their American counterparts have excluded red meat from their daily diets.
It’s time for us to review some habits we learn from Americans, since many of them have been discarded by their originators. While micro vehicles are more and more popular in many developed countries, we Chinese still love big-sized cars or even SUVs as many Americans do.
It’s true that China has roughly the same land area as the continental US. But there are only 317 million people in the US and the figure for China is nearly 1.4 billion.
When our country carried out reforms and its opening-up policy 36 years ago, many of us were shocked by what we learned from the outside. It cannot be denied that we were amazed by how most Americans live and that many of us wished to live that way.
However, the two countries have many differences. In many ways, the American way should not be our way. And in many ways, we have not learned the American way in its better sense.
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