Bicycle
Recently I wrote about how the fast-food chain KFC has different cultural significances in China and in the US. In the former country, KFC represents modernity, cleanliness, worldliness, and sophistication. In the latter, the restaurant signifies poor health, cheapness, and simplicity. And yet the restaurant itself is nearly identical in both countries, though as Matthew Stinson points out, KFC does make an effort to introduce Chinese-friendly items on their menus here. Nevertheless, a KFC is a KFC is a KFC.
This got me thinking; what other objects change meaning depending on cultural context? Bicycles come to mind.
Outside of New York, San Francisco, and a handful of other large cities, you absolutely need a car to get around in the US. Bicycles are great, of course, but not when you have to commute 100 miles each way to get to work. Bikes also don't help much with grocery shopping or other similar errands.
Typically, the only people who ride bikes in the US (excepting kids in the suburbs) are bicycle enthusiasts. These types will own a fancy bike, have state-of-the-art accessories, and restrict their cycling to organized journeys. Few Americans, I suspect, think of bicycles as a mode of transportation. Instead, bikes signify affluence, sophistication, good health, and concern for the environment. Bicycling is almost exclusively a hobby.
Here, in China, the vast majority of bicycles are little cheap claptraps that could fall apart at any moment. While cyclists in the US ride as fast as they can for the exercise, many of the people I see on bikes here ride at a leisurely pace, simply making their return home a little more pleasant. Most bicycle commuters would happily trade their two-wheeler in for a proper car if it were affordable. On the other hand, a lot of cyclists in the US can, and do own cars; these they use for transportation.
Then again, perhaps times are changing. The other day I was cycling home from work when I encountered a steep hill. I went for it, but only made it about halfway before I had to step off and walk the rest of the way up. Suddenly, I heard a loud "åŠ æ²¹!" from the left, and saw three middle-aged Chinese men, wearing bicycle vests and helmets and riding expensive bikes, zooming past me up the hill.
And so I thought, "here is the American ruing the fact that he doesn't own a car, slowly trudging home from another work day. And here are the Chinese indulging in their favorite hobby, happily tackling the same hill that I regularly curse."
September 23rd, 2008 - 15:47
“Bikes also don’t help much with grocery shopping or other similar errands.”
Bollocks! In my university days I went everywhere, including to and from the supermarket, on my bike- and that’s in a city that has the _real_ world’s steepest street (and yes, I did live on that same hill). I do the same here. It’s all about how you pack and how you’re carrying the weight. Backpacks are good, carriers are useful so long as you strap your load down properly, bags can be slung from the handlebars, and baskets are not girly when they have your beer in them.
“Here, in China, the vast majority of bicycles are little cheap claptraps that could fall apart at any moment.”
Nah, they only look like it. I’m a big, big fan of Flying Pigeon (best thing to come out of Tianjin, apart from the superfast trains to Beijing). It doesn’t take too much Beijing acid rain (precisely one summer month’s worth- yes, I have the experimental data to show this) before they start to look like shit, and the brakes are a bit dodgy, but the last for bloody ever.
As for hills, gears are your friend. That bike I rode everywhere in my student days was a 21-speed mountain bike, and all 21 gears were necessary considering the steepness (stepth?) of some of the roads I was cycling up on a daily basis.
I guess, given the nature of this comment, that it’s no surprise that one of only 2 Queen songs I like is this:
http://tinyurl.com/2dr8z2
September 23rd, 2008 - 22:34
The advent of $4 per gallon gas has begun to change attitudes in the US about the bicycle as a means of transportation, at least here on the left coast.
September 24th, 2008 - 15:49
Chris,
I’m duly impressed by your diligence in your college days, but in my experience most students who use their bicycle for everything do so because they can’t afford a car. I use my bike for grocery shopping but damn…it’d be a lot easier just to stick bags in the trunk and head off home.
Good point about the bicycle quality, though.
September 25th, 2008 - 10:48
Matt, I have never owned a motor vehicle of any kind. That is partly because I’ve never been able to afford one, and partly because I prefer not to- I can drive, and enjoy it, but I do prefer the car-less life. All that cycling in my student days was partly economic necessity- but walking was also an option, considering one of the local supermarkets had “take-home trolleys” especially for students- just leave your address, push your shopping home, leave the trolley at your gate and they’ll come collect it later- but it was mostly because I love cycling.
September 25th, 2008 - 21:15
My biking experience aligns with Matt’s observations here. Growing up in China, as a student in high school and college, biking was definitely a mean of transportation, but it was also a great pleasure, chatting along with rest of the fellow students/cyclists on the way home. Biking in US as a graduate student, was also a way of transportation, but very much an unpleasant one. Because of the perception of biking without all the fancy gears is poverty and foreigners, we attracted quite a bit rudeness ranging from honking, laughing, wolf whistle to being forced off the road. I admire Chris’ ability to stay car-less, it takes not just determinations but also the self confidence. The difference on perceptions does not stop at biking, it also rings true on air-drying clothes, opening window vs. turning on AC, athletes vs. bookworms. If I got hostility by walking with a grocery bag in hand, by air drying clothes, by opening windows, I just don’t have the nerve to push a shopping cart home from the grocery store, at least not yet.
Matt, thank you. I refer your blog to my friends, hope they will take a look.
September 26th, 2008 - 23:03
Great post Matt. As for KFC, I do think the restaurants are different in China than they are in the US. One thing I’ve noticed is that in China KFC is more like McDonald’s (the American one) and McDonald’s is more like KFC (the American one). Ever notice how many people go to McDonald’s in China to eat fried chicken wings? Or how many people go to KFC to eat a crispy chicken sandwich with fries?
As for the automobile, we are at a very interesting nexus in history. I firmly believe that the dominance of the automobile in the US is just beginning to decline, and the gas “crisis” is exactly what we needed to begin the push. I’ve lived here in Chicago for almost a year, and never had a car. Public transportation isn’t perfect, but it gets you where you need to go. However, now that Americans are flocking to public transportation in record numbers (thanks to our little “crisis), the US is finally showing signs about getting serious on public transport. Even my hometown of Kansas City (arguably the most car friendly city in the US) is now seriously considering light rail.
The scary thing, however, is that China, in many respects seems to be following the American model of transportation, rather than learning from its mistakes. The thought of 1.5 billion people each owning cars (make that even 25% of them owning cars), scares me to death.
You do have to hand it to the Chinese government, for pouring so much effort into the Beijing subway (which by 2014 is going to totally kick ass), but it will be very interesting to see which direction the rest of the country takes.
September 27th, 2008 - 19:13
AMEN! Preach it Ben!
Sometimes I think I’m the only one in this world happy to see petrol prices rise.
(don’t get me wrong, I love cars and I love driving, it’s just that cars and driving are horribly destructive to both one’s own bank account, body, sanity and the world as a whole. Cycling is good for bank account, mind, body and planet)
As for China, I think the government is several decades ahead of those with enough spare cash to buy a car, certainly here in Beijing where there’s been an ever free-er car market and yet ever increasing investment in public transport. I first moved to Beijing about the time they were just starting to replace the old diesel buses with LPG and/or CNG powered buses. That first generation of relatively clean bus did not last long- in fact, the last of the diesels ran longer, and I often found myself riding an old, noisy, dirty but reliable diesel passing a broken down 1-year-old CNG bus. But since then the bus fleet has improved to the point of international competitiveness, and also expanded, four new subway lines have opened, and several more subway lines are scheduled to begin construction in the next few months.
Yup, the thought of China having comparable car ownership rates to NZ or America is terrifying, but I’m betting it’ll never happen. Oil prices and gridlock will bite; public transport and the bicycle will win.
Tong: I’ve heard life for a cyclist on American roads can be tough, but is it really that bad? Worst I ever had to deal with, in NZ or China, was idiot drivers who can’t see anything with less than four wheels or don’t know what lane they’re supposed to be in. Mate, I’ve got a huge amount of respect for anybody who cycles in such a hostile environment.
September 29th, 2008 - 21:22
Chris, I didn’t mean to make US sound like a country hostile to cyclists. I am sure most of places and people are not. I was in a place majority of people sway to the right and a few hostile people made foreigners doing foreign things very difficult. It is just a difference perception of life, I accepted that and it also taught me to bite my tongue back on people having water on full blast while doing makeup, or printing stack of paper only to throw them away. It scares me too that China has been modeling US in terms of lifestyle. But so far, most of my friends who have cars still prefer public transportation, air drying clothes, staying smaller apartments. We will see…