a reminder

I went for a walk today. My main goal was to find grocery stores, but really I wanted to walk through the city during the day, and escape the gates of the university. I had the afternoon off from classes and I did not want to study; I wanted to see where people bought rice. Not really having a direction in mind, I walked toward the part of town where I knew there was a Carrefour (a large French supermarket chain). After passing Carrefour, I stepped into a few stores. It turned out most sold clothes and not food. But it was interesting nonetheless. I went into a place that was definitely high class, filled with high-end stores (including a BMW accessory store). It was air-conditioned and quiet, with light music playing in the background. I felt underdressed in my sporty sandals and skirt. So I left and found an underground market through which I walked to cross the street. Five minutes later, I found myself in an alley, littered with raw garbage, rats, and beggars. I felt overdressed in my sporty sandals and skirt.

Overwhelmed with the drastic differences in the streets of Harbin, I made my way back to Carrefour to check out the rice displays. I think I got there at a good time because there were 2 employees re-filling the rice bins. I was able to see what kind of rice they used from the bags they were using to dump the rice. I lingered around and took pictures of the bins and of the bags of rice. I’m still trying to figure out how to incorporate the market end of consumption into my research, so I was just getting ideas. Most of the customers came up and stuck their hands in the rice, scooping it up and letting it fall through their fingers, I guess as a way to tell if it was good rice (a future research question). I basically decided that I have a lot of questions I can ask in a survey form to rice consumers, and left Carrefour to walk back to my university campus.

I decided to take the back way home and walk through alleys. Again, I walked across the street and was struck the drastic difference between poor (people living in the alleys) and rich (Carrefour customers). I turned my i-pod on for the walk home and found some deep, depressing music to listen to as I contemplated the have and have-nots existing side-by-side in this city. In my Chinese classes, the teachers always talk about gaigekaifa (opening up and reform which started in China in 1978). It is unquestionably seen as the policy that has improved everyone’s lives through economic development. Sure, especially in Harbin they recognize that the xiagang (laid off workers) are a by-product of reform, but finding them jobs is just another problem. In other words its an accepted social issue to be dealt with. I am not here to judge whether China is better off after reform. It is impossible to make that judgment call, but I am here to look at the complications that have arisen from the process of reform.

I contemplated all of these ideas as I walked. Sure many American cities are exactly the same as Chinese cities, but there is at least infrastructure (such as sewage) in many American cities to prevent the poor from being as destitute (though Chinese cities lack the crime many find in American cities). As I turned a corner, a familiar (good) smell struck me and I looked below. An entire portion of the street corner was covered in freshly picked garlic. There was a truck behind the garlic and people working on cutting the garlic from its stalks. In my mind, I immediately flashed back to Maine where I spent a summer on a farm, harvesting and drying out garlic (among other things). Although I was deep in thought and listening to depressing music (in a good, contemplative way), I just had to stop. I took out my headphones, reached for my camera, and smiled at the people scattered among the garlic.

The questions began from both ends. They were eager to hear where I was from, why I could speak Chinese, how long I have been here, if we have garlic in my country, etc. I was eager to understand how they could just dump a truck full of garlic on the street and start cutting the heads from the stalks. As I was listened and watched, I realized this was their stall and they had just brought a new load of garlic. Customers and the garlic hawkers alike gathered around me as I tried to figure out what was going on. It turned out two of the women I had been talking to were customers there to buy garlic. They walked away with bags filled with fresh garlic. One walked into the alleys from which I had emerged; the other walked over to her accessory-decorated car and popped the trunk.

And as I turned to walk home, I remembered that this is precisely why I study food. Food brings people together. The customers and the hawkers alike told me about this garlic was good, it was fresh and picked early in the season. It had just been picked that morning. And people from all classes know it is good and come to buy it. They wanted to know about garlic in the US and I wanted to know about garlic in China. Food is a common thread that keeps us alive. And in the US where people are increasingly paying more and going out of their way for the opportunity to consume local food, it is dumped on the street corners in China.

I got back to my dorm and was enjoying the deep thoughts I was having as I continued to listen to my music. I sat on the stoop in front of the dorm, not yet ready to re-enter the life of a student. I must have looked really depressed (but really if I look depressed I’m probably just thinking hard and enjoying myself) because another foreign student from Yemen who I had never met before walked over to the marigolds growing in front of the dorm and picked one for me. And thus I re-entered the life of being a foreign student in China.