Breaking Point at Lao Shi

Breaking Point

Published by Brian January 22nd, 2007 in Living

Oftentimes cabs around the LQ refuse to pick up Westerners.

Specifically around rush hour, when the cabs race from the Zhang Jiang Subway Station to the Living Quarters and back again, they only like to take Chinese passengers. I’ve never been denied a ride across the river in downtown Puxi, where Western tourists and ex-pats are common, only out here in the middle of nowhere Pudong, where it is not unusual to stand by the LQ gate or the nearby corner for upwards of twenty or more minutes while empty cabs pass by.

Sometimes the cabs stop and get close before they realize I’m a Westerner, at which point they keep moving. One time a cabbie slowed down but wouldn’t stop, and I, desperate for a ride, ran along with him, opening the door as he was moving. He put on the break and turned around to yell “no, no, no!” at me. Another cab pulled up behind the first and I moved towards him, but he also refused me a ride. When a couple of Chinese girls hesitantly came up behind me, they jumped in without a word of complaint from the driver and sped off leaving me waiting at the gate. A typical story of discrimination.

But on Friday I finally snapped.

The day was cold and wet with a consistently dim early-morning light, like the sun had been pinned down behind the clouds somewhere around seven AM, and I felt sleepy and stiff, unable to fully wake up. I was heading to Dragonfly for a massage to work the kinks out, feeling sick of the weather and sick of this place and especially lonely. I didn’t wait long – a cab pulled up about a minute after I arrived at the gate and I jumped in as a woman passenger stepped out.

I said, “Jinqiao Jalla Fu,” which means Jinqiao Carrefour, which is in a complex of stores and restaurants along with the massage parlor.

The cab began to move slowly, the cabbie murmuring to himself, “Jinqiao Jalla Fu, Jinqiao Jalla Fu.”

“Dway,” I said, which means yes or that’s right.

He said something to me more elaborate in Chinese about Jinqiao Jalla Fu.

“Dway. Jinqiao Jalla Fu. Dway.”

He kept talking. In Mandarin, I said I don’t understand, and I couldn’t. All I could pick up was that he kept saying something about Jinqiao Jalla Fu, so I replied back to him again, “Jinqiao Jalla Fu.” At this point we were a bit down the block, almost to the corner, and he stopped the cab. I had about twenty minutes to get to Dragonfly, which would be perfect if we left right away, but I could feel my prospects for safe passage in this cab slipping away.

The cabbie then turned around in his seat and began to yell at me in Chinese. All I could pick up was, “BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH JINQIAO JALLA FU!!!!”

I said in English, “Damn it you don’t have to yell at me. Please just take me to Jinqiao Jalla Fu,” but he kept yelling, and then started banging on the cab cage.

NB: The cabbies are all protected in plexi-glass little cages that surround their seat. Another interesting cab fact about Chinese drivers is that many of them grow a finger nail or two really, really long. This is a sign of wealth and leisure, but it also makes them look strangely vampiric, and we sometimes joke that they are creatures of the night, part of an army of undead warriors ready to slit your throat with their fingernails and drink your blood.

Anyway, he kept yelling and I became pissed off, so I joined in and yelled back, “Jinqiao Jalla Fu! Jinqiao Jalla Fu! JINQIAO JALLA FU YOU BLEEP BLEEP!”

This wasn’t good. We were yelling at each other but neither of us could understand anything except Jinqiao Jalla Fu, and, it seemed from his reaction, the word bleep, which upon my saying it started the guy screaming so vehemently that spit sprayed from his mouth, he was that pissed.

I must say that I, too, was completely enraged. A rainy night at the Carrefour would be an easy place for this guy to pick someone up, it wasn’t like we were going out to some deserted out-of-the-way location, and besides, I’ve never, ever seen a Chinese person get turned down for a cab ride by the LQ or anywhere. He was only being a bitch because I couldn’t speak his language and he felt he could ignore me and kick me out. Dan and Aliza and I had talked about what to do in this circumstance before, which is to begin to write the cabbie’s ID number down in the hopes that he’ll get scared you’ll complain and start driving, but I was so mad I forgot this logical plan.

Instead I got out of the cab, bellowed, “bleep you, you bleepity bleep!” behind me, and then I turned around and, thinking of all those cabs who have denied me passage in the past, spat onto the backseat. I stormed off into the drizzle leaving the door open behind me.

I walked a half-block to the bus stop, fuming. I felt a mixture of shame and glee, along with that particular pleasure that comes with giving into and releasing anger, and I thought about how insanely frustrating and ridiculous this whole thing was, and I laughed.

Truly a “give in to the Dark Side” moment.

The scene of the crime: a line of taxis lie for passengers outside of the LQ gate — or do they??

Editor’s Note: I toned down the language of my original post, partly because I think it’s funnier with the bleeps, and partly because I know young people are accessing this site, and wouldn’t want to set a bad example.

3 Responses to “Breaking Point”

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1 gail/Mom Jan 22nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm

It sounded like something I would see on South Park!
2 Tracy Jan 23rd, 2007 at 4:29 pm

couldn’t help a little laugh over ur miserable story.(Please understand i do really feel sorry for you, but all my friends laugh at my tragedies, then we laugh together, and what shouldn’t be a burden wont’t be a burden).
It is so confusing in shanghai, 99.9 percent of cabbies are making a hard living by taking the appalling night shift, in the storm, sacrifice family time or holidays, their sole goal is to generating money, why would they refuse a profitable customer?could the communication obstacle explain this?maybe they suspect they can’t even know where you are heading and will get the wrong direction and won’t make any money eventually? But maybe you are also aware that no matter how poor chinese people’s english is, they do understand the F word, and their moral standard will rocket to extremly high to judge you or plunge to extremly low to throw vicious words on you. unfortunately you just triggered the dark side of him.
i need to read several times before figuring out what does ‘ dway’ mean. if you don’t fancy practicing it exactly the way chinese pronounce, maybe take a printed chinese note with you can help, which wouldn’t guarantee you get every cab you want, but at lease save some unnesessary communication troubles once you hop on and guarantee the right destination. would those fake christian help?for example, i guess the cabbie would happy to see 金桥家乐福,谢谢（jin qiao carrefour) instead of rambling a hell of bad words on you.
good luck next time anyway
3 Tian Jul 14th, 2007 at 6:27 am

i agree with Tracy.
if you live in a foreign country, try to adapt to the country instead of using your own things.it is not working
btw, about the discrimination, think about yourself. rethink about your words you used there. are you not discriminating the culture there?
did you not learn to respect other people in America? it is absolutely none of your business to for them to have long nails.

I am a Chinese, but I haven’t seen any of the taxi driver having long nails.

Do you know why many taxi drivers do not want foreign passenger?Because they had experience of having foreign customers used the taxi and left without paying for it.

As Tracy said it is hard to make a living in China, maybe you would not understand because even if you are in China, you are living in a different group. they can not afford the customer using the taxi and not paying for it. Before complaining, think whether you have done anything wrong.

Plus, when you are living in China, i suggest you to learn to respect people, learn to adapt into the local culture, do not bring your America to this country. It is not working.

Learn to appreciate good things happen in your journal and review the way you do things too. You will find this experience will be more pleasant!
Otherwise people are very likely to think this American is not even able to survive in China in such a normal situation

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Breaking Point

3 Responses to “Breaking Point”

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