Monday, August 16, 2010

Fancy running into you again

Of course, when we say that in English, we don't mean it literally. Not usually.

I wonder why we do say it? Is it suggestive of the hurried pace of modern life, implying that our haste to get things done and to get from one place to another makes it seem as if we are running rather than walking?

Or is it, I wonder, a metaphor that has bled through from the world of industrialisation? Does it imply something of steadiness or relentlessness, of orderliness or predictability, as in a mechanised process? Things may run smoothly or not so smoothly for us, and we may be running on time or late. Is this the same way in which unexpected chance encounters (usually welcome ones) are described as running into someone?

Well, I don't know.


But, alas, in China, the phrase becomes all too often literally appropriate.

I've been getting back into a regular jogging habit lately. And it is just about impossible to jog in this country without running into people.

The Chinese pedestrian moves exceptionally slowly. And erratically. And without any obvious logic.

I have complained of this before (for instance, here and here). I can't help feeling that it is a kind of wilful blindness, a perverse refusal to pay any attention to the world around them, or to give any consideration to the convenience or safety of others (or themselves!).


If you are standing, stock still, in the middle of a sidewalk which is crowded with people moving briskly in both directions past you, and you suddenly, for no reason, take a large step backwards and sideways without looking over your shoulder...... well, then you shouldn't be surprised if the big sweaty laowai approaching rapidly from behind you shoulder-charges you out of the way. [It happened to me three times this morning.]

3 comments:

el said...

My runs around HouHai often involve extreme bobbing and weaving to avoid the oblivious pedestrians. I now consider it agility training in addition to running.

James the Nags said...

The phrase always used to be "Fancy bumping into you here/again" rather than running which doesn't have the same speed connotations.

Froog said...

Not necessarily speed, but the same suggestion of clumsiness, James. And I think the two variants have long co-existed; I don't see a pattern of one displacing the other.

El, you have certain advantages of height and weight. It is impossible for me to change speed or direction suddenly without grinding my knee cartilages into powder.

Also, I feel I perhaps ought to encourage you - and all other foreign runners in this city (you don't Hash, do you?) - to give up on this 'agility' nonsense and just plough through people. When you go to such lengths to avoid collisions that they are inviting, you just reinforce the behaviour, encourage them to think that this is an acceptable way to carry on.

(I feel much the same way about foreigners learning Chinese, actually. It only encourages their chauvinistic delusion that they are on their way to becoming a dominant world language/culture, and allows them to think that maybe they don't have to make too much of an effort with their English. DON'T DO IT.)