Carpet

Hello China! Are you sitting comfortably? I would like to introduce to you a new and mysterious product. I call it carpet. You're not going to believe this but it's ornament for your floor. No, I agree, tile is very lovely and easy to sweep, or, hell, hose off if you're late for class or the next big real estate deal, but bear with me.

Carpet insulates both for sound and temperature. Slap a good bit of cloth across your floor and you'll save money on heating and cooling, and if you do happen to put a utensil down on a table, the neighbours will never know. If you sit at your wooden desk on your wooden chair with your bottles of ointments and salves, layering on pounds of clown paint preparatory to laying down beside your husband, the neighbour doesn't have to hear every pin drop and chair drag. He won't know that you tap back and forth between god knows what and who can even tell.

You'll still have the door slams. Think it over. Confer with your husband if you like. I'll be listening.

Some well placed rugs are nice but wall-to-wall carpet is a filthy thing.

Spittoon

Some well placed rugs are nice but wall-to-wall carpet is a filthy thing.

It would be here I'm sure.

Some strategically placed felt furniture slides silenced a lot of noises.  I even but some pieces into the master bedroom and bath doors - slamming either makes no sound.

Considering the level of littering even in the house, food tossed around, kids pissing and shitting everywhere, 

carpet is only for a select few. Damn, some people are so afraid to put carpet on the floor, so they put them on the walls. What a tapestry travesty

Not long ago, dogs and cats were consider beneath contempt. They were filthy, dirty animals. Now they are the squealing, malnourished, bloated objects of partial affection. (Dog owners around here clump together on sports fields while their oversized toy dogs get stuck together humping - though pets may live in the apartment I suspect we haven't moved too far off the farm yet.) I therefore look to a future where people step blithely one day into their vehicles and say, you know what hon, there's a mat beneath my feet here in this car and by golly, I get it hosed down nearly as often as teh car. WE COULD DO LIKE THIS INSIDE THE HOME!!!

There'd be divorces, obviously. Carpets?! INSIDE! But some people will be putting two and two together: car + pet = WESTER DECADENCE!@! LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!

and then change the behaviour of every guest, family member, workman that comes into your home.

Imma skip straight to the get better guests, family members, and workmen. Carpet is all about social mobility. It's like, "Look Ma, our caves are man-made and lined with velvet. Spit out the window instead."

You're better off telling them that the carpet was made from the hides of the last people that spat on the floor

Thanks guys, that was very informative.   I managed to get rid of the old Chinese bloke who used to spit on the floor whilst playing a poker machine. I am constantly amazed at the mess left in the lunch room at the Casino in Brisbane. Whereas I, and a lot of other folk, neatly stack our dishes and wipe our tables and ensure that there is no mess, many Asian folk do not. I can usually tell which table has been used by an Asian, just by looking at the mess. I have often wondered what their own homes are like, particularly when I look at the mess they leave on the carpet. You guys have certainly answered a lot of questions for me. All of this makes me wonder if we do things which are repulsive to them? I must confess that I wonder about the state of their bodies and underwear, since I have already observed that many don't wash their hands after going to the loo. I don't mean to sound racist, I am just trying to express my observations. I must confess that I always use the hand sanitizer after using the utensils to pick up my food from the buffet.

Hereabouts and any place I've been in China there's a grand tradition of wetting your hands after visiting the (stinking, befouled, unkempt) bathroom. Students line up to douse their hands and then wander away arms akimbo and hands flapping. I've seen (broken) hot air blowers in train stations and soap and paper towels in airports but that's luxury. The healing, broad spectrum anti-bacteria powers of air and water are enough for the masses.

Unrelated perhaps, although awkward juxtaposed now, is what I have never seen. That I can recall, I have never seen a Chinese lick their fingers. Long ago I read somewhere that as part of politeness, you don't draw attention to your mouth. As a girl, cover it if you laugh. As anyone else, keep your fingers outta there. It's something I'm aware of every time I eat an apple in public. I will of course attempt, once the apple is mostly consumed, to render my fingers less sticky. No one falls over themselves to stop me, nor do people recoil in any particular horror, but I have the sense that me licking my fingers is privately scandalizing all within eyeshot.

Carpet however has nothing to do with this. My issue with carpet is other people should own it. Living in close and closer proximity to unrelated neighbours requires a finesse that this society isn't developing fast enough.

Unrelated perhaps, although awkward juxtaposed now, is what I have never seen. That I can recall, I have never seen a Chinese lick their fingers.

One way to get the attention of a class on the first day is to:
1. open the textbook
2. lick your index  finger
3. before turning a page look at the class and enjoy the look of shock/horror/concern you are going to die in front of them on their faces
4. announce that in your culture finger licking is ok, that, in fact, if it was not for the habit there would be no KFC in the whole world
5. turn the page
 

Calach, I have wondered why many Chinese folk put a serviette, or their hand, in front of their mouths, as they pick their teeth; you appear to have answered that question thanks. I am now going to see if anyone licks his fingers. As a matter of interest, it is something that I do very rarely, but will keep in mind when I'm eating at the den.

You're better off telling them that the carpet was made from the hides of the last people that spat on the floor

 

Quote from: Calach Pfeffer on March 11, 2014, 02:23:08 PM

Unrelated perhaps, although awkward juxtaposed now, is what I have never seen. That I can recall, I have never seen a Chinese lick their fingers.

One way to get the attention of a class on the first day is to:
1. open the textbook
2. lick your index  finger
3. before turning a page look at the class and enjoy the look of shock/horror/concern you are going to die in front of them on their faces
4. announce that in your culture finger licking is ok, that, in fact, if it was not for the habit there would be no KFC in the whole world
5. turn the page

One thing I don't miss at all about living in USania.  Having some old guy bagging my groceries while coughing like he's in the terminal stages of tuberculosis having to repeatedly lick his fingers to open bags and even to pick up individual items before putting them into the bags.