Where: beijing
When: 21st century
I needed a telephone.
I went to a market.
When I stayed at a telephone shelf, a salesclerk came to me to introduce the products. He strongly recommended some brand in his beijing native accent. It looked nice. I bought it and asked him to give me the guaranty for repairing. He told me no need, I could go back to him if there’s anything wrong with the telephone.
Several days later, there’s something wrong with the telephone and it could not work.
I went to that market again with that telephone.
I found that salesclerk and told him what had happened.
He said nothing as if he didn’t hear.
I repeated.
“What’s wrong?!” He roared, “Wait for a while!”
“It doesn’t work!” I got angry and shouted back.
“Why did you yell so loudly?!” He shouted.
He roared first and yelled more loudly. But he rebuked me.
I angrily waited for him to handle my telephone problem.
When nobody there asked him for service, he came to me and checked the telephone, “What’s wrong with it? It looks very good. Nothing wrong.”
I told him it didn’t work, and asked him to test it.
He reluctantly went to a telephone line and connected it.
The telephone didn’t work. But he still said, “What’s wrong with it? Nothing wrong!”
I got astonished. He could even say something opposite to the truth in front of him!
I asked him whether there’s anything he could see or hear. After I repeatedly asked him that question, he accepted the return and would give me a new one.
He checked the telephone to see whether there’s any damage by me. Suddenly he cried, “Ah! There’s a fissure! You damaged it! Ah! A fissure!” He yelled. He called the natural fissure by product assembling a damage.
I asked him to look carefully.
“Ah! A fissure! Ah! So long a fissure!” He yelled more loudly. “No, you cannot return it. You damaged it by yourself. You can only have it repaired. Go to the repairing department.”
He gave the telephone back to me.
I saw him stood there as if it was none of his business.
Then, I asked him to tell me the repairing department’s telephone number and made a call. The person answering my call told me I had to send the telephone to their department, which was about 20 km away, and told me to show them the repairing guaranty, which the salesclerk refused to give me. When I asked whether I could had it repaired in the market where I bought the telephone, he said no, and told me they had the company rules and nobody could break the rules.
…
———
Remarks,
Why did that salesclerk treat me in that way? If I was a beijing native, would he treat me in the same way?
The only reason for him to treat me in that way is because I was not a beijing native, and he thought me the inferior. So, he could fool me, cheat me, shout at me, rebuke me, blame me, and he did nothing wrong whatever the facts were, but I did everything wrong whatever the facts were. Because he thought me the inferior, he thought me wrong and I must be wrong, he thought himself right and he must be right. Because he thought me the inferior, he could judge and rule me after failing to fulfill his obligation. But, who is the inferior really? Why do Han Chinese act opposite to the image they think they should be?
