I was sitting in Costa in Shanghai drinking a coffee and I could see an elderly Chinese couple sitting in the window reading the newspapers. She was reading some Chinese rag and he was reading the world’s worst English language newspaper – The China Daily. God knows why anyone buys it, all it has in it in news about trade delegations and financial markets.
Anyway the thing which caught my attention was the fact that he was reading the paper aloud. It is only a small cafe and of course everyone there could hear him. He didn’t seem to care.
This is typical of Chinese people. They are oblivious to the affect they have on the people around them. As long as they are happy, that’s the most important thing.
So I smiled at him – I thought it was quite amusing, and he started talking to me. It turns out that he is a retired maths professor from Fudan University. This university is the best in Shanghai and one of the best in China.
His English was quite good even though he is self taught. On his invitation I met him and his wife the following week for lunch and he told me a bit about how he suffered during the Cultutal Revelution and how he was under house arrest for a year in the university. He had to write confessions and denounce people every day.
I met up with him and his wife again on Tuesday for lunch. I think on his own he would be quite normal but his wife is completely mad. She fusses over him all the time and won’t leave him be. I don’t know how the poor man manages.
I don’t meet them every week because they wear me out but they are quite a sweet couple and me joining them for lunch makes them so excited they almost wee themselves. They jump up in their seats and clap when they see me coming. I don’t usually have effect on people.
By the way I didn’t take these photos – he sent them to me. I don’t take out of focus shots (very often). that thing around his neck is his free bus pass which he afraid of losing!