The Naiveté of A World Without Thieves
Today I went for a talk with the Dean of the Sino-Canadian International College in Guangxi University. He maintains that for full-time instructors, he can only hire White people. However, that’s not the topic I want to address, because on the way back from the interview, a young man accused me of robbing him and insisted that I go to the police with him.
I’m in China now (if you know where Guangxi is – it’s the next province over from Guangdong/Canton), and I’ve been here for about a month and a half. I really should have written a lot more about my insights here, but constantly looking for work, as well as writing an encyclopaedia entry for Salem Press’s new reference set on comics, sucked up most of my time and energy. Also, most of the things I’ve observed here I’ve only observed; they didn’t affect me directly. Today’s event certainly did; through this experience I can talk about many of the things I’ve heard about in China, such as its crime rate and the gap between rich and poor. Those topics will be over at Radical Compounds.
What happened was: outside the university campus, there’s a newspaper stand type of thing that looks like a hut, which exists in this form all over China. They sell magazines, newspapers, periodical comics, snacks, and things like phone cards. I’ve visited one already to purchase a monthly comic, and since I needed change for the bus (1 RMB), I decided to buy something like it. In many big Chinese cities, the buses have 1 driver and 1 ticket collector, who sells you tickets and gives you change. In Nanning none of the buses have a ticket collector, hence I needed change. But I couldn’t find anything from looking through the stands, and left to go to a market on the other side of the street. As I was about to cross the street, a young man caught up with me and asked me whether I came across a MP4 player. I told him that I didn’t see anything like it, and he said I was standing beside him at the newspaper stand and then when I left, he reached into his pocket and found that his MP4 player was missing.
I asked him what it looked like. He said it was white. I said I didn’t take it and kept on crossing the street (normally I don’t cross streets if I can help it – crossing the street in China is suicidal). He said that we should go to the police so they can make sure I didn’t take it. Since I was on my way home I reiterated my point and said that it would take up time and I wasn’t willing to go. The truth is, I wasn’t in a hurry, but I didn’t have any ID with me, and also I have no idea what Chinese law allows or doesn’t allow, especially for someone who doesn’t hold Chinese citizenship. My Chinese is decent, but not good enough that I can understand law articles written in Chinese. More importantly, I’d been warned about robbers in China (my mom’s words is that “they practice until their first two fingers are the same length!” – not sure how that would help). I was afraid that he meant to rob me while I was preoccupied with explaining that I didn’t rob him. He started explaining that he just went to buy a pack of gum for bus money and then found his MP4 missing, and I was the only one standing beside him the whole time, so he suspects me. I was annoyed and getting frightened, so I got on a random bus. He followed me on the bus.
I was going to get change from a 5 but since I couldn’t, I gave the driver my 5. Anyway, the young man asked me in a rather loud voice why I was giving a 5. I said I originally wanted to exchange it but then he started annoying me. He again started asking me to go to the police. I said I wanted to leave; he started asking the passengers and the driver whether there’s a police station nearby. Everyone said they didn’t know, and looked very uncomfortable. I was thinking that they’d rather not get dragged into a dispute, even if they did know where the police station was.
I told him that I could take everything out of my pockets to show him. He said ok, so I took out my wallet and cell phone and some candy wrappers. He saw this and said that he can’t be sure I’m not concealing it somewhere else, and he can’t do a body search on the street, so we should go to the police. I said I’m on my way home, and he said that he’d follow me home. At this point I got more alarmed, and asked him why I would show him where I lived. Now I was worried not that he would rob me, because if he did intend to do that he would not insist on going to the police. Now I was worried that he’d planted his MP4 player on me somewhere so that he can prove that I stole it when we got to the police. So, I began going through everything to see if I had someone on me that wasn’t mine, and didn’t find anything. Since he said that his MP4 is white, I took out my MP3, which is black, and showed him. He was still insisting that I go to the police with him, and I said I had another interview in the afternoon. He accused me of making up stories because I had previously said I was going home. I explained that I needed to go home and get documents I needed for the interview because I didn’t want to carry them around. This was a lie on my part, and it did no good. Since I didn’t have anything on me I decided that I could prove my innocence to the police rather than waste time taking random buses in a city I’m not familiar with. So we got off.
Apparently there were no police stations around there, and he asked some illegally operating motorcycle taxi services where he could find one. One motorcyclist offered to take us. I became suspicious again and said I won’t go with a motorcycle, because I had no idea if they were working together and meant to abduct me. The motorcyclist, a middle-aged, weathered man with bloodshot eyes and brown teeth in a large grin, seemed incredibly amused. The young man asked me whether I would go if we take a taxi, and I said I would. So we started to look around for a taxi. We had gotten off at a very busy intersection, at a bus stop where maybe 20 different bus lines passed through. There were tons of taxis but they all had someone in them. The motorcyclist suggested we call the police and have them come here. The boy agreed, took out his cell, and dialled 110. He asked the motorcyclist what the street was and the motorcyclist told him. When he was on the phone with the police, he sounded rather objective – “a woman was standing beside me” and “I don’t know but I suspect her,” so I felt that he genuinely did lose his MP4 player, and that we’d clear this up.
At this point I also called my mother. She told me to speak Chinese to her on the phone but I said I’d rather speak English, and told her what happened. She became extremely alarmed and asked me where I was. Since my Chinese isn’t very good, I didn’t remember the name of the stop, and went to check. She asked me what she could do, and I said nothing, I’d go to the police, I was just letting her know where I was. I was also letting her know in case I was mistaken and the young man did intend to do something to me, at least investigators would have a reported location. She told me to wait and not go anywhere and she went to ask her colleagues.
My mother called back later to say she also called the police. I was thinking something along the lines of “that’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, he already called the police,” but she explained that he called the police on me and me calling the police on him are separate cases. I sort of saw the logic of that, and she said to wait where I was and she’d come with the police. The police that the young man called still hadn’t arrived, so we both called the police again. The girl who answered the phone was a little annoyed because she had already reported it. We went to a guard station to wait. I asked him what his name was, and whether he was a student at Guangxi U. He said the name of his school, which I didn’t know, and said that he came here to visit. After a while he asked me whether I was a local, and I admitted that I wasn’t.
I should explain what he looked like – I told my mom on the phone that he’s probably my age or younger, and he really did look quite young. It’s a stereotype that Chinese people are short, but that’s mostly because the first Chinese people to live in North America are from the south, where Guangxi is. They tend to be shorter and darker-skinned than northern Chinese people, but I won’t get into stereotypes for now. I’m from the north, so I’m taller than the average Southern Chinese female – I’m probably at the average height of a Southern Chinese male. So he and I were the same height, and he was considerably skinnier than I was, and you could even say he looked pretty. He obviously wasn’t from a wealthy family, but he didn’t look extremely destitute either – he looked like an average middle-class kid, with running shoes, a semi-fashionable haircut, a loose grey jacket with a lot of zippers and pockets, and had a slight slouch.
So I admitted that I wasn’t from around here, and that in fact I’d just come home from abroad. He asked me whether I was from here originally, and I said no, from the north. He said he thought I could understand Mandarin, so why was I speaking another language on the phone? I said since I grew up abroad, my Chinese isn’t good. He nodded and didn’t say anything, and I said to him that I don’t remember his name even though he just told me a few minutes ago because I had no idea how the characters were written. He seemed a little confused about all of this. At some point during the wait he apologized for wasting my time. I said that it was all right, there were few other better options for him.
The police that he had called arrived first, after maybe 20 minutes. They were 2 men – I was hoping they’d brought a woman, especially if it involved some sort of body search. But they just came to take up back to the station. One was a tall and corporeal man in his 40s or 50s, his short hair mostly grey. The other was a short and slight young man with longer hair and big, watery eyes. My mother called me as they arrived and told me that they’re bringing some kind of precinct leader with them and told me to stay put. But the police that arrived told me to go with them. The precinct leader on my mother’s end started telling me over the phone to let him speak with the 2 police officers, but they refused to take the phone. So I was trying to explain to the two officers present that another officer was coming, but since my Chinese isn’t very good I didn’t know the title of the officer with my mother, and didn’t really get across to them. I explained I was from abroad and my Chinese wasn’t very good. Meanwhile, I also heard snatches of the police officer on the other end of the line instructing me loudly to say that I have rights not to get into the police car. I looked skeptically at the police officers and their car, because I didn’t have a very good impression of what my rights were.
Both officers and the young man were in the car at this time and I was standing on the sidewalk. I told them I was told to stay there. Many passers-by were looking at us with intense interest. When I refused to get into the car, both police officers came out again and came to stand beside me on the sidewalk. The older man told me that if I am innocent, then the young man would be responsible for any legal outcome, so would I please get into the car. I hesitated and then told whomever was on the other end of the phone that I had no choice and I would be going with them. So we all went in and drove off, the police putting on the sirens to clear space for a U-turn.
My mother asked me which police station they were taking me to, and I had to ask again because I couldn’t remember the name they told me. My mother told me not to be afraid and I told her I wasn’t. The older officer said to the young man that if this creates some sort of international incident, he’d bear responsibility, and asked me where I was from. I said Canada. He seemed amused by this. Then he started citing law articles as he drove – “In the law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 82, point 1, it says…” he said some idiom I don’t remember, which sounded like it had something to do with who I can or cannot talk to. I said I don’t understand. He seemed amused again and told me to ask my mom. This weirdness of the situation hit me and I started smiling as well.
We got to the police station and the older officer started explaining to another middle-aged officer, who had weathered skin and dark bags under his eyes, in either Cantonese or the local Guangxi dialect, still looking amused. I caught “rob” and “Canada” but that was about it. He and the younger officer left at this point and the officer with bag under his eyes got another younger officer to start writing down testimonies and take our IDs. I told him I had no ID; he asked me for my passport. I said I don’t carry it around with me, so he asked me to call my mother to bring it. I called my mother, who said she didn’t go on a detour back home to get it, but she had photocopies at her office and should have brought those. Meanwhile, the young man told the younger officer that he came from another city and was visiting his sister, who was doing graduate work at Guangxi U. I asked him what she was studying and he said agriculture. The younger officer asked us whether there were other people around at the time, and he said that there were two kids. The officer asked how old the kids were, and I said elementary or middle school, but there were a lot of passers by as well. He also recorded what the MP4 looked like – the young man said it was white, about the size of the palm of his hand, and he wrote down the brand but didn’t know the model number.
The middle-aged officer took me to another room and asked me my side of the story, which I told him. I said initially I was reluctant to come to the police in case he planted something on me, and he nodded. He said the only thing they can do is to make me take everything out and show that I didn’t have the MP4 player, and if I prove that I was innocent, then the young man could just apologize. I said that’s what the young man came to do anyway. So we went back to the first room and he explained this to the young man, and so I took everything out of my pockets and my backpack and showed them that my sweater has no pockets, and the pockets of my pants were too small to fit anything. So the young man bowed a few times and apologized for wasting my time. I felt awkward and said that it was all right.
The younger officer was still taking notes, so I called my mom and said that the problem is solved. She told me to stay put, since they were almost there, and that the young man needed talking to for disrupting other people’s lives. I told my mother that if he lost something then of course he’d try to get it back. She said no, they brought the other officer so they can’t turn back. The younger officer said he’s finished taking the testimony and so the young man could go. He looked at me and I said I was told that both of us should stay. We sat down again and the officer started going through TV channels, ending up at figure skating. It was also rather surreal.
I had some idea of what my mother and the officer would say to the young man, so I waited for a while and called them again to tell them everything was all right. Again my mother reiterated that my rights were violated and so she needed to show up. I said my rights weren’t violated because I agreed to go to the police, and that was the only reasonable thing to do. She insisted that the officer with her had things to say, and that she was almost there before I was too far from where they were. I sat back down and told the young man not to mind what they said to him when they arrived because I understand that if he thinks he lost something, that was the best thing he could have done. I told him I’d also been robbed and I also went to the police.
I waited outside so I can talk to my mother first. They got there after a long time, and their driver apologized. I said it was all right. My mother demanded to know where the young man was and he came outside as well; she told him that he’d violated my rights by dragging me off the bus. He said that he didn’t drag me off the bus and again I said I got off the bus willingly. She went on to say that since I was from Canada, I wouldn’t be stealing his MP4 player (there seems to be no logic to this, but she was trying to say that since I’m from Canada, chances are I am both better brought up and more wealthy than he is). She then said that he could have caused me permanent psychological damage and made him leave his name and number, “so we can send you the psychiatrist’s bill.” I tried to stop her from ranting but she didn’t. She asked him whether he thought I looked like a thief, and why he’d suspect me of all people when there were tons of other people around, etc. At this point the young man looked like he was going to cry so I again told her it was all right. He apologized to her as well, and then went back inside when my mother said I should get in the car. The driver took my backpack to put it into the car.
I stayed while the officer that came with my mother took the young man back inside and started lecturing him. “Why would you suspect her? Do you know who she is? She’s a teacher at Guangxi University! Well, aren’t you?” In light of the conversation with the Dean, “Uh, no, I don’t think so.” And about violating my rights, especially since I was a girl, so he shouldn’t have dragged me off the bus. We both stipulated again that he didn’t drag me off the bus, and in fact he didn’t touch me at all. He made the boy repeat his story that he came to visit his sister and made him leave his sister’s phone number, which the boy did, but said he didn’t want to trouble his sister. I was getting somewhat annoyed because the young man was obviously distressed. Both my mother and the officer said that he’d also wasted their time – my mother said “my wage for one hour could probably buy 3 of your MP3 or MP4 players,” and the officer showed the young man his badge and said, “Do you know what position I hold? And I had to come all the way out here!” This was annoying because I felt like he was saying it to me as well. He also ended up by rebuking the young man to manage his own things better and not to leave things in his pockets.
My mother said that there was nothing more for me to do and so we went back to the car. I lingered for a bit, but there really wasn’t anything I could do, so turned to go. The young man apologized again and I said it was all right, and went back to the car. The officer came out after a moment and asked my mother and I whether we wanted to say anything else, with the idea of whether we wanted to press charges. My mother said no, and I also said no. While we were all getting into the car, the boy was let go and he walked away and looked back at us, and I’m not sure what he intended. I looked at him a little sadly.
On the way back, the officer who came with my mom lectured me goodnaturedly on how thieves operate in China. There’s a term that translates as “phishing,” I guess, whereby someone insists you stole something from them and then asks you to give them cash in return for not pressing charges. Or, after they make you give them cash, they might say that your money is counterfeit and ask you for more. He said I was right not to get on a motorcycle, but I shouldn’t have gotten off the bus, because the bus is a confined space and there are many other thieves outside. I shouldn’t even have gotten on the bus; I should have called the police when he accused me of robbing him. Or, if I didn’t want to lead him home, I could lead him to my mother’s work place. Especially if the thief who is talking to me has other helpers around, it could be very dangerous, and several men could jump out of a van and then hold me hostage.
He also said that he was sure that the young men was a thief, because he couldn’t look the officer in the eye when he was being spoken to. The young man also didn’t look like a student – “his running shoes were for running,” and his loose jacket was to hide things in. I was told to keep my mouth shut and listen, but I was thinking, of course he couldn’t look the officer in the eye – the officer was in a position of authority and screaming at him; also, what’s a student supposed to look like and what’s a thief supposed to look like? And many people wear running shoes. I thought he was dressed like any average young guy in China. My mother seemed to agree with the officer so I didn’t voice my opinions much.
Anyway, we all had lunch together near my mother’s work place, and then the driver sent the officer back to his office and then sent me home. During lunch, the officer told me that I dressed like I wasn’t from around here, which surprised me, since I purposefully dressed rather like local young adults in a shiny puffy coat. But my hat and my earrings apparently give me away, and thieves are great at picking out people who aren’t locals. My mother’s colleague, who also went with her, said that if you ask the taxi drivers in Guangxi the price in Mandarin they’d give you a different price than if you asked in the local dialect or Cantonese, so that applies all across the board. During lunch, other topics came up, such as America’s attitude towards Canada, how certain Vietnamese people hate Chinese people for slaughtering entire villages, and how America and China can co-exist as superpowers, and whether people in Guangxi eat dogs a lot, but those topics aren’t relevant here.
After the driver dropped off the officer and started on the way back to where I lived, he said to me that he felt sorry for the young man. I was immediately relieved that someone else shared my point of view that he was not a thief. The driver went on to say that he’s not sure the officer was entirely right, and I said yes, the police also have their biases. I was glad everything worked out in my favour – or at least, no one was hurt by this; the young man didn’t get a criminal record, I didn’t get mugged or kidnapped. However, if there was anyone who was psychologically damaged from this, it wasn’t me, but him. Or rather, not psychologically damaged, but his insistence that we go to the police indicated that he had faith in the system of justice, and that as a victim he would get satisfaction. Since I didn’t steal his MP4 player, the only satisfaction he could get would have been a sympathetic police force. Instead he got chewed out. Upon reflection, I thought that the officer’s rebuke of managing this things more carefully was a backhanded way of giving him the benefit of the doubt, and if he is not a thief I hope he also remembers what the officer said and the implication behind it.
