Giant monkey wrenches do exist.

Another random violent illegal thing happened around me today. I don’t understand why I always meet these things.

I was buying sunglasses at a glasses store close to the university I’m working at, because I lost my sunglasses a while ago and it’s a whopping 30 degrees C outside with sunshine everyday. And I’m in a Chinese city that’s won the UN prize for best city for civillian life or some award like that, so it’s very green and clean and this also means there’s no smog, so most women my age are crowding the sidewalk with their garish parasols while I’m trying to get a tan. Anyway, as I was trying on sunglasses, a customer started arguing with the proprietors because he had previously gotten a pair of sunglasses from when when he just wanted reading glasses, and then he claimed that a store staff had told him that he could get the lenses changed for 35 RMB. However, the staff who were there said they would charge 40 RMB.

At first everyone was pretty jocular, but then the customer said that it would be impossible for them to remain in business, the proprietor answered sharply, and so the customer tried to get around the counter to attack the proprietor. The two saleswomen and I tried to get them to stay on either side of the counter. Normally I don’t wade into fights like this, but you have to understand that this is the South of China, and other than the proprietor, who was a man, both the saleswomen and the male customer were shorter than thinner than me. Anyway, we sort of managed, but then the customer shoved me aside and rushed out. I thought it was over, but he went next door where there was a home-run repair / hardware shop, grabbed a giant monkey wrench, and came back and tried to club the proprietor over the head.

The proprietor went to the doorway leading to the store’s back warehouse while continuing to yell insults at the customer (I guess he went there so he could put a door between him and the customer if the customer really got violent). At this point, some people were starting to gather to watch from outside. The two women and I tried to get the customer to calm down, and I told him both of them could talk again tomorrow when both of them had their rational minds back, but instead he told me to arbitrate between him and the store. This I didn’t want to do, but I listened so that at least he would stop trying to club the other man. He explained this to me, and I said he needed to tell the store who the salesperson was who told him he could change lenses for 35 RMB, but he couldn’t say. Because he couldn’t say, the owner and the women got smug, and so he tried to attack them again. We asked him to put the monkey wrench down but he refused. Finally one of the women caved and said she’d change his lenses for 35 RMB. The man sat down, but the woman gave him the last parting shot that he already crossed the line and they could press charges.

I bought a pair of sunglasses and left. While I was waiting for the bus, it didn’t seem like the conflict escalated anymore, and the onlookers dispersed. I wondered whether the customer really meant to attack the owner, because that would have been really serious – the wrench was longer than my forearm. I also wondered whether I should have gone out and called the police, but I had a feeling that the Chinese police wouldn’t really want to deal with something minor like this, while more massive crimes were going on. I haven’t experienced anything like this in Canada, and I can’t imagine any disagreement over $5 would involve one person attacking another with a wrench in broad daylight in a store. And we’re not talking about street gangs here; the customer was decently dressed in a middle-aged office worker sort of way and so was the store proprietor. It seems that along with things like spitting on the streets and not lining up, certain common courtesies are really absent here.