"A Mind-freeing Saturday" -- Pamela in ShangHai

After a long sleep, my weekend started with a fresh spirit and good weather. I was a bit worried that my weekend might have ended up boring by doing nothing but stay home due to the bad weather. After I finished doing a bit of work, I opened my curtain. For the first time this week, the sun was up and shining. Although it was chilly outside, I decided to take advantage of the sun and enjoy a quiet walk. I sat in a nearby pavilion to read the book Persuasion.” For three days, I left this book untouched, but possibly because of the sun and easy going mood I was in, the book seemed easier to read than I would have thought. A bit of confidence in my English reading capability came back.

After a simple, light lunch of peanut butter sandwich and a couple cups of coffee, I left for the Lighthouse TMC meeting. On my way to the club meeting venue, there were a few street vendors selling DVDs. Surprisingly, almost all the new movies including, Australia, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and much more were already available on their little, wooden carts. Each DVD only cost 4 RMB per copy. Great Bargain! It is the normal in China to find pirated DVDs; however, I did not expect them to be copied so quickly. Some movies are not even played in Taiwan or China yet. As a movie lover, buying pirated DVDs was never a concern of me as it helped me to save a lot money. But somehow, today a sense of hesitation came to mind. My heart was struggling and thoughts full of conflicts surfaced. Should I respect the copyright or support pirated edition? For a good twenty minutes, my conscience was fighting with my greediness. At the end, I compromised for a good reason, that I do not have time to go to the theater, and I don’t want to have to wait for a long time until legal DVD stores have them available. I have to admit, it really comes down to low cost.

After battling with myself on DVDs, another battle came on board as I was visiting the Times Square building nearby. Top brand boutiques including Gucci, LV and many others famous international brands are all lined up. When I went into Gucci store looking for sunglass, I was so disappointed by the bad treatment from one of the salesgirl. She totally ignored and despised me, as I tried a few pairs on. The most irritating part was when I asked for prices. She raised her voice and nose up high and said “It’s very expensive.” I replied, “How much?” She came back with, “5000 plus.” At one moment, the movie Pretty Woman came to mind. I almost wanted to pull out my credit card. Finally, my senses stopped me. It was just too expensive. For the remainder of the time, I did not go into any more stores but did a bit of window shopping. So, it was another bad excuse to buy pirated DVDs. Right before I left the building, a lingerie shop, displaying a lot of red and pink underwear and pajamas. I was welcomed warmly by two friendly salesgirls. At the end, I brought pajamas that were Canadian brand but made in China at a discounted price. It was a practical decision.

The story is not finished yet. Ironically, the Table Topic Session in the TMC meeting was “How do you feel about the popular term “山寨“ to describe China?” A young guy stood up and proudly replied, “It means manufacture high-tech products with very low cost and is what makes us Chinese so unique and special.” Wow! He even used the “theme of meeting – Uniqueness”. As I was shocked by his reply, I also felt really sorry for him. And now I’m not sure if buying copy DVDs is the right thing or wrong thing to do now. What a day!!

Pamela