Attacked in a Hutong by Zealous Merchants

Posted April 7th, 2010

Mao’s Little Red Book of Quotations was what my youngest son wanted from China, in order to give to his legal colleagues.  It is either hard to find or I have been looking in the wrong places.  Juxtaposed with Wangfujing upscale shopping is a downscale hutong with many, many, many souvenir sellers.  I did find the Little Red Book there and purchased three copies, at an inflated rate of $2.18 each.   My mistake was continuing through the gauntlet of merchants, just to see what I could see.

I bought some inexpensive bookmarks at the first stall on a long row. The rest, and there were hundreds, must have sensed a great opportunity or at least a fleeting opportunity.   The merchants then began to pursue me like a group of piranhas.  They smelled blood, or at least cash.

I escaped from several, then one grabbed my arm and pulled me toward her stall.  The other grabbed the strap of my camera and pulled me in the opposite direction.   It was comical, yet also a little frightening.   My wife always tells me I end up in the most dangerous parts of cities.  I didn’t know that dangerous place would be a hutong in broad daylight with thousands of people around.

What would Chairman Mao think?  In the Little Red Book, he writes,”there is a serious tendency towards capitalism among the well-to-do peasants.” I know these merchants are not peasants, but most of us, including me, come from the peasant class.   It seems the tendency has become reality, in at least one Beijing hutong.

What leads people to be zealous about some things?   And what limits should one place on zeal?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 10:36 pm and is filed under China Travels 2010.