Review of Escalator Rules in China

I'm walking with my Chinese friend in the subway station and we get to an escalator. I stand to her left, which is something I would never do in the States. But in China, they must not have that rule, because there doesn't seem to be another way to use an escalator in China besides just standing on it. I've been in China for about a year and a half now and have given up on trying to pass anyone on it.

This is part of living abroad--you don't know "the rules" and so you just have to "go with the flow" and surrender to a different culture. I usually find I grow in the process, maybe become a little less impatient.

Of course, sometimes I just feel like bashing something.

So, you can imagine my surprise when my friend--using the tone of a kindergarten teacher--says to me "stand on the right, pass on the left."

I am speechless for what seems like a few minutes as my mind reels (perhaps trying to search for a chengyu, or Chinese proverb, that can accurately express that most subtle and sublime of American chengyu: "Uh, what the FUCK????").

At first, I try to tell her that I wasn't aware that this rule existed in China. I try to tell her that I never see Chinese people standing on the right and passing on the left on escalators. I tell her that in subway stations (and most other places) in the States, that's what most everyone is doing. Pretty much everyone.

But whatever I say, I still feel like I was just busted by a Communist kindergarten teacher, so I decide to let it go and shut up.

A few weeks go by, and I still haven't forgotten this story. It really sums up what it feels like to live in China sometimes. The mixture of idealism and clunkiness, authoritarianism and denial, a superiority complex and an inferiority complex, good intentions and more clunkiness.

And of course, as I always have to say, there's always that character-building element for me. (As my friend Michael F. says, "I don't buy that character-building shit!" God bless good friends!)

Today, I'm at the same subway station going up the same escalator and not one tongbao (comrade) is moving. They are all just standing there in an orderly double-file line on the escalator. I surrender to it, as usual. What choice do I have?

Fifteen minutes later, I arrive at Wudaokou Station and swipe my card to exit the system. I see the security guy sitting looking at the x-ray screen.

"Can I ask you a question?" I ask him.

"Yes," he says, looking up from the screen. He's a big guy, about 25, and his skin is rosy and still looks fresh like that of a child.

"Well, in my country, on the escalator you stand on the right and pass on the left...." I say.

He starts to smile as he realizes what my question is about.

I continue, telling him about my experience just a few minutes ago. As I talk to him, it appears as if his smile gets bigger.

He interrupts me, telling me, in his thick Beijing accent, that in China they have the same rule.

"Really?" I say.

Still smiling, he says, "We have the same rule, it's just that people's suzhi (caliber, quality of their character) is low. 只是人的素质太低."

This is not the first time I have heard a Chinese person criticizing his compatriots about their suzhi.

I imagine myself yelling out the rules to Chinese people the next time I ride an escalator, giving them a bit of education. Being an "escalator activist" of sorts.

On the other hand, I realize that if I can simply just accept Chinese people for who they are, life will get a whole lot simpler.