A Short Letter Home

Personal space

We had a bit of a surprise on Sunday. We had been out to a nice Easter dinner and had just hustled through a rain shower to get home. (Like an idiot I forgot to pack the umbrellas.) I walked into our bedroom to put away my backpack and there, on our balcony, was a man. He was bent over the railing, with his back to me, and working on a sign. Our building, like many in China, has space for little shops on the ground level. They recently opened a clothing shop directly under our neighbor's flat and apparently they had decided to add a sign above their establishment. Since our second floor balcony is right next to the space where they had affixed the sign, the guy had set up his ladder and climbed up to get a perch from which to work.

After the initial surprise, I had mixed feelings about the whole affair. On one hand, I recognized the situation and did not begrudge the worker a place to stand and do his job. On the other hand, I did feel a slight resentment that this guy just climbed up on our balcony without asking any sort of permission. It was an unreasonable resentment, I know, bred from my American upbringing. We weren't home to grant any sort of permission, and truly, it isn't our property. In America, work might have been delayed until we had given our consent, or even just had a warning of what was going to happen. Of course, this isn't America. The concept of trespassing/personal property is different here. It seems like if people need to use your space, they'll go ahead and do it. Mountain paths wind past people's homes, fields, and even graves. People cut through and it's no big deal. I've done so myself, many a time. So it's ironic that when its my turn to give a bit of personal space, I have a slight gut reaction against it. Ah, well, even I am not innocent of having double standards.

Of course, the real offense is not that the worker happened to use my balcony for a half hour or so. What really bugs me is that, months ago, I was smirking at some of the other foreigners on our floor who had a grating/cage installed around their balcony. I thought they were being a bit paranoid, that no one was going to go climbing up onto their balcony. I guess they were right after all.

posted by John @ 6:40 PM