[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]

the little differences I know things are really different in China, but Shanghai and Beijing are urban areas, so a lot of things seems really similar. I mean, you saw signs on the walls and in the streets in Chinese, but you understood how to get around and what to do. I swear, what I remember most are the little differences, like McDonalds, I got an egg McMuffin because I’ve seen signs in French for “Oeuf McMuffins.” So when I ordered one in Beijing, I got a hamburger bun for a muffin (egg McHamburger?), and it was covered in ketchup and mayo, I swear to God it was fucking drowning in the shit; I wiped some of it off with my index finger and chalked it up to knowing the little differences. Like in Shanghai we went to Starbucks (because even in China, there’s still one on every corner, & John said I liked white chocolate frappuccinos, so Jim asked if they had white chocolate. The woman behind the counter said, “No, we only have black chocolate.” (You’d never hear that in the United States...) Knowing that a good part of China lives in squalor, we saw that everyone hung their clothing to dry. Jim said China’d have to build a ton of new plants just to supply power to these dryers that people can’t afford, so clothing dryers don’t exist. China has no Medicare or government health care plans (don’t say the United States is free of government intervention...) so people save their money for accidents. It’s a good thing, because we saw rickety bamboo stalks used for ladders & scaffolding for Chinamen for repairing & cleaning high rises. But you have to remember these differences, I mean, a stop sign is still a red octagon even if you don’t know the language it’s in, even Coke cans print both languages on them, But you know, the funny thing about China are the little differences. Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.

The above YouTube was performed live at at the performance art show A Night Of Firsts, 06/22/04 (Kuypers’ birthday), at the Cafe in Chicago.

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