Me Scam You Long Time
A (brilliant and devilishly handsome) guy named Will recently posted a story about getting scammed by a Chinese con artist. I’m reposting it here for your enjoyment. Read below:
I just got scammed out of a hundred US dollars. And it’s my own idiot, iPhone-loving fault.
It’s a long story…
I was getting off the subway at Yonganli and some weird crackhead Chinese guy kept trying to get me to buy an iPhone. Whatever, though, Yonganli is full of people trying to sell you shit. I ignored him for a little but then I realized it was a real iPhone, so I got a little intrigued. He said 2000 kuai and shoved it into my hand. It was definitely real (retina display!). This shit must be stolen, there’s no way he’d sell it for 2000RMB. I walk away again and he keeps saying “need money need money” and sniffing and looking all crackhead. So I stop and say, “500 kuai.” He says no and walks away, but then turns around to follow me again. He offers me it for 600 kuai and puts it in my hand again.
Now at this point, a couple things are going through my head. 1. How the fuck is this guy selling me a real iPhone 4 for 600 kuai. I have to take that deal. 2. This is definitely stolen, whats the proper moral stance on buying a stolen iPhone from a cracked out Chinese dude? 3. Will, Will, this is too good to be true. Go home.
Now, 3 obviously wasn’t helping. So let’s just ignore that voice. 2 raises some good points. I decided if I bought it, I would call one of the contacts (I already checked, there were 36 in the phone) and try to return it. Surely, the real owner would reimburse me the hundred bucks for returning his phone. And if it didn’t have a real owner, than number 1 was right and I just got a sweet deal on an iPhone.
So we go to an ATM to get the money (we were still in Yongangli with like a bajillion people around, I wasn’t in some dark alley) and this guy is really cracking out bad. He keeps taking the phone out and putting it away and taking it out and playing with it. And creepily looking around him and talking fast in Chinese. He’s freaking me out basically. And right as I’m going to put in my pin he shoves the phone into my hand and points at my pocket. I put the phone in my pocket, get the money from the ATM, hand it to him and start walking away.
Then he calls his friend over to see if I want to buy an iPhone 3Gs. This guy is even more aggressive than the first and keeps trying to get me to buy it until finally I tell him to get lost and duck into a Starbucks. (I wasn’t being cliche by taking my new iPhone to Starbucks, I was headed there already.)
I sit down and try to come down off my adrenaline high and reach into my pocket. This is going to be so sweet. I’m going to call Brett and be like ‘Dude guess who is calling you from his new iPhone.’ It’s going to be hilarious.
I grab the phone but its suspiciously light. “Oh no no no no no.” Calm down, calm down. It’s just you being all excited.
But as soon as I look at the phone I know something is wrong. It’s all cheap and fake and OH MY FUCKING GOD HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!
Then I remember him repeatedly putting it in his pocket and taking it out, and him shoving it into my hands right as I was distracted at the ATM.
FUCK ME. No. This can’t be.
I run out into the street to look for him. Of course they are gone.
I went back into Starbucks, and resentfully glared at all the people on their iPhones, and typed the above status update.
So basically, today I failed China. Big time.
There you have it. Let his 600 kuai be a lesson to you all.
Chinese Teacher Repeatedly Hits 2-Year-Old Little Girl
ChinaSmack recently reposted a video that has been showing up on Chinese netizen blogs the last few days, and I figured I would rerepost it here.
The video shows a Chinese kindergarten teacher repeatedly pushing, pulling, and hitting a little girl. The girl’s mother got the recording from the school and posted it online.
The story, according to ChinaSmack’s translation of the mother’s post, is this:
I am already almost at my wit’s end, but I just want to get some justice for my child!!
My daughter is only two and a half years old, and attends Xuzhou City children’s art school [nursery/kindergarten]. On the morning of September 1st, she had a quarrel with another child in her class over a small stool. Allegedly, my daughter scratched that child’s hand. That child’s mother just so happens to be a teacher at the nursery, and when she heard what happened, she rushed over to vent anger for her daughter. That child’s mother, Teacher Chen, then not only shoved but also hit my daughter for 10 minutes, and throughout all of this, all of the other teachers uniformly stood by and did nothing, not a single person going forth to intervene.
After my daughter was hit, the kindergarten teacher even called me and said that my daughter hit bit the other child, and wanted me to take the child that was bitten to go get a rabies vaccination!
After rushing to the school, I had a quarrel with that child’s mother, and only after I had requested during the quarrel to watch the video footage did I learn how my daughter was hit. I no longer want to remember that heartbreaking scene, but I forcefully copied the video recording from the kindergarten, am posting it here, hoping to ask everyone to help me, using legal channels to safeguard our personal rights!
I know this is something nobody wants to see, but here is the video:
It’s obviously vile and terrible. And it’s shocking to actually see it being done.
But I have to point out that although this is a worse-than-normal case, it is by no means uncommon. This type of treatment is very common. It’s usually not this intense, but it can be at times. I’ve witnessed it. And so have many other foreign teachers.
And as for the exposure this video is getting, I doubt much will come of it. Maybe, maybe the teacher will be fired. Besides that, this will just be ignored.
There are probably government officials who are just happy this wasn’t another kindergarten stabbing.
CP7: I Don’t Give A Figgity Figgity Figgity What?
The seventh Chinarchy audio post. This episode I talk about TEFL training and my first day of the new semester.
iTunes
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Note: Just a heads up, at one point I drop the F-bomb about ten times. I also sing. Just letting you know in case you find that (the singing) offensive.
CP6: Beer Fest and Training
The sixth Chinarchy audio post. This episode I talk about going to the Qingdao beer festival and the week-long training I did for new English teachers in beijing.
iTunes
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Update: I realized I mentioned “scantily clad Chinese girls” in my podcast and I failed to deliver any visual representations of those aforementioned subjects. So in the interest of good journalism, here are some photos from the festival:
Is it me, or is she a little bit cross-eyed? She looks like a Chinese Cheri Oteri.
IASISK – Shanghai
Casey, who teaches English in South Korea and runs the blog It’s Always Sunny In South Korea, recently visited Shanghai with me. Since I never got around to talking about it on the last podcast, I figured I’d just recommend her article.
Here’s an excerpt:
Shanghai has a cosmopolitan, big-city feel but there is also something quite unique about it. The architecture is simply fascinating – check out some of the photos below to see the stunning skyline. There are some buildings that look like they came straight out of a sci-fi movie, while others have clearly not been renovated in many years.
As cool as it was to see the futuristic element of Shanghai, my favorite part of the time we spent there was wandering through back alleys and random neighborhoods, seeing how average people lived. It was shocking in some ways – for such a developed city, people were living in sparse and often dilapidated apartments. In one area, I noticed that the sewage system was an exposed pipe near the front door.
We did have one sobering encounter with a little boy, which I still struggle with when I think about it.
We were leaving the Jade Buddha Temple (which is really just a huge, ridiculous farce that I will cover in another blog post) and heading to lunch when a little boy, about 10 years old, started walking beside us. His face was filthy and his shirt was covered in dirt and he was giving us the saddest look I’ve ever seen.
The boy clearly wanted money, and was clearly experienced at begging for it. Even after being told no, he kept pace with us, repeating the same phrases in Chinese over and over again. At one point, he stuck a finger down his throat, I assume to indicate that he was hungry. I could feel my stomach starting to turn.
It’s not that I’ve never encountered a beggar before. I’ve lived in New York City and Washington, D.C., so I’ve met my fair share of homeless, desperate people, some more heartbreaking than others. But this was the first time I’d been approached by a begging child. It was horrible.
To read the rest, head over to IASISK.
