When I was young refrigerators were not popular in the homes of ordinary people in China and we bought our perishables on a day to day basis. Meat was a necessary part of the daily diet, not as main course as in the West, but as supplementary, seasoning stuff in vegetables. Everyday my grandma asked me to go to the so called "sideline food store", store that sold vegetables, cooking stuff such as salt, soy source, cooking wine, etc (the "main food store" was one that sold grains, beans and before winter came, sweet potatoes), to buy 20 cents of pork. When I asked her what kind of pork to buy, she said that I just need to say :"fat and lean."

The store was less than five minutes walk from my home, at Xuanwumen Street and Dazhiqiao Hutong. The butcher section was in the south side of the store. Walking into this section, you could see a huge oily wooden counter with large or small chunks of meat and ribs on it. A row of half pieces of beheaded pigs hung on shiny oily hooks against the wall. Serving the counter was either a man or a woman in blue working gown, equally oily and shiny.

At that time, "Comrade" was the word for addressing everyone, including those in the service profession. When I was there, I would hold up the 20 cent note and said:" Comrade, I want 20 cents of fat and lean." The butcher (or butcheress) would look at the pieces of meat on the counter, select one with both fat and lean meat and make a cut. Experience told him or her how wide a piece of meat to cut and normally the cut was exact. Sometimes adjustment was made by either cutting off a little bit or adding a little bit.

The butcher's attitude was courteous, although he or she was not working for a private business, but sometimes there were tricks in the way meat was cut. At the times when I did not specify how much money I would spend, the butcher would put the knife at a certain point from where the cut was to be made and ask me if that was the right amount. After I said yes, he or she would make the cut. If I was not observant, the knife would cut in a slant angle and the result was that the amount was greater than I desired and I had to pay for it, for if I asked him/she to cut off the extra, he/she would say no one would buy small odd pieces. Another trick was the proportion of fat the lean parts. The butcher would show a piece of meat in such a way that it appeared that the fat and lean parts were half and half. Actually however, the end away from the customer often had more fat underneath the lean meat and you ended up buying too much fat. When I went to the store with my Grandma, I observed several times that she protested the way the cut was made.

Now thinking of those days, I see no incentive for butchers to cheat on customers, for there was no bonus, no sales quota and no profit sharing. Maybe it was human nature to cheat in such a position, and when one works for oneself, the incentive will be greater, given the lack of moral and legal surveillance.

But generally speaking, under the Maoist slogan of "Serving the people heart and soul," stores could normally satisfy customer needs and the attitude ranged from tolerable to very good. When refrigerators became part of most homes in Beijing, however, the Tao of butcheries changed. Because I worked in another province for many years and remained single most of the time, I never bought a refrigerator in my Beijing home. When I was in Beijing on vacation, I often had trouble buying meat in small amounts, because what was available now was large chunks of frozen pork and large pieces of ribs that were sold per one third of the whole at least. One day I walked into a butchery and asked if there was smaller pieces of pork, the butcher looked at me disdainfully and said:" No we do not sell like that." It was only at the small stalls of private vendors that I could get what I want.

After I came to North America, I grew used to shopping in large grocery stores. One thing that impresses me most is the way meat is sold in clean packages that range from 2 to 7 dollars each. The Americans are notorious in shopping in bulk quantity and they have large storing capacity at home in order to save on gas, yet food suppliers package their merchandise in sizes that can be handled with ease and flexibility. Pork thighs, for example, are cut into three or four parts and wrapped up in plastic sheets on a disposable styrofoam tray. The basic principle is that no hacking and forceful cutting is necessary at home in the kitchen. Confucius would not have to stay away from the American home kitchen to be gentleman like at all. He might like to stay there watching the American housewife preparing delicious food with delicacy. Although Americans display knifes and forks on their dinning tables and eat half done BBQ with dripping blood, compared with the kitchen war of the Chinese (such as making a cut at the throat of a hen and let it run wild before dying), these are but lesser witches against major ones.

One good thing about living in North America is that in most occasions of daily life, you feel you are being treated with due respect and consideration. Such respect and consideration is not specifically for given individuals but for the public in general, regardless of age, race, gender, and criminal history. Buses have mechanisms for wheelchairs to roll in. Public places have passages for wheelchairs. First floor restrooms have toilet spaces larger than regular size to accommodate the needs of the disabled. Blind people can read the buttons in an elevator by touching the braille. I heard one joke about a Chinese who had lived in the United States for many years. She said she could not live in China anymore, because it was inconvenient not to have toilet papers in public toilets. Of course, few Chinese will refuse to go back to China simply because of the absence of toilet papers in the restrooms and I believe China should never put free toilet papers in our "thatch houses," still, the thought of making life easier for the people is still something not fully developed in the design of public services and in the minds of those whose work is to provide public services. Making life convenient for the people is not an alien element in Chinese life, as is shown by the 20 cent flat and lean pork and the proverb "Convenience for others is also convenience for self," but it certainly deteriorated in the prime years of the people's republic.

While in Beijing, I commuted a lot on Bus 312 or 322 that went from Jianguomen to Tongxian County. Not only bus schedule was not reliable, but there was often no indication which bus was to leave next when more than one bus parked there with doors open. It was not rare that many passengers were waiting in one bus, assuming it would be the next to go, when suddenly the driver started the engine of another and the passengers rushed out to catch it.

Drivers even alter their stopping locations at will. One day, I was waiting for 312 with a large crowd of people. A bus came out of the terminal and eased it way to the waiting commuters. People began to push their way towards the doors, but suddenly the bus accelerated and dashed forward for about 200 meters before making a final stop. The commuters, you can imagine, ran after the bus desperately and boarded it panting and heaving. No one complained and of course, no complaint was filed against the driver. Such things are the daily diet of the commuters in Beijing.

Nowadays a good sign in the service section is that many stores are learning from Western super markets and supply "convenience foods" for the working guys who have less time cooking. One thing to remember, however, is that such concept is not Western but has precedents in our own history. All we need is to restore our 20 cent fat and lean attitude and the principle that business in public good should still be done even when the profit is insignificant.

Feb. 15, 1999 Houston