>Personal space, authoritarianism, and non-compliance

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One of the differences between China and Hong Kong is the sense of personal space. In Hong Kong, as a friend told me, people are unaware of what it going on around them--it as if they deal with the crowds by living within the shell of their small personal space. Americans, my friend told me, are more aware of what is going on around them. If Americans are aware of what is going on around them, then the Chinese in the People's Republic have very little sense of personal space--they are not only aware, but get involved! We experiences several incidents which illustrated this.

When on our food tour of Shanghai, we visited a park where a retired doctor does calligraphy with water on the pavement. He decided to read Ruth's palm and within seconds (and I mean seconds), a huge crowd gathered around and pushed in to hear and see what was going on. This is quite typical but is in huge contrast to Hong Kong where nobody would notice or the U.S. where it might be considered impolite. It is an interesting contrast which makes me wonder if the terribly intrusive culture of communism in China is part of this lack of sense of personal space.

Another interesting incident occurred at a street crossing. It was at rush hour so a crossing guard was present. The light turned green, but the guard did not want someone to cross over toward us. She did anyway, arguing with the guard. Pretty soon the entire crowd, of which we were in the middle, started to comment, cross the street against the guard's desires, and continue to fuss and complain and yell at the guard for some time. Everyone got involved! And of course it was interesting to see where a crowd was going against authority, refusing to comply and yelling back.