As I read your comment, it occurred to me that an image of a cat *is* more appropriate than a dog. Unlike their cousins in Southeast Asia, cats in China are prodigious. This could be interpreted any number of ways, but it looked a lot like urban animal husbandry to me.

If we ever open a restaurant, we’ll be sure to segregate the brains from more palatable fare…and perhaps we’ll call it Voldemort Vindaloo.

I wonder if I recognize it because of my dread of eating Meat That Shall Not Be Named. I’m not kidding that the first time I went abroad, the very first word I looked up to try to memorize was “brains” and somehow I had it in my head that I would be tripping over plated brains all the way through Europe. Too much Indiana Jones, perhaps?

I drove my grad school Chinese roommate crazy because I always demanded to know what meat was in every food at the all-too-authentic Chinese buffet in New Haven. “Why do you care? Just eat!”

Oh, I care. And I sympathize. 🙂

We are not vegetarians, but our lean towards the veg segment of the food pyramid is a result of having been subjected to too many plates of mystery meat – gristle, tendons, fat, etc. Central Asia in particular comes to mind.

So unless the meat really looks delicious, we usually press for details or opt for safety in vegetables. In other words, if we can’t identify, we must clarify.

That Cambodian kid. It mesmerizes us, too – and makes us laugh. I watched that clip over and over again, in fits of laughter every time:

https://uncorneredmarket.com/bruised-bottoms-to-battambang/

We’ve found that kids in general are about innocence and spirit. This makes them a joy to photograph. Kids are also ice-breakers and usually offer a path into the hearts of their parents. When we see kids smiling everywhere, we have to wonder whether they know something that the rest of us do not.

From our experience – yes – the eyes are indeed a window on the soul. The eyes aren’t the whole story, but they certainly do seem to tell most of it. For many people we meet, their eyes also tell a story of transition, from fear or distrust to allowing us a brief look at who they really are and what their lives are really like. That human feature transcends cultures.

Thanks again for a wonderful comment. I’m certain that my response doesn’t do it justice. Know that we appreciate it very much and we’ll be reflecting on it for some time to come.

We look forward to taking you up on the offer of dinner and Chinese wine on our next visit to Scranton.

p.s. “survived catholic school together”…still laughing

Regarding the difference in communication between Southeast Asia and China, let me first preface my comment with this: we believe that the onus is on us as travelers to find a way to communicate when we are visiting someone else’s country. In other words, it’s primarily our problem that we couldn’t speak the vendors’ language, not the other way around.

That said, it was generally easier to communicate in Southeast Asia for a number of reasons. The first reason is the prevalence of English as a 2nd language and tourist lingua franca. All things being equal, the amount of English spoken throughout China (at least the regions we visited) was consistently and surprisingly little, particularly when we compare it to other places we’ve been.

We suspect there’s a second, more deep-seated reason based on culture and history. Some cultures seem to be more apt to find answers where there are none. Allow me to explain.

Conversations with Chinese friends and long-term expat friends in China indicated that there seems to be a lack of situational creativity on the part of many Chinese people who have had little exposure to the outside world and whose education has consisted primarily of rote learning – especially outside of urban areas and areas of tourist and foreigner traffic. We believe this sort of thing is common in societies where, until recently, all that was known was command-and-control and rules.

Let’s take the rice example. When a foreigner in a restaurant motions with cupped hands next to a pile of saucy vegetables, that *might* signal a need. In many cases outside of China, the staff might not initially understand that we wanted rice, but our experience found that the wait staff would often faciliate the transaction by picking up a napkin, or a fork or some hot sauce…until finally, the need for rice is understood (often with a few laughs and some jokes thrown in).

In situations like this in China, we’d often get blank stares with very little middle ground, and a whiff of a sometimes not-so-faint hope that we and our requests would simply disappear.

You know from experience in Prague (and likely Bratislava) that when people who know only “rules” and “I do what I’m told” are faced with a situation for which there is no rule or no box to check, the attitude that often prevails is “there is no solution” (a.k.a. neni mozne, or not possible).