Being Embarrassed
In addition to music， David loves writing and photography too.
While engaged in his recording， he regularly contributes articles tomagazines and newspapers as a free-lancer. When we switched thetopic to photography， David told me a story that really embarrassedhim a great deal.
One day his camera went missing. Unfortunately it went walkabouton the same day he had a cleaning lady at his house， which gavehim grave cause for suspicion. He made the mistake of enquiringabout her credentials to one of the lift operators and the rumor wasspreading before he was even out of earshot. Xiao Xie （Little Xie）， thecleaning lady， along with a satisfied customer of hers， knocked at hisdoor to have a long chat with him. “They told me what I had alreadyfound out： she had been working many years at the building with noprevious troubles or blemishes on her record，” David said. Many repetitionsof this central argument threw up some interesting points however.
“Although she isn’t well educated，” the neighbor told David， “herheart is the same as yours or mine.” At this Xiao Xie appeared a littlepiqued， but she was starting to win David over. The only way for himto salvage the situation was to invite her back next week at full pay.
“Her reputation is now as clean as my floor， and I got a safe for myvaluables. A Ferocious Cab DriverDavid has gradually gotten used to Beijing life. Take riding taxis for example. When he first took taxis， he would always look at theface of his driver. One day， he came across a cab driver who openedhis eyes to what a real “a wheel-dominator” was like.
He hailed a taxi on the far side of a moving bus. The driver madea bee-line for the curb， displacing the full-to-bursting vehicle and furthergrounding an innocent cyclist. This was the driver who was soonto take him across a large and chaotic city at top speed.
The number on the driver’s registration card was low： “000486”。
Too low， thought David. Years of negotiating the streets had takentheir toll. His driving was moderately scary but it was worse whilethey were stopped： lack of stimulation caused him to rattle his metalcage a few times to get David’s attention. Here is the dialogue betweenthe taxi customer and the driver.
“So … what time did you start work?” David hazarded.
“6 o’clock start， 12 o’clock finish. “Six hours a day? “Eighteen. The driver noticed that the taxi in front had a flat tire and honkedhis horn， but the warning was lost in an orchestra of cab calls. He persisted，even running a red light to try to help his taxi-brethren， accordingto David.
“Where are you from? England? Ah， a gentleman！” The driverreasoned before directing a burst of the vilest possible language at aprivate car.
“He missed the exit to my road and dutifully thumped the meteroff， soon the G-force of a sharp left turn led us back the right way. Iwas left on the curb， hoping that the looming taxi price hike mighttranslate somehow into some rest and relaxation time for these stresseddelivers of fragile human cargo， but with so many other claims on theproposed extra 0.4 yuan per kilometer it seemed unlikely that 00048would be getting much rest soon. Happy Life in Beijing“How is your life in Beijing? Is it passable?” I asked him， thinkinglife couldn’t be easy for a foreign guy wandering alone in a foreign36 land.
“Not so bad. “Have a girlfriend? “Yes. “Do you plan to stay on in Beijing? “I’m not planning to live here permanently， but I guess it wouldsurprise me if I left.” Taking a sip of his coffee， he went on. “Are youhappy in Beijing? Somebody asked me this recently. Of course thereare certain key factors that contribute to our daily happiness， a decentcup of coffee perhaps or a salesman understanding our Chinese withoutpulling out a calculator （see this normal price of 40? If I press ‘minus’
and then ‘2’ you can visually appreciate the bargain！）。 There arethe unexpectedly good days： Is a calm， proficient taxi driver plus jamfreeroads what the Chinese mean by ‘Double Happiness’？ “The glass may be half full or half empty but at this stage inlife there are plenty of refills yet to come.” Stirring his coffee with aspoon， David continued. “All in all I think that my presence here —
as I do have a choice of almost any city in the world — confirms mysatisfaction and yes， my happiness. David got excited when talking about his plans for the future.
“I have many plans but my first China dream was always to havea band of my own. Chinese girls have nice voices.” He said it was pipedream for him to set up a band at present because it took too muchmoney， and he did not have the financial muscle.
Maybe this is David’s dream. Only he who has dreams will buildmomentum in life and enjoy happiness.
By Li Shujuan
Translated by Yang Yaohua