What are the humans to do with their time? (China)

 

After watching his video of the hotel room service bot (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/04/room-service-bots-china.html), I texted my friend's brother.

Quote 

The worrying thought this hotel bot clip of yours has sparked is:  with such a huge population, what are the humans going to do if bots take over so much of their workload?  Especially the ones with lower levels of education and can only do menial tasks.

A German friend Bernhard from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) went to China as an individual traveller in the early 80s.  Sent a postcard saying he went to a park which charged something very small (even by Chinese standards in the 80s, like maybe 10 fen [Chinese cent]) to get in.

1. He went to pay at one window,

2. ⁠went to a second window to get his ticket,

3. ⁠handed his ticket to a third person,

4. ⁠and was let in by a fourth person.

He said at the end of the postcard:  “No wonder they don’t have an unemployment problem.  It took four people to process my visit which cost 10 fen.”

Unquote

    My take is that it meant that three of those four people were not hanging around not making any contribution to society, just feeding on the taxpayer's hard-earned money.  It's good social education for them not to take things for granted, I think.  I know a British woman on state benefits spending "money that the government owed me" on a tattoo (not her first either).

(China, 2026 / early 1980s)

(from googling)

Quote

The cost of a tattoo in the UK generally ranges from a minimum of £50–£90 for tiny, simple designs to £700+ for large, complex pieces (like full sleeves). 

Tattoo prices are heavily dependent on time,, with many artists charging hourly rates ranging from roughly £80–£100 in areas outside London to £150+ per hour in London.

Unquote

Room service bots (China)

An old friend's brother visiting Beijing chanced upon a bot delivering food to a room in his 4-star hotel, so he made a recording of it on his mobile phone, following it travelling down the corridor, waiting for the lift, getting into the lift (and he with it), emerging on a particular floor (and he with it), and turning right down the corridor.

    As he started to follow this bot, another (different looking) bot appeared on the left, making its way to somewhere, catching the attention of my friend's brother (and his mobile phone).

    A moment of wavering as he wondered whether to keep on tracking the first bot, or to start following the second one.  The camera reflects this, as it pans between the two bots -- the first one disappearing down the corridor, and the second one coming into view (maybe to catch the lift he'd just stepped out of with the first bot).

 

    I texted my reaction to the video:

    Quote

    I just had to chuckle at the camera being distracted by the appearance of a second bot and in two minds at one point whether to follow the new one or not.  Hahaha.

    I immediately had this picture of a man walking along with woman X (maybe his wife, maybe girlfriend), and having his head turned by another woman…

Unquote

(Beijing, China, 2026)

Osmosis: 01 (Unintentional product placement)

Valerio, old friend and avid reader / supporter of my blogs, posted a comment on my British understatement blog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html), reporting on how his own clever turn of phrase had netted a sympathetic response from an ex-employer who might not have forgiven him for deserting them for a different university -- my words.

    He thinks he might've made a British understatement on that occasion, which he's attributed to his four years in London.

    To do him justice, you'll have to read his full comment yourself at the bottom of the British understatement blog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html).

    I concur, calling it osmosis, something I myself am very prone to.

(from googling)

Quote

osmosis

noun

1. 1.

   Biology•Chemistry

   a process by which molecules of a solvent tend to pass through a semipermeable membrane from a less concentrated solution into a more concentrated one.
2. 2.

   the process of gradual or unconscious assimilation of ideas, knowledge, etc.

Unquote

    An ex-student had very kindly shared his Netflix account with me a few years back, so I started watching a lot of Korean dramas on it.

    Quite a few of the modern ones feature scenes of people dining out in restaurants which have a cooking ring in the middle of the table for grilling pork -- a common practice among the Koreans, it seems.  I then found myself eating marinaded pork for the following weeks.

    I have now switched to YouTube, having lost the Netflix share.

    The series that I was watching a little while back (Romance in the Alley, set in the China of 1977–1992, which had given me loads of blog material) has quite a few noodle-eating scenes, so I started eating noodles after that.

    Talk about being impressionable...

(from googling)

Quote

Product placement:  A practice in which manufacturers of goods or providers of a service gain exposure for their products by paying for them to be featured in films and television programmes.

 

Unquote

SOAS Students' Union letter: Support Anti-apartheid (London)

Talking about the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) Students' Union (in https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2026/03/british-understatement-letter-to-school.html) has brought back the memory of another letter I'd typed up for them.

    Bank X (which I shall leave unnamed) had dealings with South Africa at the time (1978 when I first went into SOAS).  Apartheid was in place in South Africa then, so the SOAS Students' Union launched an appeal to its members to try and make life a bit difficult for Bank X, as a protest.

    Members were asked to collect all their loose change, in the lower denominations preferably, take them to the Russell Square branch of Bank X, and get the staff to convert them to notes.

    I think this was just before coin-weighing machines came into common circulation, so it'd take the staff time to count up the small coins.  This would mean queues building up and other customers getting disgruntled.

    I was very touched by this show of solidarity with the people affected by the apartheid policy in South Africa, which is another country.

    On the same note (oops, word play -- not intentional!), I also witnessed a small anti-apartheid parade near the old Arsenal Football Stadium in Gillespie Road one afternoon, complete with banner, small drum and chanting.

    There were only about a dozen people, 20 at a stretch.  It was a quiet residential area away from the main roads.  No football game was taking place that day.  I am, therefore, not sure why the group decided to hold their protest march along that side street.  I was nonetheless moved by this display of support for the South Africans who were suffering under the apartheid policy, even more so when I saw that most of the protestors were white people.

(London, 1978 / second half of 1980s)

(from googling) 

Quote

Modern electronic count-by-weight coin machines, widely used by banks to streamline cash handling, gained prominence around the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Unquote

British understatement: The letter to the school authorities (London)

(from googling)

Quote

British understatement is a cultural communication style that deliberately downplays significant events, emotions, or achievements, often using dry humor, irony, or self-deprecation. It emphasizes emotional restraint, stoicism, and polite understatement over hyperbole, often making extreme situations sound trivial, such as calling a massive disaster "a bit of a nuisance". 

Unquote

Talking on the phone with old friend Simon Hearnden (BA Geography, 1980, SOAS [School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London]) about visiting him in his new house brought on all sorts of spontaneous reminiscences, started by him recalling how he'd first met me.

    He was a member of the SOAS Students' Union at the time.  I'd walked into the Students' Union office for something (can't remember what now), and found the Secretary (or President) of the union at the typewriter, typing out a newsletter or something.  Not only was he typing with one finger, he was, to start with, having trouble finding the right keys, hunting down each one laboriously.  (This is something quite inconceivable for the younger generation these days.  How life has changed.)

    I said to him, "I'm a trained, qualified and experienced secretary, so I'll be happy to take over this task for you, if you like.  You can leave whatever needs to be typed up in an in-tray for me, and I'll come in regularly to dispatch them."  He was most relieved.  (Ha!  Unconscious anticipatory word play!)

    One of the letters that made me laugh and still remember it to this day was to the SOAS authorities about the quality of the loo paper provided.

    A bit of background here:

(from googling)

Quote

The notorious waxy, scratchy toilet paper issued by local councils and public institutions in post-war Britain was primarily Izal Medicated Toilet Tissue. Often described as thin, beige, and shiny-on-one-side, it was non-absorbent and felt like tracing paper, used extensively in schools, hospitals, and outside loos until the 1970s/80s.

Key Aspects of Izal and Post-War Toilet Paper:

• Manufacture: Made by Newton Chambers & Co. in Sheffield, it was "medicated" with disinfectant, offering a clinical, antiseptic smell.
• Texture: It was famously stiff, shiny, and non-absorbent, often making it "not fit for purpose". It was notoriously difficult to use, particularly in cold, outside toilets.
• Usage: Commonly stamped with "Government Property" or "British No 1 Thin" to prevent theft.
• Alternatives: Another brand, "Bronco," was also commonly used, which was similarly harsh.
• Cultural Legacy: The paper was famously repurposed by children for drawing or in comb-and-paper musical instruments. 

Izal was largely phased out as softer, absorbent toilet tissues became popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

Unquote

    The letter from the Students' Union to the SOAS authorities requested that the School replace the loo paper "as it is causing students a bit of discomfort to use".

(London, 1978)

Long life (China)

 

I was forwarded a couple of features about two ladies aged over a hundred years old, which then reminds me of an article I'd read in China Pictorial (中国画报 / Zhōngguó Huàbào, a photo magazine with more pictures than text) in 1978 by a Chinese journalist who went to a remote mountain village in China.

    There was only one road in, the same road out, so they were isolated, i.e., hardly any contact with the outside world (therefore, not that much stress).  They grew (and lived on) mainly millet and veg, with some tobacco, and ate meat very occasionally.

    A high proportion of the villagers were over 60, with a high proportion of that group being over 80, and some of the over-80s were more than 100.  

    The journalist interviewed two of those in the last category:  

* a woman (103 or something) who stayed at home to cook lunch for the family and care for the youngest generation (great great grandchildren) while the members of the three generations in between (children, grandchildren, great grandchildren) went out to the fields to work.

* an old man who was still working in the fields, aged 108(?).  There was a photo of him, leaning against his hoe, with a long thin Chinese pipe in one hand, smoking home-grown tobacco.

Journalist:  How long have you been smoking?

Old man:  85 years.

    The journalist said the lack of stress must be the biggest factor for their long life.  (Maybe not eating that much meat either?)  I would agree.

    I've since (about a decade ago) seen YouTube videos showing Chinese tourists flocking to a village (or several?) for the high percentage of their members living to a ripe old age, so it seems to be a phenomenon that's still around.  Yes, their living conditions looked a bit time frozen, which might be a factor.

    Maybe these days, "ripe old age" would be over 90 rather than over 80 as people tend to live longer nowadays.

(China, 1970s)

Good practices: 04 (Locating the source when researching)

Trying to get away from being glued to the digital screen for everything (work and pleasure), I switch to reading one of the many books lying around untouched for ages.

    I come across words that I either recognise but don't remember their precise meanings, or new ones.  Instead of going to my phone or laptop to look up each one as and when they crop up, I make a list on a strip of paper I use as a bookmark, for me to search later in one go.  For the context in case I forget, I note down the page number for returning to.

    This is something I've learned from a retired SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) academic back in the 1990s, Russell Jones, when I was working with him on a University of Leiden loanwords project.  (It was the Loanwords in Indonesian / Malay in the series: [from googling] Indonesian / Malay Loanwords: Research on Chinese and Dutch loanwords in Indonesian/Malay, curated by Russell Jones.)

    Russell Jones kept beavering away at research after his official retirement from SOAS in 1984.  I'm honoured to have worked with him on the Indonesian / Malay Loanwords project, learning a lot in the process, amongst which is this good practice of noting down the source of something one has seen that one might want to go back to later, either for clarification or for fetching more of the surrounding text to use as a quote.

    Russell Jones's system is:  dividing a page into nine sections, assigning a to i to each one (consisting of a couple of lines or so).  For example, if there was a word or sentence in the middle of page 98 that was of interest, he'd write down "p.98.e".  Later, if he wanted to go back to read more context for that word or sentence, he'd be able to zoom straight into p.98, and the middle of that page, since e is the middle of a to i.

    This is too refined a system for me, so I've adapted it to just five sections: a to e, with c being the middle.  It's much easier for me, and good enough to get me close to the word or sentence.

(London, 1990s to the present)