An unwilling participant

I love being the quirky foreigner who hangs out with older Chinese and learns just enough culture to impress the next ones I meet. Just last night, after talking to some people playing DouDiZhu (fight the landlord) and agreeing to sit down for money next time, I stopped by my compounds community center. My purpose was to find some unused patriotic paraphanalia to decorate our apartment for out National Day party. In the course of talking with the workers there, I got invited to participate in their celebrations and any other activities the compound has in the future (as well as the common icebreaker question of ‘are you married?’ with the follow up ‘you should marry a chinese girl’). Now I probably won’t ever make it to their celebrations (and I’m a little wary that they now know where I live) but it feels good to be a part of the country you live in, especially when it is one still so foreign.

However, the other day I was asked why the ring (which people listen to while they wait for me to pick up) had changed. I had been caught off guard. For as much as I would love to have as tacky as a cellphone as possible, mine was too cheap for any of that, and I had no idea how one would go about it in the first place. It turns out I was being roped into yet another National Day celebration. As nytimes.com reported earlier, ChinaMobile has gone ahead and changed everyone’s ring for them, presenting us all with the opportunity to be proud broadcasters of Jackie Chan’s patriotic song ’Country’.