Buyer Beware

As I biked out of the campus gates on Wednesday after class, I approached three friends (foreigners like me) who were huddled around a bike cart vendor. From the look of the vendor and his cart, this was a man from a different region of the country, who was selling pieces from a special fruit and nut cake that is one of their cultural foods. (The picture to the left is of a cake similar to the one we saw). I rode up to my friends to see what they were up to.

Well, apparently, they were asking about how much a piece of the cake would cost and they asked the man to cut just a small small little piece for them to buy and then take home to try. This is right when I arrived... as the vendor had just cut a huge piece (about the size of tissue box). And I arrived right in time to hear him say (in a thick accent), "108 RMB."

Now, my language skills aren't super wonderful, but I am a bit farther along in the classes than my friends there. They were looking at me to make sure that they had heard correctly. 108 RMB? Seriously? 108 RMB can buy you about... 8 pounds of beef. And this piece of cake, of which they only wanted a small piece, was going to cost them 108 RMB?

The vendor was staring at them, continuing to demand the money while putting the piece of cake in a plastic bag. I told my friends, "Uhh, guys... you seriously need to walk away. Like, walk away... now." They said, "Bu yao. Zou le." (We don't want it. We're leaving.) And we all started to make our move.

This is when it got interesting.

The vendor began to pursue us, yelling at us. He grabbed my friend by his backpack shoulder strap and shoved the cake into my friend's chest, yelling, "I already cut it. You have to buy it." He just kept saying it over and over again, louder and louder. "I cut it for you. I'm selling it to you. 108 RMB. You told me to cut it. Now you have to buy it."

My friend kept looking at me, saying, "Tell him I didn't ask him to cut that big of a piece. There's no way we're going to buy this." I translated. And there began a nice loud argument between my friend and me and this vendor who would not listen to us (nor let go of my friend's backpack).

Finally, I said to him, "My friend just wanted a small piece. You cut us a small piece, and we'll buy a small piece. But not this." The vendor grumbled and we went back to the vendor's cart. Now... a small crowd of maybe 15 people has gathered around us.

The vendor cuts the cake piece into two, takes the bigger piece and begins to bag it up for my friend. My friend and I both know that this not how we want this to end. So I tell my friend again, "Look, just walk away. Go... quickly." And so he starts walking.

Seeing that my friend is walking away, the vendor grabs my bike and won't let go, and he puts the cut piece into my bike basket, and he yells at me, "If your friend doesn't buy it, then you have to buy it. I already cut it. You have to buy it."

I argue with him, "Why should I buy it? I was just passing by, and I saw my friend. He didn't understand what you were saying, so I was just translating for him. I don't want your cake." But he will not let go of my bike.

It's interesting to me how many things go through your mind when you're in a heated situation. Because the vendor was, by this time, super aggressive, I was thinking to myself, "Would this guy seriously take a swing at me? With all of these people gathered around us to see? He wouldn't... he would look really bad if he did. But what would I do if he did?"

My friend, seeing that the vendor would not let me leave, came back. By now, a few of the people around us tried to be of some help. A few of them asked me, "Why did you ask for such a big piece if you weren't going to buy it?" I answered, "You all know we didn't want a big piece. My friend wanted a small small piece, and this man cut it that size on purpose so that he could make money." As soon as I said that, they all understood immediately what was going on, that this guy in fact was trying to 宰 (zai3 = "slaughter") a few foreigners. This is not uncommon.

Finally, we pointed to the smaller of the two pieces and said, "We won't buy this bigger piece. How much is the smaller piece?" He replies, "42 RMB. You can give me 40 RMB."

At this point, a surprising thing happened. A few of the local people gathered around us said to me and my friend, "How about this... we'll all buy it together for 40 RMB. I'll buy a little, and my friend here will buy a little, and then you guys buy a little..." Besides the occasional vendor who wants to 宰 foreigners, I'm continually struck by how kind the people of this city are to its foreigners.

Realizing that we were not both going to be able to walk away without buying at least something from this guy, my friend agreed to pay him 40 RMB for a slice of fruit cake that I'm sure he didn't even want anymore. He handed over the money, and we walked away, probably both feeling a mixture of relief and anger.

I was, however, thankful for the out-of-the-ordinary language opportunity. It's funny to me how, for the next few hours following the encounter, I was fashioning and rehearsing in my mind different sentences that I wish I had tried out. Things like:

喂哥们儿,别抓住我的车。放手。 (Hey buddy, let go of my bike.)

废话! 你怎么这么对待我们啊?! (Nonsense! How can you treat us like this?)

滑稽不滑稽？你找打吗？ (Funny guy, eh? Are you looking to get a beating?)

Thanks, ChinesePod, for the last one, even though I probably won't ever have the guts to bust it out.

Last night, I found out that two other friends of ours, also foreigners, had passed by the fruit cake cart about an hour before we did. They didn't get the language and culture experience that we did. Instead, they quietly (and regretfully) paid 126 RMB for their piece of fruit cake.