Masking flu
(Swine flu mask: Suzhou, China)
Before I moved to China, I would see images like this on the news about swine flu, but even bird flu before that. It seemed as if all Chinese people were constantly wearing facemasks for one reason or another. Whilst this is a gross exaggeration, I am met daily with views like these of young people and children wearing masks, either mounted on bikes or walking, like this lady. For some, I believe they are protecting themselves from the rampant air pollution, but perhaps some still live in fear of rogue forms of flu and other winter ailments.
Today we saw a very small boy learning to ride his bicycle just outside where we live – he had a tiny patterned mask over his nose and mouth, a miniature of the one his mother was wearing. Thankfully these seem to be the last vestiges of the swine flu fear that was sweeping China back in the summer and autumn. There was no temperature checks slowing us up on the aeroplane and we moved swiftly through customs with our medical forms that we’ve filled in each time I’ve come into China.
Once I looked at this image before selecting it for tonight’s post, I noticed a couple of things. Just to fill you in, it was taken a couple of blocks along the street we live on. I’d never considered that some road signs are not universal, like the ‘give way’ sign above – it looks pretty odd to me, like odd fragments or a minimal pictogram – maybe that’s why no drivers seem to pay attention to them.
让 means give way. Anybody reads Chinese has no excuse not to understand it.