Don't think anybody will be surprised by this one, but in many aspects, Chinese society is much more uniform than the United States. Or is it? I've been looking down on China lately - specifically, looking down at paving tiles. Sidewalks, instead of being largely concrete slabs like they are in America, are put together by hand, cobblestone-style. In my (admittedly limited) travels through China, I've noticed that most of these paving tiles are quite similar. I spent all of fifteen minutes on a trip to Chengdu and on a walk around our campus doing this informal survey:
According to my (highly unscientific) calculations (also known as ignorant seat-of-the pants guesswork), over eighty percent of the paving tiles in this country fall into the above 15 or so types. (Note: missing from the survey above is the ever-popular Rectangular Squiggle, so that makes 16 types.) Not being one to let a good cheesy metaphor go to waste, I'd like to make the following observations:
1) Are public structures (think: parking meters, fire hydrants, etc.) this uniform in America? Really, I have no clue. In other words, are Chinese structures really that uniform, compared to things that I saw every day in the States but never noticed? Or am I only noticing this because they are unfamiliar to me? Perhaps a case of observations following expectations...?
2) Missing from these pictures is, of course, the all-important element of sound. Chief among these are the Rattle (caused by vehicles of all types driving over a series of cracked or broken tiles) and the Splut (a squishy unsettling sound caused by stepping onto a loose tile with stagnant muddy water underneath, often accompanied by a slimy splash onto your ankle).
3) The astute observer will notice that uniformity of structure does not imply uniformity of appearance. In other words, a lot can happen to a sidewalk in China, and formerly identical tiles soon become quite different from their neighbors. I leave it to the audience to draw their own conclusions...
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