From food coupons to Taobao: China through Arab eyes

From food coupons to Taobao: China through Arab eyes

BEIJING, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) — Before Mustapha Al-Saphariny left Palestine to come to China, he had heard that “China has many people, so many that you could barely walk on the street.” Now the venerable gentleman is over sixty, and occupies an enviable 350sq. meter duplex near the Olympic Park in Beijing. “When I first came to China, I never dreamed of owning such a beautiful apartment as this,” he said. “Reform and opening-up after 1978 brought earth-shaking changes.”

As a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Al-Saphariny arrived in China in 1968 to study, and has been there more or less ever since. In almost half a century, he has been witness to many changes.

Once the Palestinian ambassador to China, Al-Saphariny now works to promote exchanges and friendship between China and the Arab states. He likes to introduce himself in Chinese as “Lao Mu” – Old Mustapha.

Old Mu can still remember when “Have you eaten?” was the most common greeting. “I wondered why at first, then I realized that being able to eat at that time was considered the most important thing,” he said.

Old Mu also remembers that in the time of the planned economy , people bought everything with coupons: grain coupons, meat coupons, cloth coupons.

“Beijing starts to get cold in November and I had to wait in line for a long time in the cold to buy things with my coupons,” Old Mu recalled,”but for people as big as me, the food was never enough.”

While memories of the “food coupon era” bind together those of Old Mu’s generation, Mohamed Osama finds it all a bit surreal.

Born in 1988, Osama left Egypt for Beijing in 2011 after he graduated from Cairo University. He works for a Chinese media company in Beijing and calls himself “Mu Xiaolong”: This time, “Mu” is for Mohamed.

“You can buy everything in China. I never worry about not being able to buy stuff,” Mu Xiaolong said in his mellifluous Chinese.

Mu Xiaolong has adapted to local life well in less than three years, and is very much into internet shopping, just like any young Chinese person. He buys clothes, daily necessities and electronic gear on Taobao.com, China’s leading online retailer. He says it’s easy and convenient and even went so far as to buy a web-enabled set-top box to receive Arabic television programs.

“That I could buy a set-top box like that online surprised both myself and my colleagues,” he said.

Besides shopping online, Mu Xiaolong has made many friends, of many nationalities. When he hangs out with them, he often posts pictures on social networks like Wechat.

All of this is quite dissimilar to Old Mu’s memories: “In my time, making friends with Chinese people was not easy. When I tried to greet people on the street, they all avoided me. Nobody then imagined what China would become today.”

While both Old Mu and Mu Xiaolong enjoy the fruits of China’s development, their lives are far from worry-free. There is always the pollution and traffic problems to complain about.

Old Mu drives a car, but misses his days riding a bike to class in Peking University: “Air quality then was not so bad, and there were not so many cars. Walking and cycling at that time were very pleasant. Now it can take me two hours to drive home from Jianguomen, usually only a half hour drive. The traffic is a pain.”

Mu Xiaolong rides an electric bike to work, but prefers not to in foggy weather. “Riding in the polluted air is horrible. My nose and throat feel bad. I would rather take the subway on foggy days though the subway is always crowded. I do not have any choice.”

“China has so many beautiful landscapes, mountains, lakes, and parks, but if the air is not clear, people cannot see any of it and that would be such a pity,” he warned.