There is a tendency amongst travel journalists to transform the limited experiences of their adventures into broad-ranging generalisations about the culture in which they are barely participating. Before I left New Zealand I read a small publication by Mervyn Cull concerning his experiences as an 'English Polisher' for the Chinese English language news magazine Longmarch - it was itself riddled with examples of this trend - references to 'the Chinese spirit of steadfast purpose' or 'the Chinese stand-offishness' and suchlike. Theroux's Riding the Iron Rooster, in which he details his year spent riding on trains in China (and, to be honest, relatively little about Chinese people or their culture) similarly attempts a characature of what he extrapolated to represent the Chinese mentality. 

Whilst their observations may have been fair, I personally attempt to remind myself to steer away from reducing the billionfold Chinese into a grinning cartoon for the West: fundamentally, people are only foreign to each other by the gulf of language, which in a way just means they have different words for the same thing. Culture in all its forms can be found to have its analogues across the spectrum of nationality, after having taken into account variations according to circumstance. Often we fantasise about the freakish mentalities of people overseas, and young adventurers set out in search of the inestimably foreign. Many are thwarted in their attempts, discovering after years of language acquisition that foreigners just sit around talking about their lunch, too. OK, so it may be that the conversation takes place at some weird circumcision festival, but the kinship is there. Thus are the complicated dealings between nations reduced to divisions of mere convention and custom.

It's difficult to keep this up: often I find myself coming across examples which I reflexively put down to 'Chinese Practicality' - for example, the discovery that my concerns that the plugs on my Kiwi appliances might not fit into Chinese sockets was misfounded, owing to the fact that they install double Australasian and American sockets direct to the wall. No need for bulky converters - virtually anything fits - and just in case, any standard multi-board is equipped to handle anything unusual.

I decided that this was a mistake to interpret this as a practical measure, more a necessary admission of the fact that Chinese industry caters for several Western markets, and needs to distribute all of these items internally too. Besides, I reflected how easy it would be to blow my hairdryer by ignoring the voltage used locally - there's no indication of voltage: if you're stupid enough to plug it in just because it fits, it's your problem. Real Chinese practicality comes down to individuals too lazy for elegant solutions: take our kitchen light, which was fitted to the extended apartment front: it's wired via the light in the neighbouring bathroom, meaning that if you want to illuminate your cooking, you have to switch on the bulb in the loo as well.