Welcome to another video.
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Right guys before I start this video let me explain to you what's happening around me here
I'm currently
here at the square where there's a big poster of Deng Xiaoping up there
and well it is a Saturday night uh early summer nights eve
And this is what people do. They come hang out you'll get like um
Middle-Aged women love dancing let me zoom.
Sorry uh
Show you guys some middle-aged women usually come out and do their dancing which really annoys a lot of people because it's noisy
But I think it's kind of cool that they're getting out there and doing something
Children are learning to roller blade around here.
You've got horrible Techno blaring over there
um
And yeah just to be people and families are just hanging out really
Kid wants to piss in the bush here as he's just announced and he's probably going to do it right now.
Yes he is he's just pissing in the bush there, very nice of him.
and uh
Yep, that's it. We're here sitting underneath some pretty impressive skyscrapers the KingKey 100,
Diwang Guǎngchǎng, over there's the the stock exchange.
And it's actually a nice night except just very noisy, um I hope you guys can you know
sorry
hope you guys can hear me over all this noise, so
uh, let's get started shall we, but if I'm going to survive this
noise and nonsense thats going on around me I'm going to need a beer, and it has been a hell of a day
So I know I look ragged, but it's really hot if you have my cure
So let's get this open and we can get started?
Alright guys cheers, this is kind of like a throwback to my old videos where it just used to sit around and drink and talk, so
That's fantastic
Alright, let's get on to the topic today. Today's topic is privacy in China.
Now I really do hope you can hear me over this noise cause otherwise
this is going to be a complete waste of a video
but I'm just going to go ahead and um record and pretend that you can hear me alright.
right let's talk about privacy
and this is something you're going to have to get used if you come to live here in China
and that is that privacy
pretty much doesn't exist.
Okay the first thing I'm going to talk about when it comes to privacy is actually a positive thing.
Here I am a dodgy looking old guy with a beer
standing here and filming children
And that's what I'm doing look that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm standing here
filming young childen
doing there
Rollerblading
and nobody bats an eyelid there's not a single person here. Who's like oh my God!
There's a dodgy old geezer with a beer filming my kids
and that is a good thing.
I mean as far as I'm concerned thats a good thing.
Because I'm not a dodgy old geezer. I'm not some kind of a creep who wants to
film children for my own perverse pleasures
I just want to film children because I want to show you guys what people do in their spare time.
I'm not going to go home and secretly watch these things and do strange things
So that's one thing that's positive about China. Is that people don't oh, you know
They're not overly sensitive when it comes to filming them for instance
That's also why most of my videos I could just walk into shops
And you know just walk up to people and film them
and I don't get anyone you know tell them telling me to delete the footage or asking me what I'm doing or
telling me that I'm invading their privacy or anything.
Because that kind of culture that kind of thing just doesn't exist in China
which is
Probably a big problem for most Westerners, and I'll explain why because that bounces back on you right
Alright so that thing that I said is positive can also be a negative because
very often I catch people taking photos of me because
Well, I'm a foreigner. I'm something different and people when they see me they
Feel compelled to take a photo. I don't know to show their friends or family
or post on their WeeChat moments, or whatever it is
so
I'll very often catch people sneakily taking photos with their phones
or just very blatantly pulling out a camera or a phone to take a photo of me. I don't mind personally
It's not a big deal for me. I mean I
I film, I film people here all the time, so I have the mindset that well, you know
eye for an eye you know so I don't mind but there are people that do mind their photo being taken
and It can sometimes result in some very interesting things
and I'll get onto that right away.
Okay.
Give me a second.
So a couple of years ago I was at a trade show
and they had a bunch of different booths showing off different tools and whatever else
and there was one booth that was selling like electric screwdrivers.
So I went over there, and they had like a test bench where you could test out the screwdrivers.
So while I was doing that someone in the shop came up and took a photo of me.
Um
I didn't take much mine or pay much mind a bit, but I actually ended up in their catalogue because a couple of months later
A Chinese friend of mine said hey, I saw your picture in this catalogue, and they showed it to me
and sure enough there I was
trying out the the
electronic screwdriver, and they were like saying something under there like
uh
internationally tested, world-renowned. Something like that, and it had me there screwing a screwdriver so,
You know this can sometimes lead to things like that which I don't know it could bother some people
but for me I just found it hilarious.
Hmm. I've also
You know a long time ago. I used to teach English that's how I got off the ground here. That's how I um
got to where I am today you know and that's what most people do here in China is they teach English, right.
but, in order to get a job at a training center you have to go and do a demo class
Which is basically you go there and do like a one hour or half an hour class.
And if they like what you do, they hire you.
So I went to a training center. This is many years ago like nine
Years ago or something like that, so I went to this um
Training center to do a demo class
and I did my my one hour, half an hour, demo class. I remember and afterwards they wanted to
take a picture of me with the kids, so
fair enough we all stood there at the blackboard and they took a photo.
Anyway, a couple of weeks later I hadn't heard back from them.
They didn't give me a job by the way. I never worked there again
and they didn't pay me for the demo class It's free.
But anyway a couple of weeks later
there was a massive billboard on the side of a building with my picture
with all these kids on advertising the training Center.
Which was kind of annoying to be fair, and I went to complain to them. I said look you didn't give me a job
You haven't given me a Visa
So why are you putting me up there that could put me at risk here because I'm currently I don't have a Visa
You know work Visa. I have a tourist Visa
and um
They were just like well, you know sorry, It's done. What's done is done. We paid for it, so we can't take it down.
And they weren't even willing to like offer me any kind of compensation. So I was just a bit miffed about it
But there was nothing I could do. I just had to accept it you know so that's another example of privacy kind of
uh
Going out the window here. So you have to be willing to accept that kind of thing happening.
Now what actually sparked off this video the reason why I made it in the first place is
a couple of days ago im in a WeeChat group
and WeeChat is like Whatsapp here right, and that's how people communicate with each other.
Someone had approached a visa agent
uh as you all know visas are becoming a lot more difficult to get here in China
And so a lot of people are resorting to sort of visa agents
and visa agents usually they have all the connections they can grease the wheels
and you've got a better chance of your visa going though.
But while she was querying them as to what documents she should send the Visa agent sent her examples
So he said send uh the you know the data page of your passport, send your recent, Visa
Send your local like latest entry stamp and that kind of thing.
and he gave examples, but what what he did was
oops
hang on
Just dropping my beer here
What he did was is he actually sent
one of his other clients Passport pages and uh
Visa pages and latest entry stamp pages to her as an example
but there were his full pages not censored or anything
so his name his everything was there nothing was censored
and she took objection to this she said you know he shouldn't be showing me your clients personal information like that
He was like well if you're going to complain go find another agent
And that's just something else you have to realize is that your personal documents if you give them to someone
Don't expect them to remain safe and uh and private they probably will end up being
Shown around very blase like that was.
and well I find that rather
shocking and unacceptable, but that's kind of how it happens here
And you know I've had random people
give my phone number to random people and give my contacts to random people and
it's just the way things work here. It's a very sort of social
Like an ant colony really to be honest like nobody really assumes there's anything like privacy
everybody is just entitled to everyone else's stuff
Which I guess comes from the whole
fact that the country's supposed to be communist even though it's not
Alright, so on the subject of privacy check this dude out
hahaha
Like literally the guy is coming and staring in my face to see what I'm doing
so it's just one of those things you have to accept.
See now hes standing right here to watch me.
and behind me here there's another chick watching me
so you know that's the thing if privacy is your thing China is not the place
It's not a very private place the only privacy you'll get us from other westerners because
Well you'll be surrounded like I said here comes another one
You will be surrounded by people who are curious and interested in what you're doing
but they can't speak your language
So you can kind of feel like you're in your own private space, but to be honest you won't be.
Alright guys, so I just like to sign off by saying
If these kind of things don't bother you because they certainly don't bother me
I don't mind if you've got some strange old geezers coming and staring at me and uh
Whatnot I can handle that. I've got a thick enough skin
You know by the same token I can be free to just be here filming whoever I want
and people don't bother me about it, so that's why I can get away with filming what I do here in China
If that kind of works for you, then you know come to China. It's a blast, It's an interesting place
Until next time guys. I got to be off this place is driving me insane with all the music.
I'm gonna go finish off my beers and uh until next time stay awesome.
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