Welcome to another video. [Beep] [Beep Beep] [Clicks] [Click] [80's Outrun synth music] 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. [80's Outrun synth music] [VHS tape eject sound]
