Saturday, January 28, 2012

A fireworks accident

This is a story about how not to play with fireworks.

Don't do it in an alley.

Don't do it in an alley with lots of people.

In short, don't do it in Nanluoguxiang.

My friend Alex was walking through NLGX yesterday when a firework burst near him and some shrapnel sliced his chin. He bled somewhat profusely and might have needed stitches if he weren't lucky. See the picture to the right.

He demanded an apology from the person who set off the firework, but the guy apparently basically replied, "This is China, I do whatever I want."

"I was just MAD," Alex said. "Ginny had to restrain me from bashing that man's fat face in."

This is the sort of thing that happens when cultures collide a fella gets hit at close range with a firework. He gets MAD.

"I'm most angry about the man's lack of remorse and the fact that he and his buddy set off more of them in our faces just to piss us off," he said.

I asked Alex to write a guest post, but to his credit, he deferred, fearing he'd come off "horribly racist and xenophobic," when in fact all he wants is to express his anger at getting cut by a gunpowder-fueled projectile.

So this post is for you, Alex. You now join the esteemed Jeff Orcutt as known acquaintances to get hit by fireworks. May you consider your scar a badge of honor. You're a small part more Chinese today.

2 comments:

Alex said...

To clarify, my request to the man wasn't for an apology. It was for him to choose somewhere else to set off fireworks because he was putting people in danger (I pointed to my bloody face for evidence). It wasn't until afterwards that I realized he didn't even apologize for what happened; to the contrary, he lit off more fireworks right in a crowd of bystanders.

been to china many times said...

the guy popping the fireworks is right. its china, you can pretty much do whatever you want there. if you dont like it, watch where u r walking next time, or get your white ass out of their country!