Rocking the Tardis

“Be polite,” came the plaintive cry.

This was a few weeks ago, when Mulan, Miya and I were out grocery shopping.  We had bought our groceries, and we were coming down in the lift after leaving the supermarket.  We were sharing the lift with one other person, and as the lift doors opened on the ground floor, she darted out ahead of us.

The girls and I were just a second behind.  I was pulling our “grandma bag” (our wheeled shopping bag, just like old women like to use), carrying the girls jackets, and ushering out the girls.  These lift doors close quite quickly, and I didn’t want us to get separated.

As the three of us were going out through the lift doorway, a few teenage girls in school uniform starting trying to enter the lift at the same time.  I said excuse me, but they still kept trying to push past us.  There was no way that they could fit through, unless we stepped back inside.  So, I held out my hand (the one carrying the jackets) and walked them back out.  In the bustle, one girl’s earphones got caught on the jackets and fell to the ground as we walked past them.

A few seconds later, when the girls were in the lift, one girl obviously remembered enough English to shout to our backs, “be polite.”  She sounded so shocked, surprised and sad.  She clearly sincerely believed that the polite thing in this situation is that we stand aside and let them get in.  She didn’t seem to understand that the inside of a lift is smaller than the outside, and it would be a huge struggle to get the bag and the kids around a bunch of teenagers and out while fighting a closing lift door.

I quickly retorted, “be polite, you!  Let others out first.”

I have been living in China long enough to know that these girls are not unique.  In fact, at crowded lifts or trains there will always be some people pushing their way in while others are still trying to get out.  The authorities at some places realise that queuing and waiting are Good Things, and have put signs, arrows, barriers and even guards to assist.  But there will always be some people who ignore it completely.  You can pretty much guarantee that if there is a queue of a half dozen or so people, there will be one person who ignores the queue completely and walks straight to the front, standing directly in front of the closed doors to push in the moment they open.  And that is assuming that there is even a queue in the first place.  In many places, there is just a solid bunch of people waiting to squeeze themselves in the moment the doors open.

Most locals coming out just let it happen.  I don’t mind rocking the boat a little.