Having grown up in America, where thieves and pickpockets seem like faraway storybook characters, yesterday I experienced my first time being stolen from, in broad daylight, out on the street.

I was walking back home from work to go meet my friend who'd just arrived in Hangzhou from California. As I was walking I felt a jerk from my Ogio bag. Then I saw 3 guys, but 1 guy was particularly close to me. He looked like the Uygur Chinese minority , and he just grinned at me. I thought he was trying to steal from me but didn't succeed, but boy was I wrong.

Read on...

After a minute, I decided to be safe and check for my things. I noticed that my cell phone was missing and by that time those 3 minority (all looking like Uygur people) guys had crossed the road. I ran right after the guy that grinned at me and grabbed his shirt. This time I was mad and was about to rip his head off. I yelled at him to give me back my cell phone, in English. I had to sound and look like I meant it, and there's just no way to get the point across in a language besides your mother tongue.

 Anway, he knew what I wanted, because he knew clearly what he had done. He tried to ignore me and walk away, but I jerked him back since I was holding onto his shirt. After looking me in the eye and realizing that he'd either give me back my phone and walk, or it would blow up into whatever it was going to blow up into out in the middle of the road. There were a couple onlookers and people on the street, but here in China they don't help you. It's a thing where they don't want trouble. I've heard that's the same in Europe too, where theives are so common, no one cares and no one helps you.

 But apparently, I was giving him enough trouble and he didn't want to start anything, and he gave me back the phone. As we continued walking down the street, he said "faaahhhk yuu" to me and I gave him the "you must be retarded look" and corrected him, "No, it's FUCK YOU bitch".

And so ends my first interaction with a thief.

One story a Chinese colleague of my mine once told me:

The event happened on a bus with many passengers. One Han Chinese person saw a minority with some of his friends trying to steal from a girl on the bus. He alerted her to it, and they stopped. When he got off the bus, he was trailed by those thieves. He was found later to have been stabbed.

Some background information my Chinese friends told me about thieves in China:

1. Most of the thieves in China, besides Han ones, are usually Uygur (Xinjiang Tribe). An unfortunate case ethnic profiling.

2. Minorities are bound to slightly looser laws than ethnic Han Chinese (majority). So in cases of murder of a Han Chinese, where a Han Chinese might face execution, these minorities face deportation back to their minority district.

3. In cities like Shenzhen or provinces like Guangzhou, thieves (Han ones) are in bed with the cops. So don't even bother.

None of this stuff was in my head at the moment when I was mad, but I guess I might've faced more danger if they had no suspicion that I was a foreigner, and the punishment for crimes against a foreigner are slightly higher than regular crimes. I don' t know if that worked to my benefit in this situation, or maybe these guys are just thieves and not murderers. I guess I don't know, and I should be grateful for it, especially for getting my property back.

Comments (2)

Written by mona , on 02-07-2008 04:05 wow, glad you are ok jean!    you one brave girl (;    cheers,  Mona Report

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