Another experience

So the same day that my bike was "lost" a friend and I went out to dinner at one of our favorite dishes places. We decided to sit outside since it was such nice weather. We were first greeted by some drunk men shouting "hello" at us, to which we ignored and sat down. The left us alone. But as soon as we sat down another drunk man who was also smoking started telling us how great our Chinese was (it's a common compliment to give to foreigners even if all they say is "hello"). We said thank you and continued talking to each other in English. While we were chatting he kept saying random things to us in Chinese to which we continued to ignore.

At one point he came over to our table and offered us cigarettes and some drinks. Telling him no we didn't want any and we didn't smoke and asked him to go away. He would leave so I yelled "fuwuyuanr" (waitress) and asked her to tell him to leave. She was embarassed but did as I asked. A little while later he came over again to tell us he was leaving. We were trying to remain as polite as possible and not cause a scene so we encouraged him to go but all he did was tell us that he was leaving without actually leaving.

My friend looked at me, apologized for what she was about to do and started yelling at him to leave, yelling "gun" which means "scram, get out of here". I yelled for the owner of the restaurant and the waitress to come over and tell them to make him leave. By this point the entire restaurant is still and quiet because well, the foreigners are mad, they're yelling and the owner is over at their table with a waitress and some drunk man. It was crazy. But I learned two good things from this. One is the word "gun", which actually comes in very handy here. And two, that because this is a "save-face" culture it is sometimes appropriate for them to lose face and be embarassed because what they are doing is wrong. I just need to learn when those moments are appropriate and when they aren't. This was a time when it was very appropriate.