On the last day of our tour, the tour guide brought up a point about line etiquette (or the lack there of) in China that had never crossed my mind. In short, she made the point that, culturally, part of the reason people often cut lines in China is due to the country's history of famine and poverty. Although she doesn't believe that excuses their behavior, it does bring up an interesting point that lines are a product of prosperity.
As the tour guide pointed out, not so long ago, people in mainland China needed to fight just to have food on the table. Food and supplies were scarce and people had to fight with everyone who also needed food and supplies when it was available. It was first come, first served. If the supplies ran out, then too bad for you. In those times, people couldn't afford to be polite and wait in line because if they were, it's likely they'd receive either very little or even nothing at all. When you're that poor and in need of basic supplies, survival overwhelmingly beats out politeness.
Nowadays, for most people getting food and basic supplies isn't a problem anymore. Yet, that mentality about lines still seems to permeate.
Here in China, lines seem to merely a formality for the most part. "Lines" often instead take the form of a massive crowd or an uneven blob of people gathered around a specific desk, machine, person, etc. And even if a line (or a queue, as the British would say) exists, line cutting is very prevalent and considered completely normal. In fact, in order to be helped in a timely matter, you often have to push yourself to the front of the line.
On the flip side, Americans, if nothing else, are very good at forming lines, even when there isn't a sign or personnel to tell you to form a line. For instance, when waiting for the subway in New York, people often form lines just to board the train, and wait patiently for people to get off the train first before boarding in a orderly fashion.* In this instance, there's no fear that you won't able to board the train so people can afford to be patient and wait in a line to board.
For the most part, in the United States, we can afford to wait in lines. Aside from tickets to a big concert or perhaps some big Black Friday sale items, things are not going to run out and we can always find somewhere to obtain the necessities. The United States and Americans are prosperous enough to not have to worry about running out of food and basic necessities.
Of course, China's history of famine doesn't completely excuse there lack of line etiquette, particularly with the younger generation who mostly, if not completely, grew up as China has become increasingly prosperous. But it does help me understand a little bit about where a lot of people here are coming from.
Lastly, it must be noted that this post is just a generalization of lines in the US and China. There are plenty of places in the US where people have problems forming lines and plenty of instances in China in which I have seen people wait in an orderly line.
That's all for now. Time to check to see if my clothes actually dried in the dryer this time.
*Note: New York subways during rush hour are a totally different game, especially on the 4/5/6 trains.
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