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Q: Was I wrong this time?
School gave me a fluffy toy for a Christmas present today. Before giving it to me they told me they were going to give me something wonderful and no effort had been spared in choosing this special gift.
Woah, I thought (and I don't know why, as they gave me a fluffy toy last year too).
So they hand over this giant fluffy sheep/llama and wait for me to give my speech of appreciation.
I say "wow, a fluffy toy, thanks a lot".
Afterwards the man who went to the shop to buy it tells me he spent a long time choosing it and he asks me what I really think of this special gift.
So I tell him.....and finish off with the 'but thanks again, it's the thought that counts' angle.
He thinks for a bit and says "well, it's better than something like a Y300 bottle of wine that would have been good for nothing except drinking"......"at least this way you've got something useful".
I reply thus; "300 kuai! Holy fuck, you could've bought me 3 bottles of wine for that kind of dough. Or 6. Are you mad!! What do you seriously think I'm going to do with this giant stuffed toy, given the fact I'm a grown man?"
He tells me that Chinese people's culture is different.
So, anyway, was I wrong?
9 years 18 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
Well ...you could maybe have just gone straight to the 'it's a nice thought thank you very much' part of the speech and left out the obvious question - what is a grown man going to do with a stuffed lama- because it probably was a nice gesture but whatever, at least next year you'll get 6 bottles of wine.
No imagination at all.
A giant stuffed lama thing.... Get some thin bamboo, a plant pot and a pair of scissors. Stick the bamboo up through it legs to create a load bearing structure. Then cut a hole in the top of it's head, insert plant pot... and voila.... you have a fluffy lama beer can holder to put beside your favourite chair.
I would not try to convert it into an ashtray however. That would probably end in tears 
.
icnif77:
Great advice, buTT....no need to plant a 'pot' in Xinjiang. 'Pot' grows in wild all around Xinjiang.
Anywhere (if you) look, there's a pot, 'ruderalis' mostly, by research of one of the year-long-living-in-Xin-laowai.
Or did you mean 'plant in the pot'...
I think they were going for the cao ni ma joke and failed.
I totally agree with you! "Holy fuck - are you mad... you wasted 300Y (no, actually, that would have been a lie!) on a friggin stuffed animal for a grown man"...
Yeah, worth losing it over!
No real thought was invested in this 'gift'.
I think you showed remarkable restraint, the guy was lucky not to have left work that day wearing the toy as a large fluffy butt-plug.
royceH:
Actually that's pretty funny. You should see the way he walks....ponces, more accurately. He really does ponce around with his man-bag swinging about.
London to a brick part of his daily routine involves insertion of said plug anyway. No room for a 3 foot Llama.
Actually... you could have handled it better.
royceH:
I see, Well, thanks.
I'm waiting for EngelTed to come on and tell me what a disgrace I am and how I'm unfit to live. Just like he did last time I asked the same question.
It's extremely difficult to purchase 'fluffy' kangaroo in China. Llama is the closest animal, and it usually comes in fluffy version, if purchased in China.
Imagine, you would be older (than you are), and present would be fluffy dino.
Shining_brow:
Really?
http://s.taobao.com/search?q=%B4%FC%CA%F3%CD%E6%BE%DF&js=1&stats_click=search_radio_all%253A1&initiative_id=staobaoz_20141223
icnif77:
'Really' not! Why would you purchase kangaroo to an Ozz-man for Christmas, if keg of beer could do the trick? Was sarcastic! I just wanted to ease his pain
Sounds weird and random.
Sounds about right for China... considering most Chinese have the mentality and emotional maturity of a 9 year old school girl.
I don't know think you were wrong. Chinese act too childish for me... I think you gave him a good lesson in acting like a grown man.
That sucks. When I was teaching I got a 100 something bottle of baijiu. At least I could do something with that.
I would have been very disappointed if that happened to me, but I probably would have just thanked him for the thought.
There are two things
"spending a lot of time choosing" that obviously isn't actually that much time and transport to and from shop will be included
He got the toy way cheaper than 300 kuai, perhaps it is a re-gift, but your employer forked up 300 for it
anyway, I don't quete get it, for a flyffy toy to be useful you need a bottle of alcohol to share with it ... never drink alone (unless you don't have a fluffy toy)
royceH:
A re-gift...yeah probably.
I'm heading out now to one of those Chinese govt dinners and I plan to shove as much grog down my throat as I can possibly manage.
By the time I get home that bloody llama/sheep thing will look pretty good. Mmmm...soft...fluffy...
Wish me luck!
Scandinavian:
careful you don't get an std, normally I would not warn about this when it comes to fluffy toys, but hey, TIC
Scandinavian:
as far as I know that is the only meaning to that acronym
I think the problem is that Chinese think that foreigners still like stuffed animals when they are adults. They don't realize we are not like children and stopped liking that stuff when we are children.
I'm glad you told him off. I think everything everywhere is a lot better being straight-forward and direct. Took me many years to get around to this, but now I just say exactly what I'm thinking/feeling and if they don't like it---- tough.
*I still probably soften my words for children/old folks/ladies.
Maybe you should pull it apart. It might have some cocaine inside...
Yea, You was right. I waqs afraid about the gift also, one of the guy at my workplace announced me last week, he would like to give me something. I said noo, he insisted, so I said, if anything, so some toy for my son, if ou don't mind. he said okay.
Today I received. First it was a bit big box, common carton box, with rest pieces of kvai di receipt. He said it is a Lego and that he hope we will play together with my son. I was surprised, Thanked several times, and then I left. I was thinking, measuring the size, and having knowledges of lego boxes porices, It was about 1000rmb size. Crazy. And when I was on the way back home, I opened. Ou yeah, of course, one of the cheap copy ... but ok, Battle ship we do not have yet 
I am guessing that it was a fluffy sheep. This would be in line with being given a (fluffy?) horse last year. Both of these toys would (presumably) be representing the Chinese new year and have some sort of symbolic meaning.
That having been said, paying 300 for said animals would probably be a rip-off. It was obviously also not very thought about and in the end I would say that you were right about your reaction.
royceH:
You could be right. My wife thought the same, but since when does a sheep have a giraffe neck. It's a hybrid or a mutant.
And I don't think there's a sheep year. Goat yes, sheep no.
Yes, last year's horse was very fluffy.
SwedKiwi1:
It could be a sheep/goat/giraffe combination.
Mutations are bound to occur in China with all of the pollution and unreported (possible) radiation around the big cities. Maybe time for this mutant to make it into the official list of Chinese zodiac animals
When i bought a gift for a friend to bring home, i was asked if i wanted another price tag to give with the gift, of a much higher value than i actually spent.
I laughed at the thought, especially as it is considered poor manners to leave a price tag on a gift.
It is always about 'face'.
I am surprised that you were expected to open the gift when you received it.
I thought this was culturally unacceptable.
Question: did you give equally 'valuable' gifts ?
royceH:
Oh yes that is definitely sick. They really do make it hard to have much respect for them. Don't they?
It was wrapped in a giant clear cellophane bag with a mighty pink ribbon attached to the top of the bag. I kid you not! I haven't bothered to open the bag since there isn't any need. Unless I choose to sleep with it one night.
I don't give gifts to anyone. I'd like to buy my wife something however, but she doesn't want anything. So I've decided a kiss and a hug on Christmas morning will have to suffice, just as they do every morning.
You could always regift it to someone. There are plenty of opportunities for you to gain face by giving a meaningless gift for some event you were forced to go to.
royceH:
Hahahaha. Good idea. But I've just missed the best opportunity to do that. Last night I had to go to a dinner hosted by the city education bureau and it would've been brilliant to have given them back the useless thing their minions had just given me.
Wish you'd suggested this a day earlier, but thanks anyway.
