HSK - Pining for Willie, smashing a vicious cycle

ENTERTAINMENT / Hot Pot Column






Pining for Willie, smashing a vicious cycle

By Patrick Whiteley (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-04-16 16:02


What's one way to make Chinese city slickers laugh out loud? Tell them
your bicycle has been stolen. I'm sure they'll all sympathize a bit, but
not too much. Why? Because most Chinese know that empty feeling of
falling victim to these dirty rotten scoundrels.

It seems bicycle thieves are busier than a Beijing bricklayer and this
month it was my turn to throw a bit of business their way.

My bike was a Forever brand, but it should have been called Six Months.
That's how long it lasted.

I bought my beloved bicycle, which I named Willie, for 200 yuan at a
department store. For about $20, I thought I scored a bargain, but my
colleagues said I paid too much, and should never have bought a new bike.

"You don't want it to stand out," said one of the many bicycle security
experts who I now call Nostradamus. If only I'd listened.

China has 470 million bicycles, but about one out of every 100 is
reported nicked. In large cities, it is so rampant that some poor sods
have had their bikes stolen many times. Now that's what you call a
vicious cycle.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, about 4 million bicycles
are reported missing every year. So that means many more are stolen
because I'm sure many people, like me, don't report it. In one of the
world's biggest bicycle cities, what's the chance of finding Willie?

Just imagine the reaction of a Beijing policeman. "Excuse me officer, my
bicycle has been stolen and his name is Willie. Can you help me?"

This year six government agencies announced a joint nationwide crackdown
on bike theft and I'm on board. Rewards of up to 5000 yuan ($650) are
being offered to people giving information on stolen bicycles.

At the launch, a young handicapped man from Nanchang, in East China, said
he lost his new electric bike, which cost him three years' savings. "I
even thought of committing suicide several times," he said.

I know how he feels.

I'm not going to neck myself over $20, but my bike was not just any old
bike. It was my bike; it was my dearest friend in China; it was Willie.

Willie understood all my problems and every Chinese word I ever said. He
would never correct me, although he mostly had very good reason. Willie
was also patient and kind and loved to hear my country songs as I peddled
around the capital.

Now I'm on my own singing Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain.

In Sichuan Province the locals have bicycle thieves well and truly
collared. They are using a born-again dog to protect their bikes with
stunning success.

Benji was abandoned and taken in by the residents of a local hospital.
They offered him food, bathed him and found him a place to stay in the
bicycle garage. Benji is now paying back the kindness by being one damn
smart watchdog.

The little fellow knows all the bicycle owners and if a thief appears he
barks loudly. He's attacked at least one. Since Benji has been on the job
he has helped security guards catch six thieves. Not one bicycle has been
stolen.


(China Daily 04/13/2007 page20)











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