Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Day 152. Not cycling in Waka, Sichuan

0 km etc I give up riding my bicycle and spend the day learning to do Tibetan disco dancing.



And watching an advert on the telly that goes on for about 20 minutes. It is trying to persuade people to buy magic pants, which emit some kind of cosmic rays into a man's cosmic parts. It is endorsed by an actor purporting to be a German doctor.

Sadly this kind of exploitative quackery finds a ready audience in this part of China, where people are little-educated and not very worldly-wise, having only got television in the last few years.

"German medicine is very good," remarked my host, before asking whether I was in possession of a pair of said pants.

Still, I shall not preach. A few years ago, my foreign face starred in an advertisement for a new kind of electric shaving device aimed at the Chinese peasanty.

For the photo shoot in Shanghai, I was asked to bring my own conventional razor for the (before and) after shots, because, explained the boss of the electric razor company, "our product is not very good - but don't worry, we're only advertising in the provinces, not here in Shanghai".

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