Translation: "Zhatangkou? Bengmianzi?"
Last year, I went to K-Mart, one of the largest department stores in Australia, and saw two colors of t-shirts that looked nice, so I bought one of each to wear. Later, I realized that these were the prescribed uniforms for Australian blue-collar workers, including construction workers, plumbers, electricians, painters, truck drivers, bus drivers, traffic controllers, and more. When I wore them outside, many people thought I was a blue-collar worker, but they never looked down upon me or treated me with disrespect just because I was wearing the clothes of a blue-collar worker! They still showed me respect!
The attire of the Governor, Prime Minister, Governors, Mayors, members of parliament, and officials in Australia is not much different from the attire of ordinary citizens like us. (Image 3 is a photo of me with the former Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk.) I remember in 2015 when I first came to Australia and enrolled in TAFE college, a female Aussie teacher openly showed us, dozens of students, a pleated skirt she bought for 2 dollars at a thrift market, with a satisfied expression on her face! She didn't show any hint of inferiority!
In Australia, most of the luxury items in upscale stores are bought by us Chinese! We Chinese have a strong sense of face! In Wenzhou, we call it "zhatangkou"! On Little Red Book and TikTok, there are countless people flaunting their monthly salary of millions, flaunting how many properties they own, flaunting how much money they have in their savings, flaunting how much they spent on a meal, and so on! It seems like China is truly a wealthy country? But how do we explain what Premier Li Keqiang said, that 600 million people have a monthly income of less than 1,000 yuan? We care so much about face, but our inner well-being is neglected! The people also place great importance on face! People who are well-dressed are given a higher regard, while those who are poorly dressed are met with disdain! Haven't you heard the saying: "Dogs look down upon people"? And there's also what Xiang Yu said: "Wealth and nobility don't return to the village, like a beautifully dressed person walking at night!" This is actually a manifestation of authoritarian society and feudal society, where people are divided into different classes, where the privileged class