“On Wealth and Bicycles”

This evening, for the first time, I braved the Chengdu streets by bicycle. With this feat I not only moved myself up a notch in the traffic hierarchy, but, in a microcosm of globalization, quartered all of my distances, and gained the experience and inspiration to share an observation I’ve been giggling to myself about for some time.

Although I’m no expert when it comes to bicycles, I know that with the pedal in its lowest position, your knee should be almost straight, and that your back should be relatively extended to reach the handlebars. This however, is definitely not how most bikes are ridden in China, where people hunch over and knees often bend to over 90 degrees. For a while, I didn’t understand why the Chinese like to ride bikes that are obviously too small, and wondered why the heck nobody has figured out how to fit a bicycle.

Eventually as I watched another herd of people scrunched onto older single speed bicycles pedal by, I had one of those quintessential epiphanies, in which everything magically fit together, and my faith in Chinese logic was restored. Basically, only a generation or so ago, Western China was predominantly rural farmland with a few state regulated economic centers, and lots of poverty. At the time when the older bikes I’m talking about were made, Chinese stature was significantly smaller, and now, development and wealth has led to a new generation of better-nourished and taller Chinese who are bumping their knees on the handle bars of teensie bicycles built for generations past. So it's not that Chinese are clueless when it comes to fitting bicycles, they're just practical, frugal, and a whole lot taller.

Other conclusions of this observation pertain to the durability of used bicycles that have apparently stood the test of time, the dedication to repair and renewal, persistence rusted bicycles, and everything that can still ‘get the job done’, and traces of history that can be found in everyday Chinese life and teeny bicycles.