The Art of Saying Hi

The tale of my Sichuan travels is written as a continuous story and starts on the entry "In Chengdu" on Nov. 5th, 2008. For context and continuity, feel free to start back at that point and read on forward first if you have not already done so.



As we walked down, we passed by several villagers. First there was one of JinHua's neighbors, looking out from his temporary home:



Then there was a schoolboy:



And later, a guy biking a cart uphill. Finally, there were a few young girls, returning home from school. We said hi to all of them, though with mixed results.

"I think I know the secret," Baba announced.
"What do you mean?"
"A surefire system to get them to respond when we greet them."
"Oh?"
"The main problem is people are not prepared to greet strangers here. Here's what we do: First, since there are two of us, the key is to time our greetings for maximum effect. After the first person says hi, he effectively catches the stranger's attention, who may not be ready to respond yet. But when the second person says hi as well, you'll almost be sure to get a greeting out of him."

"That makes sense." It is important for the two people to space out their greetings; salutations done in unison or near-unison may seem intimidating. After all, most people are rather absentminded when they are just walking.

"Second, is the actual greeting, which is just common sense. Just act friendly, smile warmly, and maintain good eye contact. Once you're at ease, it's quite easy to let out a charming "Ni hao."

And so we tried our system, which worked with astonishing effectiveness. Most of the folks, as we anticipated, were in no position to greet us at the first "hello," but all were ready for the second.

Larry, meanwhile, was using his own method, and he ended up getting to meet a ton of schoolchildren.



They took a group photo together.



I guess you don't need a system if you're naturally charismatic.