Napping

If there is something that impresses me, it is Chinese people's ability to fall asleep anywhere at any time. I am that type of sleeping person who struggles if I just spend the night away from my safe and comforting bed, and stuff like 'sleeping on airplanes/buses/trains' are completely out of my league. For the last few days I have caught the morning train to Shanghai and it is always a kind of interesting train ride that u can divide in three parts:

1. Get on the train: people are pushing and elbowing their way forward to get to their seat first. All of those allocated in the wrong seats are ushered away. A bit of confusion normally occurs. Someone tries to push a huge suitcase into the luggage space on top of the seats (never works) and tea bottles are filled with hot water. It’s a cheerful and happy atmosphere, with loud-spoken women, laughing men, and screaming babies.

2. (Five minutes later and the train is rolling): Dead quiet. Loud snoring is soon heard.

3. (2 minutes before reaching Shanghai): Just as if someone set off a giant alarm bell, everybody suddenly wakes up and are instantly in a hurry again. They hurry to collect their stuff, put on their jackets and line up for the exit while the train rolls into Shanghai's station.

Nowadays I am so used to this scene that I barely react, although I remember the first time I went to a big event and was surrounded by (what seemed like deep-) sleeping Chinese people who still managed to wake up just like that?!

...it was back in the days when I was living in Finland, working for a company with a Chinese owner. I had only been with the company for less than a week when I was invited to join the big boss on the Association of Overseas Chinese in Europe Convenes Annual Meeting, which that year took place on a giant ferry cruising from Finland to Sweden for 2 days. I was one out of three Europeans on the trip, and I can understand why the number wasn't higher... everything was said, and done, in Chinese. For me, who at that time barely understood 'Ni hao ma?' and had very little understanding of Chinese culture, not much made sense. So, when I went to one of the meetings, which was basically 2 hours of speeches, all in Chinese, and watched the hundreds of important Chinese business people around my fall asleep in their chairs, I was kind of astonished.

The meeting also included some sort of award ceremony. You can just imagine my surprise when I watched the speaker call out a name and saw a Chinese man, who 2 seconds ago looked as if he had been sleeping deeply, instantly get up and happily stroll up to the scene to accept his award, smile, shake hands with the speaker and pose for the camera. He didn't even look sleepy, but rather fresh and alert as a day.

The same thing happened at the end of the meeting. The speaker said thank you and goodbye (or something like that), and everyone sat up at once and started applauding, smiling and cheering.

"How do they do it?!" I thought to myself, thinking of how I normally feel when someone wakes me up from a nap (those rare occasions when I have managed to nap, less than 10 times in my life I believe?). I am normally a mess at those times: feeling completely lost, wondering where I am, what time it is, and who I should hit for waking me up. The Chinese smooth way of waking up impressed me... and it still does.


I know that they are not sleeping very deeply, a number of Chinese people have explained to me that it is called a 午睡 (wu shui = take a nap after lunch) and that it's not the same as sleeping, but more like a quick rest. Still, they manage to snore and look as if they are far off in la-la-land? Any advices of how to do it, please feel free to share!