A couple of commenters wondered exactly why keeping a household in China was harder than doing so in America. I even went so far as to say that keeping a house in China with a helper is still harder than doing so without a helper in America.
They ask a logical question. Isn’t scrubbing a toilet the same no matter where you are?
There are many reasons that combine to make housework and cooking a very time consuming task. I’ll share some of the larger factors.
One main reason is that appliances are smaller, less efficient, and break down a lot.
Take laundry for example. The washing machines are tiny. American washers can hold three times the amount of clothes in one load. Dryers are even smaller than the washers. Moreover, they are scarce, inefficient, and slow. I can put three pairs of jeans and two t-shirts in the dryer. If I’ve already allowed them to hang to dry for half a day, it still takes about two hours for the dryer to thoroughly dry them. Until the last few years, our washers could wash with cold water only. So I would have to fill buckets with hot water from another room and dump it into the washer. My oven can hold only one 13×9” pan, or three small loaf pans. So I must plan my baking very carefully. I can’t bake bread and the casserole at the same time. My refrigerator (although huge by Chinese standards) is small. It will only hold enough food for about one week. So bulk shopping is out of the question. Oh, and dishwashers? They don’t exist here.
A second main reason is that the logistics of shopping are not convenient.
In America, you jump in your car, drive to the store, shop, push a cart full of groceries to your car, load up, drive nearly to your doorway and unload. For me, I can only buy what I physically can carry in one load because I have to carry my purchases out of the store onto the street (in some cases crossing traffic) to catch a taxi home. Then I have to carry my groceries from the street inside my apartment complex, over to my building and up to the second floor. This means that shopping has to be done frequently, so it uses a lot of my time. The selection at grocery stores varies greatly. Sometimes a store may have a certain item for months and then suddenly it’s not for sale any more. There is not a single store where I can buy all I want to cook our meals. I go to a wholesale market for whole wheat flour, dried beans, and popcorn because those items are not sold in supermarkets. One grocery store sometimes has corn flakes, but that store does not sell cat food. Two of the four grocery stores have good beef, but they are not the ones that have meaty chicken quarters. Sometimes I can find butter and spaghetti, sometimes I can’t. So whereas I’d love to simply write a menu plan and go to one store to buy all I need, I can’t do that. Sometimes it takes me two trips to get all I need from two stores, after I’ve modified my menu plan because I can’t find a few key ingredients.
And the last reason why keeping a house is so much more labor intensive is that I cook so much from scratch.
Why? Well, there are no convenience foods, and much of what we’d like to eat isn’t sold here. This is a list of some things I prepare from scratch because I can’t buy them already prepared:
- Juice my own lemons
- Barbeque sauce
- Salsa
- All breads – buns, wheat bread, bagels, English muffins, tortillas, muffins, waffles, French bread, etc.
- Spaghetti sauce
- Bulk pork sausage
- Grind my own beef and pork with a small food processor
- Broth
- Cook beans from dry
And I’m very grateful that I can find what I need to make these things! Cooking from scratch is economical and healthy, but let’s admit, it’s not fast or easy. Last year this time we were in America. I had forgotten how easy it was to plan meals and shop in the USA. Wide, bright stores with huge carts that you wheel out to your minivan and drive right up to your garage door. Some stores even help you wheel the cart out! I never was not able to find an ingredient. (Quite the opposite! I was overwhelmed with all the variety of options!) No one commented on how much meat I bought or how much my food bill was. There were no sales clerks standing a foot away from me yelling into a megaphone, “Apples $2 a pound!” Shopping was a pleasant experience.
This post is not meant to be a big gripe but just to give you some insight into why managing a home is difficult abroad. I am very blessed and enjoy my way of life.
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Wow — does this post ever bring back the memories! We lived and worked in China (Zhengzhou, Henan) for several years back in the early 90′s, and the things you’ve described were even worse then. *No* dryers, *no* hot water, frequent power outages, no butter, no spaghetti — oh dear, I’d better stop, this is ridiculous.
In any case, we loved it and hated to leave. I had two (and then three) small children while we were there, and people were always whispering “san ge, san ge” as we passed… but they loved our kids, and I still am in contact with some of my Chinese lady friends today. My kids would love to go back and visit. Me, too. 