How an Apple almost got me killed... (Patreon)

before I begin

I'm going to state for the record that I'm a Windows PC guy, not an Apple guy, now that's out of the way,

let's get on with the story. 

I'm glad that I could finally get my China Safety video out, watch it here: https://youtu.be/0gJ0nfQ9dEU I've been plagued by computer issues... I recently was given and subsequently  repaired a completely destroyed macbook pro (a retina one) by destroyed I mean destroyed, it was bent like a banana, the screen was shattered, the hard drive missing, the motherboard damaged and well I spent a good day or so bending everything back into shape and then went out to find a replacement screen and other missing bits and pieces from the heart of China's biggest electronic market "Hua Qiang Bei", it is here that the story takes place...

I approached a small little hole in the wall shop somewhere on the 3rd floor of one of the massive electronic mega plazas and proceeded to ask if they could source parts for a Macbook pro, all of a sudden the mood darkened, the boss at the back of the shop stood up and walked towards me with a rather menacing look on his face and asked me 你是美国人吗？"Are you American?" I'm used to people asking my nationality, but I knew exactly what was going on as this sort of thing had happened before a few times during the years I've lived in China, the dreaded blind ultra-nationalism that can turn the most friendly of folk into rabid, irrational hate mongers, it happened clearly during the 2008 Olympics when some protesters in Europe were trying to douse the Olympic torch, at that time I it was hairy to walk around outside as the average Chinese person on the street was mad that "foreigners" were trying to spoil their time to shine and as a result I got into a fair few uncomfortable situations that in one case almost ended in a fight. You see the whole South China Sea nonsense that has recently been going on has the average Joe in China thinking that it's America's fault and as a result there have been all sorts of silly things going on, people smashing their iPhones in protest, barricading KFC restaurants and preventing people from entering, a guy on the subway in Dalian was even attacked for "Supporting America" because he was wearing a pair of Nike shoes... These sorts of incidents are far from common however and it's usually just a bunch of rural folk behaving like rural folk in far flung parts of China, not something I'd expect in Shenzhen.... Back to the story, I replied by saying 不是，我是英国人  "I'm British, not American", to which he replied 不是美国就好 "as long as you're not American it's okay", then they all calmed down and he proceeded to tell me that they refuse to repair Apple products and so I went to the shop next to them who did and actually got all the parts I needed ;)

Long story short, it has been a tense week for foreigners here in China, I wouldn't go as far to say that it's dangerous, but it is very uncomfortable. 

It seems to be starting to blow over and as with everything else like this in China is usually intense but short lived. I wanted to make a video about it but thought that it may be a bit too political and sensitive for the current climate, hence posting the story here. I hope you all enjoy the new video and as always...

Stay Awesome!!! 

(P.S I did fix the Macbook in the end, very very nice for editing on the go! But I'm still a PC guy!)