It is a sight that is hard to miss even during the day time. Drunk men, sleeping on benches and occasionally on the ground, occupying sunburn parks without a care in the world. While in the city center, local police patrols try to get rid of such men to maintain a clean image for the foreign tourist crowds, in the suburbs, they could not be bothered to even more these drunkards. And the drunks seem to be around all day long, whether it is 10am, 2pm, or 8pm. Thankfully, Vladivostok has a relatively warm, but short summer. In the winter, drunkards freeze to death.
It is a phenomenon that does not escape the eyes of even the most careless foreign residents of the city. Chinese traders speak disparaging of Russian men, calling them good-for-nothing who are simply getting on day by day looking for enough money to buy the next bottle of alcohol. Family life? Forget it about it. They might have been married once or even had children. But sooner or later, their alcohol problems ensure divorce happens and they lose custody of their kids. Foreigners pity the Russian women who have to raise kids by themselves.
Drinking too much, in the eyes of Chinese traders, make Russian men Irresponsible as spouses and unsuitable as family men. They do not work consistently enough, spend too much relative to their income, and are simply bad role models for their kids if they are present in the home frequently enough. Alcohol, they opine, lead to high rates of cheating, divorce, and mortality among Russian men. Conclusion? Russian women are much better off finding foreign husbands, a "fact" that they cite real-life examples of international marriage as evidence.
All the bad-mouthing of Russian alcoholics, of course, is not just anecdotal. Concrete stats speak for low life expectancy among Russian men, and high divorce rate in Russia. But how much of that is caused by alcohol is rather questionable. Some of which may just be the Russian mentality toward life that is rather unrelated to alcohol. On the Russian mentality, Chinese traders also have plenty to say. They mention how Russians love to "enjoy life in the moment," spending money on travels and materialistic consumption without saving for future.
Some would call such mentality shortsighted and not one that should be brought to family life. But then again, how "Russian" is such Mentality? Western and Chinese media outlets alike talk about how millennials reject the responsibilities of family life, instead using their limited financial resources to maximize personal fulfillment in ways that their parents and grandparents would not have thought about. Is that not the same "enjoying life in the moment" attitude that so characterize Russians? Perhaps in their enjoyment, Russians simply turn to alcohol more than others.
Indeed, some younger Chinese here in Russia speak admiringly of the Russian attitude toward life. Many speak positively of the Russian open-mindedness, and choose to hang out more with Russians rather than their compatriots during their limited time off. For these Chinese residents, associating with Russians allow them to see an aspect of life that cannot be had among the Chinese who simply tend their businesses seven days a week, ten hours a day. Drinking with the Russians is a particularly popular activity among these more "open" Chinese.
If the Chinese who associate themselves with Russian more tend to live more (and drink more) like the Russians, then is it possible to say that for the Chinese to integrate more into Russia, they will have to adopt more of the supposedly "freewheeling" Russian mentality? So far the evidence points to such a conclusion. In a city like Vladivostok where recreational activities are rather minimal, drinking (and its consequences, whether it be partying or having sex) remains a major form of entertainment for the men (and some women).
It often comes down to a rather depressing choice. Don't drink and work all the time (like many Chinese traders do) or don't work all the time and inevitably go out for drinking a bit too often. Such a choice is often, more than language barrier, a major obstacle for many Chinese to fit in better with the local society. It is more than just a matter of cultural difference. It speaks to the lack of recreational options that come with the region's low level of economic development (as well as cold climate that keep people indoors).
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