This started out as a pretty calm Sunday, brunch with G-man downtown and then an hour of homework tutoring at the coffee shop. Then the day became decidedly less calm when I was hit by a taxi while crossing the street.

What happened next was illuminating - if not painful. I was standing there waiting for the crossing light to turn green and watching some Western tourists doing the same on the other side of the street and thinking how nice it was to see people actually waiting their turn to cross on the crosswalk. Light turns green, G-man and I are crossing with a bunch of people and I see this taxi turning left and plowing right through the crowd of pedestrians and headed right for G-man. I pushed him out of the way, the taxi hits my side and the jerk keeps right on going. Somehow my fist and arm goes through his side window and the glass explodes everywhere. Taxi stops and this guy that looks like Genghis Khan gets out and we get into a fight. Crowd gathers, buses and cars start honking. Khan tries to take my backpack away but a European stranger comes to my aid and helps me pull it back. Meanwhile I'm bleeding from glass wounds and the crowd is getting bigger. Khan wants me to give him money on the spot.

Khan and the crowd are shouting in Shanghai dialect (which I can't understand) so an overseas Chinese gentleman is translating and telling me that the local crowd is saying it's the foreigner's fault. A group of Europeans that were in the crosswalk and a couple of overseas Chinese are saying it's the taxi driver's fault. It was interesting how all the local Shanghainese were on the taxi driver's side and the foreigners and overseas Chinese on my side.

The police finally come and take us to the police station where I wait for an hour while they take statements. My employer arrives. I'm released and the police are apologetic.

This sort of thing goes on everyday in Shanghai - fortunately not to me everyday.