Sometimes living and working as a foreign teacher in China can be somewhat stressful. Other times it can be maddeningly infuriating. Fortunately, the Chinese video game arcade has your back! If you’re fed up with dealing with bratty students, sudden unexpected schedule changes, or any of the other myriad frustrations in the life of the foreign teacher, then just head on down to the arcade at the Central Walk Shopping Mall at the Convention and Exhibition Center metro station for one of the most entertaining stress relieving experiences this side of the Pearl River!
The premise of the game is simple. There are four scenarios that you can choose from, all of which involve you being in some kind of stressful situation. Once you make your choice, some text will display on the screen explaining the details of the situation and what is going on that you find so annoying. Then you have 60 seconds in which you can smack and flip the table. The goal is to cause as much destruction as possible with your table flip. You earn a score based on the monetary value of everything that is destroyed by your enraged outburst.
There are four scenarios you can pick:
- You are a father having dinner with his family, but your kids won’t stop talking on the phone and playing video games.
- You are a woman at a club and a group of young men is making unwanted advances on you.
- You are a bride who has been abandoned by her groom on her wedding day.
- You are an office worker with annoying colleagues and an incompetent boss.
After you make your pick the fun begins! Let’s go with scenario number 1:
In the top left corner of the screen you have the countdown, currently at 37 seconds. The big orange text reads “that person is so noisy!” and the bright text below says “try hitting the table and see!”
Now that you’ve knocked a few cups over and gotten everyone on edge, there’s only 31 seconds left for you to make your big flip!
The back two legs of the table are hinged to the machine, so you really can flip the table up as hard as you want. The stronger your flip, the more damage you’re likely to cause!
The game goes through several instant replays of your flip, shown from various angles, as it tallies up the total cost of the damage you’ve done. Things can get pretty absurd. As silverware smashes the TV and knocks things off of the shelves, your wife is knocked over backwards, falling into the kitchen doors, which then collapse onto the oven causing it to explode in a ball of fire. At the end you’re given a list of all the different bowls, spoons, furniture, and other household goods that you destroyed, and how much they cost. If you flipped well enough you can enter your name in with the other high scorers. Then you can make your way back to class feeling refreshed and ready to deal with whatever stresses the school might throw at you next!
PS- Because it isn’t always easy to read sarcasm I just thought it worth mentioning that while teaching English in China can be stressful sometimes, it is a really great experience most of the time. If you’re thinking about trying it but are worried about the stresses of living and working in a foreign country, don’t worry. It’s definitely worth it, and when you are feeling stressed out by the crazy new foreign experience, you might just run into a crazy new foreign way to blow off some steam!
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