laowhy86

Where are the smokers?

Added 2018-05-30 14:29:31 +0000 UTC

Hey Laowinners!

As a stupid 13 year old boy, I started experimenting with death sticks. Ya know, cigs...

I then continued to smoke until I was about 26, and quit when I got married (yeah yeah... the vape helped).
The funny thing is that when I moved to Taiwan from China for a year, I found it easy to quit for about 6 months, as people in Taiwan smoke a lot less than in China.

It was almost impossible for a sane person to quit in China, as cigarettes are handed out to pretty much everyone, and although attitudes towards non-smokers are changing, there are just as many people who smoke. It would have been unthinkable to not smoke while living in Inner Mongolia. Literally every man I knew was a smoker, and to refuse a cigarette would have been not only rude, but cut me off from a lot of relationships that I had formed.

So you can imagine walking the streets in America, I am pretty shocked to see that no one is smoking. I could count the smokers I have seen so far on one hand. Yes, they are very expensive. To compare, a pack of cigs in Huizhou, China could go as low as 50 cents, and the cheapest ones here in NY are $9.00. Also, the laws prevent people from smoking pretty much everywhere. But I think the lack of smokers is a societal thing. It just doesn't seem to be "cool" anymore. And yeah, I get it, smoking isn't cool, but when I was growing up, I don't care what anyone says, smoking was absolutely "cool" in many people's eyes.

It is interesting to see the shift in people's perceptions and attitudes towards things like smoking. For China's sake, I hope they cut down a bit. The air is already bad enough.