An angry neighbor, complaining tome about making too much noiseat night, recently confronted me.It was 7:00 a.m. when this hap-pened. She was objecting to me stampingmy foot to trigger the automatic light switchin the pitch-black corridor outside my apart-ment. Perhaps you heard it yourself. She wasraising this point in a cacophony audible tomost of the other residents, I’m sure. Most ofthe other residents of Beijing, I mean. Unableto speak Chinese and half-asleep, I revertedto pig-ignorant foreigner role, even driftingback to bed halfway through the tirade.