Don’t get me wrong here, I LOOOVE going to the movies in China. Each visit is filled with excitement not only from the film itself, but also the sometime overly-lively audience, the notorious ignorance of the “please-mute-your-bloody-phone” sign, small children present during graphic sex scenes, horror films, or just plain gore (saw plenty kids my student’s age (4) watching “Jurassic World”).

There are a few things I have come to dread however, one being when a movie is ONLY offered in 3D. The problem? Floating subtitles. Floating in front of everything else that is floating. So half the time you spend your 2 hours of peace swatting away Chinese characters, and creating yet more weird foreigner stereotypes.

My second beef with movies in China? Forget respect for credits, the lights will flood the cinema within a breath of the last scene, sometimes even during. If you happen to forget to close your eyes in the few fatal seconds, be prepared for the pain of burning corneas for a good half an hour later!

Do you have these odd quirks with movies in your country? I imagine the 3d subtitles must be a problem in multiple places, but somehow the distance that the Chinese ones seem to float really gets to me….silly eyes.

And to end on a positive note, my absolute favourite thing about movies in China is this: you can happily slurp away on bubble tea!