20 December 2019 / #China #Culture

When A Man Attacks! And Other Men Laugh.

The Chinese police officer told me not to pull my pants down. My right thigh was purple and the steak- sized bruise swelled and tightened my pant leg. I wanted them to see the aftermath after a man attacked me with a tree branch about as thick as the thickest part of a baseball bat. My right elbow was already severely swollen and barely movable. I wanted to pull my pants down so the eight police officers staring and laughing at me could see the evidence. I couldn’t understand why, but the police officers seemed to find my predicament hilarious. I guess assault and battery is culture dependent. I spoke no Mandarin and the officers spoke no English; While we spoke through a smartphone language translator, it spouted out indecipherable English (“wife’s judo genital”) and I don’t know what in Mandarin, and the officers almost toppled over with laughter during the entirety of my witness statement. Keeping in line with the virtues of a surveillance state, a camera was pointed in my direction the entire time. How did I end up here?

map It was my first month in China and after starting in the South of the Country, I had finally made it to Beijing. The Great Wall beckoned, but I was adamant that I would not go to the nearest and congested part of the Wall just north of Beijing. I instead chose Huanghuacheng, about a two hour bus ride north of Beijing and supposedly located in a bucolic village free of tourist throngs. The bus out of Beijing was uneventful and it soon deposited me at a bus stop in a town that was a main junction apparently for many northern route buses. This second bus was unfortunately eventful. Buses in China often have a bus attendant that collects the fee based on your destination. When I boarded, I attempted to confirm that my intended destination was enroute and I recited “Huanghuacheng” to the attendant. She glared at me and yelled something which I imagine meant sit down enhanced with expletives. Woah, not what I expected. I can still see the beady eyes that make my insides roil even as I write this. I did sit down for awhile and at least was able to confirm that the bus was moving in the correct direction via a map app on my tablet. My understanding from my web research was that the trip should only take an hour, so as the hour approached, I gathered my gumption and walked over to the attendant. I stated the village name and she again yelled and gestured for me to go away. This time I walked over to the bus driver and stated the name of the village. He seemed more amenable and gestured with his hand forward which I understood as “the village is coming up.” Then he and the attendant started arguing and gesturing towards me. I still have no idea what was going on with that woman and why she and the driver started arguing. She eventually sat down and literally glowered at me for the remaining minutes before the bus driver announced the stop.

The stop was actually at the edge of town, along a river dotted with the occasional guesthouse and small shop. I thought “perfect”. No other tourist or at least foreign tourist was in sight. I walked along the side of the road and stopped near a dam and walked out on the top walkway to take a photo of the looming Great Wall. It would have been uneventful but a man walked out towards me and yelled something in Mandarin. Of course I stared and stated in my practiced mandarin, “wo bu hueyshuo putonghwa.” Translated as “I don’t speak the common language” i.e. mandarin. He stared at me partly unbelieving then walked away. The vibe overall was quite aggressive. I then walked back towards the road and looked for signs of a guesthouse that was mentioned on an online travel forum.

I found the guesthouse on the opposite side of the road elevated on a hill. The hosts seemed excited by the presence of a customer. They also had access to a portion of the Great Wall through a steep short hike higher up on the hill. I indicated a desire for one night, paid for the room and trekked up. I had this section of the Wall all to myself. It was amazing especially when compared to the photos of sections of the wall near Beijing. I walked and scrambled up and down sections and stared at the continuation of the wall on the opposite side of the river. That would be my target for the next day. At least on that first day, aside from the beady eyed !@#$$ on the bus and the aggressive encounter on top of the dam walkway, the trip seemed uneventful.

The following morning, I ordered breakfast and indicated my desire to stay one more night. After my breakfast of noodles, I returned to my room to pack up a small bag for my hike over to the other side of the wall. While I was attempting to change my clothes, the host walked into my room and demanded payment for breakfast and the room fee for tonight. Neither one of us spoke a common language so I pointed to my half off shirt and gestured that I will come out soon with the few words of Mandarin that I knew. She left and within a minute sent her assistant to barge into my room and literally stick out her hand with the palm up to demand money. Again I pointed to my shirtless self and gestured that I’m coming out and was more assertive about encouraging the woman to leave. I left items in the room and stepped outside where the assistant was actually waiting for me. I walked with her through the small courtyard to the host and I asked as best I could through my language translating app on my tablet, why they thought it necessary to barge into my room. There is only one exit, through the courtyard where I would meet them, and of course I would be paying for breakfast and guaranteeing the room for one more night by paying ahead. The host was quite aggressive in demanding money and refused to understand my question. She and her assistant seemed to think it appropriate to barge into a guest’s room and literally stick their hand in my face and demand money. It reached a point of absurdity so I dropped the money for breakfast on a table, packed up my items from the room and left. As I strolled out, there was an exchange of obscenities in English and laughing yells in Mandarin. I traveled through every continent with the exception of Antarctica and the Arctic, and I have never had a proprietor barge into my room and demand money. Never ever regardless of culture or a language barrier, until now.

This should have been a sign that this day was starting off in the twilight zone, but since I thought the previous day was fine, I was obviously too obtuse to see the warning signs about this village. Rather than return to Beijing that day, I did want to stay one more night so I walked along the river and located a fancier hotel for the night. The grounds connected with the opposite side of the river so I thought I would walk through the backside of the hotel to meet the section of the Great Wall I viewed the day before. The hilly path led me to another guesthouse that housed a “tollbooth” by the path that passed through its backyard. The path isn’t maintained, it’s simply a rutted trail used by people to gain access to the Wall. No tickets are issued and no tourism ministry or the like is involved in managing the area. I paid the price and walked up the trail. Within five minutes I encountered a man, likely in his late forties, sitting beside a makeshift branch gate across the trail. He had his hand out and yelled something I couldn’t understand. I slipped under the branch and he started yelling and rose from his seat to shove me. Again, I yelled, “wo bu hueyshuo putonghwa” but he continued to scream in my face and shove me again. It’s probably a primal impulse but if someone touches me, especially in an aggressive manner, I strike out. With my adrenaline surging, I punched him in the face at which point he ran to a stack of thick branches then came swinging at me. He caught me on my thigh, elbow and trunk. I think of myself as someone who can fight if necessary but once my elbow was hit, I felt my body go into shock, with my blood pressure dropping, the wind was knocked out of me and energy just fled. I wanted to get him for what he did, possibly breaking my arm, ruining my day and trying to take advantage of a lone woman on a trail for what I guess was money. He was likely sticking out his hand and demanding money. A makeshift unregulated Great Wall tollbooth of his making on a lonesome portion of the trail. I so wanted to tackle him and return the favor but with him swinging the branch wildly, I didn’t have the speed or energy at this point to avenge myself. I reversed course and returned to the guesthouse tollbooth and asked the lady to call the police.

Leg bruises She didn’t. There were numerous other people in the outdoor restaurant area adjacent to the booth that were affiliated with the guesthouse as staff or possibly an owner. They all refused. One man even made the effort to explain through his cellphone language translator, “I don’t know you, why should I help you.” This is literally what his translator typed out. All I asked was for someone to call the police, not splint my arm or take me to a clinic. About seven people crowded around me but all looked at my bulging elbow but no one called. I wasn’t their guest so I quickly hobbled back to my fancy hotel on the river and asked the staff the call the police. They wouldn’t. The hotel restaurant manager explained via my translator app that he needed to ask the owner on what to do. So I asked, where’s the owner. He responded, “in Beijing.” I was exasperated and kept thinking what is wrong with these people. I’m only asking for the police to be called. The man reached the owner via phone and since the owner spoke English, I explained the situation then the owner commanded/permitted? his staff to call the police. While I was waiting, I requested an ice pack for my leg and arm. The staff indicated that they have no ice. I asked for a bag of frozen vegetables or something similar. They indicated that they didn’t understand. I asked for a cold can of any soft drink to place on my contusions. They acted confused. Do people not ice bruises in China? I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t understand. Whether you only spoke Swahili or Klingon, if you had a swollen bruise turning shades of purple, I would know to give you ice or something cold for the injury. Was it not a language barrier but ignorance? Do some people not know to ice injuries? Is it that they just didn’t care? I asked the restaurant manager to call the owner again. I explained the need for something cold for my injuries then returned the phone to the restaurant manager. He soon emerged with shaved ice packed into a plastic bag. They told me they had no ice and feigned ignorance on my request for a cold compress, but now they present me with shaved ice. Was shaved ice too much of a logical leap from ice? Will they not think or take initiative unless required to? To be fair, the entire staff wasn’t immune to my distress, the ladies served me tea and seemed to sympathize while staring at my elbow, but the restaurant manager seemed inure to my distress after the phone calls to the owner. From his tone and body language, he started spouting what I could only interpret as snide comments in Mandarin when I requested an additional bag of shaved ice. I shut him down with an authoritative tone with remarks in English. This is the fanciest hotel in the village that I’m a paying guest at and I wasn’t having any of it.

Two police officers arrived after an hour, I explained the incident again via a translation app and escorted them to the hill where we encountered the angry man. Obviously the victim and assailant should ride together and all four of us rode in the police car to the village station about thirty minutes away. I was escorted inside and all the officers crowded around to observe the foreigner. They wanted my passport and one officer disappeared to scan, photocopy and flip through all the pages. He would then pass along my passport to other officers who would continue this daisy chain of flipping through the pages and admiring the illustrations of America the beautiful. A camera was pointed at me during the entirety of the inquiry and one man sat at a computer and transcribed whatever the translation app spouted out and whatever else was added on by the commanding officer – a man who spoke a few words of English and who had also accompanied me from the hotel. Other officers and occasionally the commanding officer were with the angry man in another room and I imagine they interrogated him on the incident. The commanding officer emerged after an hour and stated that the angry man indicated that I had punched him. I responded in the affirmative and explained that I was under attack and was defending myself. Unbeknownst to me, the officers in the other room had negotiated a “settlement” with the angry man. The commanding officer gave me two options, I could wait a month and a half and go to court or I can agree to a financial restitution of 300 yuan. I imagine they presumed I would choose the money since my visa only allowed a maximum stay of 60 days per entry, and procuring a lawyer and translator for court proceedings in a country I was not a citizen of was likely an unattractive proposition. I asked whether the angry man would be charged and jailed, but the commanding officer was non-committal and responded that the man is likely just not right in the head. There really was only one option and I accepted the financial option but requested 600 yuan. I wanted at least some semblance of punitive justice, but I imagined that most of the villagers weren’t well-off and I calculated double as appropriate. I still believed that the man would be jailed or receive some form of punishment from the law, but when I asked the commanding officer again, he responded for me not to worry about that. A document was drawn up in Mandarin and I was asked to sign. I asked the commanding officer to translate and he explained that the document states that I agree to waive a trial and instead receive money for the attack. My guess was that the form served to document the police taking action and resolving the complaint. Even with my inability to read the document, I imagine additional terms limiting any future recourse against the angry man and absolving the police of any malfeasance in the resolution of the case. Probably also terms indicating I entered into the settlement of my own choosing even though I really had no other viable option. The two officers again escorted the angry man and me in the same car and dropped him off at his home. So he obviously wasn’t jailed. Then they drove me back to the hotel. Wow, my fun afternoon at a Chinese police station. I’ll give the commanding officer credit as the only person who wasn’t laughing and having a good time at my expense at the police station – as far as I knew.

So what actually happened?

Me, Id and Ego:

I am still processing this incident more than a year after the fact. It was the most violent physical assault and battery I have ever experienced overseas and within the context of other people acting in an unexpected manner. I asked a former colleague of mine, a retired US Special Forces Green Beret, for his thoughts on what happened. As a combat professional, I thought he could give me perspective on the fighting mindset. I described the experience to him as the Chinese version of the movie “Deliverance.” An outsider goes to a rural area and meets locals who behave in aggressive and unexpected ways. His first question was did I undertake a threat assessment? Did I carefully observe the area near the Wall and take note of people. Shouldn’t I have registered the aggressive bus attendant, that man who approached me on the bridge walkway, the way the guesthouse host and assistant treated me, all before the attack? Was I just obtuse or did I underestimate the threat because I couldn’t imagine anyone actually posing a threat beyond annoyance. Did I assume villagers would be mild-mannered unlike scary city-dwellers? Would I have been warier if the villagers weren’t Asian? I know that when I’m in Eastern or Southern Europe, or the Middle-East, I am more vigilant, especially about avoiding groups of young males at any time of day. I didn’t undertake a threat assessment; I may instead sub-consciously assumed no threat. I didn’t register the unexpected aggressive behavior of people as indicating that something is different about the neighborhood.

I underestimated my own vulnerability: I don’t speak Mandarin, I went to a rural area, I’m a foreigner, I was alone, I’m female, I’m not a sprightly strong twenty-something, I’m petite. I should be glad the angry man didn’t have a gun or strike me in the head. I imagine that if I had been mortally wounded and rolled into a ditch in those hills, no one in the village would have noticed or cared. Isn’t this how backpackers disappear anywhere in the world? It’s not ISIS taking you hostage or being crushed during an earthquake, it’s simply being opportunistically murdered and no one noticing. Would my fancy hotel report me missing? I had already paid for the night and if they found a few of my belongings the next morning in an unslept-in bed, the housekeeper may at most scoop up the items and leave them at the checkout desk. There is nothing necessarily suspicious. Beyond that I was traveling the Silk Road, did any of my friends or family know where I was? Did the guesthouse in Beijing where I stored my large backpack know where I was or when I’d be returning? I could literally have been missing for months before my parents might have wondered what I’m up to. I’m now just realizing that I should have a check-in protocol with family.

Did my ego kinda sorta get me in trouble during the altercation with the angry man? My Green Beret colleague wondered aloud if I got myself in trouble by not knowing when to walk away instead. He reiterated my vulnerabilities as listed above and asked what the actual situation with the angry man was. Was he trying to violate you? Or rob you? Did you feel your life was at stake? Anyone who’s studied the martial arts knows to avoid the situation in the first place. But my ego wanted to fight and win, and I am still confused with my then inability to have conjured up a killer instinct to incapacitate him. I was of two minds during the incident, I wanted to punish him for shoving me, but I didn’t want to hurt him in any irreversible way. Gouging the eyes or punching his throat was off the table in my mind so I handicapped myself. And I didn’t want to hurt him so severely the police would get involved. I wasn’t willing to do what was needed even though he was? He was demanding money and he succeeded at partially beating me, but I didn’t necessarily think my life was at stake. Is that why the killer instinct never erupted?

Breaking down the actual fight. A Krav Maga instructor once told me the secret is “awareness and aggression.” Get on top of an assailant and pound them aggressively nonstop. A problem was my past training in several martial arts. I’m ashamed to admit that I know how to fight but not necessarily when the stakes are real. When adrenaline surges, my mind goes blank and blind, and I lose control of my limbs. I’ve always gone back and forth with my sparring partners rather than engaging in an asymmetric onslaught. It was practice so it made sense to prolong the exercise and try out different kicks, punches, grabs and flips. Unfortunately during an actual attack, stopping for a moment gives the assailant a moment to catch his thoughts and breath, and grab his weapon. I now lost the element of surprise and the opportunity for a barrage of aggression to subdue an assailant. I didn’t commit to aggression or self-protection.

As happened in my case, when humans sense danger, our amygdala initiates flight, fight or freeze. Unfortunately, freeze is more likely as the decision-making part of the brain – prefrontal cortex – is paralyzed by the surging adrenaline, pounding heart rate and rapid breathing. Physiology is our enemy if we are not psychologically prepared. I should have remembered to breathe to get back in control of my mind and body. Refer to the Tools as the end of this article for suggestions on how to get control of your mind and body.

Maybe I was naive due to overconfidence in my abilities and overconfidence in people’s humanity. Maybe I would have been safer if I underestimated people’s humanity and overestimated the potential for danger everywhere and from anyone.

Culture, History, Structure:

There are three issues I’m still trying to understand: the assault, the refusal to help and the laughing police.

In the case of the assault, the answer is probably simple, it was about money. Some villagers are grifters living off the Wall and any outsider must pay a toll whether legal or not. The village does not own the wall, no individual in the town owns the wall, and none of the “toll booths” were officially sanctioned, but they will make you pay regardless. Why a government body does not manage all parts of the Wall eludes me especially considering the unlimited reaches of State control in China. At least in the area I was, there were no official ticket booths.

The refusal to help is the most confounding. I was fully confident that if I had been assaulted then ran to a restaurant or hotel and asked for someone to call the police, no one would have ignored me in the United States or anywhere else in the world, but now I know differently. I already had a heads up that China could be different when it came to civic virtues. Before the trip, I read three books on China: “Age of Ambition,” “The 100 Year Marathon” and “China.” “The Age of Ambition” recounted a story about a two-year-old girl named Yue Yue who was hit then run over twice by the same truck and left ignored on the street by seventeen other people – including another truck driver who ran over her – before a rag picker, the nineteenth person, ran over to the child and called out to others. She was lying on a street crowded with shops on both sides and CCTV camera captured the entire incident and aftermath. The girl eventually died at the hospital due to her injuries. The story was absolutely unbelievable as I read it, but as I reflected on the story while sitting in the police station in Huanghuacheng, I realized that not being helped was the norm. If a little Chinese girl could be ignored by eighteen people why would an adult foreigner who didn’t have all her organs crushed merit any consideration? The question then and as I write this story is why did people ignore this girl and refuse to help me? Is it something about Chinese culture, something about the specific geographic area’s social norms, was it circumstantial, was it the remnants of communism? What was it? Is my assumption that the little girl should have been helped and that someone should have called the police when I asked, actually the wrong assumption?

Is not helping actually normal and not the other way around?

I recounted my story to an English backpacker I met while crossing out of China into Kyrgyzstan. He mentioned that he had read about the concept of “Guanxi” in a book he had read before embarking on his Silk Road trip and suggested that I read further on the concept to understand the incident. Guanxi is commonly translated as “connections” and generally describes inter-personal relationships outside of the familial and affection-based relationships. Guanxi is maintained through reciprocal benefits and is generally understood to involve loyalty and trust. Once a guanxi tie has been established, one is no longer a stranger but a part of an “in-group,” a part of someone’s social network. From my readings, I gather that guanxi seems to be an organizing principle of how people relate to each other, determine where obligations lie if any and facilitate the functioning of a community and society as a whole. I imagine that guanxi can be viewed as an evolutionarily benevolent community building principle where individuals who are known to each other and occasionally in contact can benefit, but what about the stranger? If I understand guanxi correctly, the logical conclusion is that people have no obligations to a stranger. Maybe no immediate or future benefit will personally accrue from helping Yue Yue or me, but how about empathy? Is that so difficult to summon? Is calling an ambulance or police such an inconvenient or time consuming or dangerous endeavor? While researching for this article, I finally watched the CCTV video of Yue Yue. It is absolutely horrific, not special effects for a film but an actual running over of a body and eighteen people averting their eyes to the aftermath. The horror is only compounded by some comments on Youku (China’s “Youtube”) where people defend those ignoring the plight of the little girl. The comments I read were translated into English. Again, I should be grateful that I wasn’t shot or stabbed where timely attention would have been critical. All I can ask is, what does it mean to be human? At least the nineteenth person who encountered Yue Yue would know.

A passage from the Economist caught my eye as I searched for answers:

EIGHTY years ago Lu Xun, now enshrined as the father of modern Chinese literature, observed that when others needed help his countrymen seemed to be stricken by apathy. “In China,” he wrote, “especially in the cities, if someone collapses from sudden illness, or if someone is hit by a car, lots of people will gather around, some will even take delight, but very few will be willing to extend a helping hand.”

I also wonder about China’s communist party’s effect on inter-personal relationships. Communism is an attempt at social engineering on a massive scale and there must be on-going impacts on people’s behaviors and values. Culture can be defined as the default mode or the narrow range off behavioral options that a person engages in but does structural change in the form of governance affect values and behavior of the affected population? Especially to make people less sympathetic, less empathetic and less trusting of others?

The Cultural Revolution in China officially kicked-off in 1966 and lasted through 1976 though elements were already active by 1962. Chairman Mao encouraged his citizens to root out bourgeois elements and any other counter-revolutionary attitudes, activities and even memorabilia. Students violently attacked teachers, neighbors and colleagues reported on each other, family members denounced other family members, and every social relationship was under the continuous strain of surveillance and distrust. People denounced each other to earn the trust of the state and to survive. The Red Guard – composed of students donning red armbands – aside from beating and murdering, drove out those deemed not politically reliable from cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. Violence, insecurity, mistrust, suspicion and justified paranoia engulfed the country and this allowed Mao to keep the citizens and especially his enemies insecure thereby solidifying his power. Did the Cultural Revolution leave a scar that literally beat out trust and empathy for others? Can that historical event and its consequences imprint itself into the minds and hearts of subsequent generations? I have scoured academic journals and the primary conclusion is that academics disagree on how much culture, a system of government or a national trauma directs or changes people’s values and behaviors.

If I use a proxy, such as Taiwan as a control subject, not subject to China’s communist party and compare it to Mainland China, I could conclude that the governance system affects values and behaviors. Aside from the indigenous people of Taiwan, the Kuomintang party and their allies who fled the mainland shared a history and culture with those on the mainland until 1949. Are the values and behaviors of those who fled the mainland and their descendants different from the mainlanders? At least based on my travel experience, I would answer yes. I do not have an equivalent traumatic experience in Taiwan to compare one-on-one with with my mainland experience, but to highlight one specific setting, I can say that generally in Taipei, people respected the signs above seats on the subway cars that reserved the seats for the elderly, infirm or pregnant women. The able-bodied wouldn’t sit on the seats even during rush hour when the cars were crowded. On the mainland, based on my observations, I often joked to myself, I could be a pregnant eighty year-old woman with two broken legs in casts but no one would bother offering up their seat to me even if they occupied the reserved seats.

I imagine the lack of empathy and trust works for China’s one state system. People without much consideration for others outside their own personal networks are less likely to unite with strangers on a common cause and for example oppose the political system or standup for oppressed minority groups. Whether it is the culture, history or governing ideology, it works for China. It sure didn’t work for me as a tourist in need.

Tools

Unfortunately, whether traveling near home or afar, a physical assault is possible so how can you better prepare yourself? The following are my thoughts:

Visualize bad situations and how you would handle them. This helps you “experience” the stress so you’re not overwhelmed and your brain doesn’t freeze when an actual situation occurs. Athletes and performers visualize to optimize performance, so you should imagine a threatening scenario and how you want to respond. Make it as detailed as possible so you can “feel, hear, taste, touch, see, smell” the situation and how you would respond.
Practice being an undesirable target. Do you generally appear confident, in your demeanor, in your walk? Is your face buried in your cellphone and not aware of your environment? Even a thug prefers a target they can easily beat up and steal from.
Be aware of your surroundings and conduct a threat assessment wherever you go. Never underestimate the potential for danger. A quick example from another backpacker’s story. I heard this secondhand from a backpacker I met in India. She explained that she had met a British woman on her previous train who had her backpack and her little fanny pack – with passport – stolen by an entire family. The victim was sharing a train compartment. A family – grandparent, parents and children – was crowded into her compartment and she shared snacks and stories with the friendly locals for several hours. Since carrying a large backpack into the train toilet was impractical, she felt comfortable asking the family to mind her belongings for a few minutes. When she returned, her bags and the entire family were gone. Never underestimate even a friendly family for their potential to do you harm. I’m not suggesting paranoia, more a wariness and awareness of people and context. Especially considering the likely economic disparity of an English backpacker versus a typical Indian family, the temptation likely exists for those already predisposed to take advantage of others.
Be honest with yourself about your own vulnerabilities and abilities. Maybe you like alcoholic beverages. Then consider moderating your intake when traveling alone so people can’t take advantage of you. If you are a solo female traveler, wear a fake wedding ring to ward off many unwelcome propositions. This works. If you think you are a decent fighter and not too concerned about threats, maybe you’re overestimating yourself. Something I learned after my China incident.
Assess an impending threat as life-threatening or not and respond appropriately. If several assailants have weapons, maybe it is wiser to just give up your passport and money without a fight if you believe that will preserve your life. But if the situation presents itself as one where your life is at risk regardless of whether you comply with their demands or not, then you should fight like hell. The mindset is key. If you decide you need to fight to survive, you must be prepared to live at all costs. That means gouging the eyes, punching the throat, pummeling the groin, kicking kneecaps and using anything at your disposal – backpack, pen, souvenir, plate, rock – to repel the attackers. Just to reiterate, I remember not “going for the jugular” during the attack because I didn’t want to permanently injure the guy attacking me. I actually thought that while he was whacking me and I was trying to figure out my counterattack in the following milliseconds. Normally I don’t think about or inflict potentially lethal wounds on another human being, but that mindset is for normal situations; when your life is threatened, those social norms and values can’t apply if you want to survive. I needed to overcome my hesitation and fear. I didn’t realize the weakness of my mindset until the incident and then reflecting on it while researching the psychology of self-defense once I returned home. One last reminder, to maintain control over your mind and body, breathe slowly to reduce the possibility of the “freeze.”

Chances are that nothing will happen to you when you travel abroad, but keep my case study and tools in mind in case you face foreign a**holes.