thought it only appropriate to jump straight to Reflection Point
#8: Shanghaied!
Not since visiting my sister on the East Coast and going to New York
City have I felt so much like I was a hick from the sticks coming in
to see the big city as I did last weekend in Shanghai. Even after
much reflection (I don't call them reflection points for nothing :o) )
I'm not exactly sure why going to Shanghai was such a shock, though I
do have my ideas. First, even though I was told that Shanghai was a
truly cosmopolitan city I don't think I really believed it until this
weekend.
Since I have already been to Shanghai before, I already had in my mind
what to expect from Shanghai. The thing is that it was the first city
I ever saw in China so I originally had nothing else to compare it to.
Also, it meant that we didn't really explore it much since we were
still young, innocent, sheltered, non-Chinese speaking tourists being
shuttled around town by our Chinese teacher. Also, and this might be
obvious, but the things we saw last time greatly influenced my idea of
what Shanghai was—we went to the Shanghai Museum (which is full of
very interesting Chinese artifacts), had our meals in Chinese
restaurants, and saw the Bund (the main river that runs through town)
and the Oriental Pearl (the communist TV tower which has effectively
become the Eiffel Tower of Shanghai check out my
/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=juntis&password=32409174">photo
album for a picture of it). Those experiences combined to make me
think of Shanghai as a very typical Chinese city.
Even the things that I associated with the West that I knew existed in
Shanghai, like Pizza Hut (a fancy upscale version mind you) I can now
find in downtown Kunming, and this I think was the real problem—I was
tricked into thinking that Kunming was a cosmopolitan city now
because, unlike when I was here before, it now has things like
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and most importantly Carrefour, things that I
had associated with Shanghai before. Of course, what I had failed to
consider was that Shanghai was probably continuing to develop over the
two years since I've been there too!
In any case, my version of what Shanghai is was completely shattered
this weekend. First, I couldn't believe how big it really is. I know
I only had a chance to explore small parts of it last time, but I
didn't even begin to understand how much I was missing. The first
night we eventually managed to get to the Cotton Club where a live
band (that was half made up of ex-pats) was performing Bob Marley and
whatnot. The music and atmosphere were great, and I even was able to
find a real honest-to-goodness frozen margarita (which I had been
craving for ages. Neither Kunming or Taibei understand what frozen
means). Also, I think in that bar I saw more foreigners than I had in
the entire last month here in Kunming, and I live in the foreigners
compound here! Finally, I must admit that I spent the weekend getting
my fix of non-Chinese foods. We went to a great Indian restaurant, a
Brazilian restaurant (that had salad!), a Turkish restaurant, a Korean
restaurant (although we've got our share of decent Korean food here in
Kunming), and even a Mexican restaurant. It was spectacular.
Also, I think it was the little differences that struck me most. In
Kunming we only have hot water from about 7PM to 12PM. In Shanghai we
could take showers whenever we wanted because there was hot (and by
hot I mean really really hot, hotter than we get in Kunming) water
24/7. And like other big cities, the people were actually quite rude.
The first night, we had a streak of only interacting with really rude
Chinese people. The guy who checked us into our rooms for example was
a complete jerk—so much so that one of my friends, Aaliyah, wanted to
just leave. I think the real problem was that we made him put away
his calligraphy and actually have to do work…this guy was actually so
lazy that when we paid him he essentially told us to give him round
numbers of money so that he wouldn't have to make change, and that we
could get the change upon checking out (when he wouldn't be dealing
with it!). Getting taxi drivers to stop was even a problem for us.
They just didn't want to have to deal with foreigners, and we got
several drivers who waved us away as we were approaching their empty
cabs! This was so surprising because in Kunming, and most other
cities in China, if a taxi driver sees a laowai walking down the
street they slow down and sometimes stop for you even if you don't
want them.
Now that I've rambled on for some 800 words, I suppose I should
actually tell you what I was doing in Shanghai. Whitman sponsored all
of the Whitman in China teachers to go to a conference held by the
China Teachers Consortium about teaching English in China. Our other
Kunming friends here that are teachers from Oberlin also went. It was
interesting meeting lots of other teachers from around China and
hearing some about others experiences, but overall I was disappointed
with the conference. Only about a quarter of the presentations we had
were actually good, which also was a surprise. I guess I expected
professional conferences to be worth my time. I guess you learn a lot
during your first year as a professional. My general feeling was "why
should I take advice from people that can't even teach themselves?"
So, oh well. At least I got to see Shanghai.
As for the one really touristy thing that I did there, it was to go to
the Shanghai Art Museum. Generally speaking it's an okay art
museum—mostly has modern art. I certainly preferred the Tate Modern
in London, but there was one exhibit that made it very worthwhile.
Basically, there was a field of belts hanging from what looked like
small fans on the ceiling. They were hanging at about waist height,
and were in a loop parallel to the floor, so it looked like there was
just a bunch of invisible people there. The really cool part though
was that they were all attached to some sort of sensors and all turned
so that the belt buckle was facing you. It was SOOOO creepy to move
and have a field of belts all turn and face you! Take a look at the
picture
so that this kind of makes sense.
And finally, I know that this was a good long entry, but I'll leave
you with some Meaningful Morsels for Monday about the grand Shanghai:
1.5 million- The number of people that Shanghai plans to move out of
its downtown area by the year 2010.
600,000- The number of foreigners that currently live in Shanghai.
0- The number of times somebody dazedly looked at me and said "Look, laowai!"
1- The number of times I went karaokeing in Shanghai
10,000- The number of Jews that took the Chinese government up on the
offer of immigration without official travel documents during WWII and
moved to Shanghai.
45 yuan- The cost of my most precious frozen margarita. That's about
$5.60, or a little bit less than what I make an hour.
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