Shanghai carries two nicknames. Paris of the East for its glamor, tree-lined alleys, and image of China's Westernized future. Whore of the Orient because it was teeming with brothels under Western occupation in the 1800s and early 1900s. Today, the latter name reflects the city's insecure identity. Driven by Shanghai's nouveau riche, it tries to outwest the West—it's NY/Paris/London, “with Chinese characteristics,” which is the term the Chinese append when they borrow from the West, and then endeavor to make it theirs.
Shanghai is supersized: at 20+ million inhabitants it’s China’s largest city (no small feat). Each year, an estimated 1 million additional migrant workers arrive. The city already boasts massive Western-style shopping malls, 6 stories tall, replete with the Rolexes, Armanis, Ferraris, and, most importantly, Cold Stones. Still, construction is booming. Every hour or so you hear what sounds like distant machine-gun fire; it turns out to be collapsing bamboo scaffolding after they finish with construction, which is what they use for all but the tallest buildings. I love the fella in the photo on the top left leaning on his shovel, seemingly saying, "Yeah, I single-handedly built this city. So what?"
The unfettered expansion has some nasty side effects. Pollution creates grey skies some days (though it’s just fog if you believe the authorities). Thankfully, I don’t feel it when I breathe, as I could in Beijing last fall. I just hope it isn’t silently ravaging my lungs when I jog or play fútbol. Mercifully, the XuJiaHui campus is an oasis of tranquility amidst this bustling city.
For this California boy, the biggest concern is the cold… brrrrr. My iGoogle homepage, which lists the temperature in Shanghai and Petaluma, is depressing—there’s routinely a 20° F differential. I’ve never before endured a cold winter: if I don’t survive, tell my sister that she can keep my room in the house for good. The saving grace is that, at the peak of the freeze in mid-Jan to mid-Feb, I’m fleeing for a one-month semester-break jaunt to tropical Thailand and Laos--scuba diving, turtles, and mermaids included. Hot.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the Chinese artist Yang Liu’s work on the differences between the
East and West (click for link). Cliched, yes, but largely true.
Shanghai carries two nicknames. Paris of the East for its glamor, tree-lined alleys, and image of China's Westernized future. Whore of the Orient because it was teeming with brothels under Western occupation in the 1800s and early 1900s. Today, the latter name reflects the city's insecure identity. Driven by Shanghai's nouveau riche, it tries to outwest the West—it's NY/Paris/London, “with Chinese characteristics,” which is the term the Chinese append when they borrow from the West, and then endeavor to make it theirs.
Shanghai is supersized: at 20+ million inhabitants it’s China’s largest city (no small feat). Each year, an estimated 1 million additional migrant workers arrive. The city already boasts massive Western-style shopping malls, 6 stories tall, replete with the Rolexes, Armanis, Ferraris, and, most importantly, Cold Stones. Still, construction is booming. Every hour or so you hear what sounds like distant machine-gun fire; it turns out to be collapsing bamboo scaffolding after they finish with construction, which is what they use for all but the tallest buildings. I love the fella in the photo on the top left leaning on his shovel, seemingly saying, "Yeah, I single-handedly built this city. So what?"
The unfettered expansion has some nasty side effects. Pollution creates grey skies some days (though it’s just fog if you believe the authorities). Thankfully, I don’t feel it when I breathe, as I could in Beijing last fall. I just hope it isn’t silently ravaging my lungs when I jog or play fútbol. Mercifully, the XuJiaHui campus is an oasis of tranquility amidst this bustling city.
For this California boy, the biggest concern is the cold… brrrrr. My iGoogle homepage, which lists the temperature in Shanghai and Petaluma, is depressing—there’s routinely a 20° F differential. I’ve never before endured a cold winter: if I don’t survive, tell my sister that she can keep my room in the house for good. The saving grace is that, at the peak of the freeze in mid-Jan to mid-Feb, I’m fleeing for a one-month semester-break jaunt to tropical Thailand and Laos--scuba diving, turtles, and mermaids included. Hot.
Finally, I’ll leave you with the Chinese artist Yang Liu’s work on the differences between the East and West (click for link). Cliched, yes, but largely true.
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