A Strand of Shanghai Pearls

Here are a few gems from my time in Shanghai:

· Winding my way through the small passageways of Old Town Shanghai, passing colorful shops and restaurants advertising such delicacies as “dumpling stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of crad (sic)” (thanks, I’ll pass, maybe another time), I came upon a huge tree filling a public courtyard. Large gold leaves were wired to its branches and a crowd of excited Shanghai citizens was gathered around to participate in a Chinese New Year’s ritual. They were buying bright red ribbons displaying gold Chinese characters and attached to metal coins. One by one they threw the ribbons up into the tree. Mostly they fell through to the ground but every once in a while, one would balance over a branch. The thrower would immediately scream with glee and jump up and down, old and young alike. It was not hard to figure out that the ribbons had been chosen for a particular wish for the new year and when they catching in the tree meant their wish would be coming true.
· Cyclists forced to commute in the rain have bright sapphire blue or emerald ponchos to protect not only them but their bike and its cargo. Each plastic covering has an opening for the face complete with a bill to keep the rain from your eyes. Then the poncho extends all the way down over the front of the bike, protecting the rider’s arms as well as the contents of the basket. A similar extension goes almost to the ground over the back fender. Motorbikes have a clear plastic square inserted in the front to let the headlight shine through. The gear reminded me of a custom-tailored expensive car cover.
· The PR person for the residential community we visited wryly responded to a question about the homeless we had seen on the street: “Oh course, technically in China there are no homeless people. Everyone is registered as a resident of his hometown. They have a home, they just aren’t in it.” He said that there were homeless support centers where, among other things, they called the person’s family back in the village and told them to come get him. Because this is a face-losing process for the person, the homeless people tended not to come to the centers. It wasn’t so much that they had left home in the first place but that the authorities were involved and called the family. Everything in China is based on where you are registered to live and work. I can only imagine what harsh rural conditions would force someone to place themself outside that system and come to the city. Shanghai has 17 million people!!! 14 million are Shanghaiese and 3 million are displaced people. Our guide readily admited that they are useful because they do jobs Shanghaiese don’t want to do “but we don’t need 3 million of them!” Sounds very similar to our immigrant labor force.
· Our time in Shanghai was extraordinarily wet and cold. Our vision of the city was hemmed in by the edges of our umbrellas and rain hoods. Bus windows were consistently fogged and each cityscape shrouded in mist and showers. Standing near the base of the Pearl Tower on Pudong, you could see only fog completely obscuring the top. Nevertheless, these intrepid travelers, our unstoppable SAS kids, plunged in and had myriad adventures. They explored, ate, shopped, clubbed, walked, rode every mode of transportation available and had a ball. One particularly miserable day, a group I was with did take warm refuge in the fragrant, bustling welcome of a Starbuck’s .Their stories are delightful and completely unmarred by the weather.
· A faculty member, Pat Curtin, and I spent a delightful morning at the Shanghai Art and Crafts Museum. Not only did they display exquisite examples of a wide array of crafts such as paper cutting, silk lantern making, embroidery and carving in every medium imaginable (some of the carving and drawing on ivory and bone was so small and intricate the curators had provided magnifying glasses to view it) but they also had a few artists demonstrating their skill. It was fun to admire their work in progress and see the real people behind the beauty. One woman was doing the kind of two-sided embroidery my family knows from the kitten screen in my parents’ house; her needle was at least half the diameter of a human hair. I am completely baffled by how they make the backside come out a different view – where are the knots?!?!
· A field trip about China’s one child policy was very enlightening. I had a lot of misconceptions that were cleared up. Many of the horror stories about this policy that we have heard about such as forced sterilization may have happened in the past and most certainly were worse in rural areas but the sanctions now are strictly financial if hefty. A family is penalized three times their annual income as a fine. However, the father does not get demoted, lose his job or get drummed out of the Communist party anymore. Formerly second children did not receive the free health care that first children did but that has been changed; they decided it wasn’t fair to penalize the child when it was the parents’ choice. They reported that the abortion rate was decreasing dramatically as people were embracing the policy. Of course, all this was from “official” spokespersons but I did get the sense that the Chinese approved the policy and were getting used to its effects, seeming to prefer those over the horrors of unchecked population growth. People reportedly even prefer girls because they are now more likely to take care of both their own parents and those of their husband.
· My favorite Shanghai experience was a feast prepared for us by a family in one of the modest residential blocks of which there are literally millions in the city. We were taken to the home of a retired chemical engineer and his wife. They were also babysitting an adorable six-year-old granddaughter because school was out for New Year or Spring Festival as they called it. The home was very small, much less than 1000 square feet but a large table with lazy susan had been set up in their living room. About 15 dishes were laid out on the table when we arrived: bright orange winter melon, sausages, sliced tomatoes, peanuts in a sauce with little bits of pork, roast duck, tiny boiled quail eggs and many more. Then from a minuscule kitchen paraded dish after dish of special delicacies such as stuffed mushrooms topped with a bright orange shriveled bean that we were told was Chinese medicine good for the heart, fabulously seasoned shrimp in a light batter, egg rolls, barbecued pork, small slices of baby eggplant with pork stuffing them lightly fried (my favorite), and so many more. We ate and ate and ate and just when we thought we would burst another tantalizing steaming dish would arrive. Our host and hostess did not sit with us but busied themselves attending to the serving and fussing over us. Our guide did sit down and told us fascinating stories. I asked if it was OK to talk about the Cultural Revolution and he said yes but that it was very complicated. He shared with us his views although he said it did not affect his family that much because they were rural uneducated people. He certainly advanced to a good career after it was over. I wish I could have questioned our host since he was of the professional class that was targeted. I saw him watching one of the girls and before we left he got up his courage to point to her blonde hair and ask “Is it real? Not dyed?” She said “Yes, it’s real” then under her breath, “Well a few streaks.”

My necklace of Chinese experience is much longer but I’ll stop here. Stay tuned for reports from Hong Kong, Viet Nam and Cambodia!