Let me start by saying I’m no linguistic expert and I don’t feel that I have any facility with languages. In school I always did well and I enjoyed a lot of my classes, but there is something about learning a foreign language which, although fun and interesting, is particularly head ache-inducing. So after three years of working on my Spanish and only getting to a “survival” level of proficiency, I was not exactly looking forward to having to start a whole new language. But here I am in China and it seems just silly not to try.
Learning Chinese is very different than learning any European language. There’s the obvious problem of the alphabet vs. Chinese characters, but let’s not even go there. So far I’ve learned 2 Chinese characters - needless to say we don’t spend any time on that in class. Luckily for me, a long time ago some Western settler in China decided to develop a “translation” of the Chinese words into our alphabet. This became known as “pinyin” and although infinitely easier that learning by characters or just by ear, it still is not purely phonetic. You still have to learn how to pronounce each letter combination of which there are 24 vowels sounds and 23 consonants. Sounds like a lot, but a lot of them sound the same to me.
The next big hurdle are the tones. The tone is the inflection that you give to the vowel and there are four different ones: starting low and lilting up, starting high and going down, going down and them up, or just a flat, even tone. It’s what gives Chinese that kind of sing-song quality. It’s hard to explain in writing, but hopefully you get the idea. So basically for every vowel sound (remember, there are 24 of them!), there are four different tones for a grand total of 96!
So you can have two words that are spelled the same, but because of the tones are pronounced differently and have two totally different meanings. This is tricky and can get you into a lot of trouble. Memorizing what tone to use with each word is hard enough, but I also find it difficult to speak it correctly. After spending time with lots of people from all over the world, I’ve come to realize that Americans speak in kind of a monotone. We are not big on enunciation, use little or no inflection, and as a result, I almost feel embarrassed when I try to make those sounds. Strange to say, but it just feels weird and holds me back from using the language more.
But it’s not all bad news. Aside from the tedium of the pronunciations, Chinese is a very efficient, straight-forward language. Anyone who has ever tried to learn another language should appreciate this one: NO VERB CONJUGATION! I almost jumped up and cheered when I heard that one. The verb is always the same no matter who the subject or even what tense. Love it! Pronouns are always the same, too. None of this I/me, he/him. In fact, they don’t even have a separate “he” and “she”, it’s just the gender neutral pronoun “ta”. So of course there’s none of that feminine/masculine crap I had to learn in French and Spanish. Hooray!
I’ve just started my second session of classes and feeling a little more familiar with the language though I’m really not even up to “survival” level yet. My big problem is I don’t have anyone to practice with. The kids are no help and Russ is still working on counting up to ten. The only other person around is my driver, so I’ve been using my Chinese with him when I feel like it. He’s very good about not laughing at me (not too much anyway). But he’s a real quiet guy and there’s not much to talk about - his English is about as good as my Chinese so we can’t really chat. “Chatting” is a level well past “survival”. But I guess I must be getting better because one day he looked back at me and asked me a question in Chinese. My immediate reaction was “Oh, crap” because speaking Chinese is hard enough, listening and understanding it is still impossible. That shut me up for a while.
Even though I don’t expect to improve much, I do enjoy going to the classes. We very often get side-tracked into cultural discussions in which our teacher fills us in on fascinating tidbits about Chinese life and we can ask questions like “Why is it so hard to get a cold beverage in China?”(they believe cold drinks are bad for digestion) and “What’s up with all the spitting?”
So I’ll keep plugging away and hope we don’t move to Botswana next because this is it for me and languages - I mean it this time….
Monday, February 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Happy Chinese New Year!
Well, our New Year celebration is long over, but the Chinese are just gearing up for their biggest festival of the year. Just as Americans would consider Christmas our number one holiday with it being not just one day but an entire season, the Chinese have the lunar New Year (also called Spring Festival). The official New Year's day is January 26th this year, but as the date gets closer we hear fireworks pretty much every night and firecrackers during the day. The stores are packed with shoppers buying gifts, candy, and cleaning products (it is tradition to do a thorough house-cleaning before the holiday).
The celebrations start on the day of the first new moon of the new year when families come together to share a meal. This is also the biggest travel holiday in China. For many of the migrant workers who come to find work in the cities, it is the only time all year that they get to go back to the countryside to see their families. It all ends 15 days later with the full moon when they have a lantern festival with children carrying lanterns in a parade. All the days in between are designated for visits to various family members, friends, and temples to pray for good fortune and health in the coming year.
On December 26th all the Christmas decorations disappeared from town being replaced by red and gold banners, blooming azaleas (to represent rebirth and new growth), potted tangerine trees (a symbol of abundant happiness), and fish made out of embroidered red silk hung on front doors (see photo above). The Chinese word for fish (yu) is similar to the word for abundance so it symbolizes the hope for prosperity and many blessings in the coming year.
As with all holiday celebrations all over the world, food plays an important role in the festivities. For the Chinese, many of the foods selected are representative of various wishes for the new year: whole fish for togetherness and abundance, a whole chicken (with head and feet) for completeness, dried bean curd which is a homonym for wealth and happiness, etc. Noodles are prepared and eaten without breaking them to ensure long life. Dumplings, although a pretty typical meal any day of the year, are also eaten duing this holiday as dumplings are shaped to look like the ancient Chinese coins.
I may complain about Christmas being so commercial in the US, but it seems to me that in the Chinese customs, there is a lot of talk about money. Sure, I suppose "prosperity" could refer to non-material wealth as well - but there is plenty of mention of cold, hard cash. For the kids on Chinese New Year, their parents and relatives hand out red envelopes with money called hong bao.
I mentioned the cleaning before. One of the reasons to get all of your cleaning done before New Year's day is because it is unlucky to sweep for the first 5 days of the celebrations - the superstition being that you will sweep all of your good luck for the new year out the door. On New Year's day there is also to be no disparaging words or bad language and definitely no talk of death. There is also a belief that if you cry on new year's day, you will cry all year so the kids can get away with a lot of mischief since their parents don't want to scold them and risk making them cry. Hmmm...some cash and trouble-making with impunity vs. Santa Claus...it's a tough call.
This year is the year of the Ox, so any babies born this year are expected to be generally calm, patient, and hardworking. But on the down side they can also be stubborn and narrow-minded. Probably not a bad year to have a kid. You are an ox if you were born in 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, or 1997.
So Happy Lunar New Year everyone! Hope it's a prosperous one!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Culture Shock
Since moving to Shanghai six months ago, it’s been a whirlwind of getting settled: meeting new people, navigating the grocery stores, dealing with a new house and new school. So I haven’t had much time to really focus on this new culture I’ve been dropped into until now. There is something about this move that feels different than the move to Spain. I guess even though Spain was a different country, its culture was still closer to American than here in China. Asia is just a whole different ball game.
Of course there are the obvious things: the food, the language, the smells! But we have our rather large expat bubble in which to live our day-to-day. Lots of American food, restaurants, English-language books and services (much more than in Spain). We live in a resort-like neighborhood with lots of perks we never had at home. In so many ways we are actually pretty spoiled here and yet somehow it just feels different and it wasn’t always clear why until I got to take a step back and look at it from a distance.
We went away to Hong Kong over the Christmas break. Before our trip, whenever I told someone where we were going, they would sigh and say, “Oh, you’ll love Hong Kong.” This kind of surprised me because I always thought of Hong Kong as a big, crowded concrete jungle (I’m not much of a city person). And it is still China, after all, how refreshing could it be?
Well first off, it was more of a mix of Chinese and western cultures. Our perfectly lovely hotel was on “Dried Seafood Street” and stunk as much as any street corner in downtown Shanghai. On Lantau Island, not 200 yards from the remote Po Lin monastery (right under the giant Buddha) was a 7-Eleven convenience store. At Ocean Park we went to a stand where you could buy either a sno-cone or fried squid legs (the squid legs were far more popular, by the way).
But the thing that struck me, and I believe what appealed to my fellow expats, was that it was just so….civilized. People smiled and said please and thank you. They held open doors and never pushed or cut in line. There is a general courtesy and orderliness which is sorely lacking in the rest of the country.
It is actually hard for me to say this because I have always considered myself to be very respectful of other cultures and I hate to generalize. I try to put aside my own upbringing and look at life from someone else’s point of view. And China has had a rough time of it. A misguided and corrupt communist rule and the whole Cultural Revolution has certainly left its scars and led to a mentality of every man for himself. Yes, the country has had unprecedented economic growth in recent years, but old habits die hard.
So let’s not call this a criticism of the Chinese people, merely an observation. I think the best way to describe it is a basic lack of manners. It’s not that they are intentionally trying to be rude when they nose around in my grocery cart while waiting in the check-out line, or stare right at my face for an uncomfortably long time. Hacking and spitting in the street is perfectly acceptable (watch where you step!) as is shouting at perfect strangers in public over minor disputes.
There is a general lack of respect for any kind of order (as I said, it’s every man for himself) and with so many people, the end result is chaos. In the produce section of the grocery store you have to go to a station in the middle to weigh your purchases before going to the checkout. Well, of course, no one waits in a line, so you just have to shove your way in with the rest of them because if you try to wait your turn, you will never get served. More than once I have just dropped by bag of apples on the counter and walked away because it just got so bad and I couldn’t deal with the yelling and pushing.
The driving is also a good example. The rule of the road seems to be “if I can get there first, than I have the right of way”. Doesn’t matter who is supposed to yield, as long as you think the other driver can slam on his brakes and stop fast enough to avoid an accident, then you get to go first. And if you are a pedestrian, don’t step out into a crosswalk thinking the cars will stop for you because, believe me, they won’t.
It’s really interesting to see a culture that evolved completely separately from our own, to see that even though human nature may be the same, it can develop in a completely different direction. But interesting or not, some days it can be very exhausting, so I head back to my bubble for a while, rest up, and do it again another day.
Of course there are the obvious things: the food, the language, the smells! But we have our rather large expat bubble in which to live our day-to-day. Lots of American food, restaurants, English-language books and services (much more than in Spain). We live in a resort-like neighborhood with lots of perks we never had at home. In so many ways we are actually pretty spoiled here and yet somehow it just feels different and it wasn’t always clear why until I got to take a step back and look at it from a distance.
We went away to Hong Kong over the Christmas break. Before our trip, whenever I told someone where we were going, they would sigh and say, “Oh, you’ll love Hong Kong.” This kind of surprised me because I always thought of Hong Kong as a big, crowded concrete jungle (I’m not much of a city person). And it is still China, after all, how refreshing could it be?
Well first off, it was more of a mix of Chinese and western cultures. Our perfectly lovely hotel was on “Dried Seafood Street” and stunk as much as any street corner in downtown Shanghai. On Lantau Island, not 200 yards from the remote Po Lin monastery (right under the giant Buddha) was a 7-Eleven convenience store. At Ocean Park we went to a stand where you could buy either a sno-cone or fried squid legs (the squid legs were far more popular, by the way).
But the thing that struck me, and I believe what appealed to my fellow expats, was that it was just so….civilized. People smiled and said please and thank you. They held open doors and never pushed or cut in line. There is a general courtesy and orderliness which is sorely lacking in the rest of the country.
It is actually hard for me to say this because I have always considered myself to be very respectful of other cultures and I hate to generalize. I try to put aside my own upbringing and look at life from someone else’s point of view. And China has had a rough time of it. A misguided and corrupt communist rule and the whole Cultural Revolution has certainly left its scars and led to a mentality of every man for himself. Yes, the country has had unprecedented economic growth in recent years, but old habits die hard.
So let’s not call this a criticism of the Chinese people, merely an observation. I think the best way to describe it is a basic lack of manners. It’s not that they are intentionally trying to be rude when they nose around in my grocery cart while waiting in the check-out line, or stare right at my face for an uncomfortably long time. Hacking and spitting in the street is perfectly acceptable (watch where you step!) as is shouting at perfect strangers in public over minor disputes.
There is a general lack of respect for any kind of order (as I said, it’s every man for himself) and with so many people, the end result is chaos. In the produce section of the grocery store you have to go to a station in the middle to weigh your purchases before going to the checkout. Well, of course, no one waits in a line, so you just have to shove your way in with the rest of them because if you try to wait your turn, you will never get served. More than once I have just dropped by bag of apples on the counter and walked away because it just got so bad and I couldn’t deal with the yelling and pushing.
The driving is also a good example. The rule of the road seems to be “if I can get there first, than I have the right of way”. Doesn’t matter who is supposed to yield, as long as you think the other driver can slam on his brakes and stop fast enough to avoid an accident, then you get to go first. And if you are a pedestrian, don’t step out into a crosswalk thinking the cars will stop for you because, believe me, they won’t.
It’s really interesting to see a culture that evolved completely separately from our own, to see that even though human nature may be the same, it can develop in a completely different direction. But interesting or not, some days it can be very exhausting, so I head back to my bubble for a while, rest up, and do it again another day.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Third Culture Kids
I know I spend a lot of time talking about my observations of our host countries and my own experiences abroad, but I'm sure a lot of you are wondering, "How about the kids? She hardly ever talks about the kids!" Well, fear not, they are doing fine. But I thought I would expound on that a little since they are what some experts define as "Third Culture Kids", meaning they are being raised in a culture different than the one in which their parents were raised.
I remember back in Madrid a couple of years ago, I was sitting in one of those boring school orientation meetings and the principal recommended we all read a book called "Raising Global Nomads". "Because that's what you are all doing," she said, "You are raising global nomads." And I thought to myself, "No I'm not - we are doing one little stint here in Spain and then it's back home forever." So I certainly did not need any stinking books.
Well, here we are on our second assignment (and third continent) so I guess I can no longer deny that our lives are a bit out of the ordinary. Mostly they are very normal American kids - they have playdates and sleep-overs, they ride their bikes, go to Cub Scouts, watch cartoons. Yet every once in a while there are these moments, which are both strange and cool, when I realize they are not completely normal.
Sometimes it is something the kids say - and not what they say, but how they say it. It is not so unusual for Ian to make a sentence mixing 2 or 3 different languages. Since they are just starting to learn Chinese, he'll start out in Chinese, and when he hits a word he doesn't know, he'll say it in Spanish. We have some very surreal dinner conversations.
Tim has been somewhat resistent to learning other languages, so in his case he is influenced by the foreign English speakers, the British and Australians. He uses words like "quite", "indeed", and "properly" a little too often for a 6 year old. I hope it doesn't get him beat up back in the States.
Then there's the TV. Back in Spain, they were always walking around quoting their favorite Spanish commercials and here in Shanghai, for some reason Tim gets really annoyed with all the travel ads on CNN ("Not Malaysia again!"). Here we get a satellite feed out of the Philippines which has tons of US programming (more than we had in Spain, even) so they are watching a lot of the same cartoons they would watch in the States. But I had to laugh when, back in October, in between episodes of SpongeBob and Fairly Odd Parents, Nickolodean ran a segment called "How to Survive Ramadan" with the tagline "It's cool to fast!".
We constantly tell the kids that this is not a normal life and how very lucky and priviledged we are to have this experience. I do try to keep it real. I don't have a housekeeper like virtually all of the other expats do. The boys have to do chores and homework like we all had to do growing up. Then one day we were giving a ride home to Timmy's best friend (the most adorable little Japanese boy), who says something like, "If we had a race, my driver could beat your driver!" I had a sudden urge to go home and make them scrub toilets.
There are definitely times where I have to just give in to the fact that no matter what I do, these kids are being raised in a different environment that I was and there is only so much you can do - especially when they start to know more than you do. I make Ian present his homework to me every night to be checked. I was doing okay with the Chinese homework because I have been taking classes, too, and Ian usually just has to do some translation or draw pictures. Until one night when I look in the workbook to see an entire paragraph of just Chinese characters. I immediately closed the book, handed it back, and said "Looks good to me."
Although they are doing well and seem perfectly happy and well-adjusted, they are well aware that this is only temporary and they do look forward to being settled somewhere. Ian defintely wants to be back in America with family and our own house. I think Tim just wants to live any place where they only speak English and you get enough snow "to make a proper snowman" in the winter. I only hope that in the years to come when this is all a distant memory, they look back on this time and remember it fondly. By the way, I never did read that book.
I remember back in Madrid a couple of years ago, I was sitting in one of those boring school orientation meetings and the principal recommended we all read a book called "Raising Global Nomads". "Because that's what you are all doing," she said, "You are raising global nomads." And I thought to myself, "No I'm not - we are doing one little stint here in Spain and then it's back home forever." So I certainly did not need any stinking books.
Well, here we are on our second assignment (and third continent) so I guess I can no longer deny that our lives are a bit out of the ordinary. Mostly they are very normal American kids - they have playdates and sleep-overs, they ride their bikes, go to Cub Scouts, watch cartoons. Yet every once in a while there are these moments, which are both strange and cool, when I realize they are not completely normal.
Sometimes it is something the kids say - and not what they say, but how they say it. It is not so unusual for Ian to make a sentence mixing 2 or 3 different languages. Since they are just starting to learn Chinese, he'll start out in Chinese, and when he hits a word he doesn't know, he'll say it in Spanish. We have some very surreal dinner conversations.
Tim has been somewhat resistent to learning other languages, so in his case he is influenced by the foreign English speakers, the British and Australians. He uses words like "quite", "indeed", and "properly" a little too often for a 6 year old. I hope it doesn't get him beat up back in the States.
Then there's the TV. Back in Spain, they were always walking around quoting their favorite Spanish commercials and here in Shanghai, for some reason Tim gets really annoyed with all the travel ads on CNN ("Not Malaysia again!"). Here we get a satellite feed out of the Philippines which has tons of US programming (more than we had in Spain, even) so they are watching a lot of the same cartoons they would watch in the States. But I had to laugh when, back in October, in between episodes of SpongeBob and Fairly Odd Parents, Nickolodean ran a segment called "How to Survive Ramadan" with the tagline "It's cool to fast!".
We constantly tell the kids that this is not a normal life and how very lucky and priviledged we are to have this experience. I do try to keep it real. I don't have a housekeeper like virtually all of the other expats do. The boys have to do chores and homework like we all had to do growing up. Then one day we were giving a ride home to Timmy's best friend (the most adorable little Japanese boy), who says something like, "If we had a race, my driver could beat your driver!" I had a sudden urge to go home and make them scrub toilets.
There are definitely times where I have to just give in to the fact that no matter what I do, these kids are being raised in a different environment that I was and there is only so much you can do - especially when they start to know more than you do. I make Ian present his homework to me every night to be checked. I was doing okay with the Chinese homework because I have been taking classes, too, and Ian usually just has to do some translation or draw pictures. Until one night when I look in the workbook to see an entire paragraph of just Chinese characters. I immediately closed the book, handed it back, and said "Looks good to me."
Although they are doing well and seem perfectly happy and well-adjusted, they are well aware that this is only temporary and they do look forward to being settled somewhere. Ian defintely wants to be back in America with family and our own house. I think Tim just wants to live any place where they only speak English and you get enough snow "to make a proper snowman" in the winter. I only hope that in the years to come when this is all a distant memory, they look back on this time and remember it fondly. By the way, I never did read that book.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Shanghai Marathon
It was race day today! It all went great, but I'm also very glad it's done. Russ had a great day in the half-marathon, finishing just seconds over the 2 hour mark which was better than he had even hoped for. My time for the full marathon was 3 hours and 50 minutes - not quite as good as I was shooting for, but I'm still happy with it.
The morning started out very cold (the race started at 7:30 and my teeth were chattering at the starting line), but the sky was sunny and clear and it warmed up to be the perfect day. I have to say, as disorderly as China can be in some aspects (particularly the insane driving), the race was well organized and the participants were very civil. Maybe the lines of uniformed military personnel surrounding the starting line had something to do with it.
We started out in a nice spot: the first bit of the race was on a pedestrian road in the heart of one of Shanghai's touristy areas (Nanjing road) and went past the Jing'an Temple. But it didn't last - most of the race was on the highways or through some of the decidedly less scenic parts of town. But the locals more than made up for it by turning out in droves to cheer the racers on. There were numerous groups throughout the course: women in matching track suits or Chinese outfits chanting and banging drums or sticks, waving red scarves or Chinese fans, banging cymbals, and lots of people with those little plastic hand clappers. Some people even took it upon themselves to hand out water or candy or cookies. I couldn't understand what they kept chanting at us, but it was still really great.
I hit the wall somewhere around mile 20 (I think that's when most people start to fall apart). I worked through it somehow without walking too much at all, but by the time I finished I felt pretty ill - I didn't even want to wait in line to get my results certificate. I did, however, get my medal and goody bag as I crossed the finish. It's always fun to see what's in the bag - usually a bottle of water, an orange or a banana, and some promotional give-aways. In Madrid I got a beer, here in China it was a bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce, which is kind of strange because I've noticed they don't actually use soy sauce in China (at least not in Shanghai). I guess that's why it's a promotion.
I told Russ he can do the full marathon next year 'cause I'm done for a while. I figure that since I did one in Europe and one in Asia, maybe I can do one in the U.S. when I get home and then I'll quit (maybe)....
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Lanes of Old Shanghai
Hi Everyone!
Just wanted to share with you my latest outing to take a walk through the old Shanghai lane homes. The "lanes" refer to alleys of the city where many of the poor live. Why go there? Well, they are a small piece of history in this town that doesn't really have much history left and it is also a revealing look into its current culture.
Our tour guide was Gang Feng Wang, a rather successful photographer who was raised in the lanes of Shanghai. The lane houses were built around the 1920's and are of European design as this was when many westerners were settling in the town. Originally the houses were built and occupied by only the weathliest families, both Chinese and Western. They have mulitple stories with many rooms big enough to house a family which may have had multiple wives, children, and several servants.
But in 1949 when the Communists took over, the wealthy families fled China, taking only what few valuables they could carry. Even if they did stay and managed to avoid imprisonment (or worse), their houses became the property of the state who divided up the property among multple families so that now they had to share their big luxury home. In many cases, families were alotted just a single room to live and sleep in and they shared the kitchen and bathroom with their "neighbors".
Inevitably, these lanes became the cramped slums we see today. We actually walked into some of the homes (friends of our tour guide) to have a look around and it was shocking how cluttered they were as each family has so little space. Even though they didn't have much, there was hardly any room to put the things they did have. One house we went into was obviously once very grand with a huge foyer and big fancy staircase. But at the top of the staircase, the big landing overlooking the entryway was a turned into a make-shift panty and kitchen with rickety tables to hold all of the families' food and hot plates for cooking. The years of accumulated grease from frying had blackened the beautiful carved cieling.
There is hope for the people living there today thanks to the rapid development of Shanghai. Big developers are buying up property around the city and tearing down these old lane homes to make room for high-rise office buildings, hotels, and other commerical money-makers. A large part of the investment the developers put into these ventures is in buying out the current residents that are being displaced. They get 350,000RMB (about $50,000) per person to vacate - that is a huge windfall for these people who have never seen that much money in their entire lives. It is their ticket out of this life in the lanes, and those that haven't been bought out already are anxiously waiting for their salvation.
The only people who seem to care that a huge piece of history is being systematically demolished are the western expats and tourists. We are dismayed that nothing is being done to try to preserve and restore these architectual monuments. But the Shanghaiese seem to have no sentimentality for old things and there is no money to be had in restoration. Shanghai prides itself on being modern and progressive and so it is a case of go see it now before it is gone.
There is at least one lane that has been designated a heritage site and will not be sold for demolition. You can't help but feel a little conflicted about that - yes, we are saving a piece of history for generations to come, but it is just a building after all, and now the people living there have no hope of ever getting out.
Just wanted to share with you my latest outing to take a walk through the old Shanghai lane homes. The "lanes" refer to alleys of the city where many of the poor live. Why go there? Well, they are a small piece of history in this town that doesn't really have much history left and it is also a revealing look into its current culture.
Our tour guide was Gang Feng Wang, a rather successful photographer who was raised in the lanes of Shanghai. The lane houses were built around the 1920's and are of European design as this was when many westerners were settling in the town. Originally the houses were built and occupied by only the weathliest families, both Chinese and Western. They have mulitple stories with many rooms big enough to house a family which may have had multiple wives, children, and several servants.
But in 1949 when the Communists took over, the wealthy families fled China, taking only what few valuables they could carry. Even if they did stay and managed to avoid imprisonment (or worse), their houses became the property of the state who divided up the property among multple families so that now they had to share their big luxury home. In many cases, families were alotted just a single room to live and sleep in and they shared the kitchen and bathroom with their "neighbors".
Inevitably, these lanes became the cramped slums we see today. We actually walked into some of the homes (friends of our tour guide) to have a look around and it was shocking how cluttered they were as each family has so little space. Even though they didn't have much, there was hardly any room to put the things they did have. One house we went into was obviously once very grand with a huge foyer and big fancy staircase. But at the top of the staircase, the big landing overlooking the entryway was a turned into a make-shift panty and kitchen with rickety tables to hold all of the families' food and hot plates for cooking. The years of accumulated grease from frying had blackened the beautiful carved cieling.
There is hope for the people living there today thanks to the rapid development of Shanghai. Big developers are buying up property around the city and tearing down these old lane homes to make room for high-rise office buildings, hotels, and other commerical money-makers. A large part of the investment the developers put into these ventures is in buying out the current residents that are being displaced. They get 350,000RMB (about $50,000) per person to vacate - that is a huge windfall for these people who have never seen that much money in their entire lives. It is their ticket out of this life in the lanes, and those that haven't been bought out already are anxiously waiting for their salvation.
The only people who seem to care that a huge piece of history is being systematically demolished are the western expats and tourists. We are dismayed that nothing is being done to try to preserve and restore these architectual monuments. But the Shanghaiese seem to have no sentimentality for old things and there is no money to be had in restoration. Shanghai prides itself on being modern and progressive and so it is a case of go see it now before it is gone.
There is at least one lane that has been designated a heritage site and will not be sold for demolition. You can't help but feel a little conflicted about that - yes, we are saving a piece of history for generations to come, but it is just a building after all, and now the people living there have no hope of ever getting out.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
What can I say?
Although much of the time I feel like I'm safe in my little expat bubble over here in China, it is impossible to avoid certain disruptions to a "normal" life. I'm not just talking about tring to find decent napkins or having to pay $7 for a box of American cereal. There are much bigger issues that you run into and make you think "Whoa, I'm in China."
The whole milk catastrophe was one. We had not been drinking the Chinese milk to begin with, but now that the affected brands have disappeared from the shelves, all of the other brands have been bought up, too, and there is no more milk in the supply line to restock the shelves with. The stores are down to soy milk and fresh milk only. Ironically, we had been warned off of the fresh milk when we first got here because it has too many hormones in it. Oh well. I don't know what the hormones do to you, but I hope it's not worse than kidney stones.
I could go on about the health and ethical issues here, but I'm a little nervous about another issue: government censorship. As you may have heard, I cannot view my own website here. I can update it, but I'm not able to go directly to the website to view it like you can back home. We've discovered this is a China problem because whenever Russ travels on business outside the country, he is able to view it. The last couple days we were not able to view this blog, either. It's cleared up today, but we'll see for how long.
Another example came up with our TV channels. Our neighborhood sources its programming from the Phillipines and basically the only channels in English worth watching are International CNN and BBC news, Discovery, Nat Geo, HBO, and Star Movies. We also used to get Nickolodeon (cartoons) and Star World (sitcoms, etc.), but in the last few weeks, these last two channels went black. Then a few days ago we received a notice that these channels are illegal in China and will not be turned back on.
I don't know why it took this long to discover this or why it's happening now. Russ theorizes that they are gradually and methodically closing things down now that the Olympics are over and they don't have to keep up appearances of "openness" anymore.
It is pretty amazing how much the government can control information and make everyone believe what they want them to believe. This is not a very extreme example, but one day a while back, I ran into a Chinese woman who was looking for the bus stop. She had just come from giving a private Chinese lesson at someone's house in our neighborhood so I walked her over to the bus stop and we got to chatting a bit. I mentioned that my kids go to the American School and what a good school it was, etc. She asked if there were many Chinese students there. I told her that only expats can go there - you can only attend if you have a foreign passport. I also mentioned that the school is sponsored by the US State Department and she said (rather indignantly) "Oh, it must be that your government does not want to help the Chinese people so they don't let us go there." Then I gently explained that it was actually the policy of Chinese goverment keeping the locals out. She just said "Oh" with a very pensive, confused look on her face. I could tell she was going to be mulling over that one for a while because, of course, the Chinese are lead to believe that China is always good and right and America is the bad guy.
So take a moment to appreciate our freedom of speech next time you listen to world news or watch something smutty on TV and know that by the time you read this entry, billions of Chinese people may not be able to.
The whole milk catastrophe was one. We had not been drinking the Chinese milk to begin with, but now that the affected brands have disappeared from the shelves, all of the other brands have been bought up, too, and there is no more milk in the supply line to restock the shelves with. The stores are down to soy milk and fresh milk only. Ironically, we had been warned off of the fresh milk when we first got here because it has too many hormones in it. Oh well. I don't know what the hormones do to you, but I hope it's not worse than kidney stones.
I could go on about the health and ethical issues here, but I'm a little nervous about another issue: government censorship. As you may have heard, I cannot view my own website here. I can update it, but I'm not able to go directly to the website to view it like you can back home. We've discovered this is a China problem because whenever Russ travels on business outside the country, he is able to view it. The last couple days we were not able to view this blog, either. It's cleared up today, but we'll see for how long.
Another example came up with our TV channels. Our neighborhood sources its programming from the Phillipines and basically the only channels in English worth watching are International CNN and BBC news, Discovery, Nat Geo, HBO, and Star Movies. We also used to get Nickolodeon (cartoons) and Star World (sitcoms, etc.), but in the last few weeks, these last two channels went black. Then a few days ago we received a notice that these channels are illegal in China and will not be turned back on.
I don't know why it took this long to discover this or why it's happening now. Russ theorizes that they are gradually and methodically closing things down now that the Olympics are over and they don't have to keep up appearances of "openness" anymore.
It is pretty amazing how much the government can control information and make everyone believe what they want them to believe. This is not a very extreme example, but one day a while back, I ran into a Chinese woman who was looking for the bus stop. She had just come from giving a private Chinese lesson at someone's house in our neighborhood so I walked her over to the bus stop and we got to chatting a bit. I mentioned that my kids go to the American School and what a good school it was, etc. She asked if there were many Chinese students there. I told her that only expats can go there - you can only attend if you have a foreign passport. I also mentioned that the school is sponsored by the US State Department and she said (rather indignantly) "Oh, it must be that your government does not want to help the Chinese people so they don't let us go there." Then I gently explained that it was actually the policy of Chinese goverment keeping the locals out. She just said "Oh" with a very pensive, confused look on her face. I could tell she was going to be mulling over that one for a while because, of course, the Chinese are lead to believe that China is always good and right and America is the bad guy.
So take a moment to appreciate our freedom of speech next time you listen to world news or watch something smutty on TV and know that by the time you read this entry, billions of Chinese people may not be able to.
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