Hello from Shanghai, China!
Sorry for the lack of pictures - I can't actually access my blog. My brother (love you, Conor) was kind enough to put this up for me. The censorship wasn’t even an issue the last time I was in China. It’s gotten worse since then. Blogspot, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube have all been totally “harmonized” (tongue-in-cheek Chinese slang for “censored.” People also use “river-crabbed” online, which is a near-homonym – 和諧 he2 xie2 vs. 河蟹 he2xie4 ).
My first couple of weeks in Shanghai have been excellent. I live in a flat in a very Chinese section of town with three roommates: a British girl from Nottingham, a Norwegian girl from a rural village, and a boy from New York City headed to Brown next year.
I started work at the Shanghai BoAi center the day after I arrived. Its name (博愛 bo2 ai4) translates to “fraternal love” or “universal love” in Chinese. It’s a fitting name for a non-profit organization that provides full-time care for children and young adults with mental handicaps, physical disabilities, or, in a few cruel cases, both.
The work is intense, but it’s very rewarding. The kids at the center all call me “foreigner older brother” (外國哥哥wai4 guo2 ge1 ge1) – even those older than I!
Now, about Chinese New Year. It was wild. Most of the city shuts down when the immigrant population leaves for their hometowns across China. The only restaurant open for the past two weeks was a noodle restaurant owned by members of the Islamic Hui people. As a result, I ended up eating in a Muslim restaurant before heading out to watch fireworks on one of the two big nights of Chinese New Year. After eating dinner with my Chinese friends in Morocco on Eied (a major Muslim holiday), it was definitely a full-circle moment.
My first couple of weeks in Shanghai have been excellent. I live in a flat in a very Chinese section of town with three roommates: a British girl from Nottingham, a Norwegian girl from a rural village, and a boy from New York City headed to Brown next year.
I started work at the Shanghai BoAi center the day after I arrived. Its name (博愛 bo2 ai4) translates to “fraternal love” or “universal love” in Chinese. It’s a fitting name for a non-profit organization that provides full-time care for children and young adults with mental handicaps, physical disabilities, or, in a few cruel cases, both.
The work is intense, but it’s very rewarding. The kids at the center all call me “foreigner older brother” (外國哥哥wai4 guo2 ge1 ge1) – even those older than I!
Now, about Chinese New Year. It was wild. Most of the city shuts down when the immigrant population leaves for their hometowns across China. The only restaurant open for the past two weeks was a noodle restaurant owned by members of the Islamic Hui people. As a result, I ended up eating in a Muslim restaurant before heading out to watch fireworks on one of the two big nights of Chinese New Year. After eating dinner with my Chinese friends in Morocco on Eied (a major Muslim holiday), it was definitely a full-circle moment.
Guidebooks tell you not to visit China during the two weeks of festivities. If possible, I’d recommend you do. I was fortunate enough to experience a Chinese New Year during my junior year in Beijing, and I was crazy-go-nuts overjoyed to have the opportunity to take in a second one. There are two nights where everybody in the entire city sets off fireworks. At once. This comes after a week-long buildup where people set off all kinds of pyrotechnics on the street. I’m not talking about firecrackers (though you do get plenty of those). I mean gnarly ones that shoot up and explode and spray flaming colors everywhere - front yard, broad daylight.
The city feels uncannily like what a warzone should for the duration of the holiday. Firecrackers, off in the distance, ring like gunshots (or really heavy rain, if you’re inside). The smell and smog of gunpowder flood the streets. Large booms shake the air and set off car alarms. To top it all off, most stores are empty. Then, you see people walking around with large stalks of cabbage in bags flash you a grin and teenagers giggling into cell phones.
I was fortunate to be on a rooftop 30 stories above the madness on the Chinese New Year’s Eve. It looked like the entire city was getting bombed, but not from the skies above, but from the street level. Every building was bathed in conflicting tones of purple and green, in red and yellow, as the thick clouds of gunpowder smoke grew more luminous, they thickened with every new firework. There isn’t anything else like it on the planet – believe me, I’ve looked. I’d go on, but I took 10 minutes of video : D I’ll upload that as soon as I get my systems for working around the Great Firewall of China.
The city feels uncannily like what a warzone should for the duration of the holiday. Firecrackers, off in the distance, ring like gunshots (or really heavy rain, if you’re inside). The smell and smog of gunpowder flood the streets. Large booms shake the air and set off car alarms. To top it all off, most stores are empty. Then, you see people walking around with large stalks of cabbage in bags flash you a grin and teenagers giggling into cell phones.
I was fortunate to be on a rooftop 30 stories above the madness on the Chinese New Year’s Eve. It looked like the entire city was getting bombed, but not from the skies above, but from the street level. Every building was bathed in conflicting tones of purple and green, in red and yellow, as the thick clouds of gunpowder smoke grew more luminous, they thickened with every new firework. There isn’t anything else like it on the planet – believe me, I’ve looked. I’d go on, but I took 10 minutes of video : D I’ll upload that as soon as I get my systems for working around the Great Firewall of China.
This city is incredible. Beijing feels like a clash between the new and the old China. Shanghai (so far) appears to be a more peaceful overlay of the East and the West. There are entire blocks in the French Concession that looked plucked right out of Paris. That said, the European illusion falls apart pretty quickly once you see (ironically enough) one of the million Chinese-ified pseudo-French bakeries.
So there you go. I’ll keep you updated. : P
Happy Chinese New Year!
So there you go. I’ll keep you updated. : P
Happy Chinese New Year!
