There is an old adage in Shanghai - "You should go outside and enjoy Spring, both weekends". Well, Spring is here in Shanghai and I'm trying to take full advantage of it. The weather is generally either hot or cold and always wet, except for a few magical weeks every year in the spring. The humidity is manageable and the sun shines and life is good. I love spring in Shanghai.
This is a sharp contrast to spring in Boston. In Boston I grumble for months on end about how much nicer it would be if summer would hurry and come; winter holds on, dumping snow well past it's expiration date while reminders of how great summer can be (baseball, sunshine, the odd warm day) only torment me as goals just out of reach. Spring is my least favorite season back home.
But in Shanghai it's lovely. I'm taking a trip next weekend to a nearby city, and this weekend I intend to go out and peruse some of the prettier parks in the city. The trees are all in bloom and the parks are bursting into a luscious green. I spent part of my Wednesday morning sitting atop the MoCA museum in the out door cafe, sipping fresh mango juice, overlooking People's Park, gazing at the sky scrappers beyond and recalling how I've only seen such a beautiful, well lit contrast of public greenery and private buildings of enterprise in only a handful of cities (New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo... and Boston), which I revere as the most fantastically wonderful cities on earth. I respect Shanghai, but that is quite noble company in my opinion.
So for now all is good. Shanghai is sunny and warm, the heat isn't oppressive, it's great. Somewhere birds are singing; Somewhere children shout.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Urban Bamboo Forest
For all the environmental flack China gets from the rest of the word, there is at least one resource the Chinese use creatively and efficiently - Bamboo. As a renewable resource, which can renew itself in a few days during the rainy season, bamboo makes for a wonderfully useful plant. Aside from appearing in numerous dishes (pork fried with oyster sauce and bamboo shoots is one of my favorite dishes), bamboo is widely utilized in construction, even in Shanghai. Rare is the ingredient which can be used to build the restaurant, then be used in that restaurants food.
It was yesterday, while I was on my way to fetch some of my favorite fried pork dish, that I happened to walk down a street near my office which seemed to have been overrun by a growth of bamboo. Every facade on the entire street was being re-done and the workmen were busy assembling scaffolding made from bamboo shoots. Ten meter long shoots were being tied together with extra long twist-ties. The scaffolding only stretched 3 stories high, but when erected on both sides of a narrow street for the entire block, it begins to feel rather encompassing. On each story of the scaffolding the floor was made of woven bamboo mats covering support shoots. And although the thought of twist ties holding together hundreds of pounds of bamboo balanced above my head was nerve wracking, the workers didn't seem to mind as at least a dozen bounded around on different levels, securing more shoots and ties.
It's not the first time I've seen construction in Shanghai using bamboo scaffolding. In fact it is so common in Shanghai I have more confidence in it than I do in the rusted metal poles which are used on occasion for taller structures (the awesome sky scrappers get proper professional scaffolding - we don't want those falling down). I have no idea what they do with the bamboo after it's used for construction. Perhaps they eat it.
It was yesterday, while I was on my way to fetch some of my favorite fried pork dish, that I happened to walk down a street near my office which seemed to have been overrun by a growth of bamboo. Every facade on the entire street was being re-done and the workmen were busy assembling scaffolding made from bamboo shoots. Ten meter long shoots were being tied together with extra long twist-ties. The scaffolding only stretched 3 stories high, but when erected on both sides of a narrow street for the entire block, it begins to feel rather encompassing. On each story of the scaffolding the floor was made of woven bamboo mats covering support shoots. And although the thought of twist ties holding together hundreds of pounds of bamboo balanced above my head was nerve wracking, the workers didn't seem to mind as at least a dozen bounded around on different levels, securing more shoots and ties.
It's not the first time I've seen construction in Shanghai using bamboo scaffolding. In fact it is so common in Shanghai I have more confidence in it than I do in the rusted metal poles which are used on occasion for taller structures (the awesome sky scrappers get proper professional scaffolding - we don't want those falling down). I have no idea what they do with the bamboo after it's used for construction. Perhaps they eat it.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Passport
If I were forced to choose a theme song, The Beachboys I Get Around might not be a bad choice. I have been blessed with the resources, education, family and desire not only to create, but to feed my wanderlust. If you haven't heard, I'm living in China now, but didn't always. I was fortunate enough to spend a year studying in London, running over Europe on my off days; and I've been privileged to see much of my fair country with both friends and family. And future travel plans aren't in short supply either, as I have made plans to leave my teaching gig here in Shanghai to depart on a 5 month bonanza vacation. Is it crazy to quit a job and blow so much money on travel during the worst economic crisis of my or my parents lifetime? Probably. Will I regret it? Probably not.
Americans, however are not expected to venture far from our shores. I say this because if you compare your US passport to those of most other globalized countries you'll quickly discover that we have significantly less pages in our passports than they do. We have more than enough room for stamps, but when countries decided to take up a full page with a visa, then a second with a residence permit (then another with a second residence permit), the pages start to disappear all too quickly (lookin' at you China...). In short, if you travel enough you're gonna need more pages added to your passport.
When I realized this fact last fall, I began to look into what steps I would need to fulfill to get these bonus pages. On the internet the prospect looked bleak, as I was only going to be home for a month over Christmas and the State Department said it would take up to 6 weeks to return it to me by mail, unless I expedited the work (at the cost of $60) and they'd have it back to me in 2 weeks - there was no 'in person' option. I had reluctantly resigned myself to spending 400 Kung-Pow Chickens on upgrading my travel papers when I learned of an alternative: the US Consulate in Shanghai.
Apparently adding pages isn't difficult. Less than half an hour after I arrived at the consulate, I was walking out with 24 fresh new pages in my little blue book, and I didn't even have to pay a dime! Covered with background landscape scenes from around the US, they were just stuck right in the middle of my old passport. Talk about expedited - 30 minutes and FREE! Needless to say I was excited, so I celebrated by throwing on some Beachboys and heading out for some Kung-Pow. It's amazing how bureaucratic rigmarole we go through for passports sometimes, and how easy they really can be to make and update.
Americans, however are not expected to venture far from our shores. I say this because if you compare your US passport to those of most other globalized countries you'll quickly discover that we have significantly less pages in our passports than they do. We have more than enough room for stamps, but when countries decided to take up a full page with a visa, then a second with a residence permit (then another with a second residence permit), the pages start to disappear all too quickly (lookin' at you China...). In short, if you travel enough you're gonna need more pages added to your passport.
When I realized this fact last fall, I began to look into what steps I would need to fulfill to get these bonus pages. On the internet the prospect looked bleak, as I was only going to be home for a month over Christmas and the State Department said it would take up to 6 weeks to return it to me by mail, unless I expedited the work (at the cost of $60) and they'd have it back to me in 2 weeks - there was no 'in person' option. I had reluctantly resigned myself to spending 400 Kung-Pow Chickens on upgrading my travel papers when I learned of an alternative: the US Consulate in Shanghai.
Apparently adding pages isn't difficult. Less than half an hour after I arrived at the consulate, I was walking out with 24 fresh new pages in my little blue book, and I didn't even have to pay a dime! Covered with background landscape scenes from around the US, they were just stuck right in the middle of my old passport. Talk about expedited - 30 minutes and FREE! Needless to say I was excited, so I celebrated by throwing on some Beachboys and heading out for some Kung-Pow. It's amazing how bureaucratic rigmarole we go through for passports sometimes, and how easy they really can be to make and update.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Camping in Shanghai
Things age faster in Shanghai. You know the old saying, "A 10 year old airplane is younger than a 1 year old computer"? Well a 10 year old building in Shanghai is older than a 20 year old building in Boston, or is that 30 year old building in Boston? It's hard to tell, but things here weren't built to last - and it shows.
I loose power in my apartment every 2 hours, and it doesn't even matter if anything is plugged in or turned on, it just goes off. Turning it back on isn't hard; I just need to walk to the circuit breaker and flick the switch back to on, but that's not the point. Everynight I go to bed knowing that shortly after I fall asleep my heater will switch off and I'll wake up shivering sometime early in the morning. I've drawn on my camping experience to prepare for the night, but this isn't Yellowstone, it's Shanghai! I'd point to this being a faulty switch, which I'm sure it is, but the curious part is that this is the 2nd (out of 3) apartments in which this has happened to me here. How hard is it to build circuit fuses that don't fall to the off position merely from the suggestion of gravity? Apparently hard enough.
In my office we've had the opposite problem: sweltering heat. The weather outside isn't that nice, still light jacket weather, but the office is t-shirt and shorts weather. The building administrator refuses to turn on the air conditioning until the outside temperature reaches a designated number, which it hasn't. Our classrooms, stuffed with 25 students turn into small ovens and we all bake, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be a huge concern to my bosses (and the teachers' office, which is hotter is even further from their minds). It seems unfair: I either freeze at home or melt at the office with no means of regulating the surrounding temperature - just like camping!
I loose power in my apartment every 2 hours, and it doesn't even matter if anything is plugged in or turned on, it just goes off. Turning it back on isn't hard; I just need to walk to the circuit breaker and flick the switch back to on, but that's not the point. Everynight I go to bed knowing that shortly after I fall asleep my heater will switch off and I'll wake up shivering sometime early in the morning. I've drawn on my camping experience to prepare for the night, but this isn't Yellowstone, it's Shanghai! I'd point to this being a faulty switch, which I'm sure it is, but the curious part is that this is the 2nd (out of 3) apartments in which this has happened to me here. How hard is it to build circuit fuses that don't fall to the off position merely from the suggestion of gravity? Apparently hard enough.
In my office we've had the opposite problem: sweltering heat. The weather outside isn't that nice, still light jacket weather, but the office is t-shirt and shorts weather. The building administrator refuses to turn on the air conditioning until the outside temperature reaches a designated number, which it hasn't. Our classrooms, stuffed with 25 students turn into small ovens and we all bake, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be a huge concern to my bosses (and the teachers' office, which is hotter is even further from their minds). It seems unfair: I either freeze at home or melt at the office with no means of regulating the surrounding temperature - just like camping!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Everybody is Irish (if they want to be)
Today marks my second St. Patrick's day here in Shanghai, and it simply pales in comparison to the festivities in Boston. If you went to school in Boston you KNEW when St. Patrick's day was because it was one of the biggest festivals of the year: Christmas, Your Birthday, St. Patrick's Day. Let's face it, there are a few finite rules to celebrating the holiday, which if obeyed will resulted in an awesome time had by all. 1) Everyone wears green. 2) Everyone claims to be part Irish (no exceptions). 3) Eat something Irish - an Irish fry-up or corned beef. 4) Drink good Irish beer. That's it. 4 Simple rules which, if followed, allow everyone to share in this special holiday. Yes, yes, I'm sure it's nothing like how the holiday is celebrated in Ireland (I imagine that none of the 4 rules actually apply) - but the beauty of St. Patrick's day is that its such an international festival. It's about inclusiveness and togetherness - We're all Irish Today.
I'm intrigued, especially on this most inclusive of holidays, by an advertisement for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai that airs everyday on the subway. Staring the incalculably creepy mascot Hairbo - who resembles the old Crest toothpaste mascot if he had been on happy drugs - the ad opens with this animated creature sways and waves from the hills of Tibet, while young children and women in traditional Tibetan dress excitedly run up and wave along side it. Next Hairbo appears in Xinjiang, the Muslim northwest province of China, amidst Persian looking girls in long flowing dresses dancing to rhythmic drums amids grape vines and feast filled tables. Finally, Hairbo is a giant, standing tall aside the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, peeking and waiving from behind the buildings, bridges and peaks of the stunningly beautiful city. All three places Hairbo promotes the World Expo are gorgeous - and I wonder if all 3 would rather consider themselves separate from China.
It seems strange to me that someone (the government?) is trying to create buzz and excitement over the expo in the same way it was created for the Olympics. For the Olympics, China's status as host to the world spurred patriotism and excitement, but how can it work again when the fact is that the expo won't generate half the buzz the Olympics did. I'd even go so far as to doubt the people of Tibet and Xinjiang know there still IS a world expo (did you?), let alone that it will be in China. Why do the advertisements for the expo revolve around fringe elements of Chinese society?
In light of St. Patrick's Day, when everyone is happy to call themselves Irish, this ad crashes headlong into a mental divide I cannot seem to bridge. The people of China, never mind it's government, will fight vehemently that these societies are part of China and that they always have been, yet at the same time they slight them at every chance they get, blaming them for all the crime and making it difficult to create upward mobility or move to cities. Maybe I'd feel better about it if my students didn't tell me Tibet is a dangerous place, or that most of the crime in Shanghai is from migrant Xinjiangnese, but as it is these 'Chinese citizens' seem to be disregarded as second class and only trumpeted when images of national unity are desired. No matter how great China claims to be, or how inclusive it tells it's people it is, I don't know of a holiday where people claim to be Chinese. Go Ireland.
I'm intrigued, especially on this most inclusive of holidays, by an advertisement for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai that airs everyday on the subway. Staring the incalculably creepy mascot Hairbo - who resembles the old Crest toothpaste mascot if he had been on happy drugs - the ad opens with this animated creature sways and waves from the hills of Tibet, while young children and women in traditional Tibetan dress excitedly run up and wave along side it. Next Hairbo appears in Xinjiang, the Muslim northwest province of China, amidst Persian looking girls in long flowing dresses dancing to rhythmic drums amids grape vines and feast filled tables. Finally, Hairbo is a giant, standing tall aside the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, peeking and waiving from behind the buildings, bridges and peaks of the stunningly beautiful city. All three places Hairbo promotes the World Expo are gorgeous - and I wonder if all 3 would rather consider themselves separate from China.
It seems strange to me that someone (the government?) is trying to create buzz and excitement over the expo in the same way it was created for the Olympics. For the Olympics, China's status as host to the world spurred patriotism and excitement, but how can it work again when the fact is that the expo won't generate half the buzz the Olympics did. I'd even go so far as to doubt the people of Tibet and Xinjiang know there still IS a world expo (did you?), let alone that it will be in China. Why do the advertisements for the expo revolve around fringe elements of Chinese society?
In light of St. Patrick's Day, when everyone is happy to call themselves Irish, this ad crashes headlong into a mental divide I cannot seem to bridge. The people of China, never mind it's government, will fight vehemently that these societies are part of China and that they always have been, yet at the same time they slight them at every chance they get, blaming them for all the crime and making it difficult to create upward mobility or move to cities. Maybe I'd feel better about it if my students didn't tell me Tibet is a dangerous place, or that most of the crime in Shanghai is from migrant Xinjiangnese, but as it is these 'Chinese citizens' seem to be disregarded as second class and only trumpeted when images of national unity are desired. No matter how great China claims to be, or how inclusive it tells it's people it is, I don't know of a holiday where people claim to be Chinese. Go Ireland.
Monday, March 9, 2009
A joke
In an effort to alleviate growing international criticism, the CCP decided to implement a new media relations strategy. For this purpose the government recruited the top young party members who had just recently received degrees in communications and political relations from top western universities to train the older members. One of these recruits, Li, was sent to work with old time party member Wong and his aid.
"Alright", Li said, "I'm going to ask a question and I want you to respond like I was a member of the media. What do you say to the allegations that China is among the worlds leading polluters?"
"How Dare You Insinuate that China is Responsible for Global Pollution! You must be banished to Xinjiang! No one will ever hear of you again! You worthless pig!", shouted party member Wong.
"No, No, remember we're working with the new media relations guidelines, you need to be more understanding", Li interjected. "Let's try it again. What do you say to the allegations that China is among the worlds leading polluters?"
This time Wong responded, "We understand that pollution is a concern for all growing and globalized countries. The government is issuing new regulations and working with companies to curb the impact China has on the global environment."
"That's great! We'll continue the training tomorrow", Li said as he left the room.
Turning to his aid, Wong asked what he thought of the training.
His aid responded, "It's good, but we'll have to send him to Xinjiang, he knows about the pollution."
"Alright", Li said, "I'm going to ask a question and I want you to respond like I was a member of the media. What do you say to the allegations that China is among the worlds leading polluters?"
"How Dare You Insinuate that China is Responsible for Global Pollution! You must be banished to Xinjiang! No one will ever hear of you again! You worthless pig!", shouted party member Wong.
"No, No, remember we're working with the new media relations guidelines, you need to be more understanding", Li interjected. "Let's try it again. What do you say to the allegations that China is among the worlds leading polluters?"
This time Wong responded, "We understand that pollution is a concern for all growing and globalized countries. The government is issuing new regulations and working with companies to curb the impact China has on the global environment."
"That's great! We'll continue the training tomorrow", Li said as he left the room.
Turning to his aid, Wong asked what he thought of the training.
His aid responded, "It's good, but we'll have to send him to Xinjiang, he knows about the pollution."
Friday, March 6, 2009
Tina's eggs are ready
If you've felt that I've been remiss in writing over the past few weeks, you are most certainly correct. My online time, and much of my life has become centered around farming. "Farming?", say surprised that anything can grow beneath Shanghai's rainbow of greys. Yes, online farming.
Recently a Chinese co-worker introduced a social website with a farming application to our office. Having spread like wildfire through the teachers' office, you're more likely to hear us discussing eggplants and pumpkins than exclamations and punctuation. Frankly, we're all obsessed.
The game is straight forward enough. You plant seeds in your plots of land, which then take somewhere around 24 hours to 'grow' before they are ready for harvest. You then need to harvest and sell your plants before anyone else can steal them. The interaction comes from being able to steal from each others vegetables if they're slow to harvest them, or put weeds and bugs in their crops to diminish their crops quality. The more money you have, and the more points you accumulate allow you to expand your farming empire, buying more land and even a cow for milk and a chicken for eggs.
Most of the past two weeks all office talk has centered around this game. What's the best crop to grow at different levels? Should you use the expensive fertilizer (which makes your plants grow faster) or the cheap stuff? Whose crops are ready to be stolen? Alliances have been built and trampled, but the general rule is if someone's crops are ready to be harvested and they're off teaching class... tell everyone else in the office so they can steal their crops.
I'd write more but I need to harvest my eggplants before anyone steals any.
Recently a Chinese co-worker introduced a social website with a farming application to our office. Having spread like wildfire through the teachers' office, you're more likely to hear us discussing eggplants and pumpkins than exclamations and punctuation. Frankly, we're all obsessed.
The game is straight forward enough. You plant seeds in your plots of land, which then take somewhere around 24 hours to 'grow' before they are ready for harvest. You then need to harvest and sell your plants before anyone else can steal them. The interaction comes from being able to steal from each others vegetables if they're slow to harvest them, or put weeds and bugs in their crops to diminish their crops quality. The more money you have, and the more points you accumulate allow you to expand your farming empire, buying more land and even a cow for milk and a chicken for eggs.
Most of the past two weeks all office talk has centered around this game. What's the best crop to grow at different levels? Should you use the expensive fertilizer (which makes your plants grow faster) or the cheap stuff? Whose crops are ready to be stolen? Alliances have been built and trampled, but the general rule is if someone's crops are ready to be harvested and they're off teaching class... tell everyone else in the office so they can steal their crops.
I'd write more but I need to harvest my eggplants before anyone steals any.
Monday, March 2, 2009
What a way to go!
As I've said, I didn't go anywhere over spring festival, instead choosing to relax and readjust to China by cooking and stuffing myself on home-made delicacies. My girlfriend and I took turns alternating as head chef each night, while the other usually arranged the side dish or something. One of our dishes we had planned to make was a succulent stew of chicken, olives and tomatoes. The problem is that much like Christmas, rather than going out to eat at a restaurant, everyone cooks for the festival. This meant that there was no chicken breast left on the shelves of Carrefour and we were forced to improvise.
Selecting to instead purchase a whole chicken, which we could quarter on our own, we thought we could save money and still have our chicken dinner. What we were slow to realize is that... they like to use more parts of the chicken than we do!
As we cut the chicken free of it's packaging the first glaring difference lay across the cutting board. It still had it's head. We had expected this and it had been made clear that severing the chicken's head from its body was a mans task, and that I would need to do it. Wishing I had a black robe and a guillotine (which would have made it much easier) I had to settle for a beer to calm my nerves before severance could be served. Then with one big whack (followed by a lot of smaller whacks and some sawing...) the head came free and was immediately bagged and placed in the trash. We had won, I cut off the monsters head!!
The second fear was that the bird would have all of its innards, a thought which almost lead me to despair before I realized that the bird wasn't stuffed with its organs (they're too valuable and are sold separately), but instead was stuffed with it's own feet. That's right, after they killed and shaved the chicken they shoved his feet up his butt. What a way to go! Removing the feet proved far easier, and after some discussion about saving them for a future broth, they joined the head in the bottom of the bin.
The dish turned out great. The chicken's dignity, not so much.
Selecting to instead purchase a whole chicken, which we could quarter on our own, we thought we could save money and still have our chicken dinner. What we were slow to realize is that... they like to use more parts of the chicken than we do!
As we cut the chicken free of it's packaging the first glaring difference lay across the cutting board. It still had it's head. We had expected this and it had been made clear that severing the chicken's head from its body was a mans task, and that I would need to do it. Wishing I had a black robe and a guillotine (which would have made it much easier) I had to settle for a beer to calm my nerves before severance could be served. Then with one big whack (followed by a lot of smaller whacks and some sawing...) the head came free and was immediately bagged and placed in the trash. We had won, I cut off the monsters head!!
The second fear was that the bird would have all of its innards, a thought which almost lead me to despair before I realized that the bird wasn't stuffed with its organs (they're too valuable and are sold separately), but instead was stuffed with it's own feet. That's right, after they killed and shaved the chicken they shoved his feet up his butt. What a way to go! Removing the feet proved far easier, and after some discussion about saving them for a future broth, they joined the head in the bottom of the bin.
The dish turned out great. The chicken's dignity, not so much.
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