Shanghai Report #6 - "Everyday Life"

I woke up this morning and looked out our window, down into Zhabei Park, right below our apartment. At 7:00 a.m. there was already lots going on. People were talking, laughing, jogging, many were walking—some slow, some fast, some forward and some backward, some pushing babies in strollers. Folks were doing exercises of all types—stretching, hanging from a tree branch, one man was hitting a tree with both arms—outside of left arm, outside of right, then inside of left, then inside of right, while across the park a group were doing Tai Chi, moving slowly in various positions. Occasionally, someone does martial arts with a sword glistening in the sun. I could see badminton birdies flying through the air, as people hit back and forth to each other—not using a net. Every day, one man does at least 30-40 min. of vigorous exercises at a fence along the stream right below our apartment, rain or shine. Someone was playing a flute, with the music echoing around the park. Often we hear music which sounds Middle Eastern, and we have seen people dancing in colorful clothing.
This will be my last report, as we are heading back to Boise on December 16. We have had a very interesting time here in China, have seen amazing things, and learned much about China and its people, but it has not always been easy. It will be good to get home for Christmas. Some of you have commented that my reports seemed like we were on a terrific vacation, so I wanted to comment on that before we return. While we have had a great experience, never to be forgotten, everyday life here has not been a “vacation.”
Probably the most difficult thing is the language. We live in a regular, not upscale part of Shanghai, and on the street and in every shop the language spoken is Chinese. Sharon has been going to Chinese class and learned much but it still is difficult to have clear conversations. Nearly every time we go to eat in a little noodle or dumpling place or small restaurant we end up with something unexpected. We are trying to eat local and “get into” the level of the community, which means that many of the menus are only in Chinese characters, not even “pinyin” which is Chinese words spelled out. Some menus have pictures but it’s still difficult to tell exactly “what is that in the picture?” Going to the grocery store, you look at shelves of packages, but the writing is all Chinese characters—what is soap and what is shampoo, or conditioner, or lotion?
Even when the menu is partly in English (sometimes the items are listed in Chinese characters, with an English translation below) it is not always clear what you might be ordering. The other night we went to a Chinese restaurant we like a lot, and I wrote down some of the English translations of menu items. Here are some of the choices: (1) Sichuan fragrant little yellow croaker; (2) The Season Slightly Fries; (3) Steams the Young Lad Chicken; (4) Road Vegetable; (5) Does the Pot Goose Intestines; (6) BlackPepper Cowboy Bone; (7) Gold mushroom curry fat cow; and (8) Fragrant Spicy Bullfrog. Which one do you want? We heard that there is a municipal project to standardize translations of signs and menus. A big job.
Our small 600 sq. ft. apartment here is functional, the rent is reasonable, and is very close to Shanghai University. We must cross a busy street with no light so we negotiate traffic, often motorcycles and buses careening down the street, some “motos” going the wrong way. Things don’t always work smoothly. During our 3 months here: first the shower water was way too hot, then too cold; the bathroom door knob fell off; the light in one bedroom went out and since it was somehow built in to the wall, we needed a repair person to fix it; our broadband internet hookup required several people to come here and work on it twice; the heating system did not work and a repair person needed to work on it; the TV set would not turn on at all and the landlord came to work on it. All repair people speak only Chinese. In most cases, You Sha, the program director was our translator, and came over and helped or arranged for repair people to come—we would have been lost without her.
Sharon has done a great job of keeping me going. We have a washer in the apartment, but no dryer, so every few days she does laundry and then hangs it out to dry on the balcony of our apartment. Our kitchen is tiny—about 5 ft. by 3 ft. with almost no usable counter space—only one person can be in there at a time. We have no oven and only a 2 burner stove to cook on (only one burner works, neither does the fan), no dishwasher of course (except me) and the refrigerator is about the size that a student might have in a dorm room. We eat out in restaurants most nights rather than try to cook here.
We do have a TV, and a month ago we got cable with 60 channels, but 59 of them are in Chinese. The one English channel is government controlled, but does have some news (from the Chinese perspective). We do have a western style toilet in our bathroom—unlike most public bathrooms in China, where you use the “squat” method. We have a shower, but in order to get enough hot water, we must first turn on the sink water, which gets the water heater going, then we go turn on the shower. There is no central heat, and it is getting darn cold now—we are feeling chilled. We are wearing our sweaters and fleeces, mittens and even a stocking cap sometimes. There is an air conditioner/heater unit on the wall in the bedroom and another in the living room, and we are running them pretty much full time now—we’ll see what the power bill is pretty soon.
But we are having a great time overall—we’re not living in luxury but are experiencing life in a “real” Chinese neighborhood. The people have been quite friendly to us—workers in the shops we frequent often say “hello” or “ni hou” to us as we pass, and folks who can often try to speak some English to us in restaurants and on the subway. Some of the street food people recognize us now, smile, wave and say hello. After 5 or 6 nights of eating dumpings, noodles or other Asian food in our neighborhood restaurants, we take the Metro to a more upscale area for some pasta or burgers or pizza.
Last week we went to Hai Di Lao, a famous hot pot restaurant with You Sha, her husband and another couple. It was a huge place with sunken pots in the middle of each table, divided for two kinds of broth, one spicy and one more mild. You order various meats and vegetables, mushrooms, seaweed, tofu, bamboo, lotus and cook it in the pot at your table. Also, you make delicious sauces from about 50 different ingredients. It was a fun evening. In our neighborhood, you can buy almost anything on the street—freshly cooked stir fried dishes, shish kabob, dried fruit, kettlecorn and popcorn, pancakes, fish of all kinds and turtles as well as many kinds of milk tea, dumplings and delicious soup available in little stalls. Sharon saw someone selling live pigeons from a cage on the front of a bicycle.
Shanghai University was created about 10 years ago by combining 4 different universities and colleges. We are located at the “urban” campus in the city of Shanghai. Yesterday, Sharon and I visited the largest and newest branch, in an area called Baoshan, in a northern suburb. We took a bus from our campus, along with Prof. Zhan, a Chinese professor of Business and Economics, who teaches at the Baoshan campus. He also teaches a class on our campus, in English, to our USAC students. Prof. Zhan showed us around, and when he needed to go to class, he handed us off to two sweet female students, who continued the tour, then took us to their favorite restaurant—McDonalds—for lunch. The buildings are all fairly new and modern, and the library is 8 stories tall and very impressive. Prof. Zhan invited me to give a lecture to the International Business and Management students, and I agreed to do so next Monday—our last day before we fly home. It will be an interesting way to spend my last day. Last weekend, we also attended an erhu concert with highly skilled performers from a music university. Erhu is a two string violin like instrument--the body of the instrument is a small cylinder covered in donkey skin, and they hold the erhu upright. China has put emphasis on building architecturally interesting theaters and museums. It has been great to visit them. This concert was in the fantastic new Oriental Art Center in the Pudong district. Viewed from above, the Center is just like five blossoming petals, which constitute respectively the entrance hall, Oriental Performance Hall, Oriental Concert Hall, Exhibition Hall and Oriental Opera Hall, forming a beautiful butterfly orchid in full bloom. Glass and tiles are featured throughout.
Well, it is time to sign off, and go work on my final exams, which I will be giving, then grading, later this week. I hope you have enjoyed these reports, and I look forward to catching up with friends and family when we return to Boise next week.