Hard to believe it's been over a month since the last post. Things have been busy here and at the same time I've seen a ton of stuff to write about. Just in the last month the monumental task of seasonal garden bed change-outs and tree pruning on the boulevards has taken place. Imagine that every avenue in New York looked like Park Avenue and you'll get an idea of how fanatically proud the Shanghainese are of their city.
It's this pride that has been a real surprise to me. I grew up during the cold war and expected that the Chinese would be far more "Stepford" and mechanical in the dissipating shadow of the Cultural Revolution. If one is forced to achieve it is generally a soulless or apathetic proposition by virtue of deprived liberties. Even the lowest rung on the Shanghainese ladder, presumably the street sweeper, is fastidious about the quality of their work.
This leads to a much more bizarre conundrum as people ascend the ladder where it seems greed and cutting corners on quality are prized attributes that transcend pride and cross the territorial line into arrogance.
Evidence of the Chinese transition from third world to world power is apparent everyday in the form of decades old three-wheeled bikes hauling everything from recyclables, to water cooler refill bottles, to plate glass panes to who knows what all in the shadow of Shanghai Tower. The old is definitely being swallowed by the new.
On the home front, Amy our Ayi has settled into the new domestic routine, including cooking (... yes, Chinese food). The in-imitable Mr. Zhao, our driver has a new Ford S-Max (or as he says essa-maxa) that he operates with surgical precision. And the ships endlessly navigate the Huangpu as a testament to the voracious consumption here.
After three months of living here, if you asked me to
stick a thumbtack in the metaphorical corresponding spot on the
western time line it would have to be at some point during the creative
revolution of the late fifties or early sixties. A sexual revolution
reminiscent of the first wave of the British invasion is happening full
force. A retailer's poster that caught my eye sums up the new Chinese. It screamed in fluorescent colors (like a four-year old throwing a tantrum at the check-out line) "It's new. I want it!"
In the coming weeks I will connect these dots.
© 2011 Karl Shaffer
