Most of us woke up to a beautiful rosy sunrise yesterday at 4 O'Clock a.m. - those of us who hadn't woken up already at 1 O'Clock a.m. anyway. After a continental breakfast at the top of the hotel, which overlooks all of Shanghai, our tour guide picked us up and whisked us away for our first true day of exploring China. Our bus is called The Golden Dragon. There are lots of golden things here - the Golden Panther restaurant, The Golden Lion gate, bridge, bank, etc. It is making me a bit wistful for a Golden Nugget breakfast back in Chicago - but I digress.
Three words to describe Shanghai so far: Bustling, Eclectic (this one's Garrett's), and Whimsical. You see red paper lanterns, stone figures, and Chinese characters against grand modern architecture, extraordinarily vertical sky-scrapers lit-up like pop-rocks candy, little old ladies group exercising to Rihanna songs in the park, and Nike signs. Lots of Nike signs. There is always a background noise of construction, tires screeching, and horns honking.
It is a bit like the Chinese calligraphy we saw in the Shanghai museum (a mammoth structure built to resemble an ancient bronze cooking pot) some of it is elegant, some aggressive, some soft and feminine, some formal and inscrutable.
At first appearance, there is little to distinguish Shanghai as part of a Communist country. More than anything there is the general hustle of urban living. But then there are the little things that come up to remind us. We have internet access at our hotel and yet we are unable to pull up any of the live news feeds from the U.S. And today while exploring the alleyways and canals in Tong-li, the water village two hours outside of Shanghai, I found a stall carrying stacks of copies of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book.
I also found out that young and educated Chinese people do not like to talk about politics, particularly in public. As our tour guide described it, people are free to express what they like, however; saying something negative about the government or about the situation in Tibet, for example, can result in a "black mark" on your reputation which can haunt you if you ever attempt to get a government job. The wife of an ex-pat friend now living here said, "We don't care about politics, we just want to make sure we can have a good life".
These days, it seems this sentiment could be voiced by many Americans as well.
Am loving these posts - especially when they contain Golden Nugget and pop rocks references. It sounds like you all are having the most amazing time. I hope the next few days of rehearsals and taking/teaching classes go well and that enough energy is left to keep exploring that amazing country!
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