BAP Initiation

We had our Beta Alpha Psi initiation ceremony, pledging season ended, and officially added a 135 new members to our organization last week.  Initiation itself was pretty intense; we had some big people come, like the head of US recruiting for Deloitte, so E-board was even more focused on perfection than they usually are.

This just put added pressure on me, because as one of the pledgemasters, I had to give a speech to the new member class in front of everybody.  Typically it's the chairs who do the speech (I'm just a member), but both of them had class that time so Steph and I had to get on stage to do it.  I was pretty worried about how my speech would sound, but I got good responses from everyone once it was over so I must have done pretty well for myself.  Steph talked about our time as pledgemasters overseeing the candidate process while I focused on the future and their involvement in BAP.  It's a pretty short speech, but still something I feel is worth sharing.

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From the beginning to the end, I have been amazed at the level of dedication and initiative you all have shown throughout the semester, from engaging yourself in becoming ready for the professional world to the enthusiasm you have shown doing community service. I am honored to have served as your Candidate Master. However, your involvement in Beta Alpha Psi doesn’t end here. As members, not only are you now representatives of this organization, but you are the heart of this community. An organization is more than just workshops and speaker events; it is a group of people who collectively share one purpose, one goal.


PAUSE


To give back to the community. An organization is only as strong as the dedication of its members, and you now are the future of Beta Alpha Psi. Armed with the knowledge Beta Alpha Psi has given you, I hope that motivates you to give back, as future leaders, mentors, and members, so that future BAP candidate generations will be even stronger going forward; so that they may have the same great experience that you have had.


-Emoinacloset

Martial Arts at People's Park

Another paper for my Shanghai Global City class. This was supposed to be a group paper, but I ended up writing 90% of it, which I was alright with because I just tackled it like a blog post. Hopefully all of you will find it as interesting as I did.

- muffinman

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At the heart of Shanghai lies People’s Park, an oasis of recreation and calm is surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the surrounding People’s square. In the small exercise corner of this park, our group discovered the martial artists that call this park home. Our research group set out to learn as much about these recreational martial artists in People’s park as we could.
On our first day of field work, our group wandered to the exercise equipment area, where we observed various individuals striking the trees repeatedly. Puzzled by what we saw, we approached these individuals, all male and around the age of forty, and asked them what they were doing. The first man that we talked explained that the reason that he was hitting his knuckles against the tree was to strengthen them. When he showed us his knuckles, they were all perfectly aligned presumably from his training. He explained to us that he practiced a “san da” style and that there were masters teaching on Sundays at nine o’clock in the morning. The second man that we talked to was also hitting a tree but was doing it with his forearms rather than his knuckles. Like the first man, he was hitting the tree to strengthen his body. The goal was to hit each of his forearms three hundred times against the tree every day. He went more in depth about the teaching that occurs on Sunday mornings, explaining that there were four main styles being taught at People’s park.

We arrived at People’s park at 9:25AM on a sunny Sunday morning and as soon as we entered the park, we spotted the first group of martial artists. At first we only noticed a small group of six or seven martial artists who were practicing with the master. It was very easy to pinpoint the master out of the group as he was the one leading the routine, as well as correcting the students’ posture and footwork. The group of students were predominantly male and well into their forties or fifties. On the sides watching the students, were other martial artists who were stretching and socializing. Further away, there were a group of younger students who were practicing something that looked like a different style, but we could not spot the master.
We approached one of the individuals on the side, a man in his forties dressed in a white martial arts uniform and asked him about what he was doing in the park today. Needs more info (Max) The man confirmed to us who the master was and named the style that he was teaching.
Next, we approached the only foreigner in the group of students, an Australian male in his forties. The Australian had been practicing with this specific master for three and a half years, though he has practiced martial arts prior to becoming this master’s student. He trains to improve his health and flexibility, claiming that it has helped him find balance and keeps him centered in Shanghai’s fast paced lifestyle. The Australian comes to the park to train with the master four to five times a week in the morning before going to work.

The Australian student gave us good understanding of the structure of this master’s teaching as well as how martial arts are taught in the park in general. The master teaches seven days a week from 6:30AM to 4PM, though these hours are subject to change at the master’s discretion. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest and also the most relaxed and social. Most students who come, stay for about two hours. According to the Australian, the master is world-renowned for his technique. The master travels and teaches around the world at various times of the year. The Australian told us that foreign students will raise funds to have the master come and teach in their home countries, something, which the Australian has done more than once.

As for his own martial arts experience with this master, the Australian explained that the master is very old fashioned. The master’s teaching style is reminiscent of kung fu movies, where students are told repeat a simple move over and over again, only being taught something new when the master has decided that the student had mastered the technique. The Australian told us how he practiced walking around in a circle for two months before being taught a new a technique. The younger students who we initially thought were doing a different style were actually new students who were just practicing one technique repeatedly, most likely for two months, before moving on. The students that we saw doing a routine with the master had at least one year of experience.

In the park, the teaching of martial arts is completely recreational and is often done for the health benefits. There is no application, or sparring, done in the park. Classes are taught in Mandarin, but there are many foreign students who do not speak any Mandarin and learn through mimicking, though according to the Australian, some styles are not as foreign friendly. There are at least half a dozen masters in the park and all of them have some fame. Permission must be granted by an unspecified group before being able to teach in the park. The masters all hang a small banner to show that they have permission to teach. Every year, all the schools come together and perform in the main area of People’s park.

After talking to the Australian, the rest of my group left while I stayed behind at People’s park. I walked around a little and watched the other masters’ teaching. One group particularly drew my interest, because it seemed the most practical. Their strikes and movement were all very direct as well as the master taking great care to explain the theory behind the movements. I saw the heart that the master had for his students, much more so than the first master that I watched, this master had a brand new female student, who was performing horrendously. Nonetheless, he took much care and patience in teaching her, which was very admirable.

Seeing the martial arts in People’s park gave me a whole new perspective about the place. Just when I thought I had seen all there was to offer at this old park, I discover a whole new subculture that I had completely missed.

Major and Minor Characters

With less than a month left for this semester, this entry about the characters in my Shanghai life cannot wait any longer. Now you can put a face to a name when you read it!

Major Characters


Jeanni

The angel during my first 48 hours in Shanghai and now my big sister, hopefully for life, Jeanni is the closest thing I have to family here in China. Our shared interest in all things out of the ordinary, along with her daring and heart always makes her a welcome addition to anything I do, but you already knew that if you have been reading my blog posts because she sure shows up in a lot of them. Even though she never seems to have time for me anymore (or as much time as I want) Jeanni still manages to take care of me, which I am thankful for. Looking forward to starting a chapter of a nonprofit with her in the coming months and, of course, going to try hard to keep in touch with this amazing girl once she leaves Shanghai.



Crystal

My go to girl for whenever I need company for an adventure, Crystal always seems to have free time and the willingness to do something,. There were a couple of weeks when I spent nearly every day with her because she was always available to explore. As a person, Crystal manages to be a walking contradiction. She is openly opinionated yet frustratingly secretive, often quite bold but other times very shy, and most intriguingly, shamelessly brash while having a huge heart. As a friend, Crystal is one that can always be counted on, as evidenced by her willingness let me pass out drunk in her bed with a broken heart. With this in mind, it looks like I have another good friend in New York, watch out Emoinacloset you have some competition now.



Linda

Hands down my favorite person out of the whole UC program, Linda is the down to earth architect from Berkeley who I always feel comfortable talking to. It is actually a shame that I did not start getting close to her till so late in the semester. She has some great insight and I wish I had more time to dig out more of it. At times Linda has been known to be very direct, but whenever I seem upset by something she said, she quickly takes it back and passes it off as a joke, a sign of her soft heartedness. If fortune allows, I hope to run into her again once I get back to the states.


Minor Characters


Varun

The big brother in the apartment, Varun cooks, cleans and keeps me on the level. In many ways Varun is Jeanni’s foil and has kept me firmly grounded during my stay in Shanghai. It was him who knocked some sense into me when I hit rock bottom in Shanghai. Despite being a fairly safe guy, Varun does have some mischief in him, which makes him a willing participant to some of the dumb things that I do. With the addition of Varun, it looks like I am fast building an international family.



Elena

Innocent, shy and sweet are the words that come to mind when I think of Elena, coincidentally those are also the words that least describe me. So it is no small wonder that I am able to have hours long conversations with this foil of mine. Elena’s youth (just a sophomore!) hides much wisdom and in many ways she reminds me of Ellie, just younger and less experienced. Look for Elena to start showing up in blog posts when I get back to San Diego.



Nick

I am not quite sure how to describe Nick other than constantly shifting. Nick acts very differently depending on who he is around so my experience with him ranges from annoyance to appreciation. A self proclaimed follower, Nick is wherever the action is, which surprisingly means that I am around him a lot.

-muffinman

Meeting with Uncle Edward

While on a class tour of the French concession, I received an unexpected call.  It was the man who lent me his driver when I arrived in Shanghai, and who was supposed to have met up with me two months earlier.  Not holding any grudges and very curious as to why he was calling me, I picked up the phone.  Turns out Uncle Edward, wanted to have dinner with me that night!  Despite being a bit annoyed at the last minuteness of the invitation, I nonetheless accepted because I was curious to meet this man who has helped me so much and who claims a close connection with my family.  Uncle Edward picked me up at the end of my French concession tour at Tianzifeng, where I was contemplating what to talk to him about.  The dinner conversation went off without a hitch and I actually learned quite a great deal from him.

Uncle Edward took me to a Hong Kong style café/restaurant which I was extremely grateful for.  Shanghai food just does not compare to Hong Kong food and my attempts at getting decent Cantonese food have all ended in expensive disasters.  That night was the first night in Shanghai where I had a proper pineapple bun, none of that Taiwanese imitation garbage that is 85 Degrees.  The meal itself is worth writing about because it was just such a great break from the meat heavy and vegetable-less food I had gotten accustomed to.  By Hong Kong standards, the meal itself was just mediocre and the price was astronomically high for the type of food that we ordered, which could be had in Hong Kong for half the price.  Thankfully, Uncle Edward picked up the tab adding another thing to the list of things that I was grateful for that night. 

It turns out that Uncle Edward has an extremely long relationship to my Dad’s side of the family.  In fact, my grandma had specifically told him on the phone to take care of me while I was in Shanghai and to make sure nothing happened to me.   Starting all the way from elementary school, he was friends with my aunt.  As a child, he was invited to a lot of family outings as friend of my aunt’s and he has many memories of spending time with my grandparents, aunts and uncles.  He recalled times of visiting and playing at the old family home in Hong Kong and taking part in barbeques by the beach.  Uncle Edward also told me that on two occasions after college, he had stayed over at the family home while visiting Hong Kong.  As a result of this long standing relationship, my grandma was very close with his parents as well.  The most interesting part of hearing all these stories was not the fact that there was this significant family friend lurking just around the corner, but hearing that my dad’s family actually acted like a family.  Looking at the present state of my dad’s side of the family now, I cannot have imagined that they had these fun family outings that Uncle Edward was telling me about.  It gives me hope that things can be reversed. 

While asking Uncle Edward what exactly it was that he did for a living, I gained some insight into how Singapore society works.   As a Singapore national and an employee of a state owned company, Uncle Edward had a unique insight to share.  In the US, state owned companies are often vilified to be badly run and doomed to failure, however, in Singapore’s case the opposite is true.  Singaporean state owned companies are models of efficiency and industry leaders.  Uncle Edward tells me that the firm that he works for runs a tight ship and that being state owned actually gives the firm an advantage in the field.  Especially in China, honesty in business dealings is very important and an honest reputation is something that many Chinese companies.  However, as a Singaporean state owned company, Uncle Edward’s firm has that reputation for honest dealings that is so in demand.  He says that often times his firm gets projects not because they necessarily have the most talented people, but because clients can trust the company.

Uncle Edward also went on to explain why state owned companies are so excellently run and how the executives of these companies are groomed from birth by the state.  It starts in the schools, where the most brilliant children are separated from the rest into elite institutions.  The Singaporean government invests heavily in their education system.  After grade school, young men are conscripted into the military where they are further separated.  The ones who show the most promise are chosen to be officers and given leadership training.  The most brilliant minds are kept in the military for national security purposes, while the rest are released from the military to continue their education.  The Singaporean government covers all the expenses of its students and actively pays for its citizens to study abroad.  Those brilliant minds that were kept in the military are further groomed for high posts in the military.  High ranking members of the military are forced to retire at a relatively young age at forty something and then are shuffled to either state owned corporations or other high government posts, which ensures that their talents are well utilized and at the same time allowing a new generation of leaders and new ideas.  This whole system of taking care of its citizens and providing opportunities for them breeds loyalty to the state, allowing the authoritarian Singapore government to maintain its power.  All in all, it is a very interesting system that seems to be working wonders for this small island nation.

The most fascinating thing that Uncle Edward said that night had to do with his Malthusian explanation of Chinese people’s behavior.  When I said that I found Chinese people to be a bit more rude than Hong Kong people, Uncle Edward said that this was due to their past, where they had to be rude to survive.  He explained that with so many people in China and such limited resources, the Chinese are always competing to survive and that being civilized meant you missed out on resources.  Continuing, he said that even during this time of plenty in China, the rudeness is still present because it is left over of an era of scarcity.  This tied directly into my observations of how Hong Kong was a lot more efficient than China in almost all aspects.  Uncle Edward contends that China’s inefficiency is state created through the need to keep unemployment low in order to maintain power.  He says that the Chinese government over hires the amount of workers needed for the job and at the same time resists mechanization. Though I do not necessarily agree with his explanation, it certainly opened my eyes to a different perspective.  Also I can see some merit to his argument that the Chinese government demands the hiring of more workers than is efficient in order to keep its populace employed and happy. 

Thanks Uncle Edward for the great dinner conversation.  I look forward to meeting you again, whenever that might be.  Please keep dropping that knowledge.    

-muffinman

Qi Li’s Freshman Performance

In the morning I boarded the bullet train back to Shanghai and when the city came into view I felt a great sense of relief to be back. Never have I been so glad to get back to a city. I did not think that I was going to be able to make Qi Li’s performance but a last minute correction on the time of the performance meant that I would make it back to Shanghai with time to spare.

When I got back to my apartment, I took a shower, packed my camera bag and headed off to the Fudan freshman dorms. As I approached the commons building, I was not sure what to expect, feeling that the whole event would be a bit awkward for me due to the fact that I would be surrounded by freshmen and not be able to communicate to boot. I spotted Qi Li as soon I entered the building and he promptly showed me to the seat that he had saved for me and introduced me to his classmates, some of whom spoke Cantonese and all of which knew some English.

Qi Li explained to me the nature of the performance. The performance, which is more accurately described as a variety show, was similar to the silly ice breaking activities that all freshman in the US and probably around the world are forced to do. Freshmen were separated by the buildings that they lived in and then further separated into groups by their room numbers. This show comprised of all the freshmen in Qi Li’s dorm. A graduate student was in charge of organizing the show and helping the freshmen. The acts performed included skits, singing, dances and even a Taekwondo demonstration.

What struck me about the show the most were not the quality of the performances themselves but rather how they demonstrated the maturity level of the Fudan freshman. To be frank, I felt like I was watching a bunch of middle school kids rather than freshman in college. Almost every student was shy and awkward up on stage. Their innocence could be seen in their interactions with the opposite sex. Whenever the boys and girls had to touch each other, it could be seen that they tried to maximize the distance between their bodies. Coming from the states, where middle school students grind on each other during school dances, this awkward distance was quite hilariously endearing.


Notice the distance

I experienced this awkwardness first hand when Winter invited me up on stage for a game. For the game, one female and one male student were paired up and they had to carry a cup full of water back and forth across the stage. The catch was that it had to be done with a student biting down on opposite sides of the cup. The girl that I was paired up with was so shy and embarrassed that we could barely play the game. She just kept laughing, blushing and looking towards Qi Li with a menacing glare for pairing her up with me. Interestingly Qi Li, won that game in a very convincing fashion.


That cup game

Winter and three other students were the MCs for the show. I was very impressed with Winter because he single handedly carried the show with another girl. He exuded confidence and charm throughout the show. During the show, I saw that Winter was quite the hit with the girl. Whenever he went up on the stage to give the girl performers balloons, representative of flowers, the girls would blush and giggle as he approached them; and then blush and giggle even more once he hugged them. The girls’ innocence were on full display whenever Winter was on stage, and it was quite the cute sight.


Winter MCing with three other students


Before


During


After

Qi Li’s dance performance was hilarious and quite impressive. He showed the most confidence out of the whole group and genuinely seemed to enjoy it. Qi Li’s performance ended with him pretending to kiss another male student on the lips. Talk about confidence.


Qi Li dancing


A second before the "kiss"

At the end of the show, I walked away satisfied with my choice to come back to Shanghai. I had met a lot new freshmen, some of whom spoke excellent English, and got a sense of what a typical Fudan student was like. My psychological anthropology professor was right, a lot can be teased out through the observation of expressive culture.

-muffinman

Fudan Freshman Performance Album

Suzhou and almost Wuxi

Over the moon festival weekend, I joined some of my UC friends on what was supposed to be a two day vacation, but I got so fed up with the poor planning that I simply returned to Shanghai after the first day.

The day began early as we made our way to the Shanghai railway station at some ungodly hour that I do not quite remember. Half of the group for some reason had decided to stay up most of the night and only got around three hours of sleep. We took the bullet train to Suzhou, cut the trip down to just thirty minutes and for just 41RMB ($6) it was quite a deal.

When we arrived in Suzhou, we took taxis as close as we could to the hostel. On the way to the hostel we got sidetracked buying Suzhou style moon cakes at a bakery that was famous for them and it had quite the line to back up that reputation. Initially, I was going to pass on the moon cakes because I had tried them back in Shanghai, but I figured I am in Suzhou and these are Suzhou style moon cakes so I should probably try them. This of course turned out to be the correct decision, because those moon cakes were pretty amazing and much better than the ones I had in Shanghai.


Suzhou style moon cakes

The walk to our hostel was quite beautiful. We made our way through narrow alleys that ran alongside canals. I had imagined Suzhou to be a sleepy canal town, which is what I saw while walking, but the crumbling buildings and murky water took away from the beauty I had heard from my parents and tour books. From the outside, our hostel did not look like much but once I entered, I was struck by the place. The antiquated look and layout of the hostel made me fall in love with it. I felt like I had walked into one of those ancient Chinese drama sets. In addition, it was extremely clean and cheap as well. However, while checking in, I fell asleep sitting down which marked my energy level for the rest of the day.


Walk to the hostel


Our hostel

The next stop was the tourist center of Suzhou, because we needed a map and a destination since unbeknownst to me, we had nothing planned. After some wrangling, we settled on visiting one of those ancient Chinese gardens that Suzhou was so famous for. The garden itself was somewhat dull. Some parts of the garden were pretty but there was nothing that really took my breath away. Except for the behavior of the Chinese tourists who seemed to have free reign over the entire garden. In the states, I am used to there being designated walkways and clearly marked paths for tourists visiting a historical site. This was simply not the case at the Suzhou garden as tourists wandered everywhere and climbed every rock and crevice imaginable. I wonder how long the garden will last if tourists keep treading everywhere.


Garden

After the garden, we spent another long while deciding where to go. Eventually it was decided to visit the largest pagoda in Suzhou. This sounded intriguing at the time but once I arrived and scaled the pagoda, I realized that there was nothing to it but a great view of the city. Climbing down from the pagoda, I was starting to get frustrated with the huge crowds of tourists everywhere, and I expressed to Linda about my wish to find a place that has a traditional Chinese feel to it without being touristy. I wanted to find a place in China similar to those small European towns which still had their traditional feel. Linda told me such places have most likely all disappeared, but I still have hope.


Largest pagoda in Suzhou


Great view of the city

The last attraction we went to was a site where the last remnant of the city wall and gate were preserved. When we arrived, we discovered that it was much more than just a wall but also a whole section of preserved and rebuilt ancient buildings. We arrived about half an hour before it closed, meaning we had the place all to ourselves, which was a welcome change from all the crowds. The wall and gate themselves were nothing to write home about it, and it was only once the sun went down that the place’s beauty began to show. As the whole place was lit up with lights, everything just seemed magical. I do not understand why they close so early because things look a lot better at night than during the day. This last attraction was by far my favorite and a good way to end an exhausting day of sightseeing.


A beautiful sight with the sunset



The gate and wall were the least interesting part of the attraction


Everything gets better when lit up with Christmas lights

Finding a restaurant for dinner took forever to get to due to even more indecisiveness and this was when my patience finally wore out. When we finally decided and found a restaurant, the meal itself was good. We ordered a fish that Suzhou was famous for, which was good but nowhere near as good as Cantonese seafood. After dinner, my attitude towards the whole trip just got worse and everybody noticed it. Nick found it all quite hilarious, telling how he saw my attitude progress from tolerant, to annoyed and then finally to fuck everybody and everything.

At the end of the night, as the trip “planners” talked to the hostel owner about Wuxi, the lack of planning became more apparent. I predicted a disastrous day so I made up my mind to leave and go back to Shanghai the next day.

Thankfully I had a backup plan which was to watch Qi Li’s freshman performance.

-muffinman

Suzhou Album

Moon Festival with new Friends

Winter invited me out to lunch for the moon festival, little did I know that I was going to be spending the whole day with him and his friends.

Nick, a UC Irvine student, and I met up with Winter at nearby restaurant. Winter arrived with a group of his high school friends and interestingly, two of the girls that came with him were dressed in military uniforms. Nick commented that meeting girls in military uniforms in the middle of Shanghai could only happen when he hung out with me.


Uniforms?!

The uniforms intrigued me as well because I had seen students at Fudan wear military uniforms and I had heard from a Fudan MBA student that students were required to undergo military training at some point during their college years. The two girls in uniform attended Jiatong University, which is also in Shanghai, and they told me that freshman have to go through mandatory military training for two weeks. “Military training” was explained to me as a lot of running and marching, which all the students apparently hated. This was far from the strict military training I had imagined, though after a second thought, I cannot imagine Fudan students doing any sort of hard military training.

The girls Winter brought with him were fascinated with me and Nick, which led to some pretty interesting moments. At first everybody was a bit shy, but as I began to ask questions, the conversation started flowing. I learned their strange English names of which Beryl and Shining were the two names that stood out. It seems that some family member chose their English names and I believe they had no idea what they were doing. Lunch conversation veered onto the topic of dating and relationships as they always seem to. Winter and his friend spoke of having multiple ex-girlfriends, which was extremely surprising and made me out to be the inexperienced one at the table.


Group picture

After lunch, there was talk about going to karaoke (KTV). I had never gone KTVing before and was actually quite nervous about it. I have an irrational fear of singing and dancing, which has carried over from god knows when. To make matters worse, Nick left me as soon as we arrived at the KTV place because he had only slept a measly three hours and suddenly felt sick. The whole KTV was embarrassing, as expected, with me singing terribly off key, and not knowing the words to many of the English songs I selected. It was still good fun and the other people were very encouraging and kind, easing the blow to my pride a little. I am not sure why, but it seems that Chinese students are all quite decent at KTV. Maybe they practice a lot? Especially the girls, they were extremely impressive in all the songs that they sang. After my first KTV experience, I swear I am never going go through such an ordeal again sober.


She was the best out everybody, if only I remembered her name


Not quite sure how this happened because I can barely understand mandarin

After KTV, we went back to their dorms, and I got see firsthand the normal student dormitories. Their dorms were about the size of my room, except that they crammed four people into them. Suddenly my dorm room in San Diego seemed luxurious. After KTV, I also began to notice that Beryl was a little bit too interested in me. I could never escape from her for too long and at times it got awkward. Nick later agreed that she did seem far too interested.

We ended the night with dinner at Ajisen, a Japanese ramen chain, after meeting up with Nick again, and some other UC students. What I thought was going to be a lonely moon festival, turned out to be one of the most interesting and hospitable days I have had in Shanghai.
I think I can check off meeting and befriending local students off my Shanghai to do list after today. Who knew I would accomplish that goal so quickly?

Moon Festival Album

-muffinman

Spinning Plates

It's hard to find time to blog when you have to make sure your spinning plates don't fall to the ground.

That being said, it's a bad excuse to say the reason I haven't been blogging for the past three months is because I've been too busy. But one thing leads to another -- you get caught up in one thing, and then another and another and pretty soon time goes by just like that. After not blogging for so long, it's hard to get back into the habit. It's a shame because there's so much that's happened so long ago, I can't possibly remember every detail that's happened, every moment that's impacted me. Even during the times I was busy, stressed, or going through some dilemma I should have been using this blog to get my thoughts and feelings out, not just for the sole purpose of updating this thing, but more for myself.

I sometimes wonder if I've taken on much more than I can chew this semester. I haven't been able to take a break since the semester began.  Thankfully, this weekend I had the chance to sit down and write but it only feels like I'm passing through the eye of the storm. I know once this weekend pasts I'm going to have to rev it up in high gear again, like it has been up till now. Once Thursday, the date of my last midterm, ended I felt a huge surge of relief and passed out on my bed. Do you know the feeling you get when you hold your breathe underwater for the longest time, and make it out into fresh air just as your lungs feel like their going to explode? Yeah, it felt that good.

This semester I've had to juggle responsibilities and manage my time more than I ever thought I would. If you were from the future and told me in freshman year that my semester now would be like this, I would have laughed right in your face. In short, I've been dealing with school and classes, a part-time job, being a pledgemaster for Beta Alpha Psi (but we have to call ourselves "candidatemasters"), networking and recruiting for upcoming summer internships, and managing my friendships.

With school and classes, I know everyone has them, but I've been putting a lot of pressure on myself to do well in order to boost my GPA for internship applications in the spring.  It's been stressing me out because I have to do ridiculously well in order to raise my GPA a decimal point -- as in near 4.0 status -- after which I'll feel a lot more stable in getting interview offers in the coming spring.  At the moment I feel like if I don't make this level my chances in getting an internship -- and by extension a job -- are going to slim down a lot.

A good friend of mine who worked over the summer at the company I'm at now recommended me for the position.  I'm very grateful to him, but damn it takes a lot of energy out of me.  It's 16 hours a week, and for those of you who have had a part-time job during the semester I hope you can appreciate that number.  I just never realized how long 16 hours a week is and how valuable that time is.  What makes it worse is the fact that my times are every Monday through Thursday afternoons, and with classes every morning before lunch, lunchtime events with Beta Alpha Psi (basically everyday), and work all I want to do at the end of the day is go to sleep and wind down.  But then there's homework, and studying, and all that extra after school work that you have to do just to keep up with everyone else.

Being a leader of Beta Alpha Psi as a pledgemaster is a huge time commitment, but it's not just the meetings or the straight work you put into it.  When you have classes at 8:00 AM, pulled an all-nighter to study for a midterm, and have work in the afternoon, the only thing you want to do is crawl into a hole and go to sleep.  To be honest, being social and putting myself out there outside of my close-knit group of friends takes a lot of energy for me.  It's why after corporate presentations and networking events I always feel exhausted.  It's not to say I don't enjoy talking to my pledges -- I love it and they're such good kids!  It's just in between everything else that's been going on, some days can get really rough but I still have to force a smile on my face.

It doesn't help that in the back of my mind I wonder when the apartment we're living in is going to get sold.  We don't have an official lease contract. We're living there on a month-by-month basis with an addendum that if she sells the place then we have three months to find a new apartment, which isn't bad.  However, depending on when the apartment gets sold things could be really hard for me and my two roommates to look for places, because it's just one thing after another.  Finals are in December, internship applications and interview preparations are in January, and interviews run all the way from February through early March.

It's the combination of all these things that makes me feel exhausted most of the time.  I feel overworked a lot. Coffee runs through my blood and sustains me.  I must drink at least 4-5 cups during the weekdays if not more on bad days.  Sometimes I feel like I'm being pulled on by all these obligations and responsibilities.  The worst part in all this is because I've been getting slammed every week, I've been neglecting my old freshman year floormates.  I haven't seen them in weeks and I miss the good times we used to have when I could just hop over a couple of doors to just hang out with them.  But now, they live in Chinatown while I'm all the up either in my apartment in 32nd street or at school, working or studying.  There are other relationships I haven't been giving my fullest attention to as well, and the only thing I can say now is I'm sorry.

Each of these paragraphs in themselves could have been a blog post and unfortunately I've had to cram all of them in one.  Hopefully I can get around to writing more often and go into more detail on all these things.  It felt good to write something -- it's been too long.

-Emoinacloset

Night out alone

There might be some explaining to do after tonight. Friends might be wondering how I ended up at a Celine Dion playing bar by myself sipping an overly expensive whiskey sour while writing this. Especially, since I had come to the French Concession with these friends with the intention of going clubbing and sticking together.

I had never planned to go clubbing tonight. I had originally turned down the invitation, like I always do, and intended on spending the night celebrating Diwali with the Indians. However, Diwali celebrations were cut short when Varun no longer wanted to go to Helen’s, a bar. My UC friends, offered a plan B, which was to go clubbing, without really having to go clubbing. Nick told me that the venue that they were going to had a lounge element to it, which sounded like a great idea. However, while waiting for everyone to get ready, cracks in the plan B started to show. It began with the talk of going to a different venue that was entirely a club. Then, Nick started to get very fuzzy over his description of the original venue, not being entirely sure how much of a lounge it really was.

No surprise then that throughout the time that I was waiting for everyone to gather, I was expressing doubts about going. Each time, however, I was talked into going by either Linda or Nick and for awhile I thought I would actually be able to go. The venue was changed at the last minute to Soho and when I arrived and heard the bass of the club, familiar feelings of dread began to arise. I felt myself begin to shut down again like I had at senior ball, so I asked Linda to walk with me and help me find some liquid courage. Unfortunately, there was no bar in sight and when Linda suggested we walk back, I took a few steps back towards the club and realized that there really was no way I could go back. Linda tried her best to convince me to walk back, but I told her that everybody has something that they just cannot do, and clubbing was that thing for me. I followed up by telling her that I did not want to ruin her night and that she should not worry about me and with that Linda gave up and walked back towards the club.

After Linda left, I ended up walking around the area and exploring a little. At one point, I noticed a bar and restaurant playing soft music, which was a sharp contrast to the loud bass heavy music coming from all the other venues. It also helped that it was on a quiet street away from everything else. I took note of it the first time I passed it and continued my exploring. When I got tired of being accosted by black taxi drivers and men pushing what I thought were prostitutes, I made my way back to the Van Gogh bar. I must have been a curious sight to the wait staff, sitting at a table alone drinking a whiskey sour while scribbling in my notebook. The atmosphere at the bar was extremely relaxing and I would have stayed longer and ordered a glass of wine had the waiter not told me that they closed at 1am and when I asked it was 2am.
I left the bar and once again wondered what now? Deciding it was still way too early to go back and determined not to waste my taxi fare coming here, I began walking to Xintiandi, another night life area. The only problem was that I did not have a map but I managed to find a subway station and by using my subway map, I determined that I needed to walk North-East to get to Xintiandi. In my mind, I half doubted that I would succeed in getting there and I figured that I would just hail a cab home once I got tired of being lost.

The hour long walk to Xintiandi was an experience in of itself. The French concession is an extremely old neighborhood with rows of trees lining the streets, which meant that often times I found myself walking in very dimly lit streets. Thankfully, I had my Emerson on me at the time to give me confidence and I was able to make it all the way to Xintiandi with no trouble at all. Many times, I wished I had brought my camera because I just wanted to capture the creepy feeling of being alone on a dark and deserted street surrounded by old and sometimes crumbling buildings.

Xintiandi was closed by the time I got there and my hopes of grabbing another drink were dashed at 3am. Finally deciding that I had done enough exploring, I grabbed a cab and headed home.
With that story, there are some apologies and one thank you to be said. Sorry to everyone for walking away without any warning, though I know at the end of the night you all had fun and I was the last thing on your mind. Sorry to Linda for putting you on the spot and making you walk back to the club by yourself. Sorry to Lu for not wishing you a happy birthday and leaving your event without saying goodbye.

Thank you Crystal for caring enough to call and text to see if I was doing alright and then checking up on me at the end of the night, even if it was out of annoyance that I had left without telling you. Sorry for not telling you that I was leaving, I know you expected me to at least say something to you if I was to tell anybody at all. Also sorry for not being able to promise that I will not do this again, you must understand, I am just difficult like that.

-muffinman

Visiting an elite Shanghai High School

Last Friday my Shanghai Global City class took a field trip to an elite Shanghai High School with a tour led by a local communist party official who also happens to be a teacher at the school.

I had to write a paper about my experiences visiting the high school and talking to the students.  Just like the expo paper, this one also sounds like a blog post and though it is not as good as the expo one, I think people will find it interesting.

Complete set of pictures of the high school

-muffinman

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                The field trip to the local Shanghai high school revealed a student body that was much more homogenous than any American school that I had encountered. 

This high school was definitely better looking than my high school

                Examining the pictures I had taken of students during the tour, I was struck by how similar all the students looked in their school uniforms.  With their light blue jackets and dark blue pants, these students were indistinguishable from each other from afar.  The goal of the uniforms as stated during the question and answer session was to eliminate differences in social class, promoting equality through homogeneity.  However, after having the chance to talk to some of the students, it was clear that the level of homogeneity extended far beyond dress.

                The three students, one male and two female, that I was talking to were extremely similar, in both their behavior and lives that they described to me.  All three of their lives revolved around school, and they spoke of spending most of their time on doing homework and trying to go to sleep before ten o’clock.  They all complained of having too little free time and when asked what they did with the little free time that they had, they all responded with an activity that involved the computer.  Only after some pressing did they answer with activities that were more distinct.  One of the female students said she swam, another stated that she drew, while the male student said he played basketball.  All of the three students said that these secondary activities were rarely done.  There was a stated preference towards science and mathematics among the three students.  Biology, chemistry and physics were the majors that the three students wanted to pursue in university.  It was no surprise that all three said that they were going to choose science over humanities for their area of focus during their final year in high school. 

Homogeneous all the way through

                Their reactions to many things that I revealed about myself were quite similar as well.  When the three students heard that I boxed, there was an air of disapproval expressed across the board.  The male student explained that many Chinese people thought boxing was a “rude” sport and the female students echoed his sentiments.  When I told them that my major was Anthropology, there was a sense of confusion among the three students.  One of the female students asked me why I was majoring in Anthropology, to which I replied that I found it interesting.  This was met with general surprise and when pressed to explain themselves, they all revealed that they had a disdain for the humanities.  The male student told me that he found humanities to be boring, and his statement was accompanied by nods of agreement among the female students. 

                After the interview session, I compared my experience with my classmates.  My interview experience was far from unique and many of my classmates reported similar conversation topics, the most prominent of which was the complaining of too much studying and not enough leisure time.  Another topic that everybody seemed to touch upon was dating, it seemed that all my classmates were asked if they had a boyfriend or girlfriend.  Talking with my classmates revealed that there was very little variation in opinions and questions among the Shanghai high school students, further adding to the impression of homogeneity that I had received. 

My interview subjects

                I interviewed Qi Li, a Fudan freshman and Shenzhen native, about his high school experience.  Qi Li attended and boarded at an elite high school in Shenzhen. He described his life as being centered around school.  There were school scheduled study times and skipping dinner was the only way to get enough free time to play basketball.  By Qi Li’s account, life at an elite school sounded very similar across China. 

The interview session with the Shanghai high school students and Qi Li reinforced my idea of homogeneity among Chinese high school students, at least at the elite level.  Perhaps this will change as Chinese universities increasingly look for more in applicants than a good Gao Kao score, driving students to differentiate themselves from their classmates by pursuing extracurricular activities and interests, creating a more heterogeneous student body more similar to those found in the United States.

Pins: The official currency of the 2010 Expo

Here is a two page paper that I wrote for class. It sounds pretty damn close to a blog post so I figure why not put it on the blog.

- muffinman

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Expo pins have to become as valuable and desired as bank notes within the expo and have come to be used as a way to break down barriers between expo workers.

I discovered the pin craze during my second visit to the Expo site while talking to Jennifer, a staff member at the Canadian pavilion. Over wine, Jennifer told me how one of her Canadian pavilion colleagues ran up the bill one night at the restaurant in the Chile pavilion and did not have enough money to pay. The colleague, however, managed to bargain the bill down a couple hundred Yuan using just pins. Later that night, I personally witnessed the use of pins as a form of payment. Jennifer took me to the restaurant in the Mexican pavilion, where she knew Archie, the manager of the restaurant. According to the prices listed on the menu, the meal should have cost a little over 300 RMB. As we approached Archie to pay, he refused to accept the money and told us it was his treat. There was an ulterior motive to this act of generosity, which was revealed when Archie asked Jennifer about acquiring some Peru pins for her, stating that he had promised some Peru pins to members of his kitchen staff.

To learn more about this pin craze, I interviewed Doris, a Fudan student and an Expo volunteer since August. Doris told me about how pin trading is extremely prevalent among all the Expo workers and that it was present when she started volunteering. The intensity of pin collecting and trading varies from individual to individual, but Doris thinks that it is the more intense among Expo staff and volunteers than among visitors. Doris herself has thirty pins, which she considers to be average among the volunteers. Doris mentioned how one of her friends had spent over 3000 RMB on pins and that such a large investment in pins was not too uncommon.

A handful of pins in exchange for a 300 RMB meal alerted me to the high value of these pins. Through Doris, I learned that the price of an Expo pin bought at the Expo ranges from twenty to sixty Yuan and she also told me that these same pins are being resold on Taobao, an online marketplace similar to Ebay, for twice the price. Stories have been floating around the expo of foreigners trading high value items for pins; Doris told me she heard someone traded his SLR camera for a pin. The most valuable pins are the limited edition ones which are distributed by Expo organizers. China Daily reported that the price of the Saudi Arabia pin distributed to VIP, reached 10,000 RMB on Taobao . City Weekend states that Canadian and South African pins were most favored by the market . Volunteer pins which have a unique number are also in high demand according to Doris. The practice of trading pins for VIP access was revealed to me by Jennifer, who told me she was going to trade a pin for VIP access to the Saudi Arabia pavilion, the most popular pavilion at the expo. Doris further highlighted the prevalence of this practice by telling me that pins are routinely traded by volunteers for VIP access.

When I asked Jennifer about why people placed such a high value on pins, she told me she was just as puzzled by the craze as I was. Doris thought that the pins were valued highly by volunteers because they are objects of interest and intrigue and offered a break from the grind of volunteer work. To Doris, the increased chance of acquiring pins was the reward for volunteering.

In addition to being used as a form of currency, staff and volunteers use the pins to as a social tool. Doris explained that there are divides between the volunteers and staff due to differences in age, authority and culture, but what brings everybody together is the want for pins. The trading of pins provides a common topic among everybody at the Expo and is often used as an ice breaker to start a conversation. Doris herself has met many people and even created some friendships, just through the act of trading pins.

The usage of Expo pins as a currency and social bonding tool shows the development of a subculture among the Expo staff and volunteers. In a relatively short time, the diverse Expo community has found a way to bond with each other.

Loving my camera

I just got ditched this afternoon, I suddenly have a lot of free time, which I am going to use to express my love for my camera. 

When I first came to Shanghai, I met Rue, a UCLA student who had just gotten her first SLR a few months back and she was absolutely in love with it, going so far as to tell me laughingly that it was her boyfriend.  At the time, I thought it was just a silly comment, but after two months in Shanghai, I see where she is coming from. 

In many ways, my relationship with my camera has many of the same characteristics as a relationship with a significant other.  I think I am starting to understand what people mean when they talk about how the objects of their hobbies have feelings and souls.     

My camera punishes me with terrible photographs when I try to shortcut and in the process miss steps.  This is especially true when my pictures come out blurry because I forgot to check whether autofocus was on. When my pictures come out exposed completely wrong, my camera is telling me that I should have paid more attention to the ISO setting and that just because something worked the first time AT NIGHT does not mean it will work later during THE DAY.  Most importantly, it tells me when I am not being assertive enough.  When I relent and am too shy to tell people how I want them to arrange themselves for the photo or too scared to go after a particular shot because it might be awkward, my camera inevitably gives me a terrible photograph telling me it is not pleased. 

Just like a proper girlfriend, my camera makes me worry every time I mistreat it.  When I throw my bag down just a little too hard, I cannot help but rush in and check up on it to make sure it is alright.  After all the money and emotions that I have invested in my camera, the thought of losing my camera is one of my worst fears, the stuff of nightmares.   

Of course, this relationship is not all negative.  My camera rewards me all the time with photographs that leave me proud.  The portraits it gives me, help me remember those amazing people in my life.  The beautiful landscape shots remind me of all the places that I have been and the stories associated with them.  Each click of the shutter brings a little bit of joy to my heart.  And of course there is nothing like the pride of having your picture complimented by a friend or stranger.    

Most importantly, it helps me understand the world around me by giving me different perspectives.  Sometimes when I use my dad’s lenses, I feel that I begin to understand this man who I am very distant with.  The lenses are in many ways like my dad, they are incredibly difficult and frustrating to use because everything on the lenses being manual due to their age.  When shooting with my dad’s lenses, there is a lot of trial and error involved, with almost everything being an error.  However, when things do work out the result are quite marvelous.  Something about viewing the world through the same lenses as my dad did, helps me feel closer to him. 

Maybe I should name my camera, so it know how much it means to me?

-muffinman

National Week: Rough beginnings

National week is a week long holiday celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic of China.  For my week off, I decided to travel with Crystal and Brendan, exchange students from New York.  After the disastrous trip with UC students, I really wanted to travel in a small group and with people outside of the UC program. 

Things started off well, even great!  Crystal and Brendan took the planning very serious and before we left, they had created a fairly comprehensive itinerary of what would be doing over the next six days.  However, there was just one piece of the puzzle missing, the transportation.  We were unable to get bus tickets to Huangshan at the travel agency the day before we left, so we hedged our bets on being able to get tickets the day of our departure. 

On our departure day, we were unable to get bus tickets, they were all sold out.  And that was how our problems began.  We bought bus tickets for the next day as insurance in case our plan B which was to get train tickets failed.  The first ticket attendant that we went to told us all the train tickets to Huangshan were sold out.  Dejected, we tried to think of a plan C because Crystal and I had too much pride to go back to Tonghe after we told everyone that we were leaving.  Plan C was to get train tickets to a city close to Huangshan and then bus the rest of the way.  We went to another ticket attendant this time and she proposed what at the time seemed an even better idea.  The attendant told us to buy tickets to a station near Shanghai, and then instead of getting off, to just stay on till we reached Huangshan where the additional fare would be added upon exit.  This was the sort of news we were hoping for.

We bought the tickets, which only cost 12 RMB (about $2) and took the subway to another train station.  Somewhere along the way to the train station, we realized that we had purchased hard seats, the lowliest of tickets.  I worried about this a little because I vaguely recalled that the train took twice as long as the bus which meant it would be a 16 hour ride.  Of course, none of this mattered because we were too excited to be going. 

Sitting in the Chinese hard seats was an experience in of itself.  The whole car was cramped, dirty and worst of all wet, however, I got to see elements of Chinese society that I normally did not see and that was quite eye opening.  Once again I saw that the people of China were quite kind people, as strangers immediately started bonding on the train and offered each other food.  Far from the moral less people that I have been told inhabited every corner of China, what I saw on the train was heartwarming.  Sadly, Crystal was too embarrassed to join in the conversation with strangers and many of the questions that I wanted her to translate were frustratingly left untranslated. 

Sorry! Best picture I could pull off with Crystal's camera. Sort of shows how cramped everything is.

After some convincing I finally managed to force Crystal to translate the most important question of all, “how long does it take to get to Huangshan?”  The answer turned out to be fifteen hours, and after hearing that, I immediately began to think of a plan D, or whatever alternate plan we were on at that point.  After some thought, I suggested that we stop at Nanjing and spend a day or two there because there was no way that I could stand for fifteen hours.  There was some debate over this plan, but after a few more hours of standing, everybody came onboard with the Nanjing idea.

And so began our national week adventures.

-muffinman

A 266 RMB Lesson

I just recently discovered that I got scammed by a young couple in People’s square.  I had heard of these tea ceremony scams before but I was disarmed by the fact that these two young college age kids who spoke decent English.  There was something off about these kids though, because they seemed supremely interested in me.  It was a bit different from some of the other local university students I had met, but at the time I thought nothing of it.

They told me they were from Beijing and the guy told me that he was showing around his high school friend around who was visiting.  I totally bought into the story, and I soon found myself following them to a ceremony that they invited me to.  The tea ceremony was incredibly expensive at 50 rmb a tea and the teas were not even good!  Throughout the time, the pair played their part of tourist very well and I was thoroughly convinced.  At the end of the day I even gave them my card with my email, thinking I had made new friends!

Just recently I had recalled about hearing about the scam, I knew I had been scammed but at least I thought I was scammed along with the pair I was with.  However, after reading a few blog posts about the scam, I realized that the pair of kids were part of the scam from the beginning.

Yes, I feel fucking stupid but I cannot help but laugh at myself a little and am glad the worst thing that happened to me was losing some money.  Going to wisen up this next time.

-muffinman

Second interview in Shanghai

Right after visiting M50, Jeanni and I decided to go to Ikea, which resided across the city. In exchange for my company, we detoured to check out the site of my second interview, which was to be at what I thought was either the company office or one of the brick and mortar company supermarkets. The address that was given to me led me straight into a food mall and after asking a waiter at one of the restaurants, we were directed to a corner on the first floor. That is where I found the pitiful restaurant that bore the name of the company I was interviewing for. Puzzled, shocked and feeling duped, I stared at the tiny restaurant in disbelief. That is when the staff of the restaurant noticed Jeanni and I just staring and approached us. In broken English, one of the staff explained to us that the food was healthy and very good. I thought perhaps the restaurant was a chain, but the staff was puzzled by that question and replied that this was the only restaurant.

I left the food mall extremely confused with what exactly I had gotten myself into. Jeanni wondered aloud why such a small restaurant would need such an educated intern. She seemed to be angry over the discovery, and strongly suggested that I not go to the interview because she thought it would be nothing but a waste of time. However, I was too intrigued about what I had seen to not go. After all, what could such a small restaurant want with a foreign college intern? I was missing a piece of the puzzle and I was most definitely going to the interview to find it.

The interview turned out to be not much of an interview at all, but more of a “you are in and this is what we do” info session. I was surprised to run into Kelly, another UC student upon my arrival at the restaurant. Good thing she was there too, because some serious translating was necessary due to the fact that the interviewer’s English was insufficient to adequately explain what the company did. Halfway through the interview, I grew impatient with the interviewer because I was the one asking all the questions and it seemed that our roles were switched. So I asked the interviewer if he had any questions for me about my resume. To which he replied “no” and stated that my resume was quite impressive. He even said that he thought it was fated that we met. A little taken aback, I laughingly told him that he might be right because I had previously turned down an internship offer to be at the interview.

So what exactly does this company do? It turns out that the restaurant we were conducting the interview in had only been open for two months and was only a small part of their business. The company’s main business was catering for large companies and offices. The restaurant I was sitting in was meant to be a testing site for the food, but they were planning to open fifteen more restaurants over the next two years in Shanghai. Currently, the company has eight contracts with various offices, including a bank. The interviewer spoke repeatedly about wanting to standardize Chinese food and told me about how the company had a factory just outside of Shanghai that they ship the food from. Their competitive advantage, the interviewer claimed, was that their food was healthy, as in low in sodium and with no MSG. The reason the company wanted foreign interns was because it wanted to target multinational corporations and foreign companies. To lend legitimacy to all of this, the interview told Kelly and me how this was his second start up and that his first company, which was also a restaurant chain, was going to IPO in Shenzhen in two months.

This internship has got me extremely excited for the next couple of months. I was getting tired of not doing anything productive the past month in Shanghai. In short, I actually miss work. The chance to work in a Chinese start up is simply too exciting. However improbable, I have visions of sealing catering deals over business dinners with representatives from foreign companies more than twice my age. The interviewer heavily stressed that because the company was so young, Kelly and I would be able to do actual and significant work, so my vision could come true.

I am still awaiting my marching orders, but I was told two weeks ago that I would be starting soon after national week. Cannot wait.

-muffinman

My favorite place in Shanghai: Moganshan Lu

When Jeanni asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her I really wanted her to accompany me to Moganshan Lu. After a postponed date, I finally got around to going a couple of weeks ago (Yes, this entry is that old). I came to Moganshan Lu with extremely high expectations because I was getting sick of the over the top commercialism of Shanghai and I really just wanted find something that was more “real.” Needless to say, Moganshan Lu did not disappoint, it was everything I hoped for and more.

When Jeanni and I got off the subway, we found ourselves in a residential area. Knowing that I was terrible with directions, Jeanni questioned whether we were in the right place and to be honest, even I doubted myself a little, but I just smiled and replied with a confident “of course!” Interestingly, the area around the subway station reminded Jeanni of Korea while it reminded me strongly of Hong Kong. Perhaps, these east Asian countries are not too different after all.

Finding the street came with some difficulties because the street sign read M50 and not Moganshan, but once we entered the street, there was no mistaking that we had arrived. This was not because there was a large amount of galleries right at the mouth of the street, on the contrary there was nothing but rundown warehouses. However, on the wall that ran along the street, was the some of the best graffiti that I have seen and the first time I had seen graffiti in Shanghai. There was something strange about the graffiti in Moganshan Lu though, everything was just too organized. Unlike the graffiti that I had seen in LA, which was a mess of overlapping pieces, the graffiti artists of Moganshan Lu seemed to respect each other’s space. Very little of the graffiti overlapped and it was almost as if the artists were allotted a portion of the wall. Not sure if I like the “organized” style because it makes the whole graffiti wall seem staged and runs counter to my perception of graffiti being a chaotic art form.


Graffiti Wall

My initial impression of the galleries was quite negative. The first few galleries that I stepped into displayed very abstract art that did not suit me at all. At that point in time, it was all very disappointing and I felt that Moganshan Lu was quickly becoming another disappointment in Shanghai. Besides maybe one gallery, all the galleries at the beginning of the street were terrible. I remember at one gallery, I found the paint job on the walls more interesting than the art pieces.

Then I arrived at M50 and was blown away. M50 is the area where the galleries all reside. The address for the group of galleries is 50 Moganshan Lu, hence the name M50. The galleries are housed in a giant renovated warehouse, where long dark hallways and bare brick walls were the norm. Everything you see in the galleries can be bought for the right price. Original art pieces ran from just under a thousand to tens of thousands of US dollars. As I looked at canvas after canvas, all I could think was “maybe one day,” I think I have found what to hang on the wall of my coffee shop.

After two hours of gallery hopping, Jeanni and I were oversaturated with art, by that I mean piece after piece was starting to look the same and I had ceased to appreciate what I was seeing. Sitting in the nearby extremely overpriced (and bad) coffee shop with Jeanni, I mulled over what I had seen. I noticed that in many of the pieces, Communism and Buddhism were prevalent themes, which is to be expected. In addition, many of the pieces dealt with the conflict of modern China with its ancient roots. If M50 is truly representative of Chinese modern art, then I am very excited for the future.


Hallway of galleries

A few days later, I went back to Moganshan Lu with Crystal and it seems that the magic just does not wear off. I repeated some galleries and found some pieces that I had missed the first time around, as well as visited many new galleries. This time around, I was a bit bolder about taking photographs where I was not supposed to and; Crystal and I had a lot of fun with that. At the end of two hours of gallery hopping with Crystal, I realized that Jeanni and I had not covered the majority of galleries at all. Even after a second day at M50, there was still a great deal to see.


One of my favorite pieces at M50


Crystal posing next to a sad star

I wonder when my third M50 trip will be.

-muffinman

Moganshan Lu Photos

My good deed for the week

Last night, Crystal and I decided to go out just because we were getting bored of staying in our apartment. Crystal suggested we go to Xintiandi, a fancy expat area to grab some drinks and I agreed. In true traveler’s spirit, we discovered that the excitement was in the journey, not the destination.

While transferring subways at the Shanghai Railway station, Crystal and I encounter a woman struggling to get down the stairs with a large suitcase. I stopped to watch the woman and wondered for second if I should help her. Turning to Crystal, I see that she is also watching the woman. Crystal looks back at me shrugs and holds out her hand for my camera bag so that I could help the woman. Realizing the right thing to do, I hand over my camera bag and approach the woman. That is when I notice that she was wearing extremely dark sun glasses, which suddenly made me realize that the woman was blind. After this realization, I reevaluated my approach towards helping her. If I just went up to this woman and grabbed her suitcase without stating my intentions, in a manner that she could understand, she would most definitely panic and think that I was stealing her suitcase.

A more obvious approach was needed, so I asked Crystal to tell her that we were going to help her. With my intentions clearly stated, I helped the woman carry her suitcase. I could sense that she was very concerned about being taken advantage of due to the way that she insisted on holding onto her suitcase at all times, while I carried it. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, Crystal repeatedly asked the woman where she wanted to go. Quite defensively, the woman kept replying that she just needed to get to an exit, without specifying which of the many exits that she needed to be at. We pointed the woman towards the nearest exit and watched her walk towards another set of stairs, with no cane or aid in hand. As we watched the woman struggle down the path, I turn to Crystal and tell her that we cannot just leave the woman alone. Crystal nodded in agreement and once again we approached the woman and offered to help.

Crystal and I help the woman out of the subway station and communicate her location to the person who was supposed to be picking her up. I made the decision to stay with her until she was picked up, and the waiting began. Curious to know more about this blind stranger, I urged Crystal to ask the woman where she was from. With a bit of prodding and convincing that such a question was not weird, I finally got Crystal to ask the question. The woman replied, quite defensively, that she was from Jiangxi province. After the reply, Crystal was in no mood to ask more questions, citing the fact that the woman was uncomfortable with talking to strangers. That’s when I suggested Crystal tell the woman what she had told me earlier, that she thought the woman was very brave for traveling alone. Crystal refused, once again citing concerns that it was too weird and also that the woman would just laugh. I respond that laughter is good and would ease the tension. Crystal says that she will only tell the woman that if she can say that the comment came from me. Seeing no problem with that compromise, I agree.

As Crystal predicted, the woman laughed and as I predicted, the mood lightened instantly. The woman responds by saying that she has been traveling for a long time and that this was the first time that someone has helped her and that she felt very lucky to have met us. As Crystal and I continue waiting with the woman, I begin to ask more questions. The woman told us that she was a masseuse that traveled all over China. She even offered to give us massages, saying that students have very stiff shoulders from studying all the time. Crystal and I politely refuse. When I asked her if she liked what she did, the woman responded that she did it only for the money. I wanted to ask her what the woman would rather be doing, but Crystal once again refused to translate, this time because she thought it would make the woman depressed. Before I could convince Crystal t just ask the question, the woman’s contact arrived. After, many thank you’s and you are welcome’s were exchanged, we left the woman and continued on our way, leaving me wondering about the woman’s life.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs at the subway station, Crystal says out loud “we are good people” and then a few second later, she qualifies herself and says “well you are a good person.” Curious as to why she said that, I ask her to explain herself. Crystal tells me that she would have just left the woman as soon as we exited the subway station and that she would not have waited around had it not been for me. I explained to Crystal that waiting with the woman was just something I felt like I needed to do, and besides, I had all the time in the world.

Not to mention, helping that woman makes a great story.

-muffinman

First Surprise Birthday Ever

Last week Jeanni planned a wonderful surprise party complete with cake, hats, poppers, masks and lots of alcohol. Only after the party ended and had some time to reflect on it did I realize that this party in Shanghai was actually the first surprise party I ever had.

The day before my birthday, I knew that there was a party planned because it was Varun’s birthday and the MBA students had talked about throwing a joint party. What puzzled me was that as the hours dragged on that day, I still had not heard from anybody about a party or a time to meet up. At around 9pm, Jeanni texted me asking me if I could check out the powerpoint that she and the Indians were making to present their club at 10pm. I agreed and when 10pm rolled around I proceeded to make my way to Sandeep’s place. Now Jeanni had been acting suspicious earlier in the day, so I had suspicions while walking over that this might be the surprise party. When I called her earlier in the day, she told me she was at Wujiaochang, the local shopping plaza, which was not out of the ordinary. However, when I asked her what she was doing there, Jeanni replied with an “I don’t know,” this was really suspicious to me because how can you not know what you are doing at a shopping plaza? Expecting a surprise party I approached Sandeep’s door with extreme caution.

Except when Akhil opened the door, nothing happened. There Jeanni was with Sandeep and Varun working on their powerpoint just like she said she was. Feeling a bit dejected, I looked over their powerpoint, made a few suggestions and resigned myself to spending another birthday in obscurity. Around an hour later, Jeanni announced that we were going back to my apartment because there was a kick back scheduled or something. Strangely enough, this act did not arouse any suspicion in me, probably because I was feeling too dejected at that point.

As we all walked back to the apartment, I noticed that Jeanni had been texting furiously all night. I wondered in my mind who she could be texting since the large majority of her texts go to me. Once again thinking nothing much of this out of the ordinary behavior, I made my way to the apartment. At my apartment door, I stumbled upon a pair of woman’s shoes, neatly placed right outside the door. Thinking that maybe the other Jonathan had finally managed to bring a girl over, I was cautious in opening the door. Interestingly, Varun pointed out that the shoes were an Indian brand, which just made the whole situation even stranger.

When Varun opened the door, we were both greeted with “Happy Birthday” and two cakes with lighted candles. In my moment of shock, everything fell into place in my mind. I quickly turned around and gave Jeanni a big hug, because I just knew that she had planned it all. After all, who else would have the heart?


The cake says 24.5 because it is the average of Varun and my age, except that Varun was turning 28 not 29 that day.

A whole lot of MBA students had come, as well as a few people who roommates of MBA students. “Happy Birthday” was sung and then I got caked for the first time. At midnight, I was expecting to get kicked in the butt by the Indians, something which they had been talking about all week, twenty times for my age and because it was some Indian tradition (still not sure if this is true). As Varun was lining up to kick, I braced myself because he was really winding up, but he just laughed and gave me a light kick and told me the Indians were just messing with me. Relieved, I laughed too, but felt a little dumb for believing them in the first place.


Varun and I celebrating our birthdays


Getting caked for the first time

Throughout the night, there were many cheers and toasts done by Duke who brought baijiu, Chinese rice wine, a drink which nobody enjoyed besides me and Duke. In my own toast, I thanked everybody for coming and for being my “family away from family,” something which I had come to realize a couple of days before while reflecting on my experience in Shanghai. After the bai jiu was finished, I pulled out the bottle of Black Label, which brought back memories of the army for Duke. Jeanni was adamant that I should have no more alcohol, but I had other ideas and thankfully so did Duke because he just kept refilling my cup every time I asked.


Duke (orange shirt) calling another toast


There was a lot of this going on, that is actually Jeanni's hand in the picture

When everything was done, I said my goodbyes to everybody and hugged the ones that I was closest too. Duke reaffirmed me to be his nephew and told me for the billionth time that night that I had now become a man. After everyone had left, Varun and I surveyed the damage. Our living room was entirely trashed, there were a billion beer bottles on the table, wrappers on the floor and even cake on the floor. However, none of this mattered to me at that moment because I was just so happy to have discovered people who cared about me in Shanghai.

That night was definitely the most memorable night to date in Shanghai and one to be remembered for the rest of my life.


Thanks for everything Jeanni (left)

-muffinman

Surprise Birthday Part Pictures