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