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