Looking Back at China

Here we are, back home.  Our bodies are still partly on Shanghai time (13 hours different from Minnesota), but so too are our experiences and memories.

I think one of my strongest impressions is a sense for how much China has changed in just a few generations: from civil war and the remnants of the colonial presence of the French, British and Americans in the early 1900's, to the Japanese occupation and World War II in the late 1930's and 1940s, to the Communist Revolution in 1949 and the establishment of broad cultural as well as political and economic changes in the 1950's and 1960's, to the Cultural Revolution disrupting the lives of millions of more educated Chinese, to the end of the era of Mao (early 1980's; he died in 1976) and the opening to the West, to changes in how China's economy would be organized and bring rapid economic growth by manufacturing much of the world's goods, to the dramatic reduction in poverty and the urbanization of China in recent years (with two of the world's largest cities, both of which were part of our travels), and the possibility that the Chinese could travel and study abroad, as well as move new-found wealth to other countries--so much change!  (And such a long sentence!)

What seem like cathedrals of consumption, like the huge Gucci store on Shanghai's fanciest shopping avenue in the photo at right, attract the newly-wealthy, as well as those who are aspiring and looking--but also those like myself who are curious or struck by the contrast between the enforced austerity through which grandparents often lived and the lives of those connected with today's corporations or political power.  And fancy cars are part of that picture.

The interiors of such stores--often branches of prestigious European brand names--gleam, elevators soaring to food courts with bathrooms (always welcome, for those of us on foot, and who usually choose to eat in small cafes without one).  Twelve-foot high advertisements are often in English, and feature European-looking models consuming (or consumed by?) the goods which may imply more than they can deliver.

More ordinary shoppers are likely to be drawn into places such as the Shanghai Clothing Emporium, five floors of small clothing stores topped by a very popular food court (in a country which was historically often wracked by famine--and where people may greet each other by saying "have you eaten yet?"-- the availability of food around every corner in Shanghai is striking and understandable, often cooked right before your eyes from fresh ingredients, for people who know what they like).  Small shops like the one at right are packed with inexpensive clothing, most likely made in China itself, with an emphasis on variety and price rather than presentation.

Older neighborhoods, like the one to the left, in the shadow of high-rise developments that threaten to displace them, have a similar attraction as the clothing emporium to ordinary shoppers--human scale, inexpensive, offering every day things you can pop down from the second or third story apartments to purchase.  One cost, though, is the price paid by merchants whose owners (?) often seem to be there both morning and evening, putting in long unpaid hours to get by.

There are also uncounted ordinary folks who put in long hours as manual laborers--the street sweepers, those who gather various materials like cardboard (seen at right) by hand for resale to processors, and recent immigrants from the countryside who are likely to be doing manual labor on building projects or other work if they don't have much education (and who may have left families or children behind with grandparents, and whose lack of a residence permit makes their lives in the cities more tentative).

Another aspect of prosperity for a significant minority is that their wealth may displace those of average means or who are near-poor.  In the photo at left we see an older neighborhood being razed, likely for fancier (and too often much taller) apartment or condo complexes.  This form of Chinese gentrification means, as some of those folks Barbara was working with describe in their own lives, the necessity to live two to three hours outside of the city where housing is affordable but the resulting commute makes family lives more difficult (a la American commuters living in San Bernardino but working in Los Angeles).  Yet cities like Shanghai, already 25 million and growing, face a dilemma: if people keep coming, the city will have to either grow "up" or "out," gobbling up more surrounding rural land.

The painting at right, seen in a community center in our favorite Shanghai park, shows the (Communist) Party "serving the people" (here, literally--bowls of something likely delicious), in an older neighborhood.  The government's legitimacy seems to rest more on the tangible economic growth it provides rather than any electoral representation--will that continue to work?  What if growth stalls, or corruption replaces care?

This chalkboard message, at the bookstore under the Shanghai Library, indicates that if all else fails there's still coffee as a consolation--though note the message is in English, and coffee itself costs as much as in the U.S. (usually about $4 for a caffe latte), twice the cost of an inexpensive but filling meal at a small cafe where the menu's only in Chinese.  So it's possible that, though the sign is charming, it shouldn't be taken as a solution should economic growth stall or your apartment complex gets torn down for others with more money to live in your neighborhood with a  pop-up coffee shop.  

But...there are always the parks, essential in cities like Beijing and Shanghai with populations of around 25 million each.  Here we see a group of a little older women (but younger than we are) engaging in some nostalgic fun--getting together to wear cheongsam dresses, so popular in Shanghai in the 1920's.  Ads popularized the glamour of the new Chinese woman in advertisements to sell new products, and one sees copies of old posters with these new images of beauty around town.  One wonders--who are these ladies, what do they usually do, and what does wearing these traditional clothes mean to them?  
   Ahhh.  Once again, if only we could speak Mandarin!  Instead of being able to quench our curiosity, we smile as the women stroll by, having a good time.

Much more often, we would see groups of women in the parks who were getting together to sing, wearing everyday comfortable older-lady clothes (younger-women clothes were usually more conventionally stylish, especially for those evidently heading off to work).  

We often wondered what sorts of changes older men and women had lived through, and what their lives, now, really meant for them.

This was Barbara's 5th time in China (not counting our month in 2004, when we were with college students on a study-abroad program we were leading), and my third with her.  It seems likely we'll be going back.  Maybe next time we'll have more answers about China, for ourselves, as well as for you.  Meanwhile, we are grateful for the kindness, hospitality, and smiles (even subway seats) we so often received from local people, especially when we were in "their space" where they less often encountered older foreign folks.  Shi-shi (thank you!).