shanghai

Shanghai’s ‘Cosmopolitan’ Mix

Saturday, August 15th, 2009 | posts | No Comments

Shanghai is going through a transformation. It’s not unlike the kind of makeover Beijing went through in the year leading up to the Olympics. But it appears Shanghai wants to ‘one up’ the capital – the city is reportedly spending way more than Beijing did with massive construction and city beautification projects going ahead full steam for Expo 2010.

When I was in Beijing in 2007 and 2008, I witnessed new subway lines built, newly planted trees and greenery lining dusty streets, expanded bicycle lanes, taxi drivers telling me they were forced to take basic English lessons in order to better server the flood of foreigners, and of course, (my favorite) the “Supervisor Riding Politely” on subway platforms making sure people lined up and allowed passengers off the train before climbing onboard themselves (New York could use a Supervisor Riding Politely). 

In this latest letter from China by my former professor and NYTimes correspondent Howard French, we see through his eyes the changes going on in Shanghai in preparation for hosting the Expo in May. Especially disheartening for him is seeing the destruction of Shanghai’s old, historic neighborhoods — a place he spent a lot of time in during his years as a NYTimes correspondent in China, documenting the faces he encountered as he made his way through the maze of narrow streets, with his camera in hand. You can see his amazing photos here. 

As China’s big cities continue to participate and spearhead so many flashy, “world class” events, something crucial is missing from this cosmopolitan cocktail. French writes:

But amid all of this busy re-engineering, both physical and social, Shanghai has overlooked what is perhaps the most basic campaign of all: a hospitality campaign aimed at persuading Chinese people that they are the common siblings of the rest of mankind.

 

Why, one might ask, should there be such a need? The answer lies in the daily experience of any foreigner who wanders off the main streets, and it sometimes includes experiences on the main streets as well. Foreign visitors can often still draw stares as if freshly descended from the moon. People may talk about you in your presence, on the assumption that you don’t understand their language or, worse, that it doesn’t matter if you do. And the term “lao wai,” a less than endearing word for foreigner, hangs thickly in the air. Even the English word “hello” can take on a strange new meaning here, delivered as it sometimes is more as a sing-song taunt than as a true greeting.

The stares. The not-so-subtle attempts at taking your picture. The “Ha-looooo”s; all part of the foreigner’s experience in China. It’s funny at first. When it happens to you every 30 minutes, it’s not. I’ll never forget this one night at Tiananmen Square in late 2007 when my friend, an African American who speaks and writes Chinese fluently, overhead a group of Chinese talking about how unnaturally dark and therefore unattractive her skin was. My face was hot with anger. I was embarrassed and enraged at the same time. Somehow, I felt it would have been better if she didn’t understand. But she did understand. She heard every word.

This makes me think about how “One World, One Dream” really meant nothing during the Olympic campaign. It was China’s world and China’s dream and the laowais were invited in for a few weeks to see the glorious accomplishments of modern China. In order for Shanghai to be truly cosmopolitan, then the Chinese have really got to get over the ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. It’s a change I hope to see next time I’m there.

Professor French is in Shanghai for the summer, teaching a course on China at East China Normal University. He’ll be back in New York in September for the start of classes at Columbia’s J-school. It’ll be his second year teaching.

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