Arrival

After an exhausting flight from New York to Shanghai, we finally arrived late Saturday night. We had a hot-pot dinner with the Uber City Manager of Guangzhou, who is also a Rice alum. She seemed really cool and claimed that the Chinese government does not see Uber as a threat yet to the taxi business, which was interesting.

Day 1: Urban Planning Museum, Marriage Market, Bund, Yu Yuan Garden, Dongtai, XinTianDi

Urban Planning Museum: It was astounding to see how Shanghai’s urban planning has been shaped over time and where it is heading in the future. I was shocked and a little disheartened by the sheer level of historical Western influence on Shanghai’s urban design; there were maps showing the various ways in which American, French, British, and other such Western powers divvied up Shanghai into respective settlements. I was impressed by an entire section devoted to what Shanghai is doing and plans to do to be eco-friendly.

Lunch at Raffles City Mall on Nanjing Lu: I never thought that I would ever see a place with more ads and lights than Times Square in NYC, but I stand corrected…On Nanjing Lu, we were inundated with pretty Western faces advertising Michael Kors and Swavorski. Nanjing Lu is, of course, much wider and sprawling than Times Square and less crowded, but the overall feel of a hyperbranded, hyperconsumerist fantasy land was certainly a common thread between the two places halfway across the world from one another. This was the first time my sparse Mandarin (learned over 3.5 years at Rice starting from CHIN 101 in freshman year) proved useful to the group as I helped Mishi get a vegetarian meal at the Gourmet Noodle House we ate at. My sparse Mandarin surprisingly took me quite far during this trip and the locals were extremely understanding and friendly about my trying to communicate with them in Chinese as a Chinese-American.

Marriage Market in People’s Park: This was easily one of the highlights of my time in Shanghai. Firstly, the scene itself is overwhelming and unlike anything I have seen before; hundreds of men and women in their 60s (and older) with hundreds, if not thousands, of “ads” for their 25-55 year old children, papers upon papers listing gender, year of birth, level of education, and occupation, among other things.

男＝male；女＝female

People milling about, talking enthusiastically to one another, handing out Post-Its with name and contact info, arguing, making pitches. It was amazing. The most surreal and amazing part was being able to converse with the locals and actually get a deeper look at this phenomenon (BTW, this is a weekly market with most people there regular visitors/advertisers). Unfortunately, the notes I frantically took on my phone after the conversations have all been deleted somehow (not sure why, but probably has to do with the lack of Internet connection or Wifi I had at the time).

What I remember is that most of the people I spoke with were looking for partners for their children because their children have been so focused on professional and academic achievement that they have not had time to date. Additionally, since many of these children are these parents’ only children (as a result of the one-child policy), they are able to invest as much time, energy, and resources into facilitating their children’s success (maritally and otherwise).

Not to worry, this marriage “market” is not some kind of place where arranged marriages are blindly set up between wayward parents. How it works is basically if two parents decide their children may be a good match, they exchange contact info, have the children meet, and let the children decide from there on out whether “sparks fly.” I actually found the whole phenomenon quite endearing and actually kind of useful — why don’t we have these in the U.S. again? Anya called it a “real-life Tinder.” I vote we bring this to the U.S. Also, the parents I talked to said their kids know they’re at this market “advertising” them and are totally fine with it (they probably think it’s pretty efficient! Especially if they’re workaholics).

To every parent I talked to, I asked them whether they thought this market was effective (“你们觉得这个人民公园相亲角有好处吗？有帮助吗？”) and they all responded, without hesitation, in the affirmative. I probed a little deeper and asked how common success at finding “matches” was, and all the parents I spoke with said that success is not common, but there have certainly been successes. Sounds a lot like the perils and uncertainty that come with online dating. One parent, who was advertising for his son who is working abroad in Canada, had been going to the marriage market every week for the past 2 years. I learned later from Shelby and Stephen that the parents at the market are probably Shanghai locals (as opposed to those from outside Shanghai) who have enough income to provide their child with a house (necessary to be an eligible bachelor/bachelorette). This makes sense as every child being “advertised” had extraordinary academic and professional achievements (no doubt only possible because they had the resources to get there from within China first).

I was enamored with how loving these parents were of their children and how much time and energy they were willing to spend to ensure (marital) success for their children.

Walking tour of Bund: It was remarkably smoggy and crowded.

Yu Yuan Garden and Mart: Filled with tourists, but nevertheless, the garden was beautiful and the mart entertaining. It fulfills the stereotypical appearance of what one might expect to see in China. Though the garden is supposedly historically accurate I wasn’t sure how much of it was original and how much was reconstructed.

Dongtai Antiques Market: Our first visit to this long street of hundreds of stalls run by migrant and low-income merchants selling knick knacks, Mao Ze Dong memorabilia, and “antiques” (debatable). The merchants were visibly much lower income than the Shanghai residents frequenting People’s Square and Nanjing Lu, in dress, speech, and appearance. But they were endearing to bargain over items with. The run-down stalls contrasted with the demolished buildings and crane-filled construction sites in the backdrop, all against a further backdrop of high-rise apartment buildings, speaking to the incredible urban growth Shanghai is experiencing. In fact, Dongtai is facing demolition itself.

Xin Tian Di: The Founding Site of the Communist Party of China is, ironically, located in one of the most highly commercialized areas of Shanghai, filled with traditional shikumen buildings housing Starbucks and upscale boutiques and restaurants, as well as a huge mall with highbrow designer brands. We ate dinner at the Din Tai Fung in the mall; I found it ironic, too, that what according to several, is the best Xiao Long Bao (a traditional Shanghai dish) restaurant in Shanghai is a Taiwanese chain (the XLB were fantastic though).

Xin Tian Di is one of the most highly commercialized areas of Shanghai.

Day 2: Richard Brubaker, Robert Foye, CCP Founding Site, hospitals and chats with Dongtai locals

Interview with Richard Brubaker of Hands On China:

Lanie and I couldn’t go to the talk with Robert Foye, a Rice alum who manages a wine-importer company, because we had an interview with Richard Brubaker, who works with a non-governmental organization that serves migrant youth and parents. It was a really enlightening and informative conversation. Some notable insights he said:

• The migrant school system is funded by the Ministry of Education, but often managed at a very different standard from regular public schools
• Migrants often leave town after completing their nine years of required education to take the gaokao back in their home provinces – since different provinces have different gaokao’s, and thus teach different curriculum materials, the youth are not prepared properly and end up working in Shanghai instead of pursuing university education. Additionally, the universities outside of the big cities are often subpar.
• Shanghai does not have the wealth, capital or resources to build out an entirely new public school system devoted to providing quality education for migrants; there’s too many people.
• Right now, China’s economy is skewed towards the east coast, which is why migration into Shanghai is high. Once the economy balances and other provinces develop better job and education opportunities, which is inevitable as the national economy develops, the influx of migrants and strain on Shanghai’s public infrastructure will relax.
• There are schools in migrant neighborhoods that are still largely for migrants but may be owned by the Ministry of Education or private owners. Migrant youth want to attend these schools so they are not discriminated against.
• Brubaker said migrants are visibly discernible in dress and appearance; attempts to integrate migrants into the public school system have thus far failed
• The budgets of migrant schools are much smaller than that of public schools, affecting infrastructure, number of teachers, training, salary and turnover rate.
• Brubaker did not know what the difference in training requirements was for teachers in migrant vs. non-migrant schools, but said “there has to be a difference in training.”

All this time I’ve been trying to answer this question to myself: Has Shanghai’s enormous wealth, facilitating the expansion of China’s mass middle class, brought enough opportunities to the marginalized (low-income, migrant, and/or minority) to justify the fact that such wealth has also been built on their backs? I still don’t know the answer.

Hospitals

Robert Foye’s wife was gracious enough to show us around various hospitals and take us to Dongtai again to get a glimpse of the poor in Shanghai. We visited an expat clinic and two public, large hospitals. The disparity was striking – on par with the discrepancies between U.S. private and public hospitals. The expat clinic was clean, full of English-speaking employees, and accepts only appointments and only patients with insurance. The hospitals were loud and crowded (with 6 patients to a room in some cases, along with each patient’s large families). They take in walk-ins and trauma patients, as well as patients that lack insurance (though Ms. Foye did say that healthcare was relatively cheap in China, even without insurance).  The facilities were definitely on par with a public hospital in the U.S. – my mother works at a large, public hospital and the difference between my mother’s hospital and those in the Texas Med Center, for example, are astounding.

Dongtai Antiques Market

I actually got to talk to some of the merchants this time, which was, as it was during the marriage market, incredibly gratifying, eye-opening, and informative. There were still gaps in understanding, but talking to locals in the best Mandarin I could muster constituted, easily, one of the best experiences of my China trip in general. I spoke with two migrant women from Henan and Shanxi, and a minority woman. All of them had sons that were in their teenage years; some were attending school in Shanghai, some back home. The Henan migrant said that the biggest and most salient issue for them as migrants was easily education. Because they lack Shanghai hukou, her son cannot attend college in Shanghai and will likely end up working after graduating high school. When I asked all of them what they thought their life was like as migrants in Shanghai, they all said, “so-so” (“马马虎虎；还好，还可以”). When asked whether she was worried about her child not being able to pursue higher education, the Henan woman said she was very worried.

It was amazing to learn more about these women beyond bargaining over items with them.

As Brubaker mentioned, all the migrant parents want better lives and opportunities for their children than they had or currently have. (How) can this (class mobility) be possible if migrant youth cannot pursue quality higher education? If one moves to a city to pursue better job opportunities and a higher quality of life, is it worth it if one’s children cannot have class mobility?

Top: the neon, hyperbranded, hyperconsumerist, Times Square meets Disneyland hybrid face Shanghai boasts (Nanjing Lu); bottom: the neighborhoods getting demolished and people getting relocated to make room for high-rises (by the Dongtai Antiques Market)

Day 3: US Consulate, Neri&Hu, Jing’An, Grumpy Pig

Some notable things that Mark Wuebbels, a foreign service officer with the US Consulate of Shanghai, said:

• Anhui (a much poorer province starting to industrialize) is where all of China was 15 years ago.
• The general direction of China’s economy is going in the direction of greater economic growth and industrialization in provinces outside of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong.
• Providing healthcare to the Chinese people is a huge priority for the national government
• The national government actually wants to expand hukou and dismantle the urban-rural divide, but Shanghai locals do not want to expand hukou because it would increase competition for university admissions. Additionally, Shanghai cab drivers, who were specifically designated Shanghai hukou, are upset that something that was carved out specifically for them will be expanded to others. I was very surprised by this.
• (Just as Brubaker said) Wuebbels thinks the solution to the exclusion of migrants from crucial social services and public goods is to open more top quality schoosl and job opportunities outside of Shanghai.

We heard Jerry el Fierro, a Rice alum, speak at his architecture firm, Neri & Hu, about the changing perception of architecture in China, the differences between designing and building architecture in the U.S. compared with in China, and the future direction of Chinese architecture. Given that many of the Pudong skyline buildings and much of Shanghai’s urban built environment have been Western-influenced, I wondered how much of Chinese architecture was truly Chinese? Is there such a thing? However, Jerry’s talk reminded me that in art and in architecture, nothing is ever isolated; art is dynamic and responsive. Every piece of art has multiple influences and influences the creation of other art across time and space – so can any one style of art or architecture be of a specific country?

Jing’An Temple: After lunch at an Italian pizza place, we visited Jing’An Temple – a large, beautiful traditional Buddhist temple. There, I picked up some traditional Buddhist books (available for free!) for my dad and me to peruse once I got back. One of the volunteers at the temple spoke really good English (he had done his PhD in England) and told us about the history of the temple, the monks there, and the significance of the Jade Stone structure. I burned incense, prayed to my ancestors, and prayed to the Buddhist statues inside the temple.

Dinner at Grumpy Pig: We then had dinner at Grumpy Pig, where one of the chefs is a Rice alum who had majored in Managerial Studies and Asian Studies (!). His wife is a Rice alum who majored in Sociology and Asian Studies and is a teacher at a private school in Shanghai. The food was downright amazing and its fusion aspects reminded me of the Momofuku restaurants run by David Chang in NYC. The next day at lunch, we met Tiffany Lee, who works in digital marketing for REVOLVE Clothing, also a Rice alum who majored in Psychology and Policy Studies. All of these alumni were extremely cool. The differences between their majors and what they currently do as professionals spoke to how much one’s major in college doesn’t always translate to what one does in the future – and that this is okay. It was refreshing to meet and speak with Rice alum doing different things than they may initially have expected and following career paths different than are typically touted at Rice.

Dinner at Grumpy Pig

Day 4: Solo exploring in Xiaonanmen, Sci-Tech Bazaar, Lecture at NYU Shanghai, Pudong, Di Shui Dong

Xiaonanmen: The group went to New Century Park in the morning, but I decided to venture off on my own to visit more low-income parts of Shanghai. A friend had advised me to try to find the Secluded Library in Xiaonanmen and then walk down to the South Bund Fabric Market. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to get to the fabric market and the Secluded Library was closed, but I still got to explore Xiaonanmen. It was similar to the area near the Dongtai Antiques Market, with clothes hanging out the window, a stray meowing cat, street stalls and vendors, run-down concrete housing, and residents that didn’t speak Mandarin (they spoke different dialects).

A block over, as I walked to the subway station to join the group at the Sci-Tech Bazaar for lunch, a new building was being constructed.

Lecture at NYU Shanghai: After lunch with Tiffany, we heard a fantastic lecture from Non Arkaraprasertkul, author of one of the (in my opinion, best) journal articles we had previously read on “Power, Politics and the Making of Shanghai.” His presentation was called, “Locating Shanghai: Urbanization, Heritage Industry and the Political Economy of Urban Space.” He spoke about his anthropological work spending time living in a lilong house. His research poses a compelling question – Shanghai is often spoken of in terms of its colonial past as the “Paris of the Orient” and its impending hyper-modern future of high-rises and skyscrapers, but where is the present? Back in the 1930s, 90% of the urban fabric was composed of lilong housing; today, only a handful of neighborhoods boast lilong housing and are gated and valued as heritage buildings, with high-rises dominating the urban fabric now. This has changed the nature of Shanghai’s social landscape.

He raised many fascinating questions that had been lurking in the back of my mind the whole trip:

• To be a global city you need to blend modernity with historical preservation. How do you blend history, culture, and modernity?
• [paraphrased] You need history because otherwise, people will leave. There’s no sense of attachment or belonging. Without a cultural or historical rooting to a place, people will follow the money. There are things built 10 years ago to look old – to what extent is history fabricated or replicated?
• A lot of the lilong housing, though historical, are in hazardous conditions; to what extent do we preserve history if, by preserving, you are allowing the people living there to continue to suffer?

Non was also simply hilarious and enjoyable to speak with in general.

Pudong Skyline: it was beautiful and glittering with lights.

Di Shui Dong: Tiffany joined us for dinner at what has been deemed the best Hunan restaurant in Shanghai, Di Shui Dong, and it may have been one of the best meals of my life. We feasted on cumin seasoned ribs, frog legs, and caramelized bananas.

Overall, Shanghai was amazing. I learned a lot from our speakers, from visiting both tourist-heavy and non-tourist-heavy areas, and most significantly, from interacting with local citizens. From the history of Shanghai, architecture and housing, disparities between migrants (who make up half the population) and non-migrants, and the speakers, I can’t help but think of Shanghai as containing little that is actually of Shanghai. Shanghai seems to be more like bits and pieces of different parts of the world and history constructed into one mish-mash, patchwork urban dystopia. But…is that necessarily a bad thing?