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?

Late at night we finally arrived in Shanghai. There’s nothing that says ‘Welcome to Shanghai’ quite like a group of pelvic-thrusting police officers. After a short walk, with lots of laughs – we arrived at our hotel – the Seventh Heaven Hotel – situated on top of a clothing store (Lanie was the only one that took advantage of the convenient location. Our hotel was interestingly…dark. Quite creepy. We quickly dropped off our things in our rooms (shout out to my roomie Nicole!). Afterwards we headed to late night food (basically dinner) at a local hot pot place with Cleo who works at Uber. Basically, I learned that I’m not a fan of hot pot – if I have to cook my own food I’d rather do it at home.

The next morning we visited the Urban Planning Museum. Crazy impressive/ Basically, American museums could learn a lot from this amazing place. My favorite exhibit was the scaled model of the city – I ended up taking tons of pictures of all the different sections of Shanghai, and then as we’d visit different areas of the city, I would try to find them in the pictures of the model. This was a lot harder than imagined, Shanghai is crazy big.

After the museum, we grabbed lunch in the nearby mall. It was super bougie. I also found out that fish egg rolls are not delicious at all. We all grabbed boba tea afterwards and headed to the Marriage Market. Finally something to do with my project. Ah, the Shanghai Marriage Market: the original Tinder. Basically, parents come out and advertise their unmarried children based on various attributes (it seemed that the most important ones were age, height, weight, education, and income) and talk to other parents looking for a suitable mate.  We should definitely make this a thing in the U.S. Dating would be so much easier, plus my mother has a much better taste in people than me. Later on, we talked to Tiffany told us that without a good job, a good income, a house and a car, you have no chance (also a hukou). However, because of the  of the “Little Emperor Syndrome”, parents and grandparents spend their whole lives pouring everything into this one child, so that they can have a better chance at marriage.

We then spent time at The Bund – you could literally see the pollution in the air – and it wasn’t even considered a “bad day”. Cleo was having a difficult day because one of her Uber drivers got into a car accident, so she didn’t end up going to the Yuyuan Garden and Market with us.

My favorite part of the Shanghai trip came with the visit to Robert Foye. I loved hearing about his experiences in China, and also about the marketing strategies they were putting forth in China. Also, his wife happened to be from Pearland (small world!) Afterwards, Lanie, Mishi and I went back to the Yuyuan Garden (shopping!), and we got a lot better at bargaining – the trick it to walk away.

The next day we met with Rice grad Jerry Del Fierro. I found his discussion of defensive architecture to be very interesting. Basically, all the rules and laws in the Western world go so overboard, they actually stifle artistic freedom – which could happen soon in the East too, but so far there are a lot less laws. We also visited an amazing Buddhist Temple. Touched some jade, made some wishes. Whaat I found most interesting was the contrast of the temple architecture and the commercial architecture that surrounded it.

A group of us headed to century park the next day, and Jeh, Lanie, Mishi and I took a trip on a four person bike, joined by Taylor Swift (basically our trip soundtrack). We loved taking photos in the blossoms, but not as much as the locals did. Suddenly we were being followed by families with cameras – one family  even stopped us and asked our group to take a picture with their son #famous.

Next we headed to NYU to meet with Non (I was in a panda hat, with a suitcase in tow). Non introduced the topic of Leftover Women to us. Basically, this was an idea that was actually started by a woman’s organization in China (irony, right?) to encourage young women to think about marriage. They started the idea of Leftover Women, that basically any  women over 27 left unmarried were basically useless.

My experience in Shanghai was most definitely eye-opening and incredible, to say the least. We arrived at our hotel, the Seventh Heaven, late at night, so my real explorations started in the morning. The Seventh Heaven Hotel was in the People’s Square, a popular area for shopping, tourists, and interactions. My first thought walking outside in the morning was about the plethora of people I was seeing. No matter where I went in Shanghai or at what time, I had never seen so many people in one place at one time. Something else that I noticed fairly quickly was that Shanghai had a lot of fog, and it was rare to see the sun. I soon found out that I wasn’t seeing fog, but, in fact, I was seeing and smelling pollution. I have read about the absurdly high levels of pollution in China, but I was surprised to see that it was so terrible. The pollution was truly overbearing, and it was often hard to breathe.

Nonetheless, the places I visited in Shanghai were absolutely incredible. In Shanghai, we visited the Jing’an Temple, a famous Buddhist temple, Xian Tian Di, a popular tourist shopping plaza, Yuyuan market and Yu Gardens, Dong Lai Market, the American Consulate, Neri & Hu Architecture, Treasury Wine Estates, the Chinese Communist Party Founding Site, the Bund, Pudong, Century Park, the French Concession, and the Urban Planning Museum. I thoroughly enjoyed all of these places, but I specifically enjoyed the Yuyuan market and Yu Gardens because it provided me with a better glimpse of the different facets of Shanghai. While touring the People’s Square, I found it hard to “feel” like I was in China. I was surprised to see how westernized Shanghai looked and felt. Shanghai is urbanized and resembles the fast, busy life of other global cities like New York City. There were many skyscrapers, high rises, Western architecture, Western shopping stores, food, and more. In the Yuyuan market, more of the traditional Chinese architecture was visible, along with more traditional food and “feel.” Something that also surprised me was the the CCP founding site was right next to Xian Tian Di, and the juxtaposition of the two was ironic to say the least.

My research question revolves around what avenues Shanghainese citizens have to political activism and ways they can express content/discontent with local policy, specifically in relation to pollution policy. While visiting the American Consulate, I learned much about political activism from two foreign service officers. They made it very clear that citizens in Shanghai, and across China, cannot organize mass demonstrations or protests. They are allowed to possess their own political opinions; however, they are clever and careful enough to not organize and speak publicly about their opinions. This prompted me to ask if Shanghainese residents were then politically apathetic. The foreign service officers claimed that although citizens cannot organize, they are not politically apathetic and do have opinions on local policy. In relation to pollution policy, Shanghainese citizens are somewhat content as the government has plans to implement many new approaches to lower levels of pollution. We also met with Professor Non A. who was able to tell me about small neighborhood community organizations to which residents can file complaints and talk to. These community organizations work with other neighborhoods in larger organizations and so on and so forth. They report back to the local government often. Unfortunately, most people use these organizations to lodge complaints against neighbors and most, if not all, complaints are about the neighborhood itself, not in relation to policy.

Looking back, Shanghai was fascinating, surprising, and unique. Below are some pictures from my stay in Shanghai.

Shanghai is the largest city in China. It is one of four municipalities, cities that are given their own subnational administration, along with Chongqing, Beijing, and Tianjin. It is also a city that I’ve visited five times now, including this trip.

Again, the question that is constantly in the background during this trip for me is what I hope to gain from it. I want to emphasize that I’ve been to all the cities we’re going to visit. However, I miss Shanghai, and speaking in retrospect, it seems that one of the biggest things I learned (other than the academic stuff, of which there WAS A LOT, MOM AND DAD, I PROMISE) was all the stuff that’s foreign to people. Despite being an unapologetic banana, I still have a lot more knowledge of China than I realize. Little things like accidentally asking your classmate what size cup of boba they want to order in Chinese (sorry Josh) or being completely unfazed by the lack of seat belts and the excess of bad drivers remind you that you’re not quite like the rest of the people in your group–I know China (somewhat), and I’m trying to study it. I imagine this is how religious people feel when they walk into RELI 101 (I am a religious studies major, and controversies over “outsiders” studying local traditions is a huge issue here).

We stayed on Nanjing Rd, the main shopping road in Shanghai, near People’s Square, one of the busiest subway stations in Shanghai. Things were comparatively close. There’s a big park in the middle and a mall nearby, as well as a bunch of different shops just scattered all around, many of which were way too expensive for us to actually patronize. Beyond this, there were the Yu Gardens nearby, where several of my classmates spent their life savings for novelties.

Anyway, my topic of study in this lab is over the development of Pudong. The very start of Pudong’s urban development was closely planned, and it continues to be. By pure virtue of Pudong’s vastness, all the newest, biggest projects are going to be here, including Disney’s sixth resort (after Disney World, Disneyland, Euro Disney, Disney Tokyo, and Disney Hong Kong). This is the first time I had a really good look at Pudong. We were told beforehand that Pudong is a “city for looking” and not a “city for walking in”. That’s a good assessment. The streets are huge. There’s very little that is organic here. It’s extremely clean and planned and technocratic. Yet, I’m not entirely sure that that’s bad.

A photo of Shanghai's three tallest buildings, in Pudong, blocked by some jackass that got into the shot

Of all the little things in which I differed in opinion from my classmates, this might have been the most striking–my classmates seemed to think that Pudong (and Shanghai in general) was less Chinese. I don’t really think that. Pudong still feels quite “Chinese” to me. This is why I would make a terrible leftist–I don’t see globalization being cultural flattening or “Americanization”. Then again, I’ve always been one to look at details and tiny differences. Thus, for instance, America isn’t lawns and suburbs and roads and malls–it’s football jerseys, country music, and barbecues and white porches. China isn’t old pagodas and dragon statues–it’s PSA’s written in terse socialistic prose on every bus stop, wrinkly old guys in the park, and blue license plates with white letters. Japan isn’t kimonos and shamisen music, it’s brown curry, little animal mascots, and futuristic vending machines. Britain isn’t aristocrats and famous Georgian architecture, it’s Simon Pegg films and kebab shops.

You get the point…

A bonus picture, by the way. This is cotton candy. It was part of a seven-course meal that my godparents took me to (each course was really, really small, though, so get the decadent imagery out of your head). Yes, my godparents live here. They are close friends of my parents, and American citizens (thus, they are expatriates). I spent one of the free evenings with them, and we even FaceTimed my mother at 6 in the morning (her time).

We had finally arrived in Shanghai, the city that had once been known as the Paris of the East. I was excited to explore this great and historic city, and of course, to try one of the KFCs that has sprung up all over China. We visited the Urban Planning Museum, and got one of our first tastes of the paradox of Chinese development. Behind an ostentatious golden sculpture of the city, a sprawling work of art extolling the virtues of communism and the workers paradise had been painted on the wall. Our experiences throughout China would express this duality; all may be equal, but among Chinese cities and the Chinese populace, some cities and people were definitely more equal than others.

The Marriage Market, where primarily parents attempt to find matches for their aging children, was a unique cultural and social experience. The corporate Pudong zone, the historic Bund, and Jing’an temple were intriguing stops for us on our journey to better understand the culture and socio-economic climate of this complex city. Excellent food and the horror of Chinese subways were both memorable experiences which I won’t (and sadly can’t forget, in the case of the subways).

My project was to see if areas with historically high minority populations were subjected to practices that would lead to a more polluted environment. Through several enlightening talks with Rice alumni and lecturers, I began to see that minorities were adequately well treated in China; discrimination in this rapidly modernizing country was based far more on geographic location then ethnicity. Where you live determines the job opportunities, marriage opportunities, and the pollution that you have to face, and pollution especially in China is a large problem. Schools  have been closed and flights have been diverted thanks to the severe air pollution that is  plaguing China’s larger cities. For many, industrialization has come with a terrible cost.