To begin our fifth day in Shanghai, we used our usual method of travel, that being the subway, to enjoy the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. Of the urban exhibits featured, the one that had me in awe, I’m sure like most, was the small scale model of the central Pudong district of Shanghai. In addition to the great detail that was illustrated, their projections urban development projections to the year 2020 was inspiring to see.

We then headed to the other Jiao Tong University campus which I believe is located further southeast of the campus that we are staying at. This lecture specifically pertained to me and my research topic because it specifically addressed the environment and was given by an associate professor in the university’s environmental sciences and engineering department. This was one of the most well-prepared lectures and was filled with great content that I will most likely use within my research. Shortly after we had the dean of humanities of the university come and speak to us about Jiao Tong University itself. A point of emphasis for the university that he mentioned was that of creativity. Because the university was founded in order to better compete against the Japanese in technological innovations, there exists a very narrow, goal-oriented approach. Thus encouraging and fostering creative innovation is he mentioned will get them to the level of success that they are striving for.

From the talk about the Jiao Ting University system I also gained a new appreciation for Rice and the liberal education that students are able to acquire. Our motto of unconventional wisdom communicates everything about the way of thinking that is inspired to have due to the established understanding of how impactful it is in any endeavor one ends up exploring.

Every morning I have been able to get up and have a work out and today was the same except that I went to a gym with Michael down the road from the university called “Will’s.” Because the traditional Chinese person isn’t exactly known for going to work out facilities like this, I found it was interesting to see this adaptation to accommodate “外国人” like myself.

Today was filled with two sessions regarding public media. The first lecture was with the general manager and editor of the Global Times and the second lecture was with a two associates from the International Channel of Shanghai. I was interested to hear the information and experiences they had to share because of the governmental environment and my preconceived understanding of its influence on the general public environment. The information that I found the most significant to my particular research topic was that shared about how the serious environmental issues have impacted the public media and when reports that focused on the environment began to surface. The common answer that was communicated was that in the past 4-6 years there has been an increasing amount of coverage on environmental issues. This shift is in part due to arising health consequences of citizens, a large food scandal at the end of 2008, and even the 2009 economic downturn which subsequently influenced the of the most pressing issues of China as a whole to be reported and focused on.

The day ended with a quick visit to the French Concessions called Xintiandi. The distinct European architecture was intriguing to see within Shanghai and seeing this allowed for a visual image to be connected with the history that we had learned of the international influence and presence within the city.

Friday was a fantastic, fun, and full day!  We started off the morning with a visit to Eastday Company, which was an incredibly eye-opening experience.  I don’t think that there is any American company that even comes close to Eastday in terms of market penetration – they actually had a foot in every sort of business imaginable.  It was like Amazon but so, so much more – the guy that showed us around, for example, was in charge of the art and culture side of Eastday.  He gave us a tour of the company’s building and then chatted with us at a nearby tea house/art museum (also owned by the company).  Afterwards, he treated us to a huge lunch – in the middle of eating he found out that it was my birthday, and then he proceeded to have one of his henchmen purchase a birthday cake and bring it to the restaurant for us to enjoy after eating.  He was a very impressive man that was part of an even more impressive company, so it was altogether a very interesting visit – and perhaps the most eye-opening of the week.

Also because it was my birthday, my parents and younger brother came to visit for a few days (they live in Taiwan, so it’s a short and inexpensive flight for them).  They joined our group on our afternoon and nighttime “cultural tour” to the Songjiang Mosque and Zhujiajiao, and it was really nice to spend a bit of time with my family.  The Songjiang Mosque was one of my favorite places we visited over the week in Shanghai, because it was incredibly old (initially built 700 years ago!) and the people there were warm, welcoming, and more than willing to show us around and let us take pictures.  Zhujiajiao, however, was slightly disappointing, for several reasons.  Firstly, it was very, very cold (obviously this has nothing to do with the place itself, but it made the experience significantly less enjoyable nonetheless).  Secondly, and possibly because of the cold, it was not very lively – only a handful of shops were open, and it was slightly awkward to walk around because we were some of the only people visiting the area.  Thirdly, it felt like we were intruding on peoples’ lives – people actually live in that area, and because it is less popular and therefore less touristy than other areas in and around Shanghai, it sort of felt like we were being intrusive.

Despite my slight disappointment with Zhujiajiao (I don’t think the others shared this sentiment, so it was still a fun excursion!), it was a wonderful day – especially because we went to karaoke after we returned to the city to celebrate my birthday!  Asian karaoke is so incredibly fun, and it was a perfect conclusion to the day as well as the whole trip.

This day was a very relaxed one.  We had a lot of recuperation time in the morning because we were originally supposed to go to Hangzhou for the day, but instead we had the morning off before a tour of a high-tech company outside Shanghai in the afternoon.  The tour was really interesting although I didn’t understand much of what was discussed at the meeting (economics and high-tech things).  What I did find incredibly intriguing, though, was that the company had a very strong Buddhist element in the running of the company.  We got to see their own Buddhist shrine (which, if I remember correctly, displayed several pictures of prominent Buddhist monks coming to visit the company), and we also listened to them speak at length about how the core principles of Buddhism deeply influence how their company is run in terms of customer relations as well as how they treat their employees on a daily basis.  I didn’t get to ask if their employees are all Buddhist – although I doubt the answer would be yes.  I didn’t understand exactly what their products were (we were given a fancy booklet listing and explaining them all, but it was in industrial jargon that I couldn’t even begin to comprehend), but it was still a fascinating visit.  The ride over to the company was interesting as well, because we drove through a part of outer Shanghai that was entirely under construction.  Most of the places we had previously visited were already highly developed areas, so it was neat to see evidence of Shanghai’s rapid expansion.

On our final day of lectures in Shanghai, we met with a Ph.D student who talked to us about Muslim culture in Shanghai. Our lecturer told us about what the Muslim community looks like and some of the issues they face as their numbers in Shanghai are growing. Before the revolution, there were forty mosques in Shanghai, today there are only eight. We were able to see two of those mosques. One of which was built in 1870, and another that has been around for 800 years. Because there are fewer places of worship for Muslims today, various communities have set up temporary places of worship in homes and in their local businesses. These temporary setups are illegal according to the government. Thus the municipal government is responding to the growing needs of the Muslim communities and will be building two new mosques in the upcoming years. I am curious about why local law enforcement is not forcing people to stop setting up their own places of worship. All places of worship have to be sanctioned by the State, so why is the Shanghai government turning a blind eye to people turning their homes into temporary mosques? I think it might be because they understand the needs of the growing community, and if this is the case, then the Shanghai government is showing its support of minorities in huge way.

We also learned that there are 56 minorities in China — 10 of them are Muslim. There are 22 million + Muslims in China. Most of those people are in north western China. What I found staggering was there that  1.8% of China’s population is Muslim.  The Muslims in China are comparable to the populations of Muslims in Arab countries — Egypt for example has a population of 83.7 million and China has over 22 million. You can find Muslims in every city and province.

Public policies for minorities emerged in China in the Ching Dynasty  — but you can even go back further from the middle 7th century when Caliph Osman sent ambassador to China –which is one of the first marks of Islam in China. At this time, the general’s social condition was quite open, and the emperor wanted to promote diversity. There is no specific policy for Muslims but all minorities could benefit from the law at this time. During the Song Dynasty Muslims had been in China for 2 generations. Muslims became local officials and some became businessmen so they began to influence society. Technical development in this time can be accredited to Muslims.

We learned a lot about how China’s Muslims communities have benefited the country. I wonder if this has any thing to do with fairly recent policy changes that are more accommodating to Muslims. I wonder if the general public looks upon fondly to its Muslim neighbors and how this might impact policy changes.