See is believing....

When we first moved to China, Craig and I were driving to the kids’ school for a meeting.  We had done this drive from the apartment to the school probably a half a dozen times already.   About half way there, I turned to Craig and said “I’ve never driven down this street before.”  He reminded me we had driven this way “about a half a dozen times.”  “Yes,” I said “but each time this street is so completely different.”

Is it me?  Or does  it seems that the streets of Shanghai perform some soft of scarf dance – peeling off layers or hiding behind veils, so each time I walk a lane or drive down a street -- something is different?   Streets, lanes, alleys, storefronts never look the same from one day to another.

Chalkboard in our lane changes every few months

Early Sat morning is different from Sat night

Youtaio -- a Shanghai breakfast food is only available in the  AM

Sometimes I think I can’t possibly gather up all the visual information available when I walk or drive down a street in Shanghai, but at other times I realize the streets really are different, depending on the time of day or night …. or day of the week. Some stores only seem to be open in the morning for rush hour (like the place that makes youtiao, which is essentially a breakfast cruller). Other stores seem to only open at night.  

Like New York, restaurants open and close all the time in Shanghai – or they re-open with a new décor or a new chef.  And then there are the vendors that change and move constantly -- both legal and illegal vendors with carts and wagons. For example, on our end of Haui Hai Road the vendors tend to be the illegal ones selling DVDs of movies still in the theaters, CDs, sketch books, and fake Long Champ bags.  On the other end of Haui Hai Road – closer to Hongqiao,  there tends to be more fruit vendors, who sell from wagons and carts, which look like they jumped off the pages of a Charles Dickens novel. 

This view of Shanghai will not be here in 20 years. 

With all the constant changing in Shanghai, you can become sentimental.  You can mourn the loss of your favorite noodle shop or a deco movie theatre, which will be closing soon.    Craig has an expression “The Shanghai you see is the Shanghai you get.”  Meaning, what is in front of you is where this ever changing city is today – so enjoy it as she is --  not how she was or how she will be.  

Many things have changed Shanghai – wars, occupations, and even expos have changed the Shanghai you see.

Shanghai was founded in the 10^th Century as nothing more than a swampy area east of Suzhou.  The total population until 1127 was only 12,000 households.   But in 1127 something happened that changed the trajectory of Shanghai forever.  In 1127 Kaigeng fell.  So why does this matter?  Well (and I didn’t know this until I started reading the history of Shanghia) Kaifeng was probably the largest city in the world from 1013 to 1127.  Kaifeng was the center point of four major canals and was a commercial and industrial center and had a population of 600,000 and 700,000. 

So in 1127 Kaifeng fell to Jurchen invaders and about 250,000 of those residents became refugees in Shanghai.  Shanghai was forever changed by migration and immigration. 

Last night I watched the movie Shanghai Calling (which I highly recommend).  The heroine, an American, comments on how we may call ourselves ex-Pats but really we are immigrants.  We may, in general, come to Shanghai in a different way from those Kaifeng citizens.  Most are not fleeing invaders. but we come.  We come for opportunity.  We come for love.  We come to be reborn – whether we are American Born Chinese (ABC), or returning home natives or third culture families.  We are part of Shanghai and the veils she wears and sheds.