Commpatriotism

As you may or may not know, there is a fairly large sporting event happening this coming month. 8/08/08 at 8:08 P.M. Beijing time (or China time, the 3rd largest country in the world only has 1 time zone) are when the famed Olympic Games will begin. Beijing was given the right to host the games under the condition that it would improve its air quality for tourists and athletes, improve human rights conditions, and allow full access to the internet for at least foreigners during the Games. Beijing agreed to make the changes 7 years ago. As of today, Beijing is covered in a thick cloud of smog and some of its local waters have a pollution caused algae film. The city has gone through extensive measures to evict "undesirables" from the city including the physically and mentally handicapped, homeless persons, and some of the elderly. It has also banned Mongolians and Black skinned people from bars and clubs. China has detained more political dissenters so far this year than all of last year. To top it all off, two days ago Beijing announced that it will censor the internet for all foreigners during the course of the games, exclaiming that it "won't interfere with the accurate reporting of the Games."

Criticism aside, I do find the above poster a good representation of the Chinese attitude towards the game. China desperately wants to dominate the Games, and show its international clout. Everyone of my coworkers ask me if I want to see the games, go to Beijing, and if I know any one of their 4 famous athletes. The entire country of 1.3 billion people (except maybe Tibetans) are passionately supporting their athletes and their country. It will be the most watched game in recent history not only in sheer numbers, but also in worldwide scrutiny. I really wish I could go to the main event, however the tickets are outrageously priced ($5,000.00) and there are no hotel rooms left in the city. The good news is a portion of the games will be played right here in Shanghai, and I at least have proximity on my side for that.

The Daily Engrish: part IV

I seem to have a habit of taking rushed, blurry pictures in the subway. This picture exemplifies a trend I have seen here: many people wear t-shirts with English words on them, sometimes in a completely random and nonsensical order. I guess it is similar to people in the States getting a tattoo of a Chinese or Japanese character thinking it means "Peace" or "Love" and it actually means "Look at me, I'm clueless."

Beijing Dong Lu, Xizang Zhong Lu

This is at an intersection nearby where my new apartment will be. (yeah I'm moving because my place isn't very good for the price, and its far from work, and I don't like living by myself in such a small space.)

The Daily Engrish: part III

This one comes to you once again from the Shanghai metro. I needed a picture for an ID card, so I stopped in the photo booth on the way to work. It was slightly expensive, so it did kind of feel like I was throwing away my money.

Gambeiing

So, it's been a while since I last posted here. It would be an understatement to say I've been busy. Every day I work, then go to someone's house, some networking event, some restaurant, or someplace other than my apartment until late. Sometimes I don't come back at all. Don't get me wrong, I love it. I meet new people everyday. Just recently I met a fellow American who works in the video game industry and his work entails pretty much staying home all day and playing video games. Some life. Today he told me about a modeling gig a friend of his is doing, and she needs some white guys for it. So this weekend I will be paid 1300 RMB (almost 200 bucks) for 5 hours of trying to look good.

When last I posted, I was about to head off to a business trip to Yichang in central China. My role was to say a few words in English and look like a foreigner. Any company here has instantly more clout by having a foreign face on the team. The meeting went fairly well, though I could only understand a little of it. For the two nights that we were there (me, my boss, and one Chinese coworker), we got full body massages. When I say full body I mean full body, and for three hours long no less. It was incredibly relaxing and also a little humorous when they got to my extra toe. The day after the meeting we had a lunch to finalize things. It was a proper royal dinner, with 9 courses and incredibly expensive Chinese wine. During these lunches it is customary to salute someone, say "Gambei" (basically cheers), and take a full shot of 65 proof alcohol. Considering I was the laowai, I had to represent my company and outdrink everyone. There were about 15 people at lunch, so that meant one would Gambei me, then I would Gambei them, then another would Gambei me, and so on and so on. Let's just say I was knocked out for the plane ride home right after that.

During the meeting, I managed to sneak a quick pic. On the far left is my boss, Johnny, and to the far right is the head of the development company we were working with.

My apartment

This is my 10 square meter room at 485 Yongjia Lu. That's my bed in the bottom left corner if you couldn't tell. Pretty plain at the moment, hopefully I'll get a t.v. or something soon. Below is a shot from my rooftop terrace/kitchen. You can't see much, but its something I guess.

My office

Pretty much all design has become these days... a room full of computers. On the bright side I get a somewhat large desk, a good view, and free lunch.

My city

This is the view from my office window: 20 million people in 5,000 square kilometers, the busiest port in the world, and West clashing with East make for the fastest growing city in the world.

Mapping Shanghai

This is a map I've been working on since I've been here. There aren't any good maps in English, so I thought I'd make my own. So far I only have the streets, metro lines and stops, parks, and a couple hotspots listed. If you can read it, I live at the star on Yongjia Lu. My work is the star up at Beijing Lu. As you can see, it's kind of a long commute: over an hour by foot. I'm going to keep adding places that I find interesting like restaurants, tourist spots, nice grocery stores, and other gems. Who knows, maybe this will be helpful to some other lost American trying to navigate through Shanghai without a clue as to what all of those squiggly lines mean.

The Daily Engrish: part II

This one comes to you from the metro station at People's Square. Gotta watch out for those equipment overhauls.

Stranger in a strange land

One thing is certain: no matter how well I can speak and understand Chinese, I would never be able to completely assimilate into this culture. I will never look Asian.

Every day I am approached by different people saying the same thing: "Hello! Watch? Bag? Shoe? DVD?" and the occasional "Lady?" If you keep walking they usually leave you alone, but some are pretty persistent. Sometimes I just speak in French or Spanish and they leave me alone, but one time one of them knew Italian, Spanish, French, English and some middle eastern language. That's dedication.

It's funny how things are so opposite here. The Chinese love the parts of animals that Westerners find detestable. Chicken feet, duck tongues, ligaments, tendons, and other internal organs are delicacies. In the westernized supermarkets all the plain chicken breast tenders and ground beef are very cheap because no one eats them. Lucky for me.

Another thing you won't find much of here is blunt honesty. You can't tell someone their design is weak directly, that is not acceptable. You have to work your way around with pleasantries to get to your point. With architecture, they start at the end and work backwards. Whereas I am used to starting with a concept or sketch and moving from there, they want pretty, finished looking pictures at first, and design it later. Different ways to skin a cat I guess.

The Daily Engrish: part I

This is the first in a series of posts dealing with the little details lost in translation. Today's example came from a recent visit to a local coffee shop. Forgive the blurriness of the photo but in a way it is fitting.

http://pagecannotbefound.chinesecensorship.com

One of the first things I did when I got my internet set up was to check wikipedia. As you may or may not know, wikipedia is an online encyclopedia with virtually (pardon the pun) all the information you will ever need. I knew beforehand about China's censorship, but I didn't know exactly how it worked. I thought that when you would look up sensitive information, you would be redirected to a propaganda page about the subject. For instance, I thought that if you were to look up Tienanmen Square you would simply get information about excellent beauty and you should visit great Chinese place. However, all you get is a "Page cannot be found" notice. I guess they aren't that creative in their information filtering.

One interesting thing is that I cannot actually see this blog through regular means. I tried to view my blog and others, but came up with the same block. I asked a coworker about it, but she knew nothing of it. It turns out that blogger has been banned for quite sometime, but that the main site was recently lifted from censorship. So I can make posts and edit the layout, but I cannot actually access shangfryed.blogspot.com without the use of a proxy.

Most people blog about relatively harmless things like what their dog ate today or how they found a lamination machine for cheap. But there are of course those who may not be in line with the Party's wishes and disseminate atrocious ideas about Democracy, freedom of speech, and other monstrosities. The current big story in China is the earthquake in Chengdu. I see it on all the public propaganda televisions and newspapers around the city. All that is told is of the great loss, stories of heroism, and the impressive relief efforts by the government. Yet rare is the story of the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren due to negligent school construction and corrupt government officials. The parents of those children are protesting and demanding an explanation to the unwarranted loss of their children. Their voices are being hushed, and the powers-that-be are offering their condolences in the form of cash in exchange for silence.

How much longer can they keep this up as the middle class flourishes and more and more people have access to the "world-wide-web"? In other news, I saw a cat yesterday... it was cute!

Ni hao!

Greetings from 668 Beijing Lu 24E/F Shanghai, Shanghai China! I'm neglecting my work right now by posting this, but I doubt any harm will come from it.

Every morning I get here by taking the line 1 metro from Hengshan Lu (road) to People's Square. It costs 3 yuan (the word for the bill not the currency which is RMB {renmin bing [the people's currency]}) which is about 40 cents. The subway is quite a spectacle. The train is completely packed with people, you literally have to shove your way in and hope your nose isn't caught in the automatic door. Somewhere along the way I stop at a little shop and get a Chinese pastry for 4 yuan, then a coffee (which, believe it or not, is kafei in Mandarin) for about 12. When I get to my office building, I have to wait in a long line for the elevator which of course is packed to the brim.

Working here is almost completely opposite of a normal American firm for an intern. The foreign architects main responsibility is design development. We have very little to do with the boring, non-creative CAD work. My first day I was given a building in a series on a larger site, and was told to design it. It is very excited but also daunting. Usually one would be eased into the design field, but this is somewhat all at once. I won't complain though.