Categories
in china

kniiiiiiiiiiit!


the downside of moving to other countries is the things we have to leave behind. (if i were in charge, there would be a special travelling discount for people moving to new places, as well as ilimited luggage allowance. *humpf* )

but since i’m not in charge (yet!), some of my favourite things are still in portugal – like my negatives, books, crayons, stamps*… and knitting needles. in a lucky quirk of fate though, i found a great place here to buy them: arlyna’s closet. arlyna, together with her husband, own a very nice design company here in shanghai and in her spare time, she does all sorts of crafty things, which she sells in her shop. my favourite are the bamboo knitting needles, but there are also stitch markers, pouches, bags, etc.
give it a look!

also, check out these knit night cupcakes, from vegan yum yum. aren’t they just soooo irresistably cute? :D

* i took care of the stamps part today, in a local stationery shop. less than an euro for the full alphabet, numbers and a stamp pad. :)

Categories
in china

the 3rd of september.

funny how life changes. 2 years ago this day, i was landing in the netherlands. 1 year ago, precisely, i was stepping out of a plane in denver, usa.

today i’m not landing anywhere, i’m already settled in shanghai, china. but i know there is more, much more to come.

taking part of the 101 things in 1001 days project made me realize that while making my list, i was outlining a future version of me, along with a certain path to get there.
these are the things that define me better, the objectives, the challenges and the dreams. actually writing them down, giving them a deadline and making them public made me more focused in making them happen (and i’m not one to be easily taken away by gtd speeches and methods).

some of the tasks are easy and have been long postponed, some are dreamy, some are eventually going to happen, some require a lot of planning and/or money. oh! and 2 of them have already been taken care of, only 99 left (to be done in 991 days) :)

what about you… do you have a list too?

Categories
in china

china’s “me” generation

Survey young, urban Chinese today, and you will find them drinking Starbucks, wearing Nikes and blogging obsessively. But you will detect little interest in demanding voting rights, let alone overthrowing the country’s communist rulers. “On their wish list,” says Hong Huang, a publisher of several lifestyle magazines, “a Nintendo Wii comes way ahead of democracy.”

a very accurate portrait of today’s “Me generation” in China, the children of the one-child policy. its power and what it represents for the future of this country, on Time magazine.

Categories
in china

god save the queen


we went to hong kong, a couple of months ago or so. hong kong is so different from shanghai that on the way back we realized that we were actually a bit disappointed to return “home”, to shanghai, and china. our experience is as biased as it gets, since we were only there for a single day (most of which was spent inside cafés, trying not to melt or get soaked up outside, on the inconstant spurts of rain). what follows is a gathering of random thoughts from that day. they are going to sound rough, i know, but that was exactly how i felt when i came back: angry and bitter at all the potential that this city has and that is currently being wasted.

so, we arrived in hong kong in the evening, took a shuttle to the city center, crashed in a small hostel and the next morning, by 8:30 we were queuing at the chinese administrative services doorstep, waiting for our turn. when it opened, we delivered the forms and our passports and were told to return around three o’clock in the afternoon. which we did, everything was ready, we picked our passports and strolled around a bit longer, window shopping and dodging the rain.

while we were at it, it rained a lot – not the kind of plum rain we see in shanghai. really pouring down cats and dogs, as i wish it would around here more often. maybe for once this city would be cleaner, maybe we could even see the skies more than once a month.

it seemed pretty bilingual to us, everybody we spoke to seemed to speak english. the people queued and gave way in the escalators, the buses were all double decks (an eye-blink from far away london), the metro stations had this tiny colorful tiles that made them gorgeous. the sidewalks seemed decent (not the chinese version of sidewalks, irregular patches of tiles and cement). we didn’t see any beggars or stumbled upon fake dvds stands, yet we stared in awe to the happy mesh of signs and neons in the narrow streets.
and then there’s disneyland (and not some fake imitation, like in the mainland). all banks can issue their own version of the hong kong dollars bills, which can be confusing but also colorfully fun and original. coffee franchises were everywhere (something i’m beginning to find quite reassuring) and we spent some hours on one of them, while i introduced p. to scrabble. no one (not even a single one of the 20 employees of the café where we had lunch) screamed “qing guoling!”* to welcome us.

there’s a quiet sense of normality, there are so many foreigners in this fast paced city that no one really cares (or stares) anymore. the driver that took us to the airport actually drove slowly, the whole way, letting us enjoy the ride and the view. and what a view! hong kong is beautiful. the geography of the place, with its bays, islands and peninsulas, hills and waterfronts…

anyway, as soon as we had set foot outside pudong’s international airport in shanghai, late night that day, there were hoards of taxi drivers trying to lure us into their taxis. we choose the shuttle back to the city – the bus dangerously (and disappointingly) sped all the way to the city center, where we leaped into a taxi and went home, feeling tired and sad.

an indian friend once told me that if britain hadn’t colonized india years ago, they’d still be in the middle ages – and ironically, that’s the exact same feeling i have about hong kong vs. china. hurray for british colonies and their civilized manners.

now, knowing the portuguese record on this field, i’m curious about macau…

* i don’t know if that’s exactly what they say. sounds like that and it should mean “welcome”. you can’t go inside any restaurant around here without having at least a dozen of waitresses screaming it in unison to your ears… quite literally, i’m afraid.

hong kong image by J.Yip, on flickr.

Categories
in china

3 and a half months of life in china.

(this is the big post about china that was missing here, for a bit of context on our daily life.)

on 66 qing dao lu’s blog, JNA (another portuguese living in shanghai) posted a crop of a magazine article, stating the 5 stages of the adaptation to china. a very well written piece by someone who has been in the middle kingdom for the last 3 years. here’s how it goes (some parenthesis are mine):


* Stage One: The Honeymoon Stage – Everything is just plain weird and wonderful. Taxis come in various colours: some have three wheels (though not in Shanghai). Men in beige suits are carrying purses and have extremely long fingernails and some girls are holding hands. Everything is covered in neon. People stare (a lot). Women have umbrellas in the sun. Cheese is a luxury product.

(I would add: people walk around in their pajamas, there are policeman with whistles in every crossroad, the skyline is beautiful, taxis/buses/subway have tv screens, everybody carries green tea in a bottle, people carry the most unusual things in their bikes.)

* Stage Two: The Irritation Stage – Taxi drivers always choose the longest queue at traffic lights. A simple banking operation takes half a day. It’s impossible to buy a return train ticket. It feels like everybody is trying to cheat you. The so-called Caesar salad you ordered is made with spam. Nobody holds the elevator door open. Everyone smokes, even in the hospital.
(I would add: car drivers never give way for ambulances, car drivers don’t care for pedestrians, you are required to register at the police. )


* Stage Three: The Rejection Stage – Give up trying to communicate with Chinese people who don’t speak English (except your taxi driver). Give up learning Chinese. Only shop in Carrefour. Live in a suburban compound. Complain non-stop about the traffic, pollution, bad manners, noisy neighbours, Chinese TV and poor quality products. Get BBC, CNN and a couple of humidifiers.

* Stage Four: The Integration Stage – Buy a bicycle. Start to learn Chinese and practice with the taxi driver. Say hello to Chinese people who say hello to you, even when you have a hangover. Develop a level of patience that Mother Theresa would be proud of. Start shopping in the local fruit market and cooking Chinese food.
(I would add: start to order the hot dishes in the chinese/thai restaurants, get addicted to hot pot, buy fake dvds from the best stalls)

* Stage Five: The Re-Entry Stage – Go back home and realize how tedious “developed” life can be. Become homesick for China and make plans to return.


from here.

we’re in between a few of these stages, perhaps mid-irritated, mid-integrated.

we don’t have satellite tv, and we are happily brainwashed by cctv 9 (china’s only english channel) every morning, and occasionally, the weekend shanghai daily – we take it a grain of salt, things are never what they seem. we found our way around the firewall thing. we bought a bike and we are learning chinese (last week i wrote my first 3-line composition. yay!).

it still feels like everybody is trying to cheat us, but now that we’ve learned how to say “too expensive!” (tai gui le!), our life has entered a whole new level of bargaining. i hate discussions (bargaining included), but maybe this turns out to be the therapy i needed to get over that little phobia.

we still buy at carrefour and other big shops 90% of the time, simply because it involves no bargaining in tricky places in chinese and recognizing the brands makes shopping a lot easier. despite those arguments, we might definitely turn to smaller supermarkets soon, because we’re getting tired of the big ones. the thing is, big supermarkets come with lots of chinese people. and i mean lots, too many! they’re loud, noisy and unfamiliar with the “queue” concept. the whole experience wears us out and by the time we arrive home we’re cursing and exhausted, whether it’s ikea, carrefour or hymall… it’s really difficult to explain, believe me.
i wish we could hop on a plane now and then for a nice saturday morning shopping in the groningen’s market…

and the most noticeable change in 3 and a half months, we’re almost as patient as mother theresa, or buddha himself. the tolerance you build here is amazing. i mean, what other sane options do you have to deal with all the things that go against your normal approach, but to be insanely patient and work your way around it?

i’ve cried in a number of places here, from sheer frustration – some days everything goes wrong. but hey! good things come to those who wait and silly moments make great memories. i’d say that all in all, we’re having a good time. :)


“A verdade é que a China cansa. Os chineses são diferentes. Aquilo que ao início é pitoresco e novidade torna-se exasperante, com o passar do tempo e a repetição das situações.”

em português, outra visão, ligeiramente mais pessimista, que vale a pena ler na íntegra aqui.