July 4, 2011
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Chinese Revolution
Shanghai is a city which – I get the feeling – is struggling to cope with the crazy speed of change whose grip it finds itself firmly in. Everywhere you go, you see the cranes of construction, new buildings appearing almost overnight, out with the old and in with the new.
It’s vibrant. Living. 24 hours a day, a city you can get a cup of coffee in at 2 in the morning. Where you can get your favourite food any time. A city that does not sleep, in the truest sense of the phrase. You see people walking down the street at all hours, a taxi driver taking a leak at 3 in the morning next to a gated apartment building. A city where so many shops are open, even in the small hours of the morning.
Coming from Taiwan, where convenience is key, it looks like Shanghai has made it an art form. There is nothing you can’t get – massages, clothes, food, sex. It’s all here for you, and you don’t have to look far to find it. From KTV’s which appeal to the masses of Taiwanese who have moved or been relocated here, where even Taiwanese hostesses can be hired by the hour, to an abundance of 7-Elevens and Family Marts, Taiwan looks in comparison like a sleepy village.
And no wonder.
But the people who have been living here for their whole lives, they are the ones who suffer the most, from the observations I have made. Zhong Shan Park in Chang Ning District on a Saturday lunchtime is full of older generation people, getting together and playing their traditional music, singing, playing mah-jong. Others, with children, fly their kites against a backdrop of green trees and new high rise blocks; children practicing their acrobatic moves against the constant noise of construction in the background. The city of Shanghai truly never stops growing.
I did not get to ask people how they feel about this – they are not very open to foreigners here, unlike in Taiwan, and I was eyed with suspicion – but I could see it in their eyes. There is a sadness in them, perhaps of something that they have lost. Shanghai was once a city with a huge French influence. Today there is little left of that, and the park tries hard to bring back some reflections of old times, recreating bridges and pagodas from the Qin Dynasty, attempting the nostalgic look for a city that seems to lose more of its traditional values than it keeps. But somehow, in among all these relaxing surroundings, it just does not quite work.
It’s a one block park, prime real estate and you have to wonder how long the city will resist building on it. It’s close to the public transport network, and right in the middle of a major business district. With some nice walkways, an abundance of trees, all of which are losing their bark – another prime example of the ecological issues that this country is facing – and all types and colours of flowers, it is a relaxing place for a city that can’t stop moving.
But progress – if it can be termed that way – is never far from you. At the exit of the park is a McDonalds. That’s enough to make me go and join those sad older people in the park, reminiscing of times past, where a man could walk for days in this country without finding a KTV, a coffee shop and a fast food restaurant.
Those times have long gone. Is China ready for this revolution?
