This is China #3

Here are a couple of items I've found in the last week at my local department store.  

The first item is a popular spice used by the Chinese. Something tells me it wouldn't be a hit in America....

And even though the Chinese don't celebrate Christmas, they have a small section of Christmas items available for the handful of westerners that shop at the store. I guess Christmas is coming early this year...

This Little Piggy Went to the Market

OK - this post is also about pigs. Before you think I've become pig obsessed(I'm not) realize that China IS pig obsessed - at least at dinner time. Pork and chicken are the most devoured foods in China. My last post related a vicious attack I was subject to at the hands(nose,really) of an oinker. Today I am just going to mention the high frequency of pigs going to the market that I see every morning(around 5 am) on my 4 minute bike ride to school. These pigs are usually stacked 5 or 6 high on the back of a motorcycle. My understanding is anyone can rent out their vehicle to carry pigs to the market. Some of these people pick up the pigs, throw them on their bike or into the back of their car, drop them off at the market, and then head off to work. And you think your commute is messy....

 

The Other White Meat

Tonight, I almost died. OK - so maybe I am exaggerating just a bit - but not since I consumed a small bottle of energy drink in one gulp during college has my heart beat as fast as it did tonight. My chest must have looked like it belonged in the movie Alien with my heart going as hard and fast as it was just minutes ago. Let me paint the picture...
I decided around 6:30 pm to go for a run. It was a cool, crisp fall night and the air was crystal clear, which happens about once a month here in Shanghai. I thought I should take advantage of the clear air so I headed out for a jog. Now Shanghai is a very runner/biker friendly place. Alongside each main road, on each side of the road, are wide paved bike lanes with a median between it and the road. Chicago could learn from Shanghai in this regard....
Plenty of space for all of the people on bicycles, motorcycles and two feet. Occasionally you will see a car parked in this bike lane, because the car is making a delivery to one of the houses on the other side of the bike lane. As you run past you need to squeeze around these vehicles as there is not much room on either side, so its a tight fit. Tonight, I was well into my run, 20 or 30 minutes and I was in the zone. My I-Pod kept putting out great song after great song, and I was oblivious to all but my breathing and the pavement. It was dark out and the street lights were ample enough to light the bike path, so I was able to see in the distance a truck with a large cargo box in its bed. Thinking nothing of it, as again, these things are common, I began to squeeze past the truck in a slow jog, still oblivious, lost in my I-Tuney world. As I passed the truck I remember thinking how warm it felt, figuring it must be the engine block giving off heat. I neared the end of the truck, and one of the five most singularly frightening moments of my life occured. Out of nowhere, and for no apparent reason - a giant pig thrust his large, warm, wet nose out of the truck and right up against my arm while snorting simultaneously. Normally this would have caused a mild reaction on my part, but considering my mental state at this stage in the run, I would have been no more shocked to be scooped up by a large dinosaur and carried off into the wilderness. I leapt back as if I had been tazed, and at the same time that I was screaming like an 8 year old girl, I tripped on the nearby curb and fell into the median, and a large, thorny bush. The pig, having seen enough, snorted one more time for good measure, and pulled his nose back into the truck, presumably to go tell his pig buddies what he just did to a human. I was not only in complete shock, with thorn scratches on my arms, breathless and adrenaline filled, but to compound my problem, the always helpful Chinese decided to come over and lift me off the ground as they had seen what happened. Apparently convinced that I was really hurt, I think they were trying to lift me up and carry me to safety. Still in a state of shock, I had to tell them politely, or as politely as I could at the moment, to leave me alone. Now faced with a 30 minute run back to my apartment with a throbbing heart and panting breath, I gamely began trudging back from whence I came, only this time making sure to make a wide berth around the truck of pigs.

23 Million...and counting

While its probably well known that the population of China is somewhere around 1.3 billion, 23 million of those people have decided to spend their lives living together in the city of Shanghai. There are moments when I can really "feel" the weight of the enormous population. For example - I will sometimes ride my bike down a back alley near my house as a shortcut - an alley that in America would be occupied by a garbage dumpster and maybe a rat or two, but in China that alley has about 10 people on bikes, another 20 or so walking through, and maybe even a food or trinket stand set up. Of all the places in Shanghai, though, I feel the "people pressure" the most on the subway. I took these two videos of the Shanghai subway on a Saturday afternoon, not a Friday rush hour. It is common as you enter a subway car to be pushed(rather hard, I might add) by the person behind you, as everyone is desperate to make the train before the doors close. When you have 23 million people trying to get somewhere, the result is rather uncomfortable. See for yourself....

Its a Small World After All

Two recent events have made me realize once again that the world is shrinking by the second. The first one occurred a few weeks ago. I have several friends who work in a nanotechnology lab at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL. I had asked them if they would be willing to speak to my AP Physics students about what kind of work they were doing, their science backgrounds, etc. They said they were more than willing, but the question was - were they able? The problem was a logistical one - I teach in China, they live in America. Thanks to a computer program called Skype(all international Americans I know use it and can't live without it) my class and I were able to have a live videoconference with these two American-based researchers. Skype - which allows two computers to connect over the internet - is completely free and offers the ability for the two parties to see each other through webcams. So while my AP Physics students were still rubbing their eyes at 8 am in the morning, they were being shown specimens of nanomaterials via webcam from half the world away, by researchers who were finishing up a day's work and getting ready to head home.  

The second event was incredible. It was shared by millions, if not billions of people, all in their own way. Since the time difference between China and the USA is 13 hours - while Barack Obama was giving his inspirational acceptance speech 7000 miles away in the middle of the night - my students were able to watch history unfold live in front of them as the bright midday sun shone through the windows. While my classroom is a mix of nationalities, cultures and political viewpoints - my students agree- it was spine tingling to share such an historic moment.  And the familiar song is stuck in my head - for it is a small world after all...

Halloween in China

Halloween is a mysterious holiday in China. Foreigners are still enough of a curiousity to be interesting distractions in and of themselves, but dress that same foreigner up in a strange costume and you now have a showstopper. I wasn't quite ready for the attention my friends and I would receive as we walked along the streets of Shanghai in costume. My costume, which was more alarming than I intended, was that of a Chinese xiaojie, or singing girl. I wore a traditional Chinese dress, a wig, white face makeup and carried a fan that I used to shield my face as much as possible. I also attempted to take on the persona of a xiaojie - giggly and in general being very shy - which is hard for me. The reason, I think, that the Chinese found my costume alarming is because as I began to sweat, the makeup ran down my face and gave it a strange, mottled look. Plus - at 6 feet - I was a very large person(by Chinese standards) walking around in a dress. Three times, Chinese women, upon seeing me as I passed by them, literally screamed out and jumped away as I walked by. Two little boys, their faces in awe and mouths agape, followed me for nearly five minutes, laughing and pointing the whole time. I stopped once on the street, and a crowd of about 20 people gathered and I became a photo op, person after person grabbing my arm, smiling and making the ubiquitous peace sign into the camera as everyone stared at the giant white faced Chinese "woman". 

It made me wonder what they were thinking, what they were saying in their hushed, unintelligible tones. I guess it just reminded me once again, that the thing we most often fear is that with which we are unfamiliar. I found it ironic, then, that I, being in a country and culture that is so unfamiliar to me, for one night at least, went from being surrounded by the unfamiliar to becoming that thing that isn't understood, that object that haunts by its sheer mystery. Oh - I can't wait until next Halloween!