January 30, 2008
Bush and Burgers: American Exports
SARA POOLEY (photography) writes: I have grown up traveling. My father is from England, so we went there almost every year until I was a teenager. Even after that, my family and I traveled throughout much of Europe. It was always a big part of who I was and I felt like I had a different perspective on life and more specifically, life in the United States, because of it. I remember being eight years old on a playground in Whitehaven, England. A girl several years older than me came up and asked me if I was from America. I... more ...
Missing It
HADLEY VOGEL (art history) writes: Coming home was the hardest part of the trip. It was only after I came home that the jet lag hit, and the culture shock set in. I was still processing things that we had seen and done days after we had done them. It was such a whirlwind of events that I needed space from Shanghai to collect my thoughts and formulate my own understanding of everything that had been introduced to us. I needed to step back and take a breath. Prior to the trip I thought that the culture shock would most... more ...
Caged Artists Are as Sad as Caged Birds to Me
SARA POOLEY (photography) writes: It’s interesting to imagine what the equivalent of Columbia College would be in China. Could there be a school controlled by communist regulations echoing the mantra, “Create Change”? Sure, Tongji University may not be making the same lofty claims with their slogan, but their curriculum seems similar enough. Our visit with students from Tongji left me with so many nuggets of revelation to digest, even long after our short encounter was over. After watching a few student video productions we were prompted to start interacting with the students. Everyone had stories about who they ended up... more ...
January 28, 2008
Manners and Degrees
KAAREN FEHSENFELD (cultural studies) writes: Coming home was pretty surreal. I noticed a lot of cultural differences while we were over there; just little things, like the fact that there isn't heat in most buildings, despite the 30- to 40-degree weather. Maybe this is based more on economics, but economics don't explain the habit of constantly leaving windows open. We would get back to our hotel at night, and walking down the hallway, several windows would be cracked or almost completely opened. I suppose that if it's already cold, you might as well get some fresh air circulating; this seems... more ...
January 22, 2008
It's Where You Are, not Where You're From
CATHERINE RIGOD (journalism) writes: Tonight a group of us decided to go check out a local hangout, and we tried to experience a more mellow evening on the town (since the night before we had gone out to a club called the Paramount and stayed out until the wee hours dancing). So, we went off to what we were told was the only dive bar in Shanghai, called Time Passage. Time Passage is a cool little hole-in-the-wall located off a side street, Huashan Lu, in the French Concession district of Shanghai. As the night drew on, more and more people... more ...
Hearing Chinese Music
SEAN CONNER (film and video) writes: I felt we didn’t get a chance to experience traditional Chinese culture on the first few days. Then we visited the Shanghai Museum earlier on Friday. The museum was full of tons of historical pieces and little kids running around and screaming. It was nice to relax later in the day when we saw a great performance at the Café Bandu. It was on a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. The performer was very passionate and played us contemporary and traditional Chinese songs. You can often hear this instrument in traditional Chinese music, but what... more ...