http://cms.colum.edu/china/ History, Culture, and Art (a student blog)At Columbia College Chicago, we like to say the city is our classroom, and our students learn from the creative professionals producing the culture of our time. But what if the culture you want to study is that of contemporary China? If you're one of the Columbia undergraduate students keeping this blog, you take your 'classroom' to Shanghai. This month, a dozen students from a variety of majors headed 7,000 miles east on an international educational adventure. They are enrolled in the Liberal Education department's intensive, winter-term humanities course, J-term in Shanghai: History, Culture, and Art. In China, they'll meet artists and curators; visit tea houses, museums, and galleries; attend music and dance performances; and learn a whole lot about their Chinese counterparts--and themselves. en Copyright 2008 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:27:12 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 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 said yes and she simply replied, “Lucky bitch,” and walked away. I always remembered that, but didn’t know what to make of it at the time, being so young. Things are a little different this time around, though. The biggest thing America is associated with now is our moronic president. One Chinese student said that “people in China think he has brain damage,” to which you can only laugh and agree. It seems like people in China know that our president is not supported by the people either, though. They know that making fun of the president doesn’t mean they are making fun of all Americans. But I must admit, I feel like a dumb American. I don’t remember ever feeling so aware of being so obviously American in all my life or in all my travels. On the Shanghai underground I looked up to see my reflection in the window. There I was, a blonde-haired, light-eyed American girl in a sea of dark hair and eyes. I stood out like a sore thumb! Ironically, it’s kind of easy to continue being so obviously American on this trip. For all the elements of traditional China we’ve encountered, there’s another equally prevalent Western element. China is a strange place in that way. You’ll be walking down the street and find a McDonald's next to a street market where they sell live eels and whole chickens. At the Jade Buddha Temple I saw a monk in mostly traditional garb wearing Nike socks, and a woman wearing designer clothing praying to a Buddhist god. We’ve exported our corporate culture all over the world and it’s infiltrated even the most sacred traditions. While I find that kind of sad, I also found that BigMac to be the tastiest thing in the world after a week of nothing but Chinese food. I don’t even eat fast food at home, either! Although this place is so different and strange in some ways, it’s totally familiar in others. Sara Pooley is a photography/art history major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/bush_and_burgers_all_american.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/bush_and_burgers_all_american.php Sara Pooley's entries Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:27:12 -0600 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 likely be something I would experience when I first arrived in Shanghai, but this was not the case. Everything felt so surreal and foreign to me that it was as if I were in an amusement park. We had at least one translator around, always, and when we would go to a garden or a temple I was not familiar with the Buddhist customs they practiced so I would stand back and observe. The old city felt especially surreal because it had been refurbished in a traditional architectural style and layout. Somewhere along the way I got used to not being able to read the signs immediately and instinctively searching for the English subtext, being in a crowded street and not being able to hear what people were shouting at one another (but Xhingyu assured us that all they were shouting was “HI, WHAT CAN I GET FOR YOU?” or some other equally ordinary street-vendor chat), or overhearing gossip in a cafe, not having any clue who was in the popular media, and being totally detached from any form of immediate communication for the better part of the day, and being able to easily afford a cab across town. The list goes on too, but somehow I got used to these things, and now that I’m home I really miss them. Hadley Vogel is a junior art history major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/missing_it.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/missing_it.php Hadley Vogel's entries Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:21:58 -0600 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 talking to and what they learned, but I really think my guy was the most interesting. We first discussed our obvious similarity, photography. He expressed his disappointment with the program he had just started and his worry for the future of his work. Of course I could relate to having felt this way at various points in the last four years. I wanted to know how he felt about the censorship on art and especially on information. He said that censorship affected the work of artists in China because they were forced to try and "see with blind eyes." This was the first person I’d talked to who seemed to actually be aware of the extent to which these constraints were affecting them. Then again, I guess it was the first Chinese person around my age I’d encountered who spoke English. I had expected to relate to a photo student on at least that base artistic level, though. Surely we were worlds away from each other in every other way, right? We started talking about music like Slayer, Metallica, black metal, and specifically about Norwegian and Swedish metal bands. He was wearing an England jersey so I filled him in on my British heritage and my family’s insane passion for the team. About halfway through our conversation I realized that if we’d gone to high school together, we would still be good friends today, so it was incredibly appropriate that we ended up sitting together. I asked if he’d ever been to any shows in China or if they even had shows like we do in the U.S. He said that it was not allowed because the government doesn’t want anybody to hear those messages. It makes sense that a communist government wouldn’t be too partial to music with anti-establishment and free-thought themes. We agreed that we’d email each other about music and art because his exposure in China is limited. At least he is seeking out new and different things. He said that a lot of the kids he goes to school with just do whatever their parents tell them and whatever the school deems appropriate without questioning anything. It is dangerous to question these things in China. It made me wonder how different I would be if I’d grown up anywhere else. I’m so convinced that it is my right to question everything and anything. What if I’d grown up without that right? The whole encounter reminded me of the bird and cricket market in a strange way. This place was basically a warehouse full of animals in cages. There were crickets, rabbits, birds, cats, and dogs amongst others. All of these creatures are intended to be pets. As such they are paraded around the city and shown off. Birds in cages have always really upset me because I just imagine that if I had a set of wings I’d sure as hell wanna fly! That’s kind of like the students at Tongji. From what the student said, parents just want their kids to follow the rules and be successful and well respected. They don’t want their children to spread their wings, but rather they want to keep them in cages so they can show them off to all their friends. I would really like to see the cage door left open for this kid so he can one day liberate himself. Caged artists are as sad as caged birds to me. Sara Pooley is a photography/art history major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/birds_crickets_and_tongji_univ.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/birds_crickets_and_tongji_univ.php Sara Pooley's entries Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:09:29 -0600 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 pretty logical. Another thing about the cold—I got used to layering my clothes and wearing my jacket indoors while I was in Shanghai, and this has made the adjustment to Chicago's five-degree weather so much easier. We have strange mental and cultural blocks to a lot of random things; I was always the type of person, for example, who would rather turn up the heat than put on extra clothes. Now, this seems pointless, if not just plain stupid and extravagant. Another thing I loved about Shanghai was the difference in what is considered rude compared with the United States. The first night we arrived, I asked Xhingyu, our guide, how to say "excuse me" in Mandarin. She gave me a word, but quickly explained that it wasn't a direct translation, and that people don't really excuse themselves if they bump each other on the street. People also hawked loogies at free will, and more than once, as I stood in line, another person simply stepped in front of me. I considered that maybe this was because I looked pretty thoroughly American, but when I started to take note, I realized that it happens constantly, to foreigners and locals alike. While these differences made me a little edgy and uncomfortable at first, after awhile I saw how they made sense. In a city of almost 20 million people, there isn't time to say "excuse me" every time you bump into someone. What is socially important in Shanghai, according to hearsay and Lonely Planet, is never making someone lose face. This might be the sentiment behind big projects like the 2010 World Expo site, which shows off China's architectural and economic prowess to the world. Kaaren Fehsenfeld is a junior cultural studies major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/manners_and_degrees.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/manners_and_degrees.php Kaaren Fehsenfeld's entries Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:37:33 -0600 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 crammed into the little joint and things clearly pointed to the fact that this place was an ex-pat favorite. At the bar, a group of us had the Chinese/European version of Western fare, consisting of hamburgers and chicken fingers served with steins of beer. The all-Chinese house band soon went on and began playing their best English versions of everything from Bob Marley to The Eagles. Everyone in the bar was enjoying the entertainment until a guy from Long Beach, California decided to take a stab at singing for the crowd. He was a pretty large guy with a beanie and dreads, and when he started to make attempts to channel the band Sublime, it was an experience that could’ve been forgotten. And we weren't the only ones who felt that way. A group of guys sitting next to us who lived in Shanghai but hailed from such places as England, Germany, and Oregon, decided that it was time for the singer to step off the stage by booing him. “What, you’re going to boo me, I’m from Long Beach m*$!*r f&%$*r !!,” said the singer to the rowdy crowd. “I don’t see you up on the stage. I’m from Long Beach!” A few more words were exchanged and the singer eventually left the stage. The table of non-fans leaned over to us and explained that in Shanghai where you’re from has nothing to do with where you are. Historically, Shanghai has been known as a city with an open-door policy, letting immigrants and refugees enter its gates for a better chance at a life free of persecution. With this idea of community comes a melting pot unique to the area, where cultures mix and where the country you were born in is simply a place on a map. In fact, the ex-pat community is so large in Shanghai it's quite common to see Europeans who speak Mandarin better than they do English. And while many Westerners do come to Shanghai to teach English, some take up residency with local companies in order to gain a better life. Our tour guide, Xhingyu Chen, explained that in Shanghai you might get a lower salary than in the States, but your money will go much further. Cheaper housing, food, and transportation, combined with a cosmopolitan way of life has made Shanghai a hotbed of Western traffic today, just as it might have been before the Revolution. At the end of the night at Time Passage the singer eventually sat down with the booing table and made peace. I suppose that’s what it’s all about here: different nationalities coming together to form one community. It almost sounds idealistic, and believe me there are many problems here in Shanghai, but at least in this bar, segregation by nationalism isn’t one of them. Catherine Rigod is a senior in journalism. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/no_segregation_by_nationalism.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/no_segregation_by_nationalism.php Catherine Rigod's entries Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:44:06 -0600 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 made it a great experience was to actually watch it. His hands flew around on the 21 strings. He was very talented, and it was a very stimulating performance not only to listen to, but to also watch. Sean Conner is a sophomore film and video major. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/hearing_chinese_music.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/hearing_chinese_music.php Sean Conner's entries Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:55:35 -0600 SEAN CONNER (film and video) writes: I felt the most helpful parts of the trip were interacting with the younger people of Shanghai. One of my favorite parts of the entire J-term was going to Tongji University. We had the opportunity to spend half of the day with students who were the same age as we are and experiencing the same things. We all related very well, and as soon as we got over the language barrier, we all bonded. We talked about everything from our majors, to what we do for fun, to music. We traveled half way around the world and met new people, but we all could relate to each other. Everyone was very friendly and interesting. I wish we had more time to spend with them. Two of the people I was talking to were animation majors. They invited me to their dorms to show me some of the stuff they created. We did not have enough time, but I traded emails with a few of the students and I've already have been in contact with them. Sean Conner is a sophomore film and video major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/making_new_friends.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/making_new_friends.php Sean Conner's entries Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:46:31 -0600 KAAREN FEHSENFELD (cultural studies) writes: During our trip, we've seen and discussed several different forms of visual arts. But I have also always loved music, and I was really curious to see what the music scene was like in Shanghai. According to Xhingyu, our guide, and Lonely Planet, Shanghai's music culture is generally lacking. So on Friday, when we went to a concert at Bandu, I was really excited. Bandu is a café/music shop/venue that is located right near BizArt, and we had eaten lunch there before. We spent Friday visiting a couple different museums, and for dinner we returned to Bandu and watched a live performance of an instrument called a GuZheng. The instrument has several strings and sits on a stand, and is played from above.The performer attaches fake plastic fingernails to pluck the strings. A bar separates the strings into two sections, and while one set of strings is plucked, the other side is manipulated to change the pitch. The performer we saw, Liu Le, had been playing for 15 years, starting at around age seven. It was amazing to see him play; you could really see his comfort level with the instrument and his technical abilities were phenomenal, all adding to a dramatic and dynamic performance. He played traditional songs, songs from the communist era, and contemporary songs. In some of the contemporary songs he actually came off of the strings themselves and used the body of the instrument almost as a percussion instrument, which was really cool to see. Liu Le himself represented Shanghai's mixture of tradition and modernity. When I closed my eyes at the concert, I could romanticize a traditional, pastoral Chinese scene. When I opened my eyes, there was Liu Le, dressed in gold cowboy boots and a silver-studded T-shirt, surrounded by an audience of Westerners. And speaking of contrast, after the traditional music at Bandu, we all went to a hip-hop club. We saw some live hip-hop that was pretty mediocre at first; the volume kept fluctuating and the rappers were kind of off. The music got a lot better as the night went on, though. Eventually, Xhingyu mentioned that one of the rappers who came on was Jin, and that he had the song "Learn Chinese" back in 2003. It was interesting to see a hip-hop aesthetic in Shanghai that I didn't know existed there, and cool to hear hip-hop in Chinese. Shanghai does have a music scene after all, but it seems like the underground element of American shows isn't there. After all, there were uniformed security (and/or government) guards at the club, standing menacingly in front of the stage watching the crowd dance. Kaaren Fehsenfeld is a junior cultural studies major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/chinas_music_scence.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/chinas_music_scence.php Kaaren Fehsenfeld's entries Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:25:54 -0600 JOSH SNIEGOWSKI (film + video major) writes: Since today we are leaving, I had to wake up and make sure I had everything charged for the plane and packed up. I did this as fast as I could, then got down to the lobby with everyone else. Everyone was checked out and we had to put all of our luggage in the corner of the lobby while we went out. This day was completely free, so everyone started it by just walking around the area near our hotel. We found an open-air market where there were all kinds of crazy eels and huge frogs that could be bought. From here everyone hopped into a taxi. They next place that we ended up was at the Pearl Tower. Everyone wanted to go up in it, but the place wouldn’t accept credit cards and many were running low on Yuan. Most ended up going up, but one other person and I didn’t have any way to pay, so we decided to search for a restaurant that would accept credit cards. We only had a short time, so we tried to find somewhere that would have fast food. Assuming that little shops wouldn’t accept cards, we tried bigger-name chains. After going to Subway, Burger King, McDonald's, and KFC, we had no luck. We waited for everyone to come down and headed back to the hotel. It was time to head for the airport. Instead of taking the long bus ride, we decided to take an incredibly fast train, which reached up to 275 MPH. We got to the airport in around eight minutes, and my time in Shanghai was coming to an end. It was an amazing trip, and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to travel. I met a lot of great people and I am incredibly glad that I was given the opportunity to participate in this experience. Josh Sniegowski is a sophomore in the film + video department.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/destination_home.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/destination_home.php Josh Sniegowski's entries Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:20:38 -0600 NICK FORRISTALL (audio arts and acoustics major) writes: The city of Shanghai is so mixed up. Before we left, I was under the impression that the people living in the city would be, well, mostly Chinese people. Upon arrival, and frolicking around in the city, I have come to discover that the city is filled with a very mixed culture. Not only are there Asians (big surprise), there is a large mix of Europeans, Americans, Russians, and some from Iraq and surrounding nations. The whole event of seeing all these people mixed together in a place where I didn't expect it was really fascinating. With China being a communist (and somewhat capitalist, ironically) country, I had also expected very uniform buildings and dwellings. This was of course expected outside of the main skyline. But Shanghai doesn't really stop there. Like some other cities we know of (cough cough, Chicago), it keeps moving. I am very unaware of exactly where we are in the city at any given point in time. But no matter where we may be, there is always at least one lone standing building, probably a building which nobody in our group has seen yet. Not only are the architecture and human population of Shanghai very mixed and matched, the neighborhoods are as well. We can walk down 10 streets in an area of, say, 10 by 10 blocks, and each street may feel different. Some are trademark China, the China I've read about in books and seen pictures of. The next second, we're seemingly strolling toward the Champs Elysées in Paris. Ten minutes later, we're located in Times Square. And then boom, back to China (but this time it's older, or worn a bit more). The cycle continues. Long story short, if you want an American-style mix of people, a New York skyline, a beautiful Chinese garden, a long walk in Grant Park, or the art of San Francisco, it's all in one city. Go to Shanghai. Nick Forristall is a junior audio arts and acoustics major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/shanghai_a_little_bit_of_every.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/shanghai_a_little_bit_of_every.php Nick Forristall's entries Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:32:13 -0600 HADLEY VOGEL (art history) writes: Today was our last hurrah in Shanghai. I woke up later than I would have liked to because I thought that we were meeting a half an hour later than we really were. Once we had all congregated in the lobby we took off on an architectural tour that commenced at the Children’s Palace. It was unreal how decadent it was, and seemed a little cold to have been built for a father and his two sons. Upstairs they were having workshops for children, and outside of the classrooms there were some of their projects on display. There were robots and cars and a sculpture of a man playing a saxophone, as well as a very crude representation of African culture. After leaving the palace we had a long and grueling walk through a very cold and wet Jewish ghetto. Dvir, our guide, was extremely informative and was able to bring us into one of the homes. I felt like I was entering a film noir set with a single fluorescent light hanging over an old kitchen table. After warming up and getting some lunch, a nap, and a hot shower we met up with everyone at an Uighur restaurant, a cuisine from the northwestern region of China. The waiters were all dressed in traditional garb and danced through the restaurant pulling diners onto the stage. The music sounded Turkish with an energetic beat and the waiters were very enthusiastic and tried their hardest to keep as many people on stage as possible at all times. It was definitely the most fun dinner we had as a group, and I was glad that Davide from BizArt was able to join us. I’m going to miss BizArt and ripping into half of a lamb with my hands, as well as the unapologetic mannerisms I’ve grown accustomed to. Hadley Vogel is a junior art history major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/last_hurrah.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/last_hurrah.php Hadley Vogel's entries Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:09:14 -0600 AMINA DOCTROVE (retail management) writes: Every day I wake up, go with my group, do my activities, and then I go to bed. While I walk up and down the streets of Shanghai, go out to restaurants and eat, or go around shopping, I feel the gaze of something while I am walking. It’s the kind of gaze that causes the fresh faces of young girls in horror movies to turn their heads and gasp in horror as their fate is then sealed in the next scene. I experience this weird, ominous feeling of being watched every time I go outside. Walking along the streets of Shanghai, which in the final days of our trip have become muddied with rain and dirt, I feel a presence so potent in the air that it presses against my shoulders. I look up to see what’s pressing against me, and I see them. I see them all, skinny bodies under the protection of umbrellas walking pass me. Before losing sight of me they look into my eyes deeply, as if to look into my soul. Some of them look at me for a while then move along; others look at me and have a good laugh about something funny about me with their friends; and others even stop dead in their tracks to have a look at me. No matter who it is, if I walk by them or they walk by me, they’re likely to stare at me. This was not a surprise to me, as I already knew it was not considered rude to stare at someone in most Asian countries, but to actually go and experience it, for me, nothing could prepare me for it. At first, I thought it was very cute and I felt like someone famous walking around Shanghai and my adoring fans looking closely at me to see if it was really me. But as the days went by, this feeling quickly left me and I became bitter. I felt that I was being treated as nothing more than a zoo animal, something weird, rare, strange, and amusing that is to be stared at for enjoyment. I even snapped at a group of men yesterday while they were staring at me and yelled at them, in English of course, so they didn’t understand and walked right pass me. While I personally hated being the target of stares from everyone we passed by in Shanghai, I then realized something: In a place where only up to now individuality and uniqueness was frowned upon, the people of China struggle to make themselves unique from everyone else around them. For me, at least maybe to them, I am already unique. With a different skin color, I stand out from what seems to be a crowd of people all wearing the same masks. Amina Doctrove is a sophomore retail management major. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/almost_famous.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/almost_famous.php Amina Doctrove's entries Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:48:02 -0600 HANNAH ROVNER (visual art management) writes: Whew, it’s raining heavily today, just got back from lunch and a tour of Jewish Shanghai. Despite the weather the tour was great, and our tour guide Dvir Bar Gal is an expert on the subject; he knew the ins and outs of every neighborhood we toured. The Jewish people have a relatively short but very interesting history in Shanghai. Dvir explained that the migration of Jewish people to Shanghai is divided up into three major waves. The first was a movement of Iraqi Jews shortly after the Opium War in 1839, which brought over two of Shanghai’s most famous families, the Sassoons and the Kadooris. The second would be Sfardic, or mostly Russian Jews escaping the Pogroms. And the third would be the at least 20,000 Jewish refugees during WWII. Shanghai was an easy place for people to take refuge due to its open port policy, which meant that anyone could enter without a visa or passport. It was good for business and good for refuges. (It was also good for mobsters and criminals. But that’s another story.) As with much of the architectural history of Shanghai, the physical history of the Jews of Shanghai is also disappearing due to urban development. Dvir is working with several others to rescue the disappearing neighborhoods where the Jews of Shanghai once lived. While the Chinese government does not officially recognize Judaism as a state religion, according to Dvir, there is a thriving Jewish population of almost 3,000 in Shanghai today. As he puts it, even though the government does not condone the practice of Judaism, it is practical and is willing to overlook it. Throughout my trip I’ve noticed this constant struggle over preservation and development. Gentrification is not just a problem in Chicago; it's a problem all over the world. In China it appears to be even more intensified. Architects put their best efforts into preserving traditional forms by incorporating theses motifs into new buildings, such as the Shanghai Museum. But in the crush to bring the new, places such as the Jewish Ghetto and other monumental buildings along the Bund are being lost. It will be interesting to see the skyline of Shanghai a year from now, and I wonder what will be the fate of these historic landmarks several years from now. Hannah Rovner is a senior visual arts management major.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/the_struggle_over_preservation.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/the_struggle_over_preservation.php Hannah Rovner's entries Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:39:02 -0600 RACHEL CORSINI (fiction writing) writes: The French Concession is a unique sort of place. Some people are still living as they did a hundred years ago: washing their hair outside, cooking in the outdoor courtyards and dividing up the communal space among four families. Others are living with modern conveniences and have the benefit of shopping in a chic secluded area at 210 Taikang Lou. All along the small lanes were tiny clothing stores, handbag shops, accessory places, and a teddy bear store. It looked innocent enough and, truthfully, I love teddy bears. So I went inside to have a look around. Everything seemed pretty generic, mostly the same things I could get in the States. I peered around a corner and noticed a hallway leading toward another room. Of course I ventured down that way. Before my eyes was a teddy bear museum. Teddy bears from years past sat behind a plastic cover, staring out at me forlornly. Okay, now this was weird. From out of nowhere a woman came up behind me. “You like? I make teddy bears, do you want to see? I show you. Upstairs is teddy bear café.” Right, it kept getting stranger. So I followed her up a narrow circular staircase and enter a teddy bear haven. Teddy bears sat on shelves and were littered about the room as though they were guests at the café. Then she led me over to where she made her very own teddy bears. Being who I am I just had to buy one ... so I did. Let’s fast forward to the day before yesterday. I fell asleep with my handmade white teddy bear which I lovingly named Sleepy-time. I woke up and Sleepy-time was wedged under my arm. So I left him tucked up underneath the covers, just so he stayed warm while I was gone. Hannah and I went to meet the group and then we returned. Sleepy-time was nowhere to be found. I was in distress. Complete and utter distress! Where could he be? I checked everywhere, but once again we were leaving. So with a pout on my face I left the motel to party at Paramount. Paramount was a Chinese hip-hop club complete with scratching DJs and flashing lights, as well as people dancing in neon-covered body suits and a couple doing pas de deux (a French form of ballet meaning "step of two") on the smaller dance floor. The Paramount used to be an old theater which was renovated into a modern day dance club. The grand staircase was still intact and the stage was as well. It was pretty awesome. I drank Chivas and green tea all night, which I’m told is a popular Chinese cocktail. We returned again and this time I slept restlessly, wondering if Sleepy-time was all right, wherever he might be. Today Hannah and I decided to pack up everything just to check if he was misplaced somewhere. Nope, he was still gone. It’s upsetting. I enjoyed cuddling him every single night without him breathing on me, snoring, smelling bad, or farting. He was comforting without the groans and weird noises that others can sometimes make, mostly men. I miss my dear Sleepy-time. Rest in peace. Fuzhou Lou is basically the art supplier for the entirety of Shanghai. There are many stores that have paints, calligraphy brushes, ink, and seals. Everything that a Chinese artist would need is on this road. I was there looking for something special to add to my final project for this class. I finally settled on calligraphy brushes and a cheap bottle of ink. God only knows what I’m gonna do with it. When I returned to my hotel room, who should be waiting for me with his cute little face … Sleepy-time! He’s alive! Sleepy-time’s alive! He had a bit of an adventure I’m afraid. See, he was washed. That’s right; Sleepy-time had a bath, a bath which took off most of his fluffy white fur. He’s still irresistibly adorable though; even though he’s less cuddly, I still love him. I couldn’t help but squeal, “Sleepy-time!” I picked him up right away of course, seeing as he could have been frazzled from his couple of days spent away from me as well as being thrust into a washing machine. He has returned, a little less fluffy, smelling like Chinese food and strange detergent. But he’s safe. Rachel Corsini is a junior fiction writing major. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/teddy_bears_on_parade.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/teddy_bears_on_parade.php Rachel Corsini's entries Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:31:50 -0600 JOSH SNIEGOWSKI (film + video major) writes: We started today by heading out to get a tour of old Jewish Shanghai. To be honest, I thought this was going to be long and somewhat dull, but our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and made everything incredibly interesting. We started the tour in an old mansion, which was beautiful, but this was not what caught my attention the most. The old Jewish neighborhood by far was the most interesting to me, but we did not head straight there from the mansion. We next got the chance to head to the Bund and see a great view of Pudong. I finally got a chance to see through the fog and see the Pearl Tower. Boats filled the river, carrying everything from garbage to giant advertisement signs. I also got a great view of the famous Peace Hotel. We heard some history of the area and then headed out to the old Jewish town. In the small area, we got the chance to see many different things. We were told that the buildings’ addresses are the same now as they were years ago, during WWI. We even got the opportunity to enter a house. You do not understand how small these houses are until you are actually inside one. The entire house is almost smaller than a closet in many American houses. Multiple people live in these small places, where there is absolutely no heating and a concrete floor. Seeing this would help anyone living in the U.S. to gain much more appreciation for what they have. After a few more stops on the tour, we ate lunch and then got a short time to ourselves. Some people went shopping, but a few others and myself decided that we just wanted to hang out back at the hotel for a while. The bus ride back took so long that we only had about an hour to ourselves before we were supposed to go back out for our last dinner. Yet again we got the chance to eat at a Muslim restaurant, and since the last one had the best food on the trip so far, I was excited. While we were waiting for our food, men came around and handed out something that resembled a calzone that was filled with lamb. It was very good, kind of tasting like a White Castle, in my opinion. After this we got the entire rear end of a lamb, which everyone received gloves in order to eat it with their hands. The meal was amazing. Also while eating, people were pulled up to dance with the waiters. I had to cling to my chair in order to prevent this, as did all the other guys in our group. It was a fun night. We ended the night by going out to yet another club with everyone. This was a more relaxing night and for most of the time everyone just sat together and talked. I was running low on Yuan by now, so I left pretty early and got some sleep. This was my last night out and I had a great time once again. Josh Sniegowski is a sophomore in the film + video department.]]> http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/great_food_small_houses.php http://cms.colum.edu/china/2008/01/great_food_small_houses.php Josh Sniegowski's entries Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:15:25 -0600