missing something
the past few days have been tourist-y fun shanghai. lis and I have seen a real chinese mall, a real chinese underground mall, and a real chinese fabric mall. actually, the regular mall was somewhat intriguing, as it was PACKED. picture the kind of packed-ness that makes you say "oh, I don't want to go to the mall; it's always so crowded." then triple that. or, maybe just think of visiting ikea on a weekend day.
the underground mall was actually attached to the regular mall, and was fairly fascinating since it seemed to be a labyrinth of mostly privately run stores. the clothes mostly reminded me of vegas, but with more lace.
after we wandered around the underground for a couple of hours, we went to the fabric market. lis and I each brought clothes we'd like to have remade, and I tried on at least 8 heavy winter coats. (the fabric market also boasts a large number of booths that sell cashmere and wool.) alas, I didn’t fall in love with any of them—perhaps it was the 90 degree weather—but settled on the place I thought did the nicest job. now I just need to find the pattern for them to copy. hm.
after the fabric market, beth and I went over to a co-worker’s apartment and drank some wine. he was having a problem with his fuse box, however. it’s tough to get things fixed properly when most of your half of the conversation amounts to “wo ting bu dong” (“I don’t understand”) over and over. we took that as sign to head out to dinner.
he took us to this BEAUTIFUL japanese restaurant. funny enough, it reminded me of w+k portland: large concrete walls, giant open spaces. the food was much better here though. and it also strangely made me miss japan. like I’ve spent a lot of time there or something.
anyway, it got me thinking and wondering why I felt that way. one of the shanghainese girls here mentioned how she’d like to go to japan and how they are very good at making nice small, detailed things. I realized that’s why I “missed” japan. china lacks the finesse that japan has. while progressive in many ways, japan is steeped in tradition. china seems to have abandoned theirs. there is traditional food, and styles, but it seems more like china is more preoccupied with the pursuit of style itself than anything else. that, and massive consumption and mass production. they can make anything. they can do it more efficiently and cheaply than most places on earth. and they take great pride in that. but what seems to be lacking is an eye for quality. buildings are torn down and put back together in a matter of days. anything old is tossed out in the name of progress. pudong? that part of town I talked about which is the center for big business? the earliest building dates back to the early 90’s.
NINETEEN NINETIES.
that is absolutely baffling for a civilization as old as china. I saw some pottery yesterday dating back six thousand years. stop for a second and think about that. SIX THOUSAND YEARS. and it was in a small museum an hour outside the city. not in the national museum. not even in the brand new shanghai museum. a little podunk museum tucked away in a small tourist town, where it’s not even a main attraction.
I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt and think that there has to be more that I’m not seeing. and I don’t doubt that the cosmopolitan nature of shanghai has hidden some things from me, as has my western eye. but wow, this place is in a hurry to get somewhere. and get somewhere fast.
the underground mall was actually attached to the regular mall, and was fairly fascinating since it seemed to be a labyrinth of mostly privately run stores. the clothes mostly reminded me of vegas, but with more lace.
after we wandered around the underground for a couple of hours, we went to the fabric market. lis and I each brought clothes we'd like to have remade, and I tried on at least 8 heavy winter coats. (the fabric market also boasts a large number of booths that sell cashmere and wool.) alas, I didn’t fall in love with any of them—perhaps it was the 90 degree weather—but settled on the place I thought did the nicest job. now I just need to find the pattern for them to copy. hm.
after the fabric market, beth and I went over to a co-worker’s apartment and drank some wine. he was having a problem with his fuse box, however. it’s tough to get things fixed properly when most of your half of the conversation amounts to “wo ting bu dong” (“I don’t understand”) over and over. we took that as sign to head out to dinner.
he took us to this BEAUTIFUL japanese restaurant. funny enough, it reminded me of w+k portland: large concrete walls, giant open spaces. the food was much better here though. and it also strangely made me miss japan. like I’ve spent a lot of time there or something.
anyway, it got me thinking and wondering why I felt that way. one of the shanghainese girls here mentioned how she’d like to go to japan and how they are very good at making nice small, detailed things. I realized that’s why I “missed” japan. china lacks the finesse that japan has. while progressive in many ways, japan is steeped in tradition. china seems to have abandoned theirs. there is traditional food, and styles, but it seems more like china is more preoccupied with the pursuit of style itself than anything else. that, and massive consumption and mass production. they can make anything. they can do it more efficiently and cheaply than most places on earth. and they take great pride in that. but what seems to be lacking is an eye for quality. buildings are torn down and put back together in a matter of days. anything old is tossed out in the name of progress. pudong? that part of town I talked about which is the center for big business? the earliest building dates back to the early 90’s.
NINETEEN NINETIES.
that is absolutely baffling for a civilization as old as china. I saw some pottery yesterday dating back six thousand years. stop for a second and think about that. SIX THOUSAND YEARS. and it was in a small museum an hour outside the city. not in the national museum. not even in the brand new shanghai museum. a little podunk museum tucked away in a small tourist town, where it’s not even a main attraction.
I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt and think that there has to be more that I’m not seeing. and I don’t doubt that the cosmopolitan nature of shanghai has hidden some things from me, as has my western eye. but wow, this place is in a hurry to get somewhere. and get somewhere fast.
posted by danigrl at 12:09 AM
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