i-a

On Wednesday I went to a bar called Tang Hui. I'm there most Wednesdays because my roommate and his blues band play there. It's all dim and red inside with bed like couches and posters of Bob Marley, The Doors, and Che Guervara among others. I was sitting at a table with a PhD student doing his dissertation on post 1949 Chinese film and another student on a grant doing research on corporate ethics. The PhD student did his undergrad at Harvard, but was now at UC San Diego because of the Chinese studies. He normally lives in Beijing but is down in Shanghai on research. He is also working on translating the 'Chinese Odyssey'. The other student had recently returned from a conference on corporate ethics in Moscow. The PhD student brought up how he had run across recently released archives on American journalists living in Shanghai in the 1930's. Although America and Europe was suffering from the depression, American's in Shanghai lived in obscene houses with affluent lifestyles and spent most their time in pubs separated from the Chinese populace. We all noted how the situation was very similar to Shanghai today.

On Thursday I went to dinner at a restaurant called Element Fresh. I had a duck sandwich with slices of apple and split a bottle of South African sauvignon blanc. I was dining mostly with a bunch of undergrads that were in Shanghai for the summer on internships. A little idealistic and optimistic but the food was good. One of the girls was visiting a friend who was out here. She had recently graduated from university and was planning on moving to New York once she finished traveling in China. Although she majored in American History she wanted to pursue a career in dance and was planning on auditioning at a bunch of companies in the city. So sure and full of hope, it just makes you want to burst. We grabbed an after dinner drink at the Ritz Carleton's Long Bar. We sat next to a bunch of WASPs who had just arrived in China and were complaining that cab drivers didn't know addresses. I ignored them but my friend explained to them a service here where you can text message where you want to go and it will instantly reply with the address in chinese and english. Their response was, "You're sober enough to text message?!"

On Friday night I went to see the hip-hop group Far East Movement. They claim to be the only all-Asian hip-hop group from America. When we arrived at the club there were a bunch of 15-16 year old Asian Americans standing around. Two girls got in a bitch fight and were pulling each other's hair while the guys were walking around going, "yo, where we at to next, yo? what about the show, yo?" The even more affluent lifestyle of an American teenager attending American School in China. The Far East Movement debuted their first show in China with the song "Let's give a shout to the Californ-i-a yo!!!! repeat repeat repeat " Everyone was ecstatic.

Last night I was feeling a bit tired so only went out for a proper Shanghai dinner.

I woke up today to go and meet the Shanghai Boat and Yacht Club. I spent the day sailing on a man made lake 45 minutes outside of Shanghai. It was fun. I met a guy who had designed "The New Chinese Yacht." It sleeps seven (which is necessary on a small man made lake.) He hopes to get at least half the population of China interested in sailing and buying his boat. I'm sure that will happen. It was a pretty ridiculous boat actually.

So anyway, that was my week. I don't plan on doing anything this week. I may buy the pirated box sets of Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under and watch them until my brain starts to ooze and social interaction seems painfully necessary again. There's also an art exhibit entitled Electrospace I may go zone out to for a bit.

I don't have any silly Chinese stories for you today. I thought I'd focus on the ridiculous expats instead. I should probably leave this country soon.