From China, with Love.

A week or so ago I was talking with a coworker in the Shanghai office about the government's efforts to prepare kids for the Olympics in '08. Apparently they have put together a manual on how to be a good sports fan, how to behave at events, etc. (Advice includes something to the effect of "Don't call people from other provinces farmer.") I thought the whole idea was sort of charming. Especially since the Olympics are going to bring an unprecedented onslaught of people to the city and kids are going to be confronted with a lot of social and cultural variance, mostly for the first time.

But as we were chatting about it, my coworker pointed out that the same lessons could just as easily be taught in school (good point), but the natural inclination of the Chinese government is to turn everything into a handbook, which is pretty ridiculous. Also a good point.

So, fast forward to this morning when I open my bedside table and find this handbook, "Safe Journey in Beijing".


As you may imagine, it includes some pretty priceless advice. For instance:

How to prevent infection in the hotels: Open door and window everyday, to get fresh air. Wash hand before eating if you have touched public used items in the room, like phone or remote controller. If you receive a call during the night from a person of the opposite sex to ask whether the service is needed, say "no".

I guess hot white girls work phone sex lines all over the world. Good to know.

And this, from the section entitled "Correct Honeymoon":

Keep contraception: Commonly, in honeymoon sexual intercourses are frequent, in addition to fatigue, the quality of sperm is low, not good for conception.

Check the illustration, the plane looks stressed out just thinking about it:


I really wish there wasn't a big "Don't take me away please" sticker on the outside of the book. This thing is incredible.
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We've been rained out of research today, so I'm off to the Beijing Art Museum. Good times.

More later.

Pictures > Words.

Sculptor at the Silk Market. Yes, I bought purses. More on that later.

Across the street from Tiananmen Square, looking towards the entrance of the Forbidden City.

(And as an aside, are you noticing how GRAY everything is? I feel like I need to adjust my television screen. Anyhow...)

Heading into the Forbidden City.
Pretty much an historical amusement park. Crowds. Cheap toys for kids. Over-priced beverages. The Emperor would be proud.

Did I mention the Starbucks? Oh, yeah, it has a Starbucks.

All kidding aside, it's a beautiful compound. Sort of stunning to imagine all of the history that happened here during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Before I become cynical again, good night.

Breakfast and blogging.

Mmmm. Breakfast.

I once did an art piece with the line "frustration makes an ugly dress on me." I think I have some new material for that one.

I can't communicate with anyone, I'm hungry, I'm annoyed, I'm frustrated.

Last night on our flight from Chengdu to Beijing, Air China confiscated the head phones about 20 minutes before landing. That would seem reasonable, but they left "National Treasure" on to torture us. I got smart and used my iPod headphones, but then, with just 5 or 10 minutes left of the movie, they turned the damned thing off! I wanted to see the treasure! I was so dejected. (What is becoming of me? I WANTED to see a Nicolas Cage movie? OMG.) China.

Lucky for me, the misbehaving air travelers distracted me and quelled my Nic Cage-outrage. Imagine a 747 full of people, half of which acted as though they had never been on a plane and had no interest in following instructions. And who like to shout. Good times.

And I feel like such a baby for complaining. I'm in Beijing, for god's sake. What do I have to complain about? While I know that I need to get to the point where I find this amusing, right now I just feel like throwing my phone out the window. And trying the Chinese wine in my mini bar. (I'm fairly certain all would be lost at that point...)

By the way, don't be a vegetarian in China. It means all you eat is frozen-pizza looking things, even in strangely opulent "European" restaurants. Would it be bad to go down to the bar and order a gin and tonic? (It's 9 am, folks.)

Oy.

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The humidity is suffocating here- in Shanghai, in Chengdu, now in Beijing. The quality of the air is so peculiar; thick and gray, heavy, everywhere you look. I take photos and the color saturation is nil, they somehow look black and white. It's probably the strangest thing about China, this all-pervading gray-ness:

View from an apartment window in Chengdu.

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I spent yesterday doing in-home interviews in Chengdu. No matter where I am, I feel honored that people let me into their homes to interview them and get a sneak peek at their lives. But being able to do that yesterday was extra-special.

Last interview of the day, Chengdu.

Once again I was struck by the similarities between these kids and the kids I interview in the US. We know that sport is universal- hello Olympics- but it's striking to me how 1:1 the ratio seems to be. These kids, a world away from New York or Los Angeles, relate to their hoops heroes as beacons of hope, indicators that there is a better life out there, examples of the men they want to be (or, for the matter, don't want to be). Exactly what I hear in the US.

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Welcome to LA...Err, Beijing.

We arrived in Beijing late last night and, happily, have today off. I have a driver meeting me downstairs at 11 to take me to the Forbidden City, but my coworker is sick and can't come along. Giant bummer on that one. It looks like there is a "Hall of Earthly Peace" at the Palace...I think I'll head straight there. I could use a little. I wonder if they have souvenirs.

I'm also going to try to hit the silk market, which would be my first proper shopping foray in China. I'm looking forward to that...And some fake designer goods, of course. Ladies, I'll keep you posted on that one.

G'bye for now. Love and miss you all.

Chengdu, Day 1.

It's 8:30 pm and I can barely stay awake. We finished at the camps today around 5 and I've been in my room ever since. I'm going to try to convince myself to go out tomorrow night since I have a hard time imagining any reason I'll be back in Chengdu, ever.

After a highly questionable Chinese food experience earlier today, I decided to play it ultra safe and order kid food from the menu: cheese pizza and french fries. I should have known something was up when room service called me back to confirm that all I wanted on my cheese pizza was, well, cheese. Normally that would have been a strange question, but this is China where the vegetarian spicy bean curd includes something shark fin-esque (but delicious nonetheless), the fried tofu and vegetables is doused in tiny pork pieces (so not doing that) and the vegetarian vegetable rolls are wrapped in something suspiciously like an oscar mayer hot dog casing (OMG. Help.). Oh, and the "Margarita" pizza on the menu here at the Sheraton has "assorted" seafood on it.

I really did order this. Bad me.

So, anyhow, the food comes and, as you can see from the above documentation, it looks like all is well in the land of greasy Western food. But when I bit into the pizza I realized what the phone call meant: NO SAUCE! I couldn't even muster up a tiny bit of indignation though, because the fact that they eliminated something from the dish to suite my alleged wishes- and brought me an apple-was so unexpected and so refreshing that I practically welled up. So, I ate a little bit of everything (ok, a lot of the fries), drank a Tsingtao and watched the Bruce Lee biopic with Lauren Holly.

The depth of my cultural explorations startles even me.
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Today was also the first day of research at the hoops camps. I took a few photos and this one, of a kid resting in the 1,000,000 heat is probably my favorite:

This is why I love my job.

Same/Different.

I can't figure out if being amused at all of the everyday sights and sounds of Shanghai is me being an ass or if it's me being appreciative of a different culture. I think I'm being appreciative. Or at least I hope so.

Either way, I get to point out some differences and similarities. Here goes- this'll be quick. I head to Chengdu tomorrow at the crack-o-dawn:

Look closely. Those are socks.

soundly Different: This look is all the rage with 30-50 year old ladies about town. Not everyone opts for such a fancy skirt, but the socks are a must with the open-toed sandals or pumps.

Although there are far more outstanding clothing differences to report back on, the women sporting this look seem to be pretty 'with it'...Which has me thinking: am I committing some egregious fashion faux pas without knowing it? I bet I am. And this is the beauty of travel. You get to be an ass with far greater frequency and with much greater naivete.

Speaking of which, when was the last time you felt naive?

Shanghai Rubble.

definitely Different: This is the kind of rubble poetry is written about...If anyone writes poetry about rubble. The sheer volume of it is pretty startling, especially when you realize that a) this isn't a result of a natural disaster and b) this is a relatively commonplace sight.

My local bike shop.

Same/Different, tie: I know, it doesn't look much like your local bike shop. That's the obvious difference. Well, that and I'm not sure who's manning the shop. But here's why it's the same: It's a small business run by local people filling a distinct need and located in a high-traffic area. This is on the way to my office- right off of Zhao Jia Bang Road- which has a steady stream of cyclists (and motor bikes and cars and buses and pedestrians...) passing by with potential tire-problems galore.

It also reminds me of India (for totally different reasons), which has come up a lot during this little exercise. I see something that feels really different from the US, but I know it exists in other parts of the world, because I've seen it and experienced it first hand.

So is this what it means to be a 'global citizen'? (ERC folks, that's going out to you...) I know there's lots of anti-globalization sentiment floating about, and I know that it is not a simple subject, but from an individual perspective, I can't help but think that it's really beneficial to experience other parts of the world. With each trip I feel more well-rounded, less set in my ways, and just generally more empathetic...Even if I do giggle at our differences.

Fancy restaurant ambiance.

Same: I think there is an entire conversation about post-post modernism in here, but I'm tired. Suffice it to say, I could have been in New York, San Francisco, Vegas or Chicago and had a dinner very similar to the one I had last night. Which was nice. And a little bizarre. But mostly just nice.
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I'm on the road for a week, starting tomorrow. I'll be in Beijing Sunday-Tuesday, and I'm hoping we have some time to make it to the Great Wall in between interviews. Seems crazy to be so close and not go, right?

Pretty.

The agency is really beautiful here, hidden on a back lane amidst men playing poker in their underwear and ladies doing laundry in very official-looking ensembles. We have a nice little garden out back, complete with a symphony of cicadas and a fish pond. We also have some of the agency's Nike work along one wall-- presumably to remind us of why we're here and to add a little 21C flavor to the place. In a strange way, it's sort of refreshing not being able to read any of it. It forces my cynicism button into the 'off' position and I get to enjoy it for being nice to look at.

Looking towards the garden from our "library", which is really just a glass room haphazardly strewn with magazines. I love it.

Making do.

The rate of development in Shanghai is staggering. Crazy levels of architectural action, people. In fact, as I walked to McDonald's this evening- for an ice cream and a bottle of water- my coworkers told me that the giant pile of rubble we were passing had very recently been inhabited by families. (The smell attested to this. Lord knows what was hiding in there.)

The latest fall-out of this development was evidenced in the headlines of both of the English-language newspapers delivered to my room today. The articles are about the government's crackdown on foreign investors in real estate- a one year minimum residency, higher percentage down, etc. There are concerns that all this foreign money is dependant upon speculation rather than a long-term commitment. While these changes will likely discourage the less-motivated investors, the papers tell me it won't change much around here. Progress marches on.

This is the Bund and was a corn field just 8 years ago. A corn field!
(This is also the view from our restaurant last night.)

Despite a really stark contrast between old and new Shanghai (usually within the same block), all of this foreign investment and the RIDICULOUS amount of change has forced foreigners and natives, alike, to find new ways to relate to one another.

Old & New China, on my walk to work.

Which brings me to my point...finally.

I'm mute in China. Incapable of speaking. Silent. How do I get by, you ask? Little cards with destinations written in Chinese on them, that's how. I hand them to my friendly cab driver, nod when he hands it back to me, and hold on. *Hoping* that I'll make it to where I think I'm headed, when really, it's a total crap shoot. Mute!

Try it for a day in your own town. Get someone else to write down where you're headed-using a different alphabet (Cyrillic would probably work in Portland)-and hand it to the cab driver. See where you end up and how you feel on the way there. Amazing.

The (flimsy) bridge between east and west.

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And sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. While blogger is free, it isn't trouble free. Grrr.

The world is my Arkansas

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: talented, but inbred.

Once one becomes a permanent fixture in the ex-pat world I imagine "6 degrees of separation" becomes something of a joke. You'd probably only need two or three degrees before the deep, dark secrets of the entire community were accessible (should you be into that kind of thing) and dating became Arkansas-flavored.

Proof-positive of this was Saturday night's dinner party at which I ran into a woman I'd met at a Chiat LA party last summer. I'll spare the details, but trust me that it was really, really weird to a) remember her and b) to see her in Shanghai. Plus, she works on Pedigree and is sweating our Eukabuba brand work. Good stuff.

Random ad-connection aside, I met quite a few "new" people that night. Among them, a really lovely British couple/design duo who are working at a gallery here in Shanghai. I'm going to try to make it over to their space while I'm here, but you can also check it out for yourself. It looks like they focus on toy art, which I'm totally ignorant about. I'll take photos if I make it over there anytime soon.

Ah, spandex.

"Aerobicize and Feel the Benefits"

The Shanghai International Tennis Center Club is located in my hotel, which means I get access to this "exclusive membership club" as part and parcel of my hotel stay. How nice of them.

Although I've only enjoyed the regular ol' machines (treadmill, elliptical, bike) thus far, I am eager to don my garishly printed biker shorts/sports bra combo and get to aerobicizing. It has been a stressful couple of months and some Denise Austin-inspired stepping may be just what the doctor ordered.

More than you think

Shanghai from my hotel room window, 5am.

As a Planner, I'm always on the hunt for cultural nuances. Details we can use strategically or creatively, ways to understand a problem, a group of people, etc. But since I've arrived in China I feel like a cultural idiot, and my nuance meter feels about as sharp as bowl of ice cream.

That said, I'm going to start a little exercise in similarities and differences between our two worlds and try to make sense out of them using what I know from my decidedly western point of view.

(Which is kind of what we do as we move through the world anyway, acting as one-person cultural islands, constantly sizing up every other person from our familiar view point. (We see it our way, we think we see it their way, we measure similarities and differences between those two points of view and, within a split second, decide whether we're curious to compromise our view point, learn or experience more.) And yes, that's where I say relationships come from.)

So, getting on with it...

I discovered that if I smash my face up against the window of my hotel, and peer directly down, I can see a gang of construction workers demolishing a giant building (a very common sight in Shanghai). When I did so yesterday, I counted 16 orange-hatted men standing around and watching two giant claw-things tear stuff down. A few milled about the vast pile of rubble, but no one seemed to be doing much of anything. Which brings us to...

Cultural similarity #1: Too many construction workers, not enough destructive tools to go around.

Just like home! The ceaseless pounding, the apparent excess of man-power, even the orange hats. Already my cultural nuance meter feels just a little bit sharper.

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As I make my way through China this month I'll keep an eye out for fun similarities and differences, try to take a picture or two, and post them here. Feel free to offer up questions and challenges, and maybe-- if they don't chain me to my desk 20 hours a day-- I'll have time to do a little investigating and report back. I'm already considering an investigation of bras...I hear only the flat chested survive, which strikes me as a little strange given all of the large-bosomed Chinese grandmas I used to live near in San Francisco. But that's probably just the American diet at work.

So long for now.

Come one, come all.

Greetings. I'm writing a blog. OMG.

I figure for now this'll be a good way to keep in touch from Shanghai, share things like POCARI SWEAT and maybe amuse one or two of you. Maybe.

My mini bar at the Regal (Beagle) Hotel

So here's post 1. Glad I don't have to do that again.