Off The Beaten Path

Cycling Out Of Shanghai !!!

The times they are a-changing, the man sang, long ago. So long ago, that it seems as if it is ancient history now.

Well, the Shikumen may disappear as well, unless they are resurrected in some fashion, the way that they have been in the Xintiandi. The Xintiandi, as we know, is a well known watering hole.

The Shikumen that I visited do not resemble anything like the Shikumen in the Xintiandi. They are very beautiful, no doubt, and add to the charm of the city. As I mentioned, they combine elements of Chinese and Western architecture. They do have the central areas that allow for a good degree of socialising, and it is this element of socialising that does make a society what it is. It allows, in it's own way, for the exchange of family news, of gossip, of ideas. It builds friendships, and support systems. Jealousies as well, no doubt, and conflict as well.

Yet, in allowing the space for social interaction, it allows time to slow down a bit, and allows us the space to laugh and to appreciate some of the small things in life.

In Bengal, there is a great tradition of art, music, and street drama. The courtyards in the local communities allow time for the evening dramas to take place. As a result, there is an explosion of artistic and musical tradition in Bengal. Some of the old Chinese dramas and musical traditions, no doubt, benefited from such social interaction. 

My old boss, one day, while waxing eloquent on the great diversity in Shanghai, and the mix of the old and the new, told me rather grandly that it would be a sad day in hell when Shanghai loses this. He is correct, in part. 

Yes, this mix does give Shanghai much of its charm, however, I would not choose to live in the dark and dank spaces that exist inside the Shikumen quarters. The people told me that they had been offered money to move to shiny, new apartments. These would, no doubt, provide them with much better living quarters than they have today. They would move to faceless apartment blocks, and lose their social interaction with their neighbours in the process. 

Life would become an endless surge of entries on Facebook and Twitter. But, it would be comfortable.

So, what is the answer?

To leave the Shikumen as they are? 

To move people to faceless apartment blocks that rob them of their social interaction, apartment blocks that would rob the city of it's charm?

Or, to renovate the Shikumen, to allow the city to retain its charm, yet in a manner  that would help people maintain their social interaction with their neighbours?

The times are changing. I hope that they change for the better. Change is inevitable. It always has been.

And now, it is time for me to cycle out of Shanghai, and on to Beijing.

 

Shikumen

During one of my last days in Shanghai, I went for a photography walk through some of the last remaining Shikumen of the city. One, the famous Xintiandi, has been restored and, as we all know, is one of the more popular shopping, dining and drinking places of Shanghai.

The Shikumen were not originally meant to be watering holes. They were housing styles that emerged in the 1860s, combining elements of Chinese and Western architectural styles. The Shikumen were — are — row houses that are interconnected by narrow alleys. The entrance to each alley is a stylized stone archway. What you see above, is one such alley way. 

Of course, in the Chinese social style, the shikumen areas had their central courtyard, to allow for small, local social gatherings.stylized

The picture below, is that of a lady who lives in one of these 'apartments' in one of the shikumen. Her cooking vessels, her stove are in the landing on the staircase. In her case, all the dwellers on her floor have their cooking systems neatly laid out next to each other on the same landing. It would appear that they cook together at times, but keep their gas connections, vegetable stocks, vessels in clearly demarcated areas to avoid conflict.

In a different sense of sharing, when I was looking at the basins in the alley way, and the water pipes leading to each basin, I noticed that each water pipe had its own colour marking. The family to whom the blue colour coded pipe (for example) belonged would only use the basin connected to the blue colour coded pipe.

What impressed me a lot were the elaborate systems that were adopted by the people living in the Shikumen, to ensure that they continue to live in harmony, and do not infringe upon each other's territories. This is important, I would assume, for people who are living in crowded places. 

The Chinese, by their nature, believe in harmony. I have often heard expressions of 'the harmonious society', when I was in China. To that extent, we Indians are a lot more individualistic, and we do tend to resemble pirates, to some extent. Every man for himself is a much stronger creed in India than it is in China. This may not have been the case in ancient India, but I could hazard a guess that, with years of external threat in our history, I can only assume that we developed a highly evolved survival instinct in our genes. 

However, while I have never been into a Bombay chawl, which is similar in concept, but not in style, I have been told that the residents have evolved systems and practises that allow them to live in harmony with each other. 

If I were a sociologist, I would postulate that, as we start to live together, especially in crowded places, we evolve social practises that allows the group to work and live well with each other. When crowding passes a threshold limit, then crime rates increase, homosexuality increases, and we see the emergence of various social evils that are characteristic of crowding. 

Is this a case for population control? Or, population management? 

Xiang Yang - A Little Bit Of Heaven

I discovered Xiang Yang Market, or Xiang Yang ShiChang, pretty early on in my life in China. This is something that everyone did - find their way to Xiang Yang Market, for a little bit of shopping heaven. It is pretty common knowledge that if you wanted to buy fake Guccis, or Diors, or suitcases or whatever else, Xiang Yang Market was the place to be. 

When I arrived in Shanghai, I did not have too much by way of warm clothes, and I popped in there pretty quickly. When I was wandering about the place, I passed an Indian family, and they looked straight through me. We, as a nation, do behave oddly with each other. Ego precedes the joy of seeing another brown face in the crowd. When the initial barriers of ego have been overcome, you are faced with different aspects of the same ego barrier - where you work, what car you drive, whether your company flies you home by economy or business become the first topics of conversation, before you are slotted into a category and consigned to the appropriate dump.

Anyway, I did not have a clue about how to start a conversation in Chinese those days, so I found the prettiest shopkeeper, and decided to negotiate with her. It is easier to do this with someone of the opposite sex, as a little bit of play acting, a little bit of harmless flirting become acceptable tools of bargaining. I employed the tactics of mock crying, showing her a bit of non-existent tearing and fraying in my clothes, to indicate that I was too poor to pay the price she was paying. She pretty much employed similar tactics, and finally with a laugh and a friendly hug, we concluded our bargain. I was all set for the Shanghai winter!

Scenes like the one above are not too common. The shopkeepers normally do not get too much time to sleep. So, a catnap is about all that they can manage.

Expat wives are shrewd things. They realize pretty soon on, that almost no one uses genuine, branded stuff. They all buy and use fake stuff. This way, most of them end up wih more bags than they know what to do with. Typically, therefore, at the end of their stay in China, they have a garage sale to get rid of their excesses at Xiang Yang Market.

The men follow a different pattern. At office, in their suits and ties, they deplore the loss of intellectual property, and in the evening they make a bee line for Xiang Yang Market. 

Xiang Yang Market is a forgiving place. As long as you are there to shop, it welcomes its heart to you, with the love of an all knowing lover. If, however, you go there to lecture and pontificate, she will turn on you with the vengeance of a lover scorned. 

Beware, therefore! Shop to your hearts delight, and do nothing more. 

Revel in the orgy of shopping that Xiang Yang offers you! 

 

Xintiandi

I am not too sure why I am writing about Xintiandi now. The Xintiandi at Shanghai was the first place that I saw when I moved to Shanghai. I was staying at a service apartment, which was a five minute walk from the Xintiandi.

When I arrived in Shanghai at 5:00 pm on the 27th October 2002, I was not too sure of what to expect. Like many Indians, I was bred on the tales of the 1962 war, and on talesof faceless Chinese in shapeless Mao suits.

And then, after I had settled down in my service apartment, I wandered out to explore, and I walked on to the Xintiandi. It was one of those "Holy Shit!!" moments, a moment when I realised that China had moved so far ahead of India in more ways than one. The infrastructure, the lights and the general ambience, the sheer energy of the Xintiandi were far greater than anything I had ever experienced in India.

I had dinner that night, at the Paulaner, and that was another "Holy Shit" moment for me. There,  on a stool right next to me, was this young, shapely Chinese girl in a backless dress, perched on the knee of a young, good looking European fellow. As I mentioned, this was another "Holy Shit" moment, when I realised that this was one more way that China had moved in such a different direction from India.

Later, as I went to the Xintiandi more often, I realised the sheer practical nature of the Chinese. To be sure, there are many places in Shanghai that are much more interesting than the manufactured, somewhat artificial and unreal excitement of the Xintiandi.

The Xintiandi's architecture is somewhat unique, in that it retains much of the Shikumen structure. It was the residence of Shanghai's people in the early 1900's, and was near the site of the First Conference of the Chinese Communist Party, which is visible at the Museum of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.

In India, such a place would be revered, and you would have millions of sullen, snarling guards advising you to be appropriately reverent when entering the area. Corrupt politicians would periodically visit the place, and pontificate about true, simple values while, at the same time bleeding the country dry.

Here, in China, the commerce and the energy of modern life blend in easily with the old architecture, and for those who are interested in history, the Museum exists.

The great thing about the Xintiandi, is that people tend to gravitate there, for the sheer convenience of it all. Whether it is pubs, the Cabaret, movie, a coffee, shopping, or a neat place to pick up girls, the Xintiandi has something to offer everyone. And, it bursts with energy in an extravagant celebration of life.

The Xintiandi gave me my first two "Holy Shit" moments in China, and for this I am eternally grateful. It opened up my mind to China and to the Chinese people, and some of my more enduring friendships have been with the people of this wonderful country.

I have said it before, I'll say it again now, and I will say it again in the future - politicians of our two countries would do well to forge the ties of friendship. We have much to learn and gain from each other.