Made in China

Sorry for my lack of posting this past week, I'm trying to keep up!

That past week i've been a tourist: passport hidden inside my jacket, frequent attempts at being scammed "hey lady, want a scarf? purse? We have Chanel, i'll give you a good price" and yes looking lost, all those things aside it has given me something to compare my time in Shanghai with so far. Since my campus is outside of the city in a very college area most people here don't speak english and everything is not disgustingly overpriced so I kinda feel like a local. Having this opportunity to see Shanghai beyond a tourist level has given me the opportunity to explore places and make my own opinion rather than regurgitating the information that a tour guide gave me to people when they ask me about my trip. From what i've seen so far it's very obvious that many things in China are not as they seem. For example, the movie To Live (a movie i highly recommend everyone watch, and yes it's in subtitles but if you watch it with my dad he'll be sure to read them out loud, good luck Megan, Molly and Anne Marte), which is about a working class families troubles during the 1940's- 1970's the time of Mao's rise and rule, is banned by law in China, however most young people have seen it and will openly talk about it. So clearly when we hear in the west the government controls everything they do on paper but i think there is more freedom than we expect. Like i said in my last post, I'm by no means an expert on the subject and am not trying to make any sort of generalization this is just "my version". Also, one of my professors was talking about how when she asks people in the United States what they think about China, red is the first thing that comes to mind. There is so much more to this giant country than communism, This same professor had us read 2 articles about westernization in China. The first was basically a tour guide to Shanghai that made everything seem like the economy thrived being completely overwhelmed by the western invasion of material goods, while the other article contrasted it by talking about the lives of people who live off of Nanjing Road (a big road for shopping in Shanghai) and how they keep to their local markets and still maintain lives away from tourism. i think we all can relate to being a local in a tourist area, over Christmas in the mountains is a perfect example. You're surrounded by the obvious tourists (think fur coats, layers of make up to ski, starter jackets and ITB's aka in the book ski pants) but its still the same mountain for locals, they still go to their same restaurants and don't do all of their shopping in town like the tourists. There is a tourist side to the mountains that involves extravagance and a local side that is like the life of any other normal person. So basically my point it that Shanghai is not a place that can be stereotyped, there is such a wide range of culture.

Take a look at the tag of the clothes your wearing right now or the electronics your using they probably say "made in China" somewhere am i right? This comes in handy when you want to get those expensive clothes made and your already in China! On Friday i went to a fabric market that could do just that. Since tons of clothes are made in China they know how its done so we were able to take pictures from magazines. You would have never guessed that behind the hanging plastic strips that function as a door would be a world of fabric wonder! Also along the lines of the outside not being what it seems that seemed to be the theme of People's Square. Think of Time Square but no cars and brighter! The whole blonde hair and blue eyes screamed tourist so i was bombarded by people asking me if i wanted a rolex or bag. We gave into one of them and quickly followed a man down and alley, through a hidden door to a room full of designer bags, wallets, pens and watches you could want! Now i may have seen one too many horror movies (what up CP and Katie) so i was slightly paranoid and was looking for all the escapes possible, making sure no one was trying to rob us and making sure to stake out my spot next to the door for a quick get away, like in all the movies of course! Mom, Dad you guys can quite holding your breathe right now we survived! Navigating People's Square was much easier than in my neighborhood, most of the people spoke english and i saw some arian representation heyo! That night a group of Alliance students got to experience KTV (Karaoke) bar. They need these in the US it was awesome! We rented out this HUGE room and had it all to ourselves. Most of the Western students called it a night around 2am but our Chinese roommates were going strong till 6am! Our room was in the back so we had to walk past a whole bunch of rooms to get back and we saw everything, people with shirts off rocking out, girls stumbling down the hall with their boyfriends following after them, all while enjoying listening to each other singing (or in my case speaking off tune to a rhythm). Back in the United States if i went to bed after 2am i was proud but they take staying out till the break of dawn to a whole new meaning!

As always hope you are all doing well i love reading your posts/e-mails/skypes!

xoxo
Aryn