Race and parks

I saw a woman wearing a T-shirt today that said: "Black girls: cool and simple." It's always questionable as to whether the bearer of an English item knows what it actually means but race is a different animal here, to be sure. In western China, there are different Chinese who actually look more like Pakistani or other Middle Eastern but here in the east, nearly everyone is Han ("traditional" Chinese-looking). The homogeneity of the population makes it easy for broad generalizations of other races to be accepted as fact. Despite terrorism having not hit China, "brown" people are shied away from. Indians, especially, are thought of as being "a bit off" and people are a little taken aback when I tell them I am going to India next. Even Maggie, yesterday, said, "Do you like Indian?" I said, "Indian food, you mean?" and she said, "No, people." I was like, "Uh.. I guess so?" What's not to like? Such a strange question! Being that almost everyone will be of one race each place I'm going has made me grasp just how strange the US is in the world. There really is no other place with such diversity of race and culture.

Shanghai is the land of awesome umbrellas. I never put much thought into umbrellas, other than that I want a small one but here I see a new one everyday that I like. Even these are kind of boring but I bought one last week that's supremely excellent.


I've been enjoying the parks lately. My new flat is right next to a beautiful park called Zhongshan [zjong-shaan] and I also go to one near work called Jing'an. Parks here are amazing, way better than anywhere I've ever been in the States. My favorite aspect of Zhongshan is that no motorized vehicles or bicycles are allowed, so I can walk almost all the way to the metro stop without fear of getting run over. In China, you don't just look left and right when you cross a street, you also must look back, ahead, every possible diagonal, up and down. And even then, you will come close to getting hit. Zhongshan is part beauty, part amusement rides for kids.



There's an overhead track that goes around a small area of the park. You pedal in this little thing and get a bird's eye view of the goings-on:




In the mornings and in the evenings, retired people meet at various open spaces and dance:



Read this critique of one of the restaurants that woman I wrote an article on founded:

"I had the meatloaf in City Diner last night. Maybe it was just me but portion size seemed obscene!

Do Americans really eat like this? Or maybe City Diner is just going overboard to show how American they are?

I walked in feeling really hungry but I still couldn't finish the plate. I probably managed three quarters, if that. The experience was painful. I was determined to be all American and finish the thing. It started hurting but I carried on. Eventually though I reached a point where I thought I was going to throw up if I ate another mouthful. Throwing up at the table is not part of US dining etiquite, right?"

True true to the max... I haven't had American food since I got here. I saw some photos from the subway flooding debacle in NYC on the internet and realized how fat Americans are.. it was shocking because I haven't seen a scene like that since I left. Literally 85% of the people in the photo were obese (Brooklyn). There are some fat people in China, but I have not seen a single person who is obese. The American lifestyle is really conducive to being overweight and I think the biggest problem is the normal portion size.


Politics at the Carrefour (grocery store). This sign means, "Taiwan is right here. PART OF CHINA."


Eggs are super popular. I don't think I've seen a dish yet that doesn't involve egg.