August 31, yep, it's official, i've been living in Shanghai for a full year now, how time flies.
Before coming to Zhong Guo, i had my fair share of stereotyping and a mutilated sense of what China was all about. Information from various media, mainly western of course, gave one the impression that China was a place of communist tyranny. I mean i expected to see policemen all over the place and menacing military tanks at every street corner. Instead i saw a major commercial city with people busy trying to make a living as in any city. I experienced a night life that buzzed beyond my wildest expectations and not a single tank.
And then of course there were the Kung Fu movies some of us grew up watching. Man, i thought every Chinese guy knew "The Crane Style" or some other form of kung Fu, i was greatly dissapointed to find out it isn't so. I also thought i'd see more traditional Chinese architecture, or even people dressed up in "Kung Fu movie style" clothing, nope, i guess the winds of change have long left these parts.
Like any foreigner I have had my share of being caught up in a language knot, but i came to realise that most young people in Shanghai can hold a basic conversation in English, and out here, when you are lost and looking for directions, 'basic' is often a blessing.
I also discovered that Chinese food in China is somewhat different from chinese food back home, it seems a lot of dishes back home have been adjusted to suite the local tastes. I mean the Chow Mian i've eaten here doesn't taste like any i've eaten back home.
I don't know about most people, but i felt a little betrayed to be told that fortune cookies aren't served in restaurants here, and the whole concept isn't Chinese.
However , my year here has been largely enjoyable, and my wallet seriously deflated (entertainment isn't cheap in Shanghai), but more importantly my perceptions about China have been remolded.
AfroShanghai
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