A Dark Side of Shanghai
13 August 2005
Markets, temples, stores, food, and the routine of daily life in China are fascinating --maybe especially when it is all so new (though a long-time expatriate here told me that he is still fascinated after 20 years and that life here is like peeling an onion--each layer just reveals something new to explore). But disturbing things happen too that are maybe worse when you don't know if what you are seeing reflects an attitude shared by many or individual aberations of a few played out in a sea of people where life is very public. I've seen three things here that have bothered me the most and that I can't find context for yet.
The first was early in our trip. We needed notebooks and pens and stopped at a stationary store across the street from the campus of Shanghai University where we are living for these three weeks. The store was small as most are--with two rows of paper supplies in a space about the size of a single car garage. As is common, the family that owned the store was busy helping customers while living their daily routines in the same space. In the front of the shop, hunched over one of the counters, was a little boy--maybe 7 or 8 years old--working hard on his homework. He painstakingly filled little squares on the page of a notebook with Chinese characters while his mother, a woman in her early 30s, monitored his progress with focused intensity. Without warning (from my perspective) and apparently from disgust with the boy's work, she started screaming at him and then slapped him HARD in the head. The boy didn't speak one word--he just continued to write, but big tears rolled down his face. It was heartbreaking. His father, who was also there, appeared to try to step up to the boys defense verbally, but the shrewish woman laid into him as well and he quickly backed down without a fight.
So what was going on here?? Child abuse played out in public where much of Chinese life happens? Is this just like in the U.S. but more hidden in our society? Maybe as disturbing as the abuse for me was the lack of shame about it from the woman who was un-cowed by being watched slapping her little boy. I think about the uproar in the U.S. a year or so ago when that woman whacked her kid as she put him/her into a carseat in a shopping center parking lot and was captured on video--remember that?? It was a national media event.
The second anectdote happened on the Bund yesterday morning. The Bund is a walking area along the Huangpu riverfront in downtown Shanghai. Famous for tourists as a place to view the Shanghai skyline (see photos below) it is also popular with locals. I arrived very early (4:30 a.m.) to take photos of the sunrise and was surprised to find young couples apparently greeting the day after being up all night on the town, as well as older people doing exercises, flying kites and enjoying the relative cool of the morning. There were homeless people there too--sleeping on benches and on the ground along the polished stone walkway that follows the curve of the river. As the day got underway and I wandered up the Bund, I was startled by the clatter of a metal can hitting the pavement as a youngish man, apparently drunk or otherwise trashed, stumbled and fell, dropping the empty can that he was carrying. People seemed disturbed as they watched the scene, but the man picked up his can, stretched out in the middle of the Bund, and passed out. Shortly afterwards, a group of about 5 fit looking Chinese yuppies came down the Bund on a jog and one of them literally jumped over the man which he thought was hilarious and he and his buddies yucked it up as they continued past me on their run. What was going on here?? The absolute lack of emphathy of the apparently well off runner for the drunk was startling. I watched other people in the area just after this happened and some seemed disturbed as well, so maybe this guy was just an asshole. On the other hand, shortly afterwards a family posed for a cheerful photo for a father who backed up to frame hsi shot, almost stepping on the man as he stood with his camera to capture the smiling family, all oblivious to the man.
Finally, last night while downtown for dinner we were approached for money by a very cute little girl about Bei's age holding a tin can. This is apparently big business (according to a Chinese friend here) and parents or other organizers direct these cute little girls because they are so good at getting money.
Maybe people in big U.S. cities see things like this every day too? I honestly don't know and I honestly don't understand where this all fits in with people's sense of normal or not normal, shameful or accepted. Maybe we'll get some insights eventually. We've certainly also seen a great deal of kindness from people towards one another and us, so these anecdotes stand out as exceptions rather than common sights.
Here are some photos from the Bund--a more optimistic view.
Markets, temples, stores, food, and the routine of daily life in China are fascinating --maybe especially when it is all so new (though a long-time expatriate here told me that he is still fascinated after 20 years and that life here is like peeling an onion--each layer just reveals something new to explore). But disturbing things happen too that are maybe worse when you don't know if what you are seeing reflects an attitude shared by many or individual aberations of a few played out in a sea of people where life is very public. I've seen three things here that have bothered me the most and that I can't find context for yet.
The first was early in our trip. We needed notebooks and pens and stopped at a stationary store across the street from the campus of Shanghai University where we are living for these three weeks. The store was small as most are--with two rows of paper supplies in a space about the size of a single car garage. As is common, the family that owned the store was busy helping customers while living their daily routines in the same space. In the front of the shop, hunched over one of the counters, was a little boy--maybe 7 or 8 years old--working hard on his homework. He painstakingly filled little squares on the page of a notebook with Chinese characters while his mother, a woman in her early 30s, monitored his progress with focused intensity. Without warning (from my perspective) and apparently from disgust with the boy's work, she started screaming at him and then slapped him HARD in the head. The boy didn't speak one word--he just continued to write, but big tears rolled down his face. It was heartbreaking. His father, who was also there, appeared to try to step up to the boys defense verbally, but the shrewish woman laid into him as well and he quickly backed down without a fight.
So what was going on here?? Child abuse played out in public where much of Chinese life happens? Is this just like in the U.S. but more hidden in our society? Maybe as disturbing as the abuse for me was the lack of shame about it from the woman who was un-cowed by being watched slapping her little boy. I think about the uproar in the U.S. a year or so ago when that woman whacked her kid as she put him/her into a carseat in a shopping center parking lot and was captured on video--remember that?? It was a national media event.
The second anectdote happened on the Bund yesterday morning. The Bund is a walking area along the Huangpu riverfront in downtown Shanghai. Famous for tourists as a place to view the Shanghai skyline (see photos below) it is also popular with locals. I arrived very early (4:30 a.m.) to take photos of the sunrise and was surprised to find young couples apparently greeting the day after being up all night on the town, as well as older people doing exercises, flying kites and enjoying the relative cool of the morning. There were homeless people there too--sleeping on benches and on the ground along the polished stone walkway that follows the curve of the river. As the day got underway and I wandered up the Bund, I was startled by the clatter of a metal can hitting the pavement as a youngish man, apparently drunk or otherwise trashed, stumbled and fell, dropping the empty can that he was carrying. People seemed disturbed as they watched the scene, but the man picked up his can, stretched out in the middle of the Bund, and passed out. Shortly afterwards, a group of about 5 fit looking Chinese yuppies came down the Bund on a jog and one of them literally jumped over the man which he thought was hilarious and he and his buddies yucked it up as they continued past me on their run. What was going on here?? The absolute lack of emphathy of the apparently well off runner for the drunk was startling. I watched other people in the area just after this happened and some seemed disturbed as well, so maybe this guy was just an asshole. On the other hand, shortly afterwards a family posed for a cheerful photo for a father who backed up to frame hsi shot, almost stepping on the man as he stood with his camera to capture the smiling family, all oblivious to the man.
Finally, last night while downtown for dinner we were approached for money by a very cute little girl about Bei's age holding a tin can. This is apparently big business (according to a Chinese friend here) and parents or other organizers direct these cute little girls because they are so good at getting money.
Maybe people in big U.S. cities see things like this every day too? I honestly don't know and I honestly don't understand where this all fits in with people's sense of normal or not normal, shameful or accepted. Maybe we'll get some insights eventually. We've certainly also seen a great deal of kindness from people towards one another and us, so these anecdotes stand out as exceptions rather than common sights.
Here are some photos from the Bund--a more optimistic view.
posted by Ken, Ellen and Bei | 3:23 PM
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