Wow, somebody’s attitude got adjusted. When I arrived my main emotions were disdain and unease – both based on sad experience. Unease was busted in the first few hours when I figured out it was a lot safer here than feared. Then I began to understand that not only was everyone very tolerant of my horrible mandarin, most spoke English (unlike Taipei). Still I did not find the place appealing or interesting despite several long walks near my downtown location. I chalk much of that up to my many years in Asia because not much is new to me, so what others would find interesting, I only see the small changes in familiar patterns and themes. Yeah, I know that sounds pretentious. Even the locals are taking more pictures than me, but I could not find much to photograph even though this is my first time in this city. I am acutely aware that almost all l is new, they tried to erase their own history here a generation ago. Also I am personally and professionally impacted by the official controls over information access and I find those restrictions limiting in what I would like to document.
However, tonight the meeting that triggered this junket is in the past and I am over jet lag so I was able to stay up until the night life started. What started out as a quick run to 7-11 for bottled water ended up a 2-hour walking tour. This jaded guy saw some new things, but mostly not new Chinese things. This city, and in particular, this part of this city is the epicenter of the China export miracle. What started out as a US and Walmart phenomena is now a global thing. I would call it the 3rd wave now. The 1st wave, northern Europeans and Americans, moved out long ago to outlying areas and then have handed off control to locals trained in their countries. The 2nd wave, after Deng Shiaoping in 1989, are following this pattern and have a major presence only in the regional centers (and Beijing and Shanghai). The current 3rd wave is from the developing world where China is investing heavily. The lowering of international trade restrictions, ubiquitous internet (especially android phones) and accessible air travel are to be credited for the influx. I can fly direct to Tbilisi or Teheran from here.
At one point over 80% of the people walking the street tonight were NOT Chinese, not even Asian. I saw one American and two Germans, everyone else was from EVERYWHERE else. I did not ask for ID but I am sure that I saw as least Somali, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Russian, Ukraine, Kenyan, Iran, Jordan, Nigeria, Cuba, Venezuela. I say this not because of the language but because of the dress and the restaurants. Some of the things that I saw that surprised this old jaded asian hand were: an alley with Ethiopian sidewalk sellers of fruits and nuts. A long row of Turkish and Lebanese money changers set up on chairs on the sidewalk (story behind that). Somali touts trying to sell SIM cards, ‘special’ IPs and outside VPN points for mobile phones to passerbys (longer story about that – I found it really interesting). Hookah bars – and not hidden in some back alley, they had tables and chairs set up out on the sidewalk like a Paris café but with zoned out customers puffing. Two competing Cuban corner places selling beer in bottles, never cans, to the their compatriots who had set up small tables and chairs on the street and looked enviously content and happy arguing about the baseball and soccer games broadcast on the local TV (direct feed from Havana, I even get it in my hotel room). Getting propositioned by two Turkish streetwalkers – being approached is not a new thing to me but it is new to have a non-native, especially that non-native, do it. I do not know the Arabic word for that, but even if I did it was so out of context I would have not been able to connect the dots, so to speak.
But most surprising was that all this is tolerated in this place that sometimes does not tolerate well.
Attitude adjusted.
