A Foreign-Foreigner in China: Cultural Reflections from an American Resident of Germany in Shanghai.

. Adam Odgers Chinese History & Culture Prof. ZHANG Mingwei Student Number: 1134950 / Admission Notice Number: 11115254 USA citizen Technical University Berlin adamodgers@gmail.com Introduction Every day starts off with the same question: Where am I, again? Ive been asking myself this for awhile now. I guess the only place I dont ask myself this question is when Im at home. Actually, I cant remember the last time I felt at home. But at the same time, what is home? Am I even looking for home? These are some of the many questions that roam my mind on a regular basis as I live abroad. My first consideration of what home might mean happened 5 years ago as I left Phoenix, Arizona, the city of my childhood and moved to Germany. While this culture was by no means completely foreign, it was definitely not mine and it took awhile for me to stabilize myself enough that I felt comfortable. I consider myself now to be in a kind of foster arrangement with Germany. I was by no means a hobbyist or fan of German culture beforehand but perhaps as an adopted child comes to build a loving relationship with its foster parents, I too have come to respect and depend on a nation that has given me an opportunity to make a life there. After working for 4 years in Berlin, I started a special Dual-Degree Masters program at the Technical University of Berlin which consisted of one year studying in Berlin followed by one in Shanghai. Similar to my initial feelings about Germany, I had no prior affections for China beyond a basic curiosity to learn more about a culture that was for me quite mysterious and exotic. At the beginning of August of 2011, I moved out of my apartment in Berlin, moved my belongings into a storage closet, went to Hamburg to spend 2 weeks with my girlfriend and then boarded a series of flights for Shanghai on August 18. In the following text I will attempt to reflect on some of the experiences Ive had during my first 4 months in China as a cultural migrant twice removed from his homeland. Arrival in Shanghai: First Impressions By pure coincidence, a friend of mine from Arizona had been working in Shanghai as a design project manager in the hospitality industry. He picked me up at Pudong airport and we rode a taxi back into the city to his apartment in the French concession. It was an unusually clear day and I could see the entire span of skyscrapers forming the city profile as we crossed the bridge into Puxi. The first thing most striking about Shanghai is the seemingly endless sea of towers. This was an urban density to which I had never been exposed. The second impression was the traffic. Our taxi driver plugged us into the stream of commuters pumping through the veins of Shanghais high-pressure elevated circulatory system. In the west, we follow what I would describe as a kind of yield-to-others theory of driving. Shanghai drivers seem to have an almost-opposite technique, which is: If you see the slightest seam or opening in the flow of traffic, you should fill it with your vehicle as soon as possible. While this seems to create many near- accidents and a lot of stop-and-go driving, it does seem to more or less work. It can be nerve-racking for passengers, but after 4 months it doesnt bother me anymore.

 Shanghai driving technique was basically a preview for the pedestrian experience. Where pedestrians have the right of way in the west, the pedestrian in Shanghai is basically at the very bottom of the urban food chain. Although I think it is quite dangerous, I can say that after 4 months, I at least know where to position myself when crossing the street that gets me across alive! Moving to Tongji After a week of walking around in the sticky, high-summer weather, I bode farewell to my temporary lodgings in the French concession and moved northward into the Tongji student housing. For exchange students, there are 2 facilities: one directly on campus (within the campus gate) and a second about a half-kilometer off of campus. Interestingly, Tongji seems to divide exchange students approximately along continental lines. Firstly, foreign students and Chinese students are separated. Then, African, Asian, and South American students are separated from European and American students. Although, as in my case, there are exceptions, this is more or less the rule. I believe I was assigned to the Africa-Asian-South-American building because my roommate, also from TU Berlin, is originally from a North African country. Although I find this segregation completely unnecessary, I think I have indirectly benefitted from it having had a richer cultural experience. Also, having the chance to ride my bike 10 minutes from the off- campus compound onto campus has given me the chance to be part of a neighborhood compared with the somewhat more insulated experience of living within the campus walls. One of my first goals after settling into the dormitory was to get a bicycle. Most Chinese students seem to be interested in new, modern bike designs but since I arrived, I had my eye on a classic-style Feng Huang (Phoenix) Shanghai bike. Although most of my Chinese colleagues have said they also find the classic-style bikes to be cool, they also have an air of nostalgia about them. They talk about the memories of their parents taking them to school or picking them up from school on such a bike and therefore they are perhaps not as keen on having one for themselves. Nevertheless, I found one for around 400 RMB complete with a lock and bell at a small bike shop near to Tongji. Riding my bike along Zhangwu Lu to school every day has proven to be one of my more favorite experiences. At first it seemed chaotic and impossible to know exactly where to ride and how to integrate into the flow of traffic, but eventually one learns that underneath the surface there is definitely a system. Also, the informality of street vendors is somewhat shocking to an American used to indoor shopping malls, but eventually I have come to be impressed by the efficiency and practicality of what one can accomplish directly on the street in a very short amount of time. For example, during my first semester I had a class beginning at 8am. At least once a week I might wake up too late at around 7:30am! After a quick shower, I would be downstairs on my bike at 7:45am riding towards school. The first stop would be outside the dormitory gate for a fresh Jianbing as breakfast (3 Yuan). Then around 7:50am I would ride to the next corner to have my bike chain oiled and tires inflated (1 Yuan). Finally at 7:55am on the corner of Siping Lu and Zhangwu Lu I would pick up a coffee and be at class by 8am! There is no way I could possibly accomplish as much in 30 minutes time in Berlin or Phoenix.

My First Design Studio in China The first-semester curriculum for the Tongji Urban Design Masters degree included a mixture of contemporary, cultural, and language coursework in addition to a design studio project for a mixture of Chinese students and TU Berlin students. The topic was Aging Society. The requirements were that we had to make teams composed of 2- 3 students with a combination of Chinese and Berlin students and that we had to make a design proposal that dealt with urban issues affecting Shanghais increasing population of senior citizens. I worked with a Chinese friend of mine who I knew from the first year at the TU Berlin. For the site of our project, we chose the Shanghai Old Town (Laoximen). This part of Shanghai was the original city core containing the original walled settlement of Shanghai. During colonial times, it was always considered the Chinese part of Shanghai on foreign maps. Today, it still houses many residents in a dense, informal and lively series of winding neighborhoods. For me, this part of Shanghai was the most culturally shocking and I felt quite uncomfortable when visiting, although the people were always friendly and curious. Shanghai has a wide spectrum of social classes reaching from the extreme poor to the extreme rich. What has been most intense for me to see is how abruptly these class transitions can occur. One can have the most modernized high-end shopping experience at the Xintiandi development project and then walk 500m and find the most informal market with raw meat being butchered in the open air around the corner from a public toilet. For our project we decided to design a Senior Community Archive Center on an empty site in the Southeast quadrant of the Old Town. This would be a place where local elders could spend their free-time sharing stories about the neighborhood and manage a small library. Also, we imagined that children from the local schools could come by a few times a month to hear the elders tell stories. My partner and I first visited the area several times to make interviews and talk to the residents. Of course, I could not have participated in such a project without my partner who could speak Chinese with the locals. They were always happy to talk to us and were also very willing to let us record them with a video camera. Some spoke very generally about their daily lives while others were more open to criticizing the lack of improvements to their neighborhood. Overall, these neighborhoods made quite an impression on me; to see the ways in which people can adapt and live with what they have available to them. Although it is directly in the middle of metropolitan Shanghai, being in the Old Town really feels like another world; like a village in the middle of a city. Ningbo: My First Trip outside of Shanghai For the holiday week during the Moon festival in October, I decided I would try to visit the city of Ningbo. In another one of my courses, I met a group of Chinese students, one of which was from the city of Ningbo. I mentioned to him that I would be going to Ningbo and he became very excited, offering to pick me up at the bus station and show me around the city. I did not know him very well at that point so I didnt know what to expect. Finally the day came and I caught a bus from the Shanghai Main Bus Terminal with a friend of mine from the TU Berlin. It is quite amazing to travel in China for a national holiday because it is really as though then ENTIRE country is travelling at the same time. Everyone is going to their hometowns to see their families. The bus took us across the 30 km Hangzhou bridge, an amazing technical achievement demonstrating Chinese practicality with regards to problem-solving. Three hours later we arrived at

the Ningbo bus terminal and my friend was there to pick us up. He had already arranged for a bus-ticket for us as well as planned our three-day tour! He had even researched and practiced some English facts to tell us about the sites we would visit. This was a special sort of hospitality that I had never seen before. I think people in the West are also generally friendly but to have someone take 3 days of their vacation to show a person they hardly know around would be quite rare. We spent the next two days getting a great, action-packed tour of Ningbo and on the third day, my friend picked us up with 3 of his brothers in a van and we drove to the village of Ci Cheng outside of Ningbo. I asked him about his brothers and he told be that because most people in his generation are single children products of the one-child policy, they tend to refer to their cousins as their brothers. Although Chinas one-child policy is hotly debated and criticized, it remains to be seen what the long-term effects and consequences might be. Most of my Chinese friends seem to regret not having had a brother or sister, but at the same time, they have become closer to their friends and cousins. In any case, I think it can be said that Chinas plan to curb rapid population growth has probably started to redefine the structure of the traditional Chinese family. Historical Preservation in Shanghai: A Side-Job During the middle of the semester, I received an email from our coordinator saying that the World Heritage Training and Research Institute Asia-Pacific (Part of UNESCO) was looking for an English text proofreader and possible Intern. I answered this advertisement and started first as a part-time proofreader which has led recently to working two days a week as an intern. As Shanghai and China rapidly develops, the preservation of heritage becomes an important and key issue. I wanted to be involved in such an organization to observe and learn how the Chinese are dealing with these situations. The office itself consists of all Chinese (mostly from Shanghai) and is located directly on the Tongji University Campus. So far I have proof-read all English texts and assisted in the preparation for a conference in November at which visiting professionals from Korea, Japan, and China presented their heritage-preservation projects. It was quite fascinating to see representatives of three major Asian countries discussing and promoting their projects in English. It is in these moments where it is remarkable to see how much English has become the common International language for communication and exchange. One the one hand, it makes my experience as a native-speaker much easier. On the other hand, the simplified nature of English also reduces the ability of the speaker to express him or herself. In addition to such conferences, the organization provides programs for Chinese youth to learn about how to appreciate and estimate the cultural value of their environment. I can say I am grateful to have this position to observe firsthand how the Chinese are trying to reform the preservation aspects of their culture as it rapidly develops. Final Thoughts & Outlook Compared with my move to Germany, my move to Shanghai has been much more challenging from a cultural standpoint. I feel more like a foreigner here. In Germany I was able to hide or at least blend in a little bit because of my European heritage. Being in China is a different story: I stand out like a sore-thumb, as we say. At first, this caused me to be much more conscious of the image I was projecting. However, four months later I feel more at ease perhaps because I have accepted that it is not possible for me to fully integrate myself and therefore I cannot be too stressed about it. At the same time,

this makes me think quite a bit about the future and how China will continue to develop and mix with the gradual influx of western culture. Every day I contemplate what my own role can and should be in such a globalizing society. I ask myself how can I best contribute? One of the biggest challenges is coming close enough to terms with the lifestyle that I would like to have. For example, if I want to try and remain in China, what would be the things that I would need to feel comfortable enough, to make me feel at home? If I need to import certain things such as food and other products, am I not just being a kind of modern colonist? As the first semester comes to a close I take a short pause to reflect on what I have experienced so far. I look toward the next seven months in China during which I will have time to think about my many questions as I continue my own personal cultural adventure.