4th of July

Friday, July 9, 2010

Last Sunday was the Fourth of July, and even on this side of the globe American ex-pats celebrated in style. The Strip (the restaurant owned by some Harvard alums) had a barbeque to celebrate its opening, so Panpan and I went there around noon and spent the day with friends there. The worst of the humidity had, thankfully, passed, so we were able to enjoy the day on the restaurant’s balcony.
The Fourth of July celebration was just one instance among many that make me acutely aware of how separately most expats live from the locals. Although Shanghai is thought to be a very Westernized city, it is only Westernized for the richest few. There are main roads with glitzy storefronts, but one street over will be shack-like homes and hidden poverty.
It is possible (even likely) for many expats to spend years in Shanghai sequestered off in their own little expat world. Although the British and French Concessions are mostly historical relics now, new Expat Concessions seem to have sprung up in their place.
This wasn’t what I had expected, after spending last summer living in an older Chinese city integrated with the local people, and I’ve definitely had to adjust my expectations of my time here. I guess I had been expecting to get more Chinese culture and language than I actually am. (In fact, I could get by perfectly fine without speaking a word of Chinese. And plenty of Shanghai’s inhabitants do just that for YEARS!) Oddly enough, the culture shock for me isn’t China vs. America. Instead, it’s the strangeness of living in a city, especially such a large and cosmopolitan one as Shanghai. It hasn’t been the experience that I’d expected, but it’s been a good one nonetheless.