I groggily emerge from my state of slumber around 6:30 AM or so. The sun was just starting to emerge, but already, construction workers were buzzing to life, starting their daily routine of banging and sawing away. Soon, I notice the distinct smell of my surroundings, a hint of smoke, tinged with just the least bit of odor that reminded me that sanitation here still had a bit of a ways to go. It was then that the reality really hit me -- that I was once again in China, thousands of miles away from home.
I tried going to sleep again, and managed to get about an hour or so more, until my excitement in being back in China after a hiatus of over 3 years overcame my sleep debt again, and I sprang fully awake. My contact and his family were still sound asleep so I decide to do some cleaning up and unpacking of my stuff, which I proceeded to do until they woke up as well.
Anyhow, let me backtrack for a bit... So, actually, before retiring last night, my contact did show me around their place... quite nice by Chinese standards. And, he had a chance to look at some of the stuff I brought along. As most of you know, I have a serious weakness in gadgets. And I packed quite a LOT of them for this trip. Upon seeing my array of toys -- laptop, cell phone, GPS, Palm Pilot, camcorder, TWO digital cameras, and various other miscellania, my contact was suitably impressed -- of course, not by my humility in the material world. Although, he admitted to me that he was a gadget person as well. We even have the same exact model of digital camcorder, and we both like to edit video as a hobby. Well, it was good to know that I have a kindred spirit in that sense as well... heh.
Naturally, we soon get into a discussion about digital video and editing. "What editor program do you use?," he asked me.
"Adobe Premiere."
"Premiere? Wow -- you spent $500 on it?"
"Umm, well", I answered sheeplishly, guessing where this was going to lead, "I didn't buy it..."
"Is that really what a Christian should be doing?"
I'm not going to rehash my arguments about piracy, and how software companies don't really care about the individual user (and that it's actually a boon to them, having users that learn by using pirated software, and then go and influence the software purchasing decisions of their corporations, where the real revenue comes). Yes, I think that software companies by and large use a flawed economic model in their marketing, and I do think that piracy is a way of life in China, and that in Rome, do as the Romans do. Anyhow, being jet-lagged and not in a mood to argue piracy, I just gave up. Call me a hypocrite, I told him -- I don't care. But he continued to engage me in a discussion about just why I chose to knowingly use pirated software, and just what kind of impression I was making.
So, anyhow it turns out that he doesn't own a single piece of pirated software, or music, or movie. Not even unpaid shareware. And this in China, where finding non-pirated stuff is harder than finding pirated versions. In many cases, he uses freeware/open source applications, such as StarOffice, rather than pirating commerical programs. I thought that it was amazing -- meeting someone who's never pirated software before. Sort of like finding out how Danny has supposedly never cussed in his life. I'm sure it's possible, but my contact was the first case that I've actually met someone with a spotless background of integrity in this area.
To put it another way, this was a man whose virtue and values consititute a form of his ministry. Now, I'm sure many of us can examine ourselves and ask -- how do we minister to others? And many will answer: our talents, our service, or our works -- ie, our actions. But how many of us can honestly say that our beliefs and integrity alone are by themselves potent enough to get someone wonder: just what makes us tick spiritually as Christians? Yes, following the examples of Christ what we all should be striving for. But in front of me was someone who really walked that walk to a point where it was hard for even a determined skeptic to immediately point out any hypocrisy in the "Christian lifestyle". Let your ministry dictate your lifestyle, rather than your lifestyle dictate your ministry he had told me over four years ago. It dawned on me that yup, he sure practiced what he preached. So yeah, while I'm still writing this on a machine running a pirated version of Windows XP, using a pirated version of SecureCRT to log into my account, it still influenced me in terms of what I should be striving for.
Anyhow, back to the second day. Since the Autumn Festival was coming up, my contact and I decide to head downtown with the primary goal to hit the shops and get moon cakes for the family. I was excited to see Shanghai, and just see how it had changed and developed. During my first trip to China in 1991, Pudong (the area east of the river) was basically undeveloped, little more than fields. And now, it was pretty much Shanghai's financial and commericial heart.
We take the bus and subway there, and in the 40 minutes or so it takes to get downtown, we started talking some more. Anyhow, my contact is Taiwanese -- ie, a benshengren (settled on Taiwan pre-1940s) rather than a waishengren. I won't delve into my political views on the Taiwanese/Chinese assimilation issue here, but basically, my contact couldn't speak much Mandarin, although he was learning quickly, only Taiwanese. Of course, I couldn't speak a word of Taiwanese, so basically we had to speak English. Now, here's some advice -- if you're Asian, don't speak English audibly in public in China (and I'm sure, South Korea and several other places as well), especially if the US has been involved in some international controversy, such as bombing the Chinese embassy or going to war with Iraq. If you're a non-Chinese Asian, then speak Korean, Japanese, whatever your mother tongue is -- but just don't speak English. (Conversely, if you're white, then do speak English, and you'll have a surefire way to meet people, especially in the smaller towns where seeing a laowai might as well be the same as seeing an extraterrestrial being.) I'm sure this also applies to places like South Korea as well as China.
Anyhow, while on the bus/subway, people were looking at us suspiciously, wondering why the heck these Chinese people were speaking in English? I didn't have the guts to tell him to shut up while on the bus/subway, so I tried to have a conversation with him as discreetly as possible. Despite the slight discomfort I was feeling, it was good hearing some more about just what brought him and his family here to Shanghai, and some of the day to day life here. We didn't delve into anything too deep or spiritual in our conversation on the train -- this was still China after all -- but it was a good introduction to what he was doing here, and just how life was turning out.
We get off at Pudong station, and sort of do the tourist thing for a while, with his daughter in tow, walking around the Oriental Pearl tower, seeing the Bund off in the distance. After taking the standard touristy pictures, we decide to hit a new mall in our quest for the perfect moon cake. My contact calls his wife, as she apparently was picky about her moon cakes, and apparently, she didn't recall what exact brand it was, and we couldn't deduce or remember it, so we just went across all the dozen or so stalls selling moon cakes, and just buy two of each. I had the chance to sample about 5 different types of moon cakes -- basic moon cakes with your standard sweet red bean filling, but different nonetheless. And so marked the debut of Mark Wang, moon cake connoiseur. =)
The daughter wasn't so enthused about the cakes, and soon enough, she started very vocally and loudly expressing her own hunger waiting to be satisfied. So, we soon cross the river and grab lunch at Ajisan, the Japanese noodle chain store. We had a filling lunch there, and afterwards, we walk around Nanjing Dong Lu and the Bund a bit, playing the part of tourists, getting lost for a bit (I got to try out my GPS for a bit, although it in this case was little more than a high-tech compass to tell us the direction we were headed). I had some errands to run, such as booking tickets to Mongolia, and getting my SIM card for my phone, so after we had done a bit of walking, I bid them farewell as they headed back, and went and did my own thing for a bit. I walked around the Bund/Puxi area for a bit, checked out the bookstore, checked email, and just sort of passed the time away, absorbing the ambience of China's economic epicenter.
Soon, I call my Stanford friend Gideon (working for the same company as my contact) to meet up. He was tagging along in a group with Nancy Lai and Amy Cheng (MV class of 1997 -- go Matadors! =) ) who were doing their own little China trip and had come back from a day trip to Hangzhou. We meet up by an entrance to the Nanjing Dong Lu station. Anyhow, I soon see them, and after some more browsing of food stores lead by the girls, we decide to have dinner at a Japanese place.
After dinner, we head off to Xin Tian Di (literally, New Heaven and Earth) -- the terminally hip new strip in Shanghai full of nightclubs, swanky restaurants, cafes, and a high-class shopping area. Any Westerner who thinks China is still a drab socialist state will be quickly cured of their ignorance after a few minutes there. (Very ironically, it's located within a stone's throw of the building where the Chinese Communist Party was first established in the 1920s. Mao is surely spinning in his grave.) Anyhow, it was teeming with Western expats, hua qiao from Taiwan and HK, and rich young Chinese teens, sporting their cell phones and designer fashions. It was somewhat disturbing seeing the number of overweight, middle aged white men with young Chinese girls in tow. =P
We settle in a bar, and decide to down a few drinks. After we were slightly yet sufficiently inerbriated, Gid, Nancy, Amy and I soon decide to check out the live entertainment there. We sat next to some English teachers from Canada, and watched a Phillipino band croon out 80s hits, with the audience clapping and swing their feet. Apparently, Chinese-Phillipino bands are in demand in China because they can sing both English and Chinese songs adeptly. The atmosphere of Paulner Microbrewery was pretty fun -- indeed, under the influence of a Bloody Mary, some microbrewed beer, and the band, I almost felt like a party animal myself. Almost. =)
We tried to hit up a bunch of nightclubs afterwards -- by that point, I was ready to conk out -- but they were pretty much all packed and we couldn't get in. After wandering more around Xin Tian Di for an hour or two more, we all take a taxi home, and finally go back to the apartment complex. I get off, and with my contact and his family long since asleep, proceed to join them in slumber.
And that was the end of day 2.