喜 (xĭ) means « happiness ». 喜 + 喜 = 囍 (shuāng xĭ) – DOUBLE HAPPINESS Double happiness has a beautiful connotation in Chinese. [ + ]
喜 (xĭ) means « happiness ». 喜 + 喜 = 囍 (shuāng xĭ) – DOUBLE HAPPINESS
Double happiness has a beautiful connotation in Chinese. It is the addition of single entities and its conversion into a double entity. Being double happy became a common expression symbolizing love, since love multiplies when it is shared.
It can be found on nearly every kind of item: rugs, clothes, fabrics, matchboxes, ceramics, doorbells, invitations, teaware, jewellery, cigarettes… These items are placed everywhere, and are essential items for any weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and New Year celebrations.
However, the moment when I really came into contact with this notion was when I solved my first dilemma on arrival in Shanghai, namely the question of what to smoke. At first, I tried the Western cigarettes, which didn’t taste the same as back home – too strong. Later on, I chose the packaging that appealed to me most: a golden packet with the Shanghai TV tower on it… it later proved to be a nice souvenir for friends, but not something to be smoked.
Afterwards, I start asking others and observing what the Chinese would smoke. There were so many different brands, but one caught my eye: a white packet with two red stripes at the top and bottom, with this 囍 symbol in red – a symbol that I had seen somewhere before… the double happiness symbol. It was not as bad as others I had tried before, but after a long night I would lose my voice for a while; this double happiness seemed to be double strength, too. Indeed, it turns out it has 15 mg of tar per cigarette, compared to 10 mg for a Marlboro Red.
After doing some research, I discovered that this cigarette used to be called “Happy Days”, and its literal translation “Red Double Happiness” is a truly Shanghainese cigarette brand created in 1906 by what is not only the oldest but also the biggest tobacco company in the People’s Republic of China.
COLD MEAT 1 China is a country where the boundaries between rural and urban are theoretical borders: borders that have become imaginary over time, in the sense that there is neither a true end nor a true beginning to the city and the country, with no starting point and no projected end. These borders are marked only by the points of embarkation and disembarkation where hundreds and thousands of humans pass each day, leaving their families and/or their previous existences, leaving behind the city where they grew up, as it is time to go back to the mother tree – as the Chinese say, “Though a tree grows a thousand feet high, the leaves must fall down and return to its roots”. [ + ]
COLD MEAT 1
China is a country where the boundaries between rural and urban are theoretical borders: borders that have become imaginary over time, in the sense that there is neither a true end nor a true beginning to the city and the country, with no starting point and no projected end. These borders are marked only by the points of embarkation and disembarkation where hundreds and thousands of humans pass each day, leaving their families and/or their previous existences, leaving behind the city where they grew up, as it is time to go back to the mother tree – as the Chinese say, “Though a tree grows a thousand feet high, the leaves must fall down and return to its roots”. They are leaving without knowing for how long, some with their whole family, others on their own. Leaving in order to accomplish their dreams, or the dreams of their family, or leaving to follow in others’ footsteps, in order to give another generation the opportunity to dream. Leaving to see those who were left behind, leaving to help their family at harvest time, leaving to sweep their ancestors’ tombs and to preserve traditions such as filial piety. Coming back to take care of a grandchild, coming back to work, coming back to re-form a family unit, coming back to study and become THE ONE. Coming back to discover, to become attached; coming back to keep promises and to make dreams come true. Each of these individual stories comes together in one place: Shanghai Railway Station.
[ - ]UMBRELLA I’m walking in the sunlight, most probably under the shade of the umbrella I’m carrying. I look up and down from the pedestrian bridges. [ + ]
UMBRELLA
I’m walking in the sunlight, most probably under the shade of the umbrella I’m carrying. I look up and down from the pedestrian bridges. I push my bike along, and linger a while on the bridge, breathing the air carried down from the top of the creek, or simply looking down, surrendering my attention to the red lights on one side and the white lights on the other. How many people are travelling in each direction? I feel secure above all of them, following my own rhythm.
[ - ]THREE We were walking down – well, it could have been any street in Shanghai, really. Someone offered us a “lucky red envelope”, explaining to us that this envelope would bring us wealth. [ + ]
THREE
We were walking down – well, it could have been any street in Shanghai, really. Someone offered us a “lucky red envelope”, explaining to us that this envelope would bring us wealth. Inside, there was a red card, with the symbol of this year’s animal painted in golden brushstrokes.
My friend looked away, but I was curious and wanted one – two, in fact. I thought it would be a nice present to offer to someone like me, someone superstitious.
He said that he could sell us one envelope each. That would not be a problem. However, if it was just me buying, I could have one or three envelopes, five, even, if I wanted. But he wouldn’t sell me two, or four.
At the time, I didn’t understand the principle, which is in fact very simple: odd numbers are lucky. Chinese tradition dictates that material things should be given to others in odd-numbered quantities. Public holidays, too, last either one or three days. When venerating a statue or an image of an ancestor, you should bow three times, or five times, or once… Seven or nine times would be better still. After nine, though, the golden number is twelve – an even number.
INAUGURATION Happiness is not silent in Shanghai. When a boy is born, or when a happy couple gets married, or when a couple moves into the new home they have bought together , or when a shop opens its doors for the first time… all these events are good reasons to show one’s happiness to the entire neighbourhood and beyond. [ + ]
INAUGURATION
Happiness is not silent in Shanghai. When a boy is born, or when a happy couple gets married, or when a couple moves into the new home they have bought together , or when a shop opens its doors for the first time… all these events are good reasons to show one’s happiness to the entire neighbourhood and beyond. Rows of red firecrackers are set off, red ornaments adorn the street, and photographs galore are taken.
[ - ]TREES Trees are a little bit of nature in the concrete jungle, and dispensers of shade. As a Spanish saying goes, “everything happens in the shade ” . [ + ]
TREES
Trees are a little bit of nature in the concrete jungle, and dispensers of shade. As a Spanish saying goes, “everything happens in the shade ” .
In the almost cruelly hot summers of Shanghai, nothing is put to its fullest use like trees. In the parks, it is under the leafy shade of the trees that people dance, practise martial arts and play all sorts of traditional Chinese games. Walking, driving and cycling is simply delightful under these huge canopies of coolness.
Chinese culture has a long tradition of gardens. They are places that are carefully planned as architectural artefacts.
In the emperor’s palaces, gardens were created for recreation, meetings and relaxation, as a meditative space in which to dwell. It is said that football was actually invented under the trees of one of these palaces by the concubines of an emperor. The girls got bored and started playing with a ball, forming teams, since there were so many of them for the emperor to choose from.
Plane trees were brought over by the French in around 1902, to embellish their concession, held between 1849 and 1943.
These providers of shade were first planted along what was then Avenue Joffre, which used to be a tram route, and which is nowadays known as Huaihai Road, one of the city’s most important shopping streets. And yet these plane trees, with their characteristic forms, have become a symbol of Shanghai, and the go-to location for brides and grooms posing for photos before their weddings.