Sensual City Studio

STADIUM

Each of my walks was unique. Even when I started out by walking the same route, it would differ from one day to another. One day something would attract my attention in a much stronger manner than another, effortlessly making the decision of which path to take for me.
This time, I had an early dinner at the lilong. I had a discussion over the bright red shrimps, which I would eat and savour one after the other, with some of my neighbours sitting on the tables in front of the street vendor.
I decided to go for a walk, in order to digest the feast I had just enjoyed.
Now, without noticing, since there are always so many people on the streets at this time, in the early evening I wasn’t focusing much on my walk. Suddenly, I began to wonder whether this might be one of the largest and therefore most crowded renovated streets, and continued to do so for the next three hours.
However, this time I saw more lighting items to be purchased than normally. Binoculars   , items to put in one’s hair, flags and light-up hands. I looked up to see the sky filled with bright little UFOs in every colour of the rainbow, moving up and down the plaza. For indeed there was a plaza in front of me. My gaze shifted, and I saw the stadium, where a concert was in progress. I managed to follow the people, all going in one direction. The concert was sold out; however, they allowed me to come closer, since they thought I must have a ticket; they probably assume a laowai always has one, especially in a crowd of Shanghainese teenagers.
Even afterwards, I didn’t know the name of the band, but I will never forget the view from the top of this megastructure over the city and the football pitch, brightened up by colourful objects and singing citizens.

HOROSCOPE

Tell me which animal you are and I will tell you what kind of person you might be.
Being a pig has been proven to open Chinese doors. Whenever I mention my horoscope sign, it always elicits one of two reactions:
– Ohhh, good!
– Mmm, you are lucky!

BLUE DRAGON

One of my happiest days in Shanghai was actually the saddest for many children.   On this day, I passed through urban corridors, where the city sometimes becomes a village – a village full of recollections, memories, and rituals   to improve people’s lives.
In a country where farming is fast declining, many children in the city, on this day, had to sacrifice their appearance in some way – for example, by having their   hair cut off – in order to ensure that a faraway region – where they have never been, that they don’t even know exists, but where their parents used to live happily – will receive abundant rain and be forever rid of insects. Houses are cleaned, popcorn is eaten, and women do not sew, so as to prevent any needles puncturing the eyes of the dragon, who raises his head on this day. Once the house has been cleaned from top to bottom, some people spread plant ashes throughout and around their home, so that the dragon will feel welcome, inciting him to provide plenty of rain for good harvests.

ANCESTORS 1

In the past – and in rural China today still – the most important item to be acquired, and an essential item at that, was the coffin.
The coffin is intended to be the home of the body, whose soul is not completely detached but rather in the perpetual afterlife.
The afterlife is the life in which one remains forever, in the spiritual world. There is therefore no absolute detachment of the deceased from his or her family. After one’s death, a transformation will occur – usually within one to three days, sometimes longer, depending on the tradition – as a result of which one becomes an ancestor. As an ancestor, a person’s social continuity is ensured, even after biological death.
The coffin would be placed in the ground, and on top of it the ancestor’s treasures and cherished items, and then it would be covered by earth, creating a little mound, a tumulus  . Around the tumulus, the tomb takes on the form of a womb, as death marks one’s birth into the afterlife. In addition, it can be seen as a kind of “alpha” sign, symbolizing that the end is the beginning.
It is said that the higher the grass grows on top of the tumulus, the greater the fortune of the ancestor in the eternity of the other world.

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.

GUESS WHO IS RIDING THE BICYCLE

Shanghai and China historically have an impressive record in terms of the number of citizens who ride bicycles. It is not by chance that the bestselling model of bicycle in the world is Chinese. Flying Pigeon one of the most popular vehicles sold anywhere.
The Chinese have always made great use of bicycles, and they are good at it. They use them as trucks, mobile shops (selling products ranging from gardening items to food), whole-family transport, and as a means of crossing the entire city on a daily basis.
In one particular lilong, I get to meet a man who used the pedal of his bike to set in motion a sharpener he had attached to the wheel in order to file and sharpen all kinds of kitchen utensils.
However, the Shanghainese are not in agreement on certain issues, such as:
– Using bicycle lights at night and/or cycle helmets.
– Riding straight, like a Western cyclist. It is hard to shake the feeling that riding in a straight line might actually be more dangerous than navigating the city streets in a more winding, haphazard way… perhaps there is a secret to this?
– Using hand signals to indicate you are about to turn. In this case, there is just one thing that matters: keeping your arms safe, and using your head, eyes and ears, as the rules of the road in this city are quite different…
And… doing any of the above will immediately mark you out as… a foreigner.

FEELING SPECIAL 1

Shanghai is different. Shanghai is different from what we are used to, and is always surprising. It’s a city where many have found their home – and for those who haven’t, it is, at the very least, a place that changes their way of how space is perceived and used.
My dad had finally arrived in Shanghai; it would be the first time he saw the city I had fallen in love with. For someone who had travelled for so long (24 hours), he seemed quite fresh; everything was new and an opportunity to take a picture and make a video. He knew he would remember most events; nevertheless, he wanted to keep a record of the moments, figures, colours, textures – everything – in a form that could be printed in order to make recollection easier, as proof that Shanghai exists, that it’s real.
My dad became a real actor, a player on the stage that is the city, where everyone is an actor, albeit with an undefined role. Lots of people would look at him, change places on the bus or the train in order to sit closer to him, and stare at him. In a cemetery, a man even asked him to take a picture with him in front of his grandfather’s grave. He does not look that much different from any other tourist, or any other Shanghainese person, for that matter. He is not blond, tall or blue-eyed. But he has a white mane of hair, eyes that glow with curiosity, and a big smile. It seemed that this was the passport that granted him access to all the doors he encountered. He would be better understood in the grocery store than I would, and without even opening his mouth.

SEVEN – GHOST MONTH – GHOST DAY

Seven is one of the few numbers that is as lucky in the West as it is in the East.   In Chinese culture, all annual rituals are determined in accordance with the moon. In Chinese, as in Latin-based languages, the moon is female; it is the yin  ; and it is the moon  that determines the propitious day for every Chinese ritual. Accordingly, the seventh month in the lunar calendar belongs to the ghosts, and so it is known as the “Ghost Month”; (鬼月) and the fifteenth day of this month is the “Ghost Day”. On this day, the deceased, emerging from the lower realms, are believed to visit the living. As an important Buddhist and Taoist festival, many rituals are performed in order to ease the pain of the deceased, by transmuting and absolving their suffering; to achieve this, their appetite should be satisfied and prayers should be said.

A SHANGHAINESE DAY 1

Anything can happen anywhere in Shanghai. Within its flat landscape, ideal for cycling, are superposed numerous layers of matter, human realities and emotions – a landscape that can be easily broken down or built up in this metropolis, where motion is the only constant, and where the juxtaposition of time, space and its actors are agents of both the city and its motion  .
Everything moves. Lynch said that there are static parts of the city and there are mobile ones: citizens. However, here in Shanghai, the static parts disappear, are relocated, recreated, created, all at once. In a very short period of time, you can find yourself living in a different city, without having crossed any threshold.
The mobile parts, actually, are the parts that are most adaptable and which embrace change, as something that was meant to be. The citizens circulating around the city sometimes view the place they live as a small town: a town where everyone knows their neighbours, the stallholders on the market, and their evening dancing partner; a village within the city, where some of their family members moved to join them in an effort to make their dreams come true; a village where I can be myself – a Shanghainese.