TELEVISION Of course, one of these lives on display could be mine, too, as I live in one of these towers where there is no need to hide. I used to live in a lilong, though,which taught me to understand that this whole city is mine, and that we all form it, create it and make it breathe together. [ + ]
TELEVISION
Of course, one of these lives on display could be mine, too, as I live in one of these towers where there is no need to hide. I used to live in a lilong, though,which taught me to understand that this whole city is mine, and that we all form it, create it and make it breathe together. No need to hide. My window becomes the best possible TV, a screen showing what is happening here and now. At home, I just want to watch the city passing by my eyes.
[ - ]PYJAMAS AND SLIPPERS For the Shanghainese, there’s no distinction between public space and private space: the whole of the city is their home. However, with our Western eyes, we search for the boundary between public and private. [ + ]
PYJAMAS AND SLIPPERS
For the Shanghainese, there’s no distinction between public space and private space: the whole of the city is their home. However, with our Western eyes, we search for the boundary between public and private. It doesn’t exist: public is private, and vice versa.
But people are having to fight to keep alive many of the customs that make the Shanghainese so comfortable in this living space of theirs.
On my first day in Shanghai:
– Hey guys, have you seen that guy wearing blue striped pyjamas riding a moped?!
– Yeah, right.
Later:
– Oh! There’s another one, in the supermarket, look!
– Yeah, you’re right! Take a picture!
Later on still:
– Jammies and slippers are everywhere! People wear them when taking a nap outside their homes, taking their children to school, eating, shopping, driving, riding their bikes…
CHILDREN RIDING PARENT-CONTROLLED PURPLE ELEPHANTS A whole range of things have been adapted into Chinese culture; it is well known that the Chinese embrace change and development rapidly. Lactose is better assimilated by the younger generations, and so there are now some very tall men and women in China. [ + ]
CHILDREN RIDING PARENT-CONTROLLED PURPLE ELEPHANTS
A whole range of things have been adapted into Chinese culture; it is well known that the Chinese embrace change and development rapidly.
Lactose is better assimilated by the younger generations, and so there are now some very tall men and women in China.
But the Chinese are not only getting taller: it seems they are becoming wider, too. McDonald’s and KFC have been widely accepted and welcomed in China.
Nowadays, China is reaching record-breaking levels of obesity: there are fat camps and fat-reduction hospitals where parents can send their only child to lose all those extra pounds.
In ten years, China’s childhood obesity rate has doubled, with the greatest gains made in urban areas, owing to more Westernized dietary habits combined with more sedentary lifestyles, with more and more kids spending time in front of their computers and playing video games instead of going outside and getting some exercise.
According to recent official figures in China (2012), more than 12% of the nation’s children are overweight, representing some 120 million individuals under the age of 18.
This trend is partially due to a loss of neighbourliness and community spirit . Children have no brothers and sisters, and instead of living in an open environment such as the lilong where there are other children to play with, their typical living environment is an apartment on the 30th floor, with only Mum, Dad and/or Grandma and Grandad for company.
As a result, parents take their children down to ground level – home of the shopping centre and the market place. Then, using a remote control, they set in motion the newly bought purple elephant, or giraffe, upon which the child is sitting comfortably, so that parents and children alike can happily eat their ice cream in peace.
MIMICS It is remarkable how you can have long conversations “just” using hand movements, facial contractions, bodily contortions and so forth… You find that there is always a way to communicate… well, maybe… actually, no, not always. The way Westerners represent drinking with a hand gesture, for instance, might turn out to be the gesture for the number six in Chinese; the number eight might be used for indicating a person or object; and the number ten might mean to be close to someone. [ + ]
MIMICS
It is remarkable how you can have long conversations “just” using hand movements, facial contractions, bodily contortions and so forth… You find that there is always a way to communicate… well, maybe… actually, no, not always.
The way Westerners represent drinking with a hand gesture, for instance, might turn out to be the gesture for the number six in Chinese; the number eight might be used for indicating a person or object; and the number ten might mean to be close to someone. Most of these hand gestures correspond to the way we learned to make shadow animals on the walls, with our parents, before going to sleep. The way Westerners usually represent eating doesn’t mean anything to most Chinese people… but you can always keep trying… until the person on the receiving end gets bored and leaves, that is.