Sensual City Studio

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.