It’s Personal. December Edition

I bring you the latest personals for this month…

 

Some people just don’t know the meaning of fun.
To see the latest stories of love and love lost, click >>>> here

Totes randomz in the streets

I’ll tell you one thing I really love about Shanghai, and China in general … it’s the ability to just stumble upon totally weird stuff.  But I can’t tell you what makes it seem so weird … perhaps it’s just the cultural divide.  Or, maybe as the country has opened to the world so quickly, there is no sense of judgement or control over strange things.  Or perhaps within a nation of 1.4 billion, you just have to be extra weird to be noticed.  Too often, I find myself in a situation where I want to grab the person beside me and ask “Is it just me, or are you finding this totally-get-out outrageous?!”

Recently, I happened upon this sport car which had been driven onto the footpath, its doors then flung open to disgorge hundreds of pairs of sports shoes onto the pavement (not to mention ear-splitting techno beats into the air).

      

The people were loving it, stopping their usual Friday night routine (dinner then karaoke, I bet) to fumble through the stacks of fluorescent trainers.  The stench of cheap plastic and sweatshop labour was overpowering.  The lady trying to offload a huge bag of steamed corn cobs was totally neglected by her normally loyal fanbase, and probably left wondering why she had limited herself to what was obviously last year’s best-selling street product.  God damn!  Corn is soooo 2011.

    

The sports shoe sports car reminded somewhat of the big wicker chair trolleys that frequent my neighbourhood.  This is a relatively small version … these things can grow to monumental proportions.  The guys that pull them around must get really tired, because every time I see one, they are slumped in one of the chairs (liberated from the huge tangle), fast asleep.

I saw a few of these in Beijing.  Which is weirder: the missing wheel or the obvious attempt to turn the front into a face?

    

This is a small shop in Xintiandi, in the centre of the city, where instead of hocking cheap souvenirs to tourists, someone decided to fill the space with a bunch of plastic leaves.  There no explanation and no-one around to ask what it all meant.

     

Around the same time, an art show was being held in Times Square, one of Shanghai’s more exclusive shopping centres.  Alongside Louis Vuitton and Cartier, this “digital painting art” show did seem odd.  Not to mention that it was full of all sorts of confusing and confronting, if not contradictory, symbolism.  I am surprised that some government official didn’t personally dismantle the whole thing.

    

These paintings seem to show (horror!) two women and two men in a state of kissingness.  Supposedly the catchcry of officialdom in these matters is the “three nos” – no approval, no disapproval, no promotion.  But despite contravening at least one of these restrictions, I’m sure these painting would have ruffled very few feathers.

This on the other hand, maybe not.  I have tried to feed the Chinese characters into my smartphone (via a handy character-writing app) for translation, and I THINK this artwork suggests a new product for the hard-working man – a pad that you can apply to your backside so that you need not leave your desk when you require Number Twos (although, the man in the diagram has already Number Twoed before application , suggesting that the pad is actually a response to, rather than a pre-emptive strike against, pants-based toileting).  And, while the whole is terrible, I do want to take issue with one detail – the choice of red, rather than brown, as one half of the duotone.  No approval, definite disapproval, and hopefully no promotion.

This dog spent a long time standing on a bench outside our neighbourhood pet store, for no apparent reason.  It didn’t move an inch as I stopped, took out camera, framed shot and clicked away.

I don’t know whether it’s being weird.  Maybe its just cute or scared or something.  After enduring so many months of abuse, my weirdness filter tends to play up a bit.

 

10 Things I Love About Shanghai

Just yesterday, as I was riding the very long up escalator at my local Metro station, I spotted one of my favourite Shanghai things – something from which my feeling of happiness is not derived from a sense of irony, bemusement or desperation.  So, it got me to thinking about things I like here.  Things that are 100% good.

The Baby Split-pant
Babies anywhere are cute.  Babies in China are super-cute.  Babies in China in split-pants might be the cutest thing ever.  The split-pant combines practicality (the ability to toilet in any gutter or planter-box you wish) with comic potential (accidentally exposing your bot-bot to the world).  This baby is wearing a double split-pant.

    

The Food of the Minorities
Some of the outer edges of China have amazing foods.  I particularly love the cuisine of Yunnan (in the same family as Vietnamese and Thai) and Xinjiang (the western, almost Middle-Eastern, autonomous region).  Both have amazing breads, fresh salads and great noodles … which means that they have now become a popular choice for the urbanites of Shanghai.

   

The Bottle Opener
As yet, I haven’t tired of Shanghai’s tallest tower, even though it continually pops in view all over the city.  Especially compared to some other buildings, it is a very elegant structure.  It has an observation deck at its highest level and a crayzy light display each evening.

The Time It Takes to End a Phonecall
There is a strange habit here of extending the process of saying goodbye on the telephone.  I take it as a sign of respect, that the other person doesn’t want to end things quickly.  A typical conversation may go something like this …

A: We’ll get the contract signed and sent to you right away.  [it’s a business call]
B: OK.  Thanks.
A: Great, talk to you later.
B: OK. Bye.
A: Bye.
B: Hm, thanks, bye.
A: Byebye, ah, bye.
B: Ok, bye.  Bye.
A: Bye.  Ah.  Bye.

Using the Footpath to Full Potential
Most cultures could learn a things or two about using, and sharing, the footpath as they do in Shanghai.  It’s business meets family meets pleasure meets cooking meets meets walking meets meeting meets washing up meets eating meets everything else.

    

Shanghai’s Amazing Art Deco Architecture
Shanghai reputedly has one of the world’s best collections of Art Deco architecture, due to the economic boom of the early 20th century and the influence of foreign designers.  It’s something I didn’t know about before I arrived, and continues to delight and surprise me.  That’s the front door to our apartment building on the bottom right.

The Long Sound of Intrigue and Confusion
Imagine, if you will, that you are in a taxi and you encounter a street that is blocked for no apparent reason, or another driver that is attempting something strange or dangerous (u-turn across a median strip, for example).  Without doubt, the driver will respond with a unique exclamation – a drawn-out “hmmmmmm” noise that starts low and rises, suggesting a question but also sounding like an observation; a cross between intrigue and confusion; with a tonal style inspired by Scooby Do.  If you’ve heard it, you’ll know exactly what I mean.  It never fails to make me smile when I hear it.

Cats that Own the Street
The cats of Shanghai would have to be the most confident felines in the world.  They just sit (or lie)on the street or footpath, they draw attention to themselves by miaowing loudly, they approach any person they wish.  Scaredy-cats they are not.

The Shanghai Pyjama
People are most happy to wear their pyjamas in public.  Lots of people … and not just when they are caught short of a dunny roll.  People will walk far from home and undertake a series of errands still wearing last night’s PJs.  There are abundant theories about why this is so prevalent and so specific to Shanghai.  Some say it is like the older Chinese habit of wearing silk clothing as a means of displaying your status as a person of leisure (not some dirty worker).  Or, that it is a washday thing – given most Chinese don’t have loads of clothes, there aren’t many wardrobe options while you are waiting for your clothes to dry.  Or that it is a way of expressing that you are a real local, not some visitor from a less desirable suburb.  Whatever it is, it’s one of my favourite Shanghai sights.

     

Annamaya
Of Shanghai’s many good vegetarian eateries, Annamaya is king.  Housed in a little yellow building quite close to our place, Annamaya serves up a range of healthy and yummy foods, including delicious vegan deserts.  Every time we go, we wonder why we don’t eat there more often.

It’s Personal. July Edition

I bring you the latest personals for this month…

I think the phrase “Let’s get tanned” could catch on.
To see the latest stories of love and love lost, click >>>> here

It’s Personal. June Edition

I’ve been trawling the personals again and bring you this month’s top picks.

And there’s another one featuring architects!  Woot!
Click here for the updates.

Let’s (sort of) talk about sex

It appears that China is undergoing a kind of sexual evolution.  I would have popped an R on the front of the last word in that sentence, but feared that it could be an overstatement, not to mention the best way to draw the attention of people who like to scan the internet for words like that.  Hmm, anyway …

I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t uncommon to see shops like the one above, or like the one in my neighbourhood that has a lovely big window display full of “lifestyle products”.  And these are just regular streets in regular neighbourhoods (I am yet to see what could be classed as a red light district).

In most hotel bathrooms too, you will discover a basket of cheeky personal products, some overtly sexual in usage and others I’m not sure of.  It seems that Chinese society is quite upfront about this stuff, although only in recent years.

The name of these condoms translate (I think) as “I can”, a coy but supportive message to the user, although a little diminished by the English subtitle: “like fire to one’s heart’s content”

Traditionally (under Confucian law), sexuality was strictly regulated.  Promiscuity and adultery were harshly punished, the latter resulting in jailtime for the lady and total castration for the gentleman (or should I say, soon-to-be eunech).  A good example of the punishment and the crime being a little disproportionate.  That said, eunechs could always look forward to a startling career as the emperor’s confidant – that’s what always happened, right?

This pack contains both a “vibrated” and a “condom”.  Huh wot?

For much of the 20th century, sexuality was greatly repressed … primarily because one’s personal desires were meant to be sacrificed for the dream of societal togetherness.  From the 1980s onwards though, as economic policies shifted, so too did the social stances of government.  Sex was returned to the personal sphere.

This is like Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring a giant banana.  Confusion would surely abound: “Right, so we have to stretch this thing over your upper body…”

A key change was the reworking of marriage laws in 2003, which simplified not only the process of marrying, but also unmarrying.  By necessity, this also removed the requirement that before marriage, a woman would need to prove herself (via a physcial examination) to be a virgin.  A general modernisation of a many social policies also occurred.  Interestingly, one of China’s most restrictive social policies – the one-child policy – has lead to some expansion of personal rights.  Implied in this policy is the separation of sexual behaviour and child-production … that the former can be pursued purely for reasons of pleasure. 

Some kind of washing product, a “pure Chinese medicinal” supposedly.

Of course, there would be many more factors at play here.  The internet now provides ready access to all sorts of information and entertainment.  China is more global, with people inetrested in seeing, if not adopting, Western ways of doing.  A growing middle-class, focused on personal rights and fuelled by increasingly higher disposable incomes, have both the desire and means to push some social boundaries.   And, like much of the world, sex-related disease and crime have forced a more frank discussion of some critical issues.

These panties (both for men and women) are 100% Fashion Sexy and have Good Air Permeability.  This would make them easily rippable, rather than aimed at gassy botbots (not so sexy).

It’s all very new still.  Much of the stuff I read online suggests that while people are apparently more comfortable discussing the topic, they are not necessarily becoming better informed.  There are lots of amusing stories told by counsellors and health professionals, like the college couple, prepared to take the “big step” and having bought the right precautions, having no idea about what goes on what, or in what.  But, also less amusing ones about women  use abortion as their primary means of “contraception”, unaware that there are other options available.  

“Competitive men’s socks”.  I am sure they are just socks.  For putting on you feet under shoes.  But without buying them and opening them up, I can’t rule out that ‘sock’ is just a euphemism.

Hopefully the gap between “talking about” and “being informed about” will close quickly.  Along with the sex shops and readily available contraception (on the counter of every convenience store, not just in hotels), universities and schools are introducing education programs and better social support for students.  And the internet, despite attempts at controlling it, must also be giving plenty of teenagers a pretty good education as well.  I guess evolution is never a steady process.

An amazing expanding towel, irresponsibly without a warning about placing the uncompressed towel in one’s mouth (like the ones I have seen in Australia).