Life at the end of the lane

Old Zhang is sitting in his home, at the end of the lane, looking at the cranes tearing down the street. “I was born in this street, and now they break it down. It does not look so good but I am used to it and to this neighborhood. ‘Your house is not just a shag, it’s a jewel of XIXth century colonial architecture.’ I’m not sure what it means, but it’s what a passing by foreigner told me with his terrible Chinese. He also told me that the cube of a house next door was a jewel of Art Deco. I am not sure what he meant about either but this all seamed pretty important for him. It does not matter anymore, he has gone away and they torn down this house last week.
They told me that it’s for the best, that our life in a far away suburb, in a new high rise building will be so much comfortable. It’s surely true, but I don’t want to go. It’s not the little money they want to give us to move away, that will be enough in any case. I can’t remember the name of this new place and I don’t even want to learn it. All my friends will be lost, spread into various districts, and I will loose all my life with it. It’s maybe the future, but I’m not sure I want to be part of it. The past was tough some times, but not always so bad. I am so sad for Shanghai and my home that the skyscrapers are rapidly eating.
My son already moved to this new apartment and loves it. He often comes by to take me there, but I still refuse to go. Old Ma, my old neighbor, moved into one of this new tower about a year ago. He was the first ones to go, moving with a smile on his face, realizing the long life dream to have a place of his own. He had been promised long time ago to get an apartment and it finally came. He disappeared for a while, and then started to come back. He comes here everyday now. It takes him hours to cross the whole city, just to enjoy old friends and familiar places. He says life is comfortable there, but there is nobody to talk to. My life has always been at the end of this lane and I can’t imagine it differently. Seeing it disappear makes me feel that I am also going to die soon.

Budapest old and new

As much as a I love Shanghai, it was not the first city I fell in love with. Getting used to the Chinese megalopolis was actually not easy coming from the charming Central European City of Budapest. I have spent more than 5 years walking the paved streets of this XIXth century beauty. I knew about every corner of several districts, in particular the 6^th district, home of numerous theatres and cafés.
Though I left the city about 4 years ago, I have managed to come back regularly, being able to keep a strong link with my old community of friends. The city still feels like home, though the more time passes the more my memories separate from reality. The pioneer spirit that pushed a lot of foreigners to come to Hungary10 years ago seems to have somehow vanished... they are all in China now. The community of pioneers who arrived in the early – mid 90’s in Budapest is getting smaller and smaller. We had a real group of friends, most of us are gone away… just like me. The remaining ones are busy climbing the corporate ladder or heavily involved in raising their kids. Their daily life is far remote from the group of bachelors and young couples that we used to be. To my surprise, some of my friends now only meet when I am in town… passing by from China. After a few days, I miss the speed and energy of today’s Shanghai. The Budapest when I lived in was full of hopes and new energy, most of it seems to have vanished.
The city is getting more beautiful, transforming from a dark intriguing labyrinth to a colorful tourist paradise. Thanks to a current real estate boom, old buildings are being renovated into former glory, or torn down to be replaced by new. The mix creates a nice atmosphere that is catching up with Vienna or Munich. It has become a nice Central Europe city within the European Union, as opposed to this mysterious city so attractive because of its mystery. I am sure new people still arrive and create there own little world here… but it’s just not the same for me. Budapest is still a great place to visit and I always invite my overseas friends to go there. Shanghai is where my life is.

So many things to do... so little time

In an age of light speed communication, I did not take the time for month to write a post on this blog. It’s always the same spiral, when one loses the habit, try to catch up and ends up forgetting about at the end. It’s not that I did not want any more, time seems to have just fly these last months. Work has been intense in the first half of the year, and two major changes have been swallowing most of my free time including the one dedicated to blog writing.

First of all I have to introduce my girlfriend Jiajia to my readers. We have been together since late last year and our relationship is going strong. Although she does not write it, Jiajia has a major influence on this blog. She is one of the very few Chinese people that I know who is actually interested in Shanghai’s history. We go to markets together, bargaining with sellers and discovering even more interesting things. As a matter of fact, my research into the old Shanghai has become a lot of our research into the old Shanghai. I have also become the president of the French Speaking association of Shanghai
(www.cerclefrancophonedeshanghai.com). Although I am highly honored to be elected at this post, it swallows an enormous lot of my time, again competing with other activities such as reading books and writing this blog. I have been kind of submerged by it and it’s now only that I am on vacation that I finally find time to actually write. It’s not that I missed ideas, as the stack of my old documents related to Shanghai has increased a lot since the time I stopped writing… but other priorities came along. I also had to stop my Chinese lessons and I am not sure that I will be able to restart them anytime soon. I will try to be more thorough about this from now and catch back with writing this blog.