missing shanghai

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Anonymous
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Posted: Oct 15, 2002 - 09:54 AM
Post subject: missing shanghai

Hi, I am writing this posting from my home in Boston. I am just like you guys -- an expatriate -- except that my path was the reverse of yours. I left Shanghai 12 years ago and have been living in the U.S. since. It is so funny, you and I are filling up the holes left behind by one another. And at this moment, you might be missing your hometowns on my side of the Pacific, while I am certainly missing Shanghai. This precisely why I am listening to the Shanghai ren min guang bao dian tai over the Internet, and surfing your website.

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed some of the postings on your website. It is nice to know that most of you are truly enjoying Shanghai. It is also wonderful for me to see Shanghai through your eyes. By the way, after living in the U.S. for such a long time, I can understand how some local idiosyncrasies could be trying: spitting, shouting, pushing, staring, ... The ``hellooooo\'\' thing is new, but being a shanghainess, I probably would never experience this. I told my mom (who lives iin Shanghai) about your frustration with ``helloooo,\'\' and she feels for you. You have to believe me that the average Shanghainess would never do a thing like that.

Please enjoy Shanghai for me, and I will enjoy Boston for you...

Best,

军

Scuba_doo
Guest

Posted: Oct 15, 2002 - 11:51 AM
Post subject: missing shanghai

I am from Boston and now live in shanghai. I am not quite sure what the \'helloooo\' thing is but after being here for about 7 months I have sort of gotten use to the pushing, spitting, shouting, jumping in front of me in line and the staring thing. I have a Chinese girlfriend and we get stared at A LOT; so the staring thing can be a bit annoying when we are together.

Enjoy the Maine lobster at Legal Seafood and I will go have some local snacks for you. The food here is fantastic and although there are certainly some things I miss about Boston ( snow not being one of them) I like living here in Shanghai.

Regards

Steve

Anonymous
Guest

Posted: Oct 16, 2002 - 01:02 PM
Post subject: missing shanghai

Hi Steve, Legal is my favorite non-chinese restaurant in Boston (if it\'s not fresh, it\'s not legal, hehehe).

You know what you must eat in Shanghai at this moment: ``big crawl\'\' crabs from yangcheng lake. If I were not teaching this semester, I would be flying back just for the crabs.

About being stared at, I guess you just have to take it as a compliment. After all, they find your looks/expressions interesting. I, too, get stared at in Shanghai, but not as frequent. I guess foreigners just look more interesting. About the ``hellooo\'\' thing, maybe I read it from the lonely planet website... I am glad that ``helloooo\'\' is not a Shanghai phenomenon.

Dag

Squeeker

Joined: Oct 15, 2002
Posts: 13

Status: Offline

Posted: Oct 16, 2002 - 01:32 PM
Post subject: missing shanghai

Well, about the staring thing, I don\'t know, I also feel confused sometimes. You never know if they look you in the right way or in the wrong way. I think it depends. But if for instance I go out with a chinese girl for dinner (only friend, no more), it\'s true that they stare A LOT MORE! And usually it\'s sad but the girls feel like they are taken as \"ti\", well you know what it means I don\'t need to explain. So I understand your concerns about your girlfriend! I think that local people simply think it\'s bad when a girl goes out with a \"lao wai\". Maybe also because a lot of the \"da bizi\" act like jerks here in shanghai, and give to local people a very bad image of foreigners (sex, alcohol...)