120 Hours in Shanghai |
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Above: A celebrity arrives for Shanghai Fashion Week.
Day 3 – Thursday, October 15, 2015
Posted by Susan Long, Associate Professor of Psychology, Lake Forest College
When you wake in the morning, look east. Venus and Jupiter shine brightly in the morning sky, and if you’re lucky, you’ll also catch a glimpse of Mars and Mercury.
When I left Chicago early Monday morning, bound for Shanghai, Venus and Jupiter pierced the sky. And after 16 hours of travel, a delicious traditional Shanghai dinner off the Nanjing Road, meeting new colleagues, and a dream-filled sleep, I woke up at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday morning and stepped out onto my balcony. There were those bright planets again, piercing the Shanghai dawn.
Susan Long at ECNU with program participant Anna Shcherbiak, who is one of Long’s advisees at Lake Forest College.
I expected Shanghai to feel as foreign and far away as Jupiter and Venus, and in some respects it does, but there are also many hints of the familiar Barcelona, Tel Aviv, New York City, and a dash of Miami.
Later on Wednesday, we were warmly greeted by the East China Normal University (ECNU) administrators and professors in the Global Education Center. Much to my delight, nearly 100 students came to hear three faculty (including me) give lectures on psychology, environmentalism, and the ASEAN alliance. I slipped into my familiar professor role, and these international and Chinese national students were an attentive and engaged group.
ECNU students packed the room to hear presentations by ACM faculty.
Afterward, we toured the First Communist Congress Museum in the French Concession District. Outside the museum, and in sharp contrast to the nationalistic origins of Communist China, “celebrities” arrived for Shanghai Fashion Week. Photographers mistakenly snapped our pictures, too, but perhaps that’s part of the spirit of Shanghai.
On the ECNU campus.
Opportunities seem possible for some people, and the recent reinvention of Shanghai is palpable. We faculty ended the night at Shanghai Brewery, a craft brew spot filled with ex-pats, and where a man with a monkey on a leash begged for coins outside the entrance — the familiar and unfamiliar, haves and have-nots, in stark contrast.
For some, this new Shanghai is a fantastic world, and for others, it is still as far away as Venus and Jupiter.
Photos courtesy of Susan Long and Emily Gaul.
