Paris of the East

“Where is the soul of this city”?

Someone asked me this of Shanghai recently as we both admired this city that acquired its importance and status since 1297. As the morning mist and pollutants gave up the fight against a brilliant autumn sun, and as the hustle and bustle of the most fashionable city of China began, it is easy to forget that you are in China with her more than 1 billion souls where a huge portion of this are too far away from the modern cities lining its shorelines. China is not one country. There are two. Each feeding on the other. One of peasants and one of merchants. Shanghai is without doubt the lair of the merchants and the bourgeois. In the same breath as the question was asked, this great city was compared to the mega cities of India where despite great leaps into modernity and progress, Indian cities have maintained their ‘Indianess’. For many, India is seen as not having sold its soul for modernization…unlike cities like Shanghai. But then to me, Shanghai is not any other city. It has never been.In fact it is unlike any other city in the middle kingdom. Even the communists could not keep it’s spirits down. The Japanese tried before that but Shanghai survived. Long before the Japanese, the imperial powers of old Europe carved out little plots of the city to themselves. The hotel that I stayed in is in the French concession and I could have bluffed you by saying that I was in France by showing an early morning photo taken from my hotel room’s balcony. There is no city in Asia that embraced western mores as wholeheartedly as Shanghai. There is no city as full of intrigue and romance as Shanghai too. One needs to know a little bit of Far Eastern history to appreciate this. Shanghai is different. Historically, she is incomparable. To appreciate this great city, you need to see beyond the sky scrappers that had mushroomed in the last 15 years or so. Chinese history is far more colourful than what we know by reading western sinologists works and in any narration of Chinese history, Shanghai will always get a special mention. People say that China had become a confident country in the last few decades but they forget that long before the rest of China became comfortable in her own skin, Shanghai had already proclaimed it self as the mother of all cities. The place to be. The place where high fashion lived side by side with third world poverty.

They say that the world that you see is determined by the lenses that you use. In my case, the world that I see is very much influenced by my search for the similarities and the universality of us. Not the differences. Without fail, as I prepare to board the plane home from another strange land, I often think to my self that it was not a strange land after all. In the end, we are indeed the same. Human greatness and its inherent weakness are abound everywhere. A perfect example of this was illustrated by an experience I had in the Old Town of Shanghai. As I waited in line at a designated taxi stand, I noticed that some of those who were in the line became impatient and walked a couple of metres ahead to hail a cab (which means that they are ‘hijacking’ a cab away from whoever was the first in line at that moment). For some strange reason the cab drivers seem to be more than willing to entertain these ‘line breakers’ although they know that there is a lot of would be passengers waiting just a few metres down the road at the designated taxi stand. Things were made worst by those who just pop in and stop a cab from nowhere leaving the 6 or 7 of us lining up looking bewildered. As the evening wore on, I noticed a remarkable thing. Those who lined up were essentially made up of two kinds of people although we were of different colours and nationalities: 1. Those who kept to the principle of waiting for their rightful turn; and 2. Those who took a shortcut to the detriment of others. The former stood their ground and refused to take the shortcut while the latter thought and behaved otherwise.

While I was contemplating this, an African couple came by and stood behind me and moments later a group of street vendors surrounded them with all kinds of wares; from laser pointers, fake LVs to fake Omegas. I heard the man telling one of the vendors that he needs a taxi not a watch. At this, one of them said in broken English that he will get him a taxi for a tip. My fellow African traveler agreed and off the street vendor went. He walked a few steps ahead to highjack a taxi that was approaching the waiting would be passengers! This time it was me who was at the head of the waiting line of people. As the taxi pulled up at the curb this vendor just ran along and asked the taxi to stop at where we were waiting. You get the picture? He is not doing anything. He did not cross the street or go any distance to find a cab. He just took an easy way to make a few bucks. When the taxi stopped in front of me, the street vendor blocked my path with one arm and ushered in the African couple with the other. At that exact moment, I had another reason to believe in my fellow humans. The African guy refused to take the taxi as I was up next. I suppose he had the same idea as the rest of us when the street vendor offered to find a taxi….to actually go out of his way and look for a taxi. Not steal one from those who had already lined up for close to 45 minutes. His refusal was met with English curse words. I looked up at him and thanked him. He just smiled and said “ no problem bro”. As my taxi pulled away, I looked back and saw the street vendor venting his anger with more verbal assault. I thanked that African guy again. This time silently and for his action that once again affirmed my belief that left alone by priests and politicians; we can do what is right. We can make this world a better place. Kinder and perhaps a little bit more happier. We can live harmoniously and keep the extremists and the vulgar among us in check. We can live the middle path and keep the liars and manipulators at bay.

Little did I know that as I was considering these thoughts, the supreme leaders of our very own leading political party, UMNO, were giving inspiring speeches back home to pull this great political party to the middle path. UMNO has the ability to bring the best out of this nation. It has the ability to play the middle ground and do what is right. Left alone by racial zealots, the Malay masses who support this party will allow the middle path to blossom and the non-Malay components of this great land will willingly allow this party to lead. But I digress…

As I boarded my plane I took one last breath of this ancient land of emperors and great teachers and I mentally separated this nation from the Chinese Communist Party and the recent economic prowess it has enjoyed; and what was left behind in my mind’s eye is the Middle Kingdom. A nation that was at peace with it self and one that was self sufficient and willingly thought and learnt from others. After a long, long time this country has awaken to do justice for a gorgeous historical city like Shanghai. China has now earned its right to host this great city! If China is ever to lead the world, that is the past that she has to rely one. Not, her current superiority as measured by western matrices. Rome’s greatness was not in its empire but in it’s legacy of knowledge and honour. China needs to reach out much further into her history of wisdom and balance than the mere 60 years that has been celebrated recently. Paris of the East was what I imagined it would be and maybe we all can learn a thing or two about survival and dogged determination from her.

Her soul is there for all to see. If only we knew where to look.