Friday Funny April 29, 2011

One of my favourite places to shop.

While you're there, check this out.

I love how the Chinese are so blunt forthright.

Elizabeth tours the South Bund April 19, 2011

If you've been reading my blog (thank you to those who do), you'll know that I've already poked around more than my fair share of old alleys and lane houses. This American Women's Club of Shanghai (AWCS) tour of an old neighbourhood was different though, as you will see. Can you stand the suspense?

Elaborate lane house door, circa early 1900s

Closer...

 Closer still...

Beautiful detail

Recycling, Shanghai style

A local depot 

All over the city, there are men on mopeds or bikes,

 ringing their bells, collecting recyclables.

I've seen people foraging through trash cans, searching for bottles and cans.

All those items can be recycled for money. 

As you can see from the photo, cardboard is also a "cash recyclable".

Local cutie

Note Michelin Man appearance.

Chinese children are bundled up so much they lose the ability to easily bend their limbs.

The English Corner in the Dragon Gate Village, a community of old lane houses.

I love this!

As a member of the local Neighbourhood Committee explained to us, this is an area where young students can go after school and be supervised by older students who are ostensibly teaching them English.

Guess what this is?

A fly trap! 

I'm sure our guide thought I was nuts taking a

picture, but it was new to me and many others, just so you know.

Simple door leading into a lane house. The white box is for milk. 

As it was explained to us (I trust this is true, but you never know), a local milk company years ago realized that it wasn't selling much fresh milk. The Chinese were, and rightly so, leery about fresh milk spoiling after it was delivered. So the company devised these boxes to keep the milk from going bad. These boxes are not refrigerated. Milk sales increased as everyone clabbered clamoured to get one to keep up with the Chins. Hmmmm....

The entrance hall to the house.

The number of ...whatever those things are, represents the 

number of households in this building.

Somewhere, Mike Holmes is having an aneurysm.

This is the really cool part. We were allowed inside one of the lane houses!

Having native guides is the best.

Stairway in the three storey building

Talk about steep and narrow!

The buildings are very densely populated. There is no room for kitchens in each apartment, so they put them out on the landing and make them communal.

These houses weren't always so crowded, but history and growth have made them so. 

Our guide also told us that these homes are considered middle class. 

I believe it.

Outside again, examining the former owner's stamp on the house corner.

Note how clean the alley is.

 

The revolving exit gate of Dragon Gate Village prevents bicycle theft. 

Great idea!

Exploring the surrounding neighbourhood, one of the oldest in Shanghai. 

You can tell because the buildings are made of wood, not stone.

We were told not to take pictures of the people in this market area as many of them are here illegally. They come from outside Shanghai and don't have city residence permits. I obliged.

I could, however, and did, take photos of a woman's hands as she made these 

pork and rice bundles, wrapped in banana leaves, tied with string. 

The ingredients

Very deft

She offered us all one, but I declined, having become suddenly, 

but only momentarily, vegetarian.

Another great tour, another fascinating peek into the lives of everyday Shanghainese. 

Check out the chicks Easter April 2011

 Happy Easter! He is risen! 

In Shanghai it's already Monday morning, but I know friends and family back home in Canada and the United States are still celebrating. Enjoy! Have a memorable time with your loved ones.

Here is one of my loved ones with some baby chicks that were given out to children (of all ages, apparently) at the hotel where our family went for Easter Sunday brunch.

Now this what I call a party favour!

Too cute. All the chicks in the photo.

The hotel was also giving away little bunnies. They make a great dinner pet.

I apologize for the angle. I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video. 

Just turn your computer on its side.

The "village boy" she is speaking of is a migrant child she knows through a friend. He lives in reduced circumstances near an expat compound. The contrast in lifestyles is not lost on her.

HAPPY EASTER!

Friday Funny April 22, 2011

Nothing funny about this Friday. I am deviating from my usual format.
In honour of this day, I am posting this, The Digital Story of Easter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f8kCqmGl6Q


Thinking of all my friends and family back home. xxooxxoo

Elizabeth wins! April 20, 2010

Is is sad that am I so excited about this? I know my kids would say "Yes", but I don't care.
Look what arrived in my inbox today.

Re: Competitions

From:	Time Out Shanghai <win.timeoutsh@gmail.com>   Add to Contacts
To:	elizabeth patel <elizpatel@yahoo.com>

---

Dear reader (that's me!), 

Congratulations!!! You are our lucky winner this month!(WOOHOO!)

You have won 100RMB (about $15) worth of vouchers from Sherpa's.(A central service where you can order food from any restaurant and then they deliver it.)

Enjoy your prize and thank you for supporting Time Out.(The local equivalent of "Toronto Life" without the attitude.)

Cheers,

Time Out Shanghai
Know More. Do More.

I can hardly wait to spend it! I love winning stuff!

Elizabeth lunches to support Heart to Heart April 13, 2011

Yes, I did it again, but for a great cause! How can you resist supporting a charity like this?

Our Mission-Heart to Heart Shanghai provides support and financial assistance to needy Chinese children who require heart surgery to repair their congenital heart defects.

Our Foundation-Heart to Heart Shanghai is:

• A volunteer based community outreach group founded in June 2003 by concerned expatriates residing in Shanghai, China
• A non-profit non-partisan voluntary private sector organisation based in Shanghai, China
• Wholly administered by volunteers with no salaries or commissions paid or deducted from its funds

How can you resist those llittle faces!    

I have an extremely important role in this charity. I have volunteered to knit sweaters for the teddy bears that they sell to raise money. Hey! Every bit helps! I can certainly knit, I'm not qualified to do the surgery or the cardiac care nursing.

Heart to Heart held this luncheon to publicize a book that they will sell as a fundraiser. The book is called "Shanghai Snapshots" and is written by a French expat. It details, in brief "snapshot" format her experiences in this Chinese megalopolis.

I was early for the lunch, so I spent some time exploring Xiangyang Park near the restaurant. It's a gem of a little park. At the entrance I saw a crowd gathered to watch people skip. As near as I could figure out, it was some sort of lunch time physical fitness challenge.

Shades of Participaction (remember that?) 

Moving along through the park, I came to the restaurant, 

3.Top, which was right on the park.

Cool!

Its outside patio with a church in the distance

Looking immediately to my right

Looking back at the restaurant 

The green wall is fake. I'm sure it will be genuinely lush soon enough.

This is what I had for lunch from their menu of modern Asian fusion cuisine.

Delicious meal in the best setting I've seen in a long time, really interesting female company from all over the world AND we sold out of the little books, just among ourselves. I think that makes lunch a success. 

Friday Funny April 15, 2011

It's already Friday here in Shanghai. Raise a glass of your favourite beverage. 

Here are a few suggestions.

You know this one below is MY drink.

 Cheers!

Elizabeth plays dead March 30, 2011

Yeah, I've been procrastinating on getting this one out. Actually, what I was doing was giving everyone a chance to catch up...yeah, that's it. Sure. OK, enough, down to work.

Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Festival, is a fairly big deal in China as far as holidays go. I knew you were going to ask, so here's some information, courtesy of my new best friend, Wikipedia.

Oh, brother! WAAAY too much information there. Not in the mood to edit that down to a manageable size! Let me try somewhere else.

Argh! Everything else sucks is not what I'm looking for, so here goes.
Thank you for bearing with me.

The Qingming Festival,Pure Brightness Festival or Clear Bright Festival, Ancestors Day or Tomb Sweeping Day is a traditional Chinese festival usually occurring around April 5. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the graves of departed ones. [So far, so good!]


Origin

Qingming Festival is when Chinese people visit the graves of their ancestors. The festival originated from Hanshi Day (literally, Day with cold food only), a memorial day for Jie Zitui. He was one of many followers of Duke Wen of Jin. Once, during Wen's 19 years of exile, they had no food and Jie prepared some meat soup for Wen. Wen enjoyed it a lot and wondered where Jie had obtained the soup. It turned out Jie had cut a piece of meat from his own thigh to make the soup. [GROSS!] Wen was so moved he promised to reward him one day. However, Jie was not the type of person who sought rewards. He just wanted to help Wen to become duke. Once Wen became duke, Jie resigned. Duke Wen rewarded the people who helped him in the decades, but for some reason he forgot to reward Jie, who by then had moved into the forest with his mother. Duke Wen went to the forest, but could not find Jie. Heeding suggestions from his officials, Duke Wen ordered men to set the forest on fire to force out Jie. [I bet it seemed like a good idea at the time.] However, Jie died in the fire. Feeling remorseful, Duke Wen ordered three days without fire to honour Jie's memory. [Ahh...hence the "Cold Food" day and the origin of this fast food restaurant in the Carrefour shopping centre.]

No human thighs were used in the preparation of these dishes.

Celebration

The Qingming Festival is an opportunity for celebrants to remember and honour their ancestors. Young and old pray before the ancestors, sweep the tombs and offer food, tea, wine, chopsticks, joss paper accessories, and/or libations to the ancestors.
On Qingming people go on family outings, start the spring plowing, sing, dance. Qingming is also the time when young couples start courting. Another popular thing to do is to fly kites in the shapes of animals or characters from Chinese opera. Another common practice is to carry flowers instead of burning paper, incense or firecrackers. [You guys have seen an example of the paper money, it's from the Bank of the Hell.]

Yes, this was the shortened version!

So what did I do this day? I went on a tour with the American Women's Club of Shanghai (AWCS) to the Shanghai Longhua Funeral Parlour which houses the Shanghai Funeral Museum.

A surprisingly modern facility, very different from what I was expecting.

I just love Chinglish!

Funerary flowers being delivered.

A mourner arriving.

Maybe he should have rethought his choice of outfit.

We entered.

The reception area

We then took the elevator up to the 5th floor to the Shanghai Funeral Museum. Interestingly, even though the number four is considered unlucky in Chinese culture (similar to 13 for Western culture) and avoided wherever possible, the elevator had a 4th floor. I guess this funeral company is attempting to dispel old superstitions surrounding death. 

Bright and airy

An exhibit in the hallway

A funeral parlour plaque saved from the destruction wreaked during the Cultural Revolution.

Now into the Museum's exhibits, the first room 

showing us the traditional funeral customs.

Stone lions that guarded an ancient tomb.

Behind them, a photo showing items excavated from various burial sites.

These pieces would be about 6000 to 7000 years old.

Close up

The following three photos show burial pottery found 

in ancient tombs in the Shanghai area.

Photo from the late Qing Dynasty,1644-1912, (Well, that narrows it down.)

showing mourners burning incense outside their home.

I'm guessing this is from the 1890s to 1900s.

I hope you can make out the traditional clothing which, 

I suppose, was maybe considered contemporary then.

Gravestone from the Qing Dynasty

Photo of gravestone marker from a more modern time.

The next display case showed members of a Hong Bai Gang, a type of benevolent society that planned and performed marriage and funeral ceremonies, carrying a dragon-headed coffin. The dragon is seen as a good luck symbol by the Chinese. 

The more bearers for the coffin, the higher the deceased's social status. The number of bearers ranged from four to sixteen. Sixteen was the highest number allowed for citizens without an official title. The coffin bearers wore special blue uniforms and the mourners wore white linen clothing, including a white linen sash. Modern mourners still wear just the white linen belt tied around their waist. I saw many of them that day, but you'll be glad to know that out of respect, I  didn't take their pictures.

I could take a picture of this, a linen mourning outfit in a display case.

Other funeral accessories

A special stick carried by the mourners.

A jacket worn by the deceased.

It's extra thick to absorb the er, um, ah, "juices" from the dead person.

Hey! I'm just repeating what our tour guide told us.

Photo showing members of a benevolent society collecting coffins.

I have no idea if they were full or empty. I think that latter as this was taken during some armed conflict.

Moving along, we came to the era of "pathological prosperity" for the 

Shanghai funeral industry.

I really do love Chinglish. 

During the Cultural Revolution, most of Shanghai's funeral facilities were destroyed and most of the cemeteries were under military control. Cremation replaced burial and all funeral customs thought to be old were forbidden. Many old tombstones were destroyed, some were salvaged, like the ones below.

 Tombstones from a Jewish cemetery,

this one has German writing.

This one has Russian.

This is a traditional Nanmu coffin. I know, huge. It's made of special type of wood that inhibits decay... of the body, that is. Chinese emperors used this type of material in their coffins.

Lucky symbols

With a virtual end to burials, cremation urns became more popular.

Beautiful carving

This is the type of room where mourning families would have 

received people paying their respects.

Note white funeral flower decorations

CSI Shanghai, 1920s style

Speaking of CSI Shanghai, towards the end of the museum they had 

numerous tools of the modern day trade.

Hair styling items

Make-up for the deceased

I bet it's really long-lasting.

Special VIP casket for viewing the dearly departed

I half expected to see seven dwarves gathered 'round.

We left the museum and proceeded to the retail part of the Shanghai Longhua Funeral Parlour. It was like one stop shopping for all your funeral needs.

Racks of padded jackets to dress the deceased. 

Yeah, you now know why they're padded. 

I loved this!

At a Chinese funeral, all the guests are given a package like this. The store sold several varieties. They reminded me of Italian bombonieres. These packages contain a hand towel and chocolate. The hand towel is to wipe away your tears and the chocolate is to cheer you up. What a brilliant idea! Take note, folks, I want this done at my funeral.

This was certainly not your typical tour. Not everyone has the chance to "go behind the scenes". I was glad I had the opportunity.