Shanghai Field Notes

My first walk focused on Lu Xun, China’s Mark Twain. During the tour, we walked through Lu Xun Park, saw Lu Xun’s Mausoleum and Museum, and one of Shanghai’s historical concessions. Before going on the walking tour, I already had a little bit of background knowledge on Lu Xun through my Chinese history class last year. In that class, I had learned about Lu Xun’s biographical background and read “Diary of a Madman” and “The True Story of Ah-Q.” But, until the walking tour, I had never really known the magnitude of Lu Xun’s popularity in China.

What I was taught in my history class was that Lu Xun’s “leftist” works were not well received by the ruling Chinese government at the time, the Guomindang. As the tour guide stated, the opposing party, the Communists, began to use Lu Xun’s works to their own political advantage. However, Lu Xun himself never aligned with the Communist Party. I found that to be an interesting tidbit of information because despite his works being used to justify Communist ideas, Lu Xun himself never identified as a Communist.

Another interesting and kinda surprising part of the Lu Xun tour was seeing the statues of other “World Literature” figures such as Shakespeare, Dante, and Tolstoy in Lu Xun Park. In the United States, we have heard of the majority of these figures. Yet, almost no one outside of the Asian Studies field/interest has heard of Lu Xun. For me, it highlighted this lack of knowledge and Euro-centric world we as Americans live in. In China, Lu Xun is among these great Western novelists. But for many Americans, Lu Xun doesn’t even show up on the list.

Moving to the second tour, the Digital City, what I found most interesting was how much technologically connected China is, compared to the United States. During the tour, we walked through Jingan Park, walked through a mall, visited XinCheJian, and sat on a roof garden. Something that surprised me was that many Chinese pay with apps such as Alibaba and WeChat. In the United States, many people don’t use such apps either because they are lazy, don’t know how, or see it as an invasion of privacy. However, in China, these apps are so popular that one can virtually use them to pay for any good or service. In America, at least for me growing up, a stigma that China isn’t as developed or lags behind the United States when it comes to technology. Yet, after the tour, it almost felt as if it is the United States that lags behind in the technological innovation department.

On a quicker note, despite hearing the phrase “digital city” a lot in the media and in college, I never really knew what that meant. In my head, I always knew it had something to do with smart devices and technological advancement. But, there was never any real concrete definition. According to Fabien, a digital city is a place that allows citizens to connect to the city via their smart devices, adding a digital/virtual dimension to the physical dimension already in place. One example Fabien mentioned was the use of QR codes around the city that allow a customer to just scan the QR code and go directly to the company’s website. Fabien also mentioned the technological component of Shanghai’s city bikes and that users can use their smart phones to reserve bikes. I just thought it was really cool and wished the US had systems like this.

I also really enjoyed visiting XinCheJian, a work-sharing and innovation space. I had visited a space similar to that in Minneapolis called Coco. I like the idea of it because it allows people to meet up and innovate and create together. I never knew that China also had spaces similar to Coco. I wonder how popular such a space is. It isn’t that popular in the United States, but the people who use the space seem to really enjoy their experiences.

After attending both walking tours,  I could see this sort of divide and struggle between the old and new. Lu Xun wanted China to modernize. Lu Xun’s “The True Story of Ah-Q” examples this notion by portraying Ah-Q as stupid and ignorant, a metaphor for how China would be if it did not modernize. In many ways, as exemplified by the Digital City tour, China has modernized in many ways. Maybe Lu Xun would be proud. However, there will always be this tension between the new and old. For Lu Xun, it was him versus the GMD government. In today’s day and age, it is the current Chinese government, the Communist and the paying apps such as Alibaba. To maintain control over modernization, the Chinese government has forbid such apps from becoming banks. This is just one of the many ways that the tensions between the new and the old have unfolded in China, both today and in the past. 

Shanghai Screen Project

Pizza Hut Advertisement @ Zhongshan Park Stop 

Located in one of Shanghai’s many subway stops, this particular screen can be found at the Zhongshan Park 中山公园 stop. The Zhongshan Park stop is very popular because one can transfer to multiple lines there, thus there is a lot of foot traffic. Everyone who rides the train has somewhere to be and is thus often checking their phone for the time, looking at the giant subway map, or waiting to meet up with friends/family.

The screen changed every few seconds and showed multiple ads for different companies. One of the ads I was able to capture was this Pizza Hut 必胜客 ad. On the screen, a viewer is able to see an old time Chinese-styled painting, but with pizza in it. As one can tell, the screen was super tall and took the majority of the wall. This screen is located near the stairs of an interchange for Line 2. Views are invited by the screen’s bright colors, delicious looking food, and pretty Chinese watercolor background. Thus, even though this screen was large and has the ability to capture people’s attention, it failed to do so. When observing people pass the sign, they rarely looked up at the sign. The sign was built to inform the public of Pizza Hut’s pizza and products, particularly the Chinese public because of the Chinese watercolor-theme. Pizza Hut probably chose the location because it allows thousands of people to pass the sign. Yet, it fails to deliver. From my observations, it seemed that most people were wrapped up in making it to their train than taking their time to read the screens. Therefore, I believe that the specific context of this Pizza Hut’s screen ad has a big sway over the screen’s effectiveness in informing the Chinese public. Since it is located right near an interchange, many people become more preoccupied with making sure they make it to their destination, rather than reading the screen. While it isn’t to say that no one reads it, I believe that more people would read it if it were located in a place that allows people to relax more, thus having more time to look around.

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Small televisions on the subway car

These two photos were taken while riding the subway. The screen I chose to focus on was the one inside the train on the little televisions. In each train car, there are 2 small screens with public service announcements and safety videos. The videos are pretty consistent across train cars and lines. The information on the screens, I believe, was created for the purpose of informing the public of the correct safety procedures and occasionally ads. However, it is good to note that the information on the screen was also approved by the appropriate governmental authorities since it would be seen by a large amount of the population.

The videos are pretty easy to understand and want people to engage by watching. However, this is not what always happened. Those who owned their own smart devices rarely ever looked at the screen, since they had a screen of their own that allows them to view whatever they want. The folks who owned smart devices were usually young to middle aged people. The folks who seemed to pay attention to the screens most were foreigners/visitors and the elderly locals. It almost seemed to me as if there was a battle of the screens. One cannot really watch both. For those who owned smart phones, these screens were simply a small and easily ignorable part of riding the subway.