By Karolina Kopek. One week in, and I cannot fathom how spectacular of a city Shanghai is. Being inside Pudong New Area at dusk is a truly magical experience even for the well-traveled (which I am not). At one point, I even encountered a thought that Pudong may be more beautiful than Hong Kong! Shanghai is a true definition of ancient-meets-ridiculously-modern and I have never seen a city like that. Once a dream of mine, New York cannot even be compared to these mesmerizing Asian cities.
Despite sightseeing a lot, I still feel like I could be exploring much more and using my time more efficiently. Today I finally visited the crowded Yuyuan Garden after a failed attempt a few days ago (I mistook a city park for the garden and my lack of Mandarin did not help). It was beautiful, full of both Chinese culture and…selfie sticks. After walking through the garden and buying heavenly dumplings, I ran back to my hostel, grabbed my laptop, and took off for ECNU’s Minhang Campus which was supposed to take two hours to get to. Thanks to Shanghai’s nearly-perfect public transit, it only took over an hour. Public transit in Hong Kong and Shanghai is like a dream compared to New York – there are even traffic arrows! And it’s clean and fast! I never thought I would fall in love with this part of China.
I planned to visit the faraway campus because of a few students I was able to contact that were willing to work with me. Claire, an ECNU administration employee, was kind enough to add me to a group of student volunteers on WeChat. A few students immediately said they would like to be interviewed by me, but many of them resided at Minhang. Only one of them was able to meet with me today but it worked out perfectly since our meeting took a few hours. It took us a while to find each other as I have not purchased a SIM card nor a phone but she finally saw me as I struggled to use someone else’s telephone to call her. She was an extremely sweet person who was shy at first but our conversation evolved more than any of the conversations I have had with my other Chinese subjects. She went from answering my questions about women’s roles, unacceptable behaviors for women but not for men, etc. to sharing her hopelessness about social change in China and the limitations of the Chinese government. She believes that Chinese people need to change for the better in a variety of ways; however, she would not have thought this if she did not visit Taiwan. Being abroad inspired her and opened her eyes to different flaws within her own country. She wants to change them, but does not know how. Even though I have an extensive knowledge and experience in terms of social justice, I practice it in a very liberal setting which is New York City. Consequently, I wanted to share my knowledge but I felt limited as I have no idea how one can organize in China. Despite this (or maybe because of this?), I completely loved the conversation and loved the place I was in. It felt so refreshing to be surrounded by grass and trees after continuously living in concrete jungles.
I will be visiting the Minhang Campus again sometime next week and I have even more interviews lined up locally. I am learning more and more from every conversation I have, and I inevitably fall in love with every new thing I encounter.