For instance, in the last four months, the quaint little expat neighbourhood has seen old shops come down and make way for Dunkin’ Donuts and ice cream shops with 31 wonderful American flavours.
As they say, there goes the neighbourhood.
Click here to view source
Sitting in a café, I watched an elderly couple walk slowly by. Their small bodies were tilted forward and they helped each other cross the busy street as fast moving import cars whizzed past them at the intersection. I had this compulsion to shade them from the whiz of the cars and I wanted to make the world around just slow down for a few minutes so they could peacefully make it across the street.
I started to think about the changing world that they had witnessed in their life times, this whirlwind of development that is modern China. Oh, the stories they could tell about a city that has transformed so much in the past decades. Even in the past five years, I have been witness to major changes here. I can’t fathom the changes this elderly couple has seen.
The other day, my mom lost her mobile phone and there was a great frenzy.
“My God,” she said, “I’ve lost my lifeline. I’ll have to phone everyone I know and change my name cards, etc., etc.”
Later, feeling rather philosophical and putting the tragedy into perspective, my mom told me one of those “when I was young" stories. She talked about these crazy devices called rotary telephones. “Why, we would have to move our fingers all the way around a circular dial seven times to make a telephone call.”
She really launched into a tale of tragic woe. “Hell, mobile phones, NO, back in the day, we couldn’t even move away from the phone. We were stuck right there with our feet planted on the ground to make a telephone call. Imagine that, we couldn’t move.”
Yes, Canada was a wild frontier 40 years ago, Mom, but imagine the transformation that has been witnessed here in China over even two decades.
That same elderly couple I wanted to shield from traffic have witnessed such unimaginable changes. Ten years ago, they were lucky to use an “orange box” community phone in their neighbourhood. Now, it seems that everyone, old and young, has a mobile phone in their possession in Shanghai. Walking down the street at night, it is not unusual to see faces lit up with that familiar blue glow.
It feels good to be back in Shanghai but I am once again reminded not to count on anything being the same as I left it. It is impossible to shield anyone from the changes here because it is all happening so fast.
Naomi Yorke is a Port Coquitlam teenager who lived in Shanghai, China for four years, writing about her experiences twice a month for The Tri-City News. She now lives in Chicago, where she's attending art school, and continues her column.
© Copyright Black Press.
June 9, 2009
CHINA: Nothing stays the same in bustling world, says Naomi Yorke in Shanghai
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VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada / The Tri-City News / June 9, 2009
By Naomi Yorke, The Tri-City News
I'm back in Shanghai and I am reminded that this world is in a constant state of flux. In this massive city, shops, homes and entire neighbourhoods are here today and gone tomorrow.
In this land, the only thing you can be sure of is that the sun will set and rise again. Everything else is sure to expand, transform and change rapidly.
For instance, in the last four months, the quaint little expat neighbourhood has seen old shops come down and make way for Dunkin’ Donuts and ice cream shops with 31 wonderful American flavours.
As they say, there goes the neighbourhood.
Click here to view source
Sitting in a café, I watched an elderly couple walk slowly by. Their small bodies were tilted forward and they helped each other cross the busy street as fast moving import cars whizzed past them at the intersection. I had this compulsion to shade them from the whiz of the cars and I wanted to make the world around just slow down for a few minutes so they could peacefully make it across the street.
I started to think about the changing world that they had witnessed in their life times, this whirlwind of development that is modern China. Oh, the stories they could tell about a city that has transformed so much in the past decades. Even in the past five years, I have been witness to major changes here. I can’t fathom the changes this elderly couple has seen.
The other day, my mom lost her mobile phone and there was a great frenzy.
“My God,” she said, “I’ve lost my lifeline. I’ll have to phone everyone I know and change my name cards, etc., etc.”
Later, feeling rather philosophical and putting the tragedy into perspective, my mom told me one of those “when I was young" stories. She talked about these crazy devices called rotary telephones. “Why, we would have to move our fingers all the way around a circular dial seven times to make a telephone call.”
She really launched into a tale of tragic woe. “Hell, mobile phones, NO, back in the day, we couldn’t even move away from the phone. We were stuck right there with our feet planted on the ground to make a telephone call. Imagine that, we couldn’t move.”
Yes, Canada was a wild frontier 40 years ago, Mom, but imagine the transformation that has been witnessed here in China over even two decades.
That same elderly couple I wanted to shield from traffic have witnessed such unimaginable changes. Ten years ago, they were lucky to use an “orange box” community phone in their neighbourhood. Now, it seems that everyone, old and young, has a mobile phone in their possession in Shanghai. Walking down the street at night, it is not unusual to see faces lit up with that familiar blue glow.
It feels good to be back in Shanghai but I am once again reminded not to count on anything being the same as I left it. It is impossible to shield anyone from the changes here because it is all happening so fast.
Naomi Yorke is a Port Coquitlam teenager who lived in Shanghai, China for four years, writing about her experiences twice a month for The Tri-City News. She now lives in Chicago, where she's attending art school, and continues her column.
© Copyright Black Press.
For instance, in the last four months, the quaint little expat neighbourhood has seen old shops come down and make way for Dunkin’ Donuts and ice cream shops with 31 wonderful American flavours.
As they say, there goes the neighbourhood.
Click here to view source
Sitting in a café, I watched an elderly couple walk slowly by. Their small bodies were tilted forward and they helped each other cross the busy street as fast moving import cars whizzed past them at the intersection. I had this compulsion to shade them from the whiz of the cars and I wanted to make the world around just slow down for a few minutes so they could peacefully make it across the street.
I started to think about the changing world that they had witnessed in their life times, this whirlwind of development that is modern China. Oh, the stories they could tell about a city that has transformed so much in the past decades. Even in the past five years, I have been witness to major changes here. I can’t fathom the changes this elderly couple has seen.
The other day, my mom lost her mobile phone and there was a great frenzy.
“My God,” she said, “I’ve lost my lifeline. I’ll have to phone everyone I know and change my name cards, etc., etc.”
Later, feeling rather philosophical and putting the tragedy into perspective, my mom told me one of those “when I was young" stories. She talked about these crazy devices called rotary telephones. “Why, we would have to move our fingers all the way around a circular dial seven times to make a telephone call.”
She really launched into a tale of tragic woe. “Hell, mobile phones, NO, back in the day, we couldn’t even move away from the phone. We were stuck right there with our feet planted on the ground to make a telephone call. Imagine that, we couldn’t move.”
Yes, Canada was a wild frontier 40 years ago, Mom, but imagine the transformation that has been witnessed here in China over even two decades.
That same elderly couple I wanted to shield from traffic have witnessed such unimaginable changes. Ten years ago, they were lucky to use an “orange box” community phone in their neighbourhood. Now, it seems that everyone, old and young, has a mobile phone in their possession in Shanghai. Walking down the street at night, it is not unusual to see faces lit up with that familiar blue glow.
It feels good to be back in Shanghai but I am once again reminded not to count on anything being the same as I left it. It is impossible to shield anyone from the changes here because it is all happening so fast.
Naomi Yorke is a Port Coquitlam teenager who lived in Shanghai, China for four years, writing about her experiences twice a month for The Tri-City News. She now lives in Chicago, where she's attending art school, and continues her column.
© Copyright Black Press.
