I go around the world to find the next big one – Typhoon Wipha is on her way to Shanghai with winds at 125 mph – suppposedly the worst typhoon to hit China in a decade – so we slogged through flood waters, pouring rain, and now who knows what – it is hitting at midnight but thus far it is sending squalls and tons of rain in advance of its arrival.
The word here is phonetically guan ji, which means relationship, and that is the second most important element to knowing the Chinese people. Sometimes nothing else matters but that – or at least that is what I’m learning from my sources.
When I was in Istanbul, I could sit for hours and listen to the Turkish language – which by the way was nonstop as those people talk a blue streak – here in Shanghai I love the language too but it amazes me how much people just take for granted that they can’t understand us and we can’t understand them – last night a woman was discussing her husband right in front of him – said he’s boring and laughed, then said he can’t understand a word I am saying. Then it was a woman preparing food and right in front of her another person said I hate her cooking. Who knows what people are saying about you while they smile there and speak in a foreign tongue.
I’ve taken to only traveling while wearing my superman panties – something about knowing the man of steel has my back makes me fly a little more comfortably.
Not to be spending too much time biased towards the negative on the marriage issue, i’m just an observer writing what I hear. The women last night were bemoaning marriage. One said her beau wants to marry her sooooo bad, but she is hesitating because he’s not that smart even though the sex is phenomenal. Another who is married said the single life is the way to go – girls just have more fun. The other one wants to be married or thinks she does and so is pushing that to its foregone conclusion – we cringed for her. Two beautiful girls said they want to marry for money and money alone. And inquiring minds want to know who is married, when will you be married, and do you want to be married and those not curious, sit on the velvet sofa and smile.
On the 20th, it will be the harvest moon in China and time to eat mooncakes – when I was in Hong Kong it was the same time of year and the mooncakes were intricate and delicious. Last night, I asked for moon cakes and of the 15 people sitting at the table only one other person – an American ex-pat – would take a bite of it. Moon cakes to Chinese are like fruitcakes to Americans – they appear at that certain time of year and no one eats them. They are dense with bean curd and or nuts and candied fruit. I had my leftover one from last night for breakfast with my tea this morning. Already I have a taste and smell of Asia.
Shanghai wakes up like New York – noisy and fast.
Just like Turkey’s Mediterranean coast where the Russian girls travel for summer love – Shanghai has its Filipino girls – they fill the nightclubs as singers because they speak English and work for cheap and they come as prostitutes for the militia and other dignitaries. And the natives say, they make it bad for the rest of us because some creepy old 70 year old man can have a gorgeous young Shanghai woman or Filipino.
We are going tomorrow night after my meetings to a spa where they give one hour foot rubs – YES! – I’m of the humble opinion that if you rub my feet I could possibly just be your slave for the rest of my life – on another note, tonight at dinner I had my palm read by one of my reporters – he said “long life, happy man, my career with honors and successes, but I spend too much and need to wear a ring on my middle finger to stop the money from slipping away” – I instantly transferred my ring over.
Shanghai’s streets remind me of Istanbul with the high walls and overgrown Sycamores forming a dense canopy, the international crowd whereever we go, people out eating, drinking, having fun – I could get used to this international life in a heartbeat.
I love this international scene – after having dinner with all of the Shanghai based reporters – everything from Peking duck to freshly made noodles in broth – we walked in and around the nightlife and wound up at a jazz club to hear Arlene sing – that’s right her name is Arlene – she and her husband are moving to Saigon so everyone wanted to see her one last time – she was just beginning a new set when we walked in and she made everyone hush up so the club dark, smoky, and then quiet just came alive when she belted out “Fly me to the moon!” – which coincidentally I had just been singing in the elevator – and the international crowd was almost like appointments made to render the scene perfect.
Was reading that Leonardo da Vinci believed he could see the image he wanted in a slab of marble and all he had to do was chisel away the excess to get to it. There you have it – life in a nutshell – imagine the life you want and get rid of the fluff – the things that don’t serve the greater purpose or vision. Not aiming for perfection here just moving or inching closer to the dream, which in and of itself is an ever shifting one that accretes as more knowledge comes in and unwinds the excess when it becomes apparent it is useless baggage.