Life's Persistent Questions

Fire and ash.

I touched down in Shanghai Pudong International Airport to a city of fire and ash. That is a good thing actually. As the tradition of Lunar New Year, fire crackers and fire works are the norm at such time. Having last been in Shanghai in 2006, I braced for another reeducation of the city I once called home. The airport just added another terminal building. The roads and highways leading away from the airport are constantly changing, so soon I found myself on one of such concrete serpents creeping toward the river and the downtown beyond. I was soon distracted by the shimmering lights in the distance. Imaging a typical display of fire work at a county fair on July 4th, then multiple that by 8, and spread them across the horizon. They were most likely uncoordinated displays by private citizens. As we weaved through the concrete jungle of highway, fire works lit up the night sky, like military flares warning the impending arrival of this half-foreign invader.

Forget the smog, I was immediately attacked by the smell of sulfur once I stepped out the car. Like a VIP, I was quickly hustled into my family's old residence, an old style Shikumeng building. Almost everyone from my dad's generation were there plus my grandmother. My dad and I proceeded to eat dinner with everyone watching--something my dad's family in Shanghai share with Jerry Seinfeld's parents, dinner was at 5pm, and we arrived at 7:30pm. Surprisingly no Majong was played, and we called it a night at 9:30pm.

At 11:30pm, I was somehow able to fall asleep with the sound of machine guns outside my window. Against the survival instinct and my better judgement, I peeked out once. Tracer bullets are flying everywhere, relentlessly slamming into the side of our highrise. As the sparks bouncing off the building, I was thankful that we were on the 24th floor. They are not going to capture me that easy.

posted by hedgehog @ 5:27 PM