Being an Expat in Shanghai

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I only have one class on Friday, so as of Thursday night of last week, I decided to get out and about. My first venue was a vernissage/reception at the Hofbrau beer hall in the French Concession on Thursday night.
A colleague, Cornelia Linnhoefer, a German artist who teaches a few German classes at the French School, helped organize it. Four Chinese and three German artists exhibited their works, which included paintings, video art, photography and music.

Taking a taxi into town on Friday at noon, I was able to attend a "business persons' lunch" sponsored by the Cercle Francophone de Shanghai at a local French restaurant called Lingo. The other people at the table and I exchanged business cards and experiences and had a quite good, typical French meal. I learned that they have a monthly luncheon in a different restaurant each time, so I may try to attend again next month or in April.

After swimming at my "club" in the afternoon, I joined about 15 colleagues from the French School for drinks and a light dinner at another kind of "club" called Time Passage, which is a five-minute walk from where I live. This club had live music (a Filipino singing American songs from the 60s, followed by a Chinese band playing American music of today.) In addition to us and a lot of young Chinese people, there were also some American, British and Canadian engineers hanging out there. It was too bad I forgot my camera that night.

On Saturday morning I attended a free orientation session given by the Shanghai Community Center and sponsored by several big corporations. Being an intercultural trainer in Paris, I wanted to see how they went about this. It was very well done, and, as I had at the French Chamber of Commerce's Orientation Session, I learned some interesting things about living in China, from practical to medical to cultural tips. Here are just a few examples:

When going to a Chinese hospital, for example, I learned you need to take a wad of money along with you because , even in the ER, you have to pay in cash before having any sort of tests or physical examinations done.

An American businessman talked about how to manage Chinese staff members and negotiate with the Chinese. He also told us about how, as his secreary's boss, he was expected to make a speech at her wedding!

A doctor and a counselor spoke about how hard expatriation can be on the expat couple. Quite a few expat men or women working in China suffer from stress, cultural differences in the workplace, long working hours, and frequent traveling throughout China and the rest of Asia. Expat men, in particular, may start to drink too heavily and succumb to the charms of certain Chinese women whose goal in life is to meet (and marry)a "wealthy" Western man. Left alone with the children and unable to work outside the home, many of the expat spouses may become depressed, turning to alcohol or compulsive shopping for relief.

The 3-hour session was followed by a light lunch, during which I made several new friends. Afterwards, I took the metro to "the center" and bought some English-language books and DVD's at the Shanghai Foreign Languages Book Company on Fu Shou Lu, a street where there are practically nothing but stationers and bookshops.

On Sunday morning, I decided to do what my Chinese teacher and colleague, Jana, suggested I do -- attend a "radio concert" at the Shanghai Concert Hall at 10:30. For the equivalent of about 3 euros, I was able to listen to an hour and a half jazz concert. (By the way, in addition to taking her 4 children to a concert on Sunday mornings, she also takes them to arts and crafts lessons on Saturday mornings and supplementary English lessons on Saturday afternoons(!). I may go back next Sunday for a classical music concert.

Another swim Sunday afternoon, followed by dinner with Inga and two of her German friends in an ethnic, Xinjiang restaurant.

More next time...

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Photos

Cornelia Linnhoefer
with two of her paintings

Shanghai 1,2,3
organized by the Community Center at the Ritz Carlton Hotel

presentation of the music and group
very "educational" but I didn't understand a word!

Jazz on Classical Music
pieces by Dubussy, Mussorgsky, Chopin and Bach played as jazz

drummer
He came in at the end and got a huge applause.

listening with a Chinese family
The wife was "scalping" an extra ticket outside the Concert Hall. I bought it from her and then found myself sitting with her and her family. "Allen" spoke English. He's from Beijing and presently working on a construction project for Shanghai 2001.

Xinjiang restaurant
Inga, Michael, Oliver. The waiter is a Uighur.

Comments

[Eric John Kaiser]

I'm an expat too!!
I'm a expat too, I play music too, and I drink too but only good beer !!! lol Thanx for that post. Take care, be safe and stay out of trouble, :-) Love Ej