I’m back in Shanghai.
I’ve been back for just over 24 hours and I already can’t wait to be out. I also never want to leave.
When people ask me what it’s like to be back, I don’t quite know how to describe it.
If you’ve never been to China, I’ll likely complain about the heat (high of 99ºF most days that I’m here). I’ll say that I missed the online shopping, the share bikes that don’t cost £5+ a ride, the food. I’ll complain about the traffic and how our office is far from downtown.
If you’ve lived in China, you’ll get an exhaustive list of every type of food on a stick or dumped into chili oil that I will consume over the next several weeks. I’ll tell you that being back in China is not as good leaving. That I’m seeing past the bullshit that I spent eight years ignoring. I’ll complain about the ayis yelling outside of my hotel room door at 6am and the baoans who still walk around every block like they own it.
It’s a testament to how many foreigners must have left over the last year that both of my cab drivers yesterday were of the talkative kind.
It always starts with the same question: 你是哪里人? Where are are you from?
I always make the drivers guess. They always say Russia and then I tell them they’re wrong just to gaslight them.
Once we get past the formalities, the questions are always the same. How much money do you make? How much does your house cost? What sort of dowry did your husband pay so he could marry you? What do you mean you don’t have a car? How much money do you make? (I always deflect the question and it always comes back). Why do Americans hate black people? (I wish I had the vocabulary to explain institutional racism in Chinese, but I feel like the drivers are not looking for that kind of a discussion).
I’m too jetlagged to say no to the small talk and the drivers keep talking. I hear praises about everything from fermented tofu, to the growing Chinese economy (I’m skeptical, but I won’t start this argument), to Yangzhou and how it’s miles better in Shanghai. To how people in Fengxian speak a different Shanghainese dialect from those in South Pudong.
I learn the word jicu. As in: 上海人太急促了。Shanghai people are too jicu. They’re too much in a hurry, always pressed for time, short of breath, moving too rapidly.
I couldn’t agree more.
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