Good to be back

Well, dear reader, if indeed I have any readers left after this length of time, I can only apologise. I have spent the last two months reading about China, China generally and more specifically, China during the last 100 years. China was not something I learnt about at school, nor was it a country that I have ever paid any attention to since, with the result that I arrived here in March with a vague idea of where it was (somewhere North of Australia) and that was about it. For anyone who isn’t familiar with China, or its recent history, I can tell you that it is not a subject that makes for happy, light-hearted reading. In fact, it makes for extremely difficult reading, to such an extent that it coloured my whole outlook. I no longer felt I could make light of any aspect of life here.

I struggled with this for some time, until it occurred to me that the people of Shanghai have obviously put the horrors of the last century behind them, just as the people who lived through terrible times in England (two World Wars) put those nightmares behind them. Life goes on, people have to look forward instead of back, and I have to start updating my blog again.

So B finally arrived this week. Apparently, there are four distinct stages that people go through when they emigrate to another country, the first of which is Euphoria, also known as the Honeymoon Phase. As he arrived in the airport, where the temperature outside was 39 degrees, he took off his coat, looked a bit surprised, but smiled happily nonetheless. We took him to Jin Jiang Amusement Park (home to the third largest Ferris Wheel in the world), where the temperature was 42 degrees. Still he smiled happily. We went into the Arcade area (only to get a break from the heat) and played on the 1998 Sega games (Street Fighter II, Puzzle Bobble), and still he kept smiling. We walked round Carrefour and looked at the pigs' faces, and the live frogs and turtles. It was here that he also had his first experience of people stopping to stare at him. We beat off the one-legged beggar in the car park. We shook hands with 4 scruffy little boys who ran up to us in excitement shouting Wy-gwollen – nee hao!! (foreigners…hello!!). We went to the Police Station to report his arrival (visiting a Chinese Police Station is not for the faint-hearted), driving past some ramshackle huts made out of wood and leaves on the way….and still he kept smiling. I think he’s possibly seen the worse, with plenty of good things still to come. However, also still to come is the second stage (Culture Shock – also known as Irritability/Hostility, or Disintegration). I can hardly wait.