The Wandering Monkey

My feeling is that the Shanghai Lindy Exchange will be possible, and it will take place in Fall of 2003. I do believe this is a very good thing. Lindy Hop has meant a lot to me. On some days where I was having just a terrible time, I always found that dancing made me feel better. And the other dancers formed the center of my social life in California as well. I think it is one of the best aspects of American culture and it things would be better in the the world if it were here as well.
Both my dance partner and I are surprised at how far we have made it at this point. We've been at it about three months now, and people in China and all over the world are taking note. Really, it is just a good idea at a good time. I can't say we were the first to think of it, though! Our friend Adam in Beijing already started Swing Beijing a few months before we did. But we were the first in Shanghai to do it, and hopefully we can all cooperate to push it as far as possible.

About two years ago, things were looking rather grim in my own life. Three things all hapened at once: the end of a very significant relationship, a major job crisis, and a major housing crisis. Actually, they all happened within one week. It was just so odd, to say the least. The stress of the break-up was by far the hardest to handle. I had been in many relationships before, but I had never decided I wanted to commit to someone. Never found someone who really impressed me, someone I found interesting enough to see an exciting future for as far as I could see. There were of course problems. There always are. But acknowledging that I wanted to pair up with someone then having it quickly fall apart really challenged me. The thing I could not quite understand is why it was quite so difficult to handle. I could understand three months, perhaps six, but this just lingered on for over a year. About as long as the relationship itself.

The experience did give me a lot of perspective. I looked at other people who had been perhaps married for five or more years who then get divorced. Or how about even longer? I met folks who told me their own stories, and I could just not imagine how much worse it was for them. It also told me another thing. Trust your first instinct when it comes to people. If you feel it is not right, don't try to make it right. There's some song which goes, "If it don't fit, don't force it."

But now with the major life change and so many new and positive opportunities, the old phase of my life has ended. I am in a very new place, and I really am not the same person I had been. In many ways, yes, but an experience like this will change a person. I needed something new, I needed a challenge, and I needed to succeed at that challenge to reasure myself I was capable of handling things.

So now here I am. Not long ago was my 34th birthday. When people guess my age, everyone says I look younger. 28 or so. This is fine, no problem by me. A lot of people think that this is a good age to settle down with someone. Mostly it is younger folks who think so. But I think about how much it took to commit the first time, and I don't see how that's going to happen under my current circumstances. Getting involved with anyone out here would create a whole bunch of difficulties. Eventually I see myself back in America. I'm going to spend a year out here, but after that I may decide to stay or move again. If I'm happy I'll stay. But a lot can happen in a year. We'll have to see.

Every now and then I think of my friends back in California. Or my family back in the Illinois. I imagine that the California folks will keep going their own ways. Many of them will move, get new jobs, marry, or whatever. In about two or three years everyone will have evolved so much that returing there would almost be like starting over again. If there were a good job opportunity then it would make a lot of sense. But there's not much point in returning to the area again without a new tangible reason.

Going back to Illinois is an option, but damn that place is cold in the winter. I never liked the cold. Shanghai is cold, too, but at the worst it hovers around freezing. In Illinois the temperature gets so cold you cannot breathe through your nose without a scarf or your snot will freeze. I am not kidding. You feel it solidfy. On days like that, I asked myself many times, 'Why would an evolved species choose to live here?"

I am interested in getting involved in something with media. That's about the only thing which pops into my head which gives me some excitement. Back in college I wrote a bit for the school paper and hosted a live news radio program. I got a lot out of that. I spent all sorts of time preparing and studying it, very much like I work on creating the Lindy Hop scene in China today. But that's not necessarily the type of thing you can just walk into. It is a lot easier in China, let me assure you. Perhaps if I keep meeting people eventually I'll find the right one.

Barring that, I would want to take a job which is more people-oriented. I'm sure that organizing a Lindy Exchange in China will give me a lot of insight and experience.

All for now. I'm going to make some e-mails to a few old friends.
-J

I have been doing a little more investigation into what could be called the 'entertainment' industry in Shanghai. It seems that in China in general it is policy that foreigners are not allowed to join the entertainment industry. This has been a long-standing policy, which has been relaxed somewhat in the more recent years. It makes sense in many ways, because if the fledgeling China entertainment industry opened its doors to Hollywood, Nashville, and LA it would be overwhelmed.
Foriegn performers need special licenses, but this is not very difficult. But much of the offical performance work is controlled by various agencies, which were former monopolies before the market became more open. They still hold much sway and anything big must be cleared with 'someone' before it happens.
George Gee, of the famous NY-based swing band the George Gee Orchestra, is perhaps an excellent test case. He is a native New Yorker of Cantonese heritage. And he's the most famous swing band in the U.S. East Coast. His band would probably be accepted most readily over here by the various bureaus and officials. And probably the populace as well.
We want now to find native Chinese who we can train into a swing dance troupe. This is going to take some work, but with the help of various foreigners (meaning people like me!) I think we will have an acceptable show ready within a few months. I want to begin with the classic swing-culture line dance, the Shim Sham. It does not require a partner and it is relatively easy to learn. Plus, people from around the world know it. So anyone who learns it can perform it here (which would be brand new to the locals), and they can also participate in it anywhere they go in the world.
Perhaps later, if this works, we will create a more unique performance. But I think this is a perfect start.
Peace,
=J

(Below is an article I submitted to an expat-website for publication. But if they do not print it you can read it here! ;-)

"The New Silicon Valley"
by James Szyszko, a.k.a. Jimbo
2004-01-21

Silicon Valley, 2000. The San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA, has been a hotbed of activity for at least the last five years. Every cafe and restaurant has a rush at lunchtime with well-dressed young people carrying cell phones and briefcases. Lunchtime conversation is an exchange of energy. Every head present buzzes with their ideas and the backing of their six-figure income or their hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock options.

Silicon Valley is a place you can take a new concept, begin a company, and there is no limit to your success. It is an experiment in new ideas. Opportunity is rife. People come from all over the world to work here and be part of the excitement.

Cash flows everywhere. Venture capitalists invest millions into these new organizations. Some receptionists are paid $80,000. Single-family homes with two bedrooms go on sale for $600,000 and sell within the week for $680,000. And every now and then we talk about "them." You hear of them like lottery winners; so-and-so from this company made $2 million. A woman who worked as an office manager for three years cashed in her options at $8 million. She is 32 years old and will never have to work again.

This boom is largely based on a new way of valuing companies. Organizations no longer need to prove profitability. Enterprises may "go public" and sell shares millions of dollars in shares on the stock market and not necessarily make any money. Tomorrow another will appear, it will get funded, and the process will continue. It is a game, a merry-go-round which is still spinning. Venture capitol pushes it along, and more and more money turns out of it. But it cannot last forever.

The market must eventually realize that many these companies don't make money. Or, perhaps *everyone* has realized this, but there is no good reason to stop it. Two, three, or a hundred more companies will go public. Twenty, thirty, or a thousand more millionaires will be created.

Eventually the market must adjust. The game will crash. Everyone must know this. But not yet. Not today. Just one more spin...

Silicon Valley, 2003.
At dinner with my friends, one of four is unemployed. There are empty tables at the restaurant. The fall of the Valley preceeded the country-wide recession. We at the table saw it coming at least a year before the rest of the nation felt it.

We speak of Greg and Barbara, our friends who will be married. They've bought a house on the peninsula and Greg commutes over an hour each way to his job in the south bay.
And we speak of the hobby which brought us all together - swing dancing. Back in the day of the boom, you could go swing dancing nearly every night of the week. Each place had a live band. There were are least five dance schools, and people came out at night wearing 1930's zoot suits, poodle skirts, and vintage dresses.

We men joined swing dancing usually to meet a girl. The women joined probably because they just wanted to dance. The boom is over, but the dancers are all still together. During an era in which people may change jobs twice a year, the swing dancers are about the only consistent thing.

Silicon Valley is no longer a magnet. The eyes of the world do not focus here, and those people who have not cashed in or married now decide what to do. Some move back home or to other cities for jobs. Many go to graduate school. And some go looking for that place where the buzz is still the air -- where the excitement of the world comes to call. The new Silicon Valley.

And for me, that is Shanghai.

So today is Monday. Yesterday we had the class with divided responsibilities. It went off OK, with a little friction between myself and my dance partner. Really, when you boil down the difference in our styles it sounds completely trivial to an outside observer. It has to do with a different point of balance on the first count of the eight-count step. If I heard about this and I had not been dancing for a long time, I would just shake my head.

But in the long run I think this is really necessary. The difference is enough to affect the actual dance move. And as teachers we must adopt a single style and teach that. We cannot teach beginning students conflicting moves.

I believe that this will work out well. This is a needed adjustment in the way we manage our class. I think in the future we will probably end up teaching separate classes, each with our own style. And this is fine. It would have been better if we could have come to an agreement and together agreed on the same method, but we are both adults and have some disagreemens on that.

This week in China is Spring Festival. It has all of the importance of Christmas and New Years. Everyone takes a full week off of work. Businesses close. Even our dance studio is closing, so we will have to move our class to another place on Sunday. I am going to try to find something to do this week. You can't even interview for jobs during this time.

Some good news. The New York-based band Georgie Gee has expressed interest in coming to China to play. I posted a little announcement on the swing-dance news website, Yehoodi. Within a day George Gee himself posted something saying he wanted to come to China and play, timeframe around September. This is really big news. If he came, that would be a big enough thing to begin planning for the first real Shanghai Lindy Exchange. He's a really big name in the swing dance world, and I believe he is Chinese, too, which explains in part his interest in travel here.

So this week I will hang out with people and work on some things like advertising and publicity. Overall, I am content in our direction.

-J

The Sunday dance class starts in about an hour. For this class, my dance partner and I have agreed to divide the teaching responsibilities. She is going to take the first hour and teach the East Coast Swing moves. I will take the second hour and teach Lindy Hop.

During the holidays, my partner went back to the States for a month. I lead the classes on my own and took specific students to demonstrate moves. I found that I liked class leadership. We accomplished a great deal, too. The students learned basic Lindy Hop within one month, and they are starting to improve and improvise. When my partner returned, I found the class did not flow as it had.

She and I actually learned different styles of Lindy Hop. I do Savoy style -- its name taken from the Savoy Ballroom in New York City where Lindy Hop began. She does Hollywood Style, a.k.a. Dean Collins style -- a slightly modified but very cool looking version specificly created to look good while being filmed. I knew the basic steps follower's Savoy steps, so she learned my style.

Besides just dance style, sometimes we just drive each other crazy. I think we are on opposite sides of the personality diagram. She is a very excited, energy-filled person. But I can't figure out what's she might do or say next, so it's difficult to relax. This is a problem for me during class, where the students are hanging on our every word. We have both said, in good humor, that if we knew each other beforehand we never would have sat down and said, "Hey, let's go to China and teach swing dancing."

In many ways, our different life views makes our partnership stronger. She comes up with ideas I would never consider, and vice versa. We are on the same page when it comes to our dance goals. She wants to bring Lindy Hop to China as much as I do. So we'll see how it runs tonight and take it from there.

Peace
-J

Well, well, well.
We have been growing. The swing dance online group today has 49 members. Our students are helping, too, by referring people and pitching in with things like translation into Mandarin. Our core group of dancers is about 12 regular people. New ones show up every now and then, and we have had another visitor from San Francisco. This one was Brendon, and he works with Intel. Tonight is his last night and we are going to hit the town.

We have secured a good venue, finally. Beginning in the first Wednesday in March, we will be at a place called Sasha's. It is a relatively well-known place which used to be the home of a very rich Chinese family. They are under new management, and I have talked with them and they agree to let us use their third floor so long as we bring in about 20 people a night. I don't think this will be any problem!

We are also going to appear in a coupon book called Enjoy the best of Shanghai. It is a book of the 200 best experiences that Shanghai has to offer. I met one of the organizers several months ago, and he approached me about this just recently. We have delivered all of the materials and graphics and the book will be out in February.

Our website, www.shanghaiswings.com, is still not operational, but one of our students has put us in contact with a designer who will do a single-page site for free. Most of our online presence is through our yahoo group. We have a photo album, post board, and calendar.

So, with all of this we are looking to March as a good new beginning point. I am working now with my dance partner to figure out how to divide teaching responsibilities. We have not had any shows recently, but we may have some more now that she is back.

My old dance partner back in the U.S. is considering moving to Shanghai (hello!). I don't know when or if this would happen, but she has an instructor position open and waiting for her!

So, as for me personally, I have been doing OK. I am looking for a good job opportunity, something part time. I have learned a little more Mandarin, but still I'm not really fluent. I have met one of my neighbors, who speaks English, and I run into her pretty frequently. I spend a lot of time at the local Internet cafe. I know the people here and the owner, too.

Soon I will have two friends in Iraq. One friend from high school is there now, and another friend from California is going within a few weeks. I worry about them every time I read the news. I hope the situation there calms down soon (yeah, me and everyone else).

I am going to be folding the Jimbo Corporation, which I formed when I moved to California. I need to straighten out some final business and pay taxes and open fees. How long have I had it? I think about 5 years. It's ok with me, I don't really feel too attached to it. But once it is gone I am kind of committing to a new career direction. The swing dancing this is very good, but it's not going to be a living. You could not buy a house or anything like that. But I think it will be a really good way to meet people and find some new jobs that I might like.

I guess I feel pretty much at home here now. I definitely feel better than when I was still hanging on in San Francisco. It's a wonderful city but my time there was finished. I feel there is a future now. Don't know what it is, though!

-J

The month of January is Chinese New Year's. It is as big as Christmas back home. People who don't travel all year long take a week off. So it will be a slow month, but we are going to position ourselves for February.

The Shanghai Swings! Social Dance Night has been a big problem. We have been through five bars already, and our current one is not proving satisfactory, either. We need these basic things: a good atmosphere, a suitable dance floor, suitable music, and control over the place for the evening. Our biggest problem has been the bar owners. On two occasions we have been happy with our venues -- old wood construction, wood dance floors, and live bands. And both times the management asked us not to return.

In one case the place had a lot of business already. Older people came there to drink and not dance, so it did not make business sense for them. But in the other case, the bar had almost no business whatsoever. Perhaps four people on a given night. We loved this second place; it had three floors with an open balcony over the dance floor so you could see it from every level. The band was awesome. And we brought in at least 25 people, all of whom bought drinks and food. Yet, for some unfathomable reason the owner asked us not to return. Currently I understand they are back to just a handful of customers a night again.

I have found a lot of local business owners out here are 'vision-driven' or 'ego-driven'. Even though we brought more business to that one bar than they could ever expect to get normally, it did not fit with the owner's vision of her place. Ack.

Anyhow, we have a big advertising and marketing push for February, after Chinese New Year. We are talking with an new excellent bar. We approach them with a formal business plan. The owners are English-speaking foreigners who seem to be happy with our concept so long as we have 20 or more people. With a place like this, I could say we could easily have 20, 30, or 40 students on a night.

All for now.
-J

I am working on a deal which would put us in a fancy coupon-book type of thing. And I talked to Adam from Beijing and we want to arrange a Lindy Hop exchange with him. I think springtime would be the best time for it.

Today I hired an ayi (maid). Once a week she will come by and clean and help a little with laundry and such. Also, she will help me go shopping for food. I am always running out and a local person can find better deals on shopping than I can. She was referred to me by one of my students. So how much is this valuable service? Once per week, for a month, the total cost is 80rmb. That is $US 10. Yes, 10 dollars.
Some advantages to this China place...