The Wandering Monkey

Damn, it's hot.  The Shanghai summer is here and it's 38 degrees with humidity.  I don't know what that it is Farenheit, but it's pretty hot.  Tomorrow we begin a new dance night at a great new venue.  It may take a few weeks to get rolling but I think it's got real potential.
And, I am currently looking for a regular day job.  I'm going to continue with the swing dancing efforts but you gotsta makes da cash.  I'm tired of living on such a tight budget.

Back in Shanghai now, back to the usual grind.  I appreciate this city more now that I have been out to Nanchang.  That place had it's charms, but Shanghai is the place to be.

Nanchang
Today  I am in the middle of my trip to Nanchang.  This is a relatively small city of 4 million, about one hour's flight from Shanghai.  I am here with an American dancer, Amanda, who had obtained a university grant to travel China teaching swing dancing for five weeks.  (Yes, that is pretty amazing in its own right.)
Nanchang is very different from Shanghai.  It is still in the "less Westernized" category.  There are only about 100 expats here as far as I can estimate, so they all pretty much know or recognize each other.  Here's an account of the journey so far:
Thursday, flight it. We arrive at Nanchang airport and take a cab into town.  You can see a blue sky and green trees and mountains, which is much different than Shanghai.  (Shanghai is a lot like L.A. in that there is no green except for parks and the lights and air pollution make the sky and stars difficult to see.)  We arrive at the hotel and check into two very small rooms, but they are adequate. I am exhausted,   and I take a nap.  A few hours  later  I go down to the lobby to meet with Amanda and Johanna, the local organizer of our experience.
Johanna is an older woman, perhaps in her sixties or maybe even seventies.  She is always smoking a cigarette, and her curly hair is unkempt and died  very light blonde. We greet her and David, a local bar owner.
Right away it is apparent she's a real character.  "Why do you want to do that, David?" she asks with a tinged German accent. "You are so stupeed!"   From anyone else this would seem bad, but somehow it is endearing coming from her.
"Oh don't worry about what I say to David," she tells us. "He eez used to me calling him stupeed."
We go about town and grab dinner at a local restaurant, and then we are off to the first venue at which we will be dancing.  It is called the Denver Bar, set  up apparently by an expat living out here.  It is a pure country western bar, complete in amazing detail.  There is a deer head on the walls, fake guns and ammo boxes, murals of cowboys, wagon wheels and the whole lot.  Such a contrast from the most of Nanchang, which is simply six-story buildings one after the other.
Amanda is thrilled by the whole thing. She met Johanna over the internet, from a post which was originally sent to the Shanghai Swings yahoo group.  None of us have ever seen each other in person before this moment, and Johanna has never even seen us dance or even seen swing dancing at all before. 
"You would not believf what it can take to set up something in this town,"  Johanna tells us while we are waiting to dance.  "I went to this bar owner and told him we wanted to bring in some dancers from California, and he told me, 'how much are you going to pay me?'  I said, 'What? Are you stupeed!?  I am bringing you business and you want to know what I will pay you?!?!"
People begin to show up.  Many of these are Johanna's English students, from 10-16 years of age.  They come with their families, some of them, and others are apparently entrusted to Johanna's care as if she were a Girl Scout Den Mother.
The time comes for us to dance, and we put the music on.  Johanna introduces us herself in English, then gets her assistant to do the Mandarin translation.  Amanda and I take the stage and begin our dancing, which is wholly improvised.  Immediately the crowd reacts by saying 'wow' and blowing on the whistles and 'toot-toot' plastic hammers that have been distributed throughout the crowd.  We do some technically difficult moves and alternate between Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing, and Charleston.  The crowd loves a few very simple but showy moves, like ski slope.  They go nuts when I lead Amanda into an assisted jump-kick.  The song ends and, as it is said, the crowd goes wild.
Now that we have their attention, we launch into a basic East Coast lesson, sometimes having to drag our 'volunteers' onto the dance floor.  We give the basics and I use as much Mandarin as I can, relying also heavily on body language and exaggerated movements to get our points across.  Soon enough, the Chinese are swing dancing  and seem really to be enjoying it.
We take a break and Johanna is thrilled. "You arr doing a wonderful job!" she says.  Just the kind of encouragement we need!  It  can be a pressure situation -- we just got off the plane a few hours ago!
We go on  and dance a few more numbers, then later we are more comfortable and try practicing a few more advanced moves together, and the crowd again really likes it.
After a few hours, we head out to another bar and do another performance at David's  bar.  Amanda and I are running on adrenaline,  and we get that place going well, too.  Finally,the night expires and Amanda goes off to the hotel to sleep.  I am new  in a new town,and I go out for a beer because I always need to explore my surroundings. And now I meet an entirely different experience.
I run into some expats, Canadians who are teaching English.  One guy is a reserved, slightly hippie looking guy and the other is a shorter, more agressive guy.  It turns out the second guy just got married today.  We go out to a bar where they are drinking and celebrating.  This place is a lot more rough-and-tumble than Shanghai.  The Chinese men are more agressive and forward.  I have a beer and sit and talk for a while, then suddenly the music stops.  The new groom says 'excuse  me' and heads out to the other side of the bar with an agressive stride.  Remembering my experience at the fight at the English school, I decide to just stay put and not get involved.  People are mulling about at the other side of the bar for quite some time and there is much commotion.  I mind my own business, and the new groom returns 20 minutes later.
It seems the police entered because the music was too loud, and they actually took the turntable with them.  The new groom is very upset - and drunk - and he tells me about what it's like out here.
"This place is still old China.  It is full of corruption. The police will go into any spot and just  take whatever they want.  It's still feudal warlords out here."  The other expats nod in agreement.
"Are you guys going to stay here?" I ask.
"Oh yeah," they all say without having to consider it.  The expats apparently have a better influence than most people because no one wants to upset an embassy.
I eventually am pretty tired and head out.  Outside I see a Chinese man open the door of a cab and try to forcibly drag the cab driver out.  He resists, then some friends of the pedestrian restrain him and separate them, and the cab moves off.  I sort of shake my head and return to the hotel to call it a day.
The next morning Johanna wants to meet with Amanda and I to tour the town.  She brings five of her English student girls with her, and we get on a bus and try to head to a bird sanctuary on the outside of town.  By  the time we arrive, it is very hot and we decide to skip it.  I'm super hungry, and so are the girls so we go back to where we started from.  Johanna does not like Chinese food, so we go to a fast food fried chicken place and lunch there.  They we go home.  Odd morning -- two hours on the bus then fast food.
That night some people Amanda has met have invited us to a hommade dinner.  Amanda is sucking up the local culture, and we   go to these women's apartment where they make us a Chinese dinner.  Then, off to the Friday night show.
It's a big hit again, and this time I see the taller hippy-ish Canadian expat at the bar.  By the time we get to the second bar that night, both Amanda and I are exhausted.  The heat   in Nanchang is very significant and drains your energy.  We give three  dances which are mildly received, then call it a night.  We stay on a while, and David plays the guitar and I get behind the congos and we play a few songs together.  He brings out a bottle of whiskey and we have some drinks, and for the first time both Amanda and I really feel relaxed.  I close out the bar  with David and go  back to the hotel.
Today is day 3, Saturday.  I have slept a lot during the last two days because I was exhausted when I began this trip.  Plus, doing shows is always very stressful.  Almost every show I do I get uptight and have mini-panic attacks worrying about the details getting done right.  But I have had a good night sleep, and for some reason I wake at 7am.
I  go  out early and get breakfast because Amanda will likely still be sleeping.  There is a park right next to our hotel, and I look inside to see what's up.  The parks in China are like community centers.  People are up an dancing ballroom  at 8am,   and I go nearby and just watch them.  One guy's steps are very clear and easy to watch, so I observe him, trying to learn it.  After the song, I approach him.
"Ni de tiaowu hen hao" Your dancing very good
"Xie xie.  Wo shi wudao laoshi" Thank you.  I am a dancing teacher.
"Zhende ma?  Ni jiao wo!"  Really!  You teach me!
He agrees, and sets me up in the ballroom pose.  He shows me the steps, and people around begin to gather and watch. After a while, he sets me up with a dancing partner and we muddle through the steps for a song.
When it is over, I tell him:
"Wo shi Mei Guo de tiaowu laoshi" I am an American dance teacher
"Shen me tiao wu?" what dance?
"Yaobai wu.  Mei Guo de." Swing dance.  American.
He wants  to see it, so I take the same partner and show her the steps.
"Jittabug!" they yell.
"Yes, Jitterbug!" they know it already!
He plays some music and I lead the woman through it.
Then, I call Amanda.  "I am being watched by about 100 Chinese   in the park across from our hotel.  Can you come over and dance with me?"
She's over in a flash, then we do a dance together.  This is the real shit.  This is why Amanda came to China, and  me, too, I suppose.
We finish the demo and ask if they want to learn.  No one, absolutely no one speaks English, so I am on my own.  I manage to address the crowd, tell them who I am, and ask if they want to learn.
"Da jia hao.  Wo jiao Jin Bou.  Wo shi Mei Guo de tiaowu laoshi."  Everyone hello.  My name is Jimbo. I am an American dance teacher.
"Ta shi Amanda.  Wo men zai Jalifonia"  She is Amanda.  We come from California.
"Nimen yao shui xi tiao wu ma?" You all want learn dance?
The crown is happy   but does not    clearly answer.
"Hao bu hao?" I ask.  (Good not good)
A few people say Hao.
"Hao bu hao!?"  I ask louder, really just trying to rile them up.
"Hao!!!"
We go on an launch the basic East Coast lesson.  We  put the women on one side and the men on the other.  Show them the basic stuff. 
"Wow, they learn FAST!" I say to Amanda.
"They're DANCERS!" she says to me with a big smile.
We go on with the lesson,and I am surprisingly able to communicate the specifics instruction.
"Holy shit, I'm teachin' in Chinese!" I say to Amanda.  It was like a scene out of a movie.
We go on for some time.  Dance a few more songs.  Then some of the local dancers take the center stage and  show us their Samba, Tango, and other styles.  They really know a lot about dancing.
We take pictures and hang out probably for an hour.  Then we take our leave.
"You come back tomorrow!" a woman says in Chinese.  "Here, 9am!!"
Ugh.  "10am" I say.
"9am!"
We go.  We then go off to get a foot massage.  20 quai  ($us   2.50)  each for one hour.
 
So we will dance tonight and return there tomorrow morning for our last day here in  Nanchang.
Peace,
-J

A trip to the Chinese Opera.

I just got back from a Chinese opera house. I did not see the whole performance, just a few minutes of it. Just as well, since it was in Chinese and I could not follow it anyhow. But it was pretty cool to see.

I was there to talk to the General Manager of the opera. He was a friend of a Chinese lawyer here, who is a friend of one of my friends. We were talking about getting the appropriate Chinese cultural permits to have a swing dance band from America come to tour in Shanghai. As with everything in China (and perhaps everywhere), you just need to know the right people.

It was rather enjoyable, this meeting. I got to visit the opera house and go behind the stage while they were performing. We met in the VIP room, and started our negotiations there, to take them to another room later. I showed them the pictures of the US band and also showed them video of our dancers. I also gave him swing dance music CD's so he could listen. I also explained that people have swing dancing around the world, and that we are trying to bring it to China.

Pretty much then and there he agreed in principle to having a show. He said we should begin our process of logistics, and that was pretty much it. In details, they will handle the marketing. I don't think we want to even try to do that ourselves. And the theatre itself can hold almost 1000 people, so there would be a good potential audience. They regularly hold jazz band performances there, so I think this will be successful.

In more domestic news, my roommate said the power is off at our apartment. The a/c works but nothing else. And, my date for the evening cancelled due to long hours at work. Can't blame her for that. Oh yes, her. She's interesting to me. I find her quite attractive. Half Mongolian and half Russian, she speaks no English at all. Just about as much English as I speak Chinese. So we hang out in the park, point to things, and she tells me the Chinese name and I tell her the English name. I've learned more this way than any other way so far, and it's much more enjoyable.

So far it's just holding hands and walking about the park. She is, I think, a traditional Chinese girl, which is fine because I'm getting rather sick of the bar-savvy girls you run into here all too often.

Lately I've been a bit tired. I need to take more care of my eating and sleeping. Plus, the summer is here and the daytime heat and humidity is just an energy drain. I'm finding my bar-hopping experiences less enjoyable lately. This is probably just as well.

My friend from England is almost definitely going back. That's probably just as well, too. He has not had a regular job since he arrived, and he's more into dating than looking for work. Plus, every time we go out together he steals all the girls, so if he leaves there will be less competition!

All for now. I'm probably going to play some computer games and head back home. Tomorrow is dance class and I want to be fresh.
Peace,
-J

Roaches
(Odd subject but these are important things in the life of Shanghai.)
Granted, I know I am living in a low-rent neighborhood. Granted, the folks do not keep it clean outside, and various bad smells exude as you approach the dumpster area by the front gate. I've been struggling with my hate of this area and weighing it against the low cost to live there. It's a bit of a necessity right now, since I'm still just doing swing dancing and I'm not willing to go get another part time job for fear it will ruin my time and energy for dancing.
But once inside the apartment, the place is not so bad. The floors are wood, there's a big TV in my room, and I just bought a DVD player with the income recently generated by parties, so there's entertainment at home.
So I got home after a long day, and I'm ready to head into the shower. I'm barefoot, wearing a towel, and HOLY SHIT! It's the biggest roach I have ever seen outside of a zoo. It was fully one inch long, and one half in across at the carapace. It was at least one third of an inch thick, too. It was crawling down from behind the medicine cabinet, face down towards the floor, and it stopped as I entered. It had long feelers, too, each over an inch long, and it seemed to be nonchalantly surveying the area.
My first instinct was to kill it. Actually, my first instinct was to jump and say, Holy Shit! But after that I'm thinking of how I would kill such a big critter. I didn't have any shoes on (nor clothes for that matter), so I thought perhaps I would get my shoe and smack it with the heel. But then I though, this thing has some significant mass on it. If I smacked it, I'd have to spend a good amount of time cleaning the creavaces of my shoe and taking the mess off the wall. Damn, where's bug spray when you need it?
After some more contemplation the thing seemed to become aware of me, then it crawled down the wall, only to soon fall and land on the floor amoungst the random stuff there. So now I'm like "DOH!" and since I'm barefoot I'm quickly hopping out of the room. I get into my own room and put on my shoes, because I don't want to do combat with this thing barefoot. Then I'm looking around for something to kill it with. I can't find anything. I need something least three feet long with a broad base on it.
Finally I go back into the bathroom and there's the plunger there. I take it, and the critter (I will call him 'Ralph') runs into a corner made by the wall and the outside of the bathtub basin. I try to get at Ralph, but the round plunger doesn't quite reach the square corner. It seems like Ralph has had enough of this game, and he makes a run for it. He goes towards the exit, past me, and I'm still too skittish and I jump out of the way. Besides where can he go? How can something so big hide? I ask myself.
But he goes right up the wall and slips into the crack between the wall and the kitchen cabinet.
Out of sight out of mind. Live and let live. Or something like that. So I just go on with my shower, but now I don't feel so relaxed anymore. I just hope Ralph finds himself a new home. Otherwise, the least he should do is start paying his share of the rent.

Football is very big out here. That is to say, soccer. The Euro Cup is going on right now. And it's just as big as the Superbowl or World Series. People out here stay up until 3am to watch the game live in pubs. Last night Holland was playing Portugal, and there were about 150 people in the bar which I went to. Same thing happened a week ago when England played Portugal.
Right now I'm at an Internet cafe doing promotion for the upcoming party. It should be good. You never know, since it is the July 4 weekend there's a lot of other things going on. In another area, we have located a very nice venue which wants us to hold our Sunday lessons there and add a dancing night at the end of the evening. It's located in the city center, People's Square, on the top of a historic building. There, from the roof, you can see a fantastic view of the park and the surrounding buildings. I think we will set up there in a few weeks.
My friend Phil was just at the cafe with me. It looks like he's most certainly going back to England, pending any sort of surprise job offer. He's got his plane ticket now.
I'm looking to move out of my ghetto apartment. I just can't stand it. It's not that it's a poor area, it's that it is a *dirty* area. There is always trash on the street and people just don't take care of it. As soon as my finances are a bit more settled that's the first priority.
I'm unfortunately going to miss my friends' wedding in San Francisco. It would have been nice to visit, but it's just too expensive right now. There's the plane ticket, plus there are visa charges for exit and re-entry. Things are going pretty well out here now, and I don't think it would be a good time to leave, either. Still, I will miss seeing my old friends. I think I'd get a bit homesick if I did return now, so overall perhaps its for the best. I plan to meet up with my friends in Italy when they have another ceremony there. I've never been to Italy and there should be enough time to save up for that trip.
So, overall, right now, pretty good.
-J

O wut a nite
Tonight we had our dance night. We had 42 people come on the dance floor area, plus more upstairs. That bar would have 10 people total were it not for us. And still we get no payment for the event. As soon as we have an alternative place, go go go.

So after the event, I was thinking of going home, but we have a party planned this weekend. So instead I headed out and went to a few bars close to the area. I ran into a guy Mike who is a swing dancer and told him about the party. Then another guy Flo who was the actor who worked with me on the hospital commercial a few months ago. Then I saw Anjit, an Indian friend, and Sandra, who the dance group worked with on a few fundraisers.

When I get out, it's pretty cool. I actually do know a lot of people. I'm in the pits a bit about my housing situation. Which, also, brings me to another point.

My two best friends out here are Stu and Phil, both coincidentally English. Phil I met on the subway one day seven months ago, when we were both relatively fresh to Shanghai. Stu is my roommate. So as it turns out, both of these blokes are now considering leaving the country. Phil has not had a job out here since he arrived, and I can understand his position. Every city sucks when you are broke. Plus he has a 3+year girlfriend who he is probably not going to marry and so it is best if they part ways. Stu is just sort of talking about seeing the 'next thing', which could be Australia or something else. In reality, I think a good deal of Stu's decision is because he, too, has a girlfriend out here and he probably wants out of that as well.

For whatever the reason, people in Shanghai come and go. It was hard in the first three months, when every good friend you met is leaving for one reason or another. But I am getting used to it now. It's sort of like life in the long-term; everyone leaves at some point. But in Shanghai it's just a bit more accelarated.

So tonight was a good night to get some new best friends 'on tap', since my current ones will be leaving. This is the life I lead.
-J