For my last entry on my school journal, allow me to dedicate the video above to all my classmates and teachers who had made my learning experience worth remembering. This time-lapse video of Shanghai was shot in the previous week before the Asia Module commenced when we actually had sunny blue sky. It features the busy traffic over Huangpu river as seen from the Bund with Pudong financial district on the other side. The video was shot using iPhone mounted on gorilla-pod.
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It has been quite an adventure indeed, and I was fortunate enough to meet some new friends along the way. It actually made my already familiar playing turf even more enjoyable. To see and share a brief glimpse of Shanghai and Tokyo, my home for the past seven and two years respectively, was quite exhilarating.
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But as a brief reflection on my experience while doing the Asia Module, I found that my prolonged exposure to life in China sort of dwarfed the supposedly more sophisticated experience that I had while in Tokyo. Yes, there were a lot of public behavior in China that I could do without, but on the other hand, imperfection is always much more challenging; in both positive and negative.
My knee jerk reaction whenever I found myself in a situation in which I had to obey the rules with no rooms for question, negotiation let alone ‘modification’ was always to engage in battle mode. There has to be an exception to every rules. Life taught me this way and I refuse to believe that everything should be as is and we should just accept with no question asked.
Don’t get me wrong, am all about rules if it makes our day to day life easier. But when the same rigid rules were exercised to an extend that stifle freedom of expression or being uniquely different, then I shall beg to remove myself from such settings.
However, very often we translate freedom of expression using our own metrics loaded with various cultural, political and social bias that comes with it. Who are we to arrogantly put an accusing finger for the lack of democracy in such and such country? Have we ever consider that maybe, just maybe, the same model of democracy that the west aspire to have will not fit every country?
In short, I realized that I’ve put myself in the backseat during both Shanghai and Tokyo module. For some reasons I was more keen to observe what others think of both countries. However I had to admit that taking a back seat wasn’t easy as I often found myself rather irritated whenever I heard some disproportional views that tip the negative scale toward China from those who merely had a glimpse about the place. I sometimes wonder if I were Chinese in my previous life… ha!
Visiting Japan again for lengthen period of time, other than brief business trip, gave me different take on the country. I saw Japan unlike what I remember nearly eight years ago when I used to live in the country. Sure the Japanese subculture were pretty cool but it seems more like eye candy after a while. And naturally I couldn’t help but drawing some comparison on the dynamic between living in Shanghai and Tokyo. I think of Japan like an aging uncle who has lost its coolness. I could be wrong ten years down the road but if the sluggish economy is anything to go by, then Japan ascent to the top will be a very long wait.
Everyone I met in Shanghai is all about ‘in it to win it’ and you simply can’t deny the energy that pulse around the country. Ironically, I didn’t sense the same vibe while in Tokyo.