As a student of the Chinese language, one thing you will certainly notice when coming to China is that you didn’t learn the words you really need in class. Here is a short collection of the words/phrases that I found most useful during my first weeks in Shanghai:

字幕, N zìmù – subtitles
仿冒, N făngmào – fake/counterfeit goods
折扣, N zhékòu – discount
口香糖, N kŏuxiāngtáng – chewing gum
区号, N qūhào – area code
宵禁, N xiāojìn – curfew
无线网, N wúxiànwăng – wireless internet
迷路, V mílù – lose one’s way
抢, VO qiāng – steal something
充值, VO chōngzhí – charge money to a card (mobile phone etc.)
线, N(根) xiàn – cable (any type of electric cable)
热水壶, N rèshuĭhú – electric kettle
磁悬浮列车, N cíxuánfú lièchē – Maglev Train
红牛, N hóngniú – Red Bull
红卫兵, N hóngwèibīng – Red Guards
这里太挤了！~tài jĭ le – It’s too crowded here!
别摸我！, bié mō wŏ – Don’t touch me!
用筷子抓一只苍蝇, yòng kuàizi zhuā yīzhĭ cāngying – catch a fly with chopsticks

Corrections and suggestions for new words are very welcome

Whenever I open my bathroom door, I see a very strange picture. I’ve seen this picture every morning since I’ve come to China, but I still haven’t got used to it. It’s the picture of two boys, one with a very light skin, the other with darker skin, arms over each other’s shoulders. Nothing that would deserve attention up to this point. But what is really disturbing is the fact that they’re wearing nothing but their speedoes and the boy on the right is holding ice cream in his hands whereas the boy on the left is giving a thumbs up.

Don’t worry, I’m only talking about a sticker here. But finding this sticker on the water boiler in my bathroom doesn’t really make it better. When I saw it for the first time, I thought “Who put this gay thing on my water boiler?”. After some time, I realized that it was no coincidence to find it there. In fact, I’ve come across this frightening image many times already. I started doing research on the internet to figure out its meaning. Apparently, it is well-known among foreigners in China. At least I wasn’t the first person to be surprised.

The picture is the old logo of Haier 海尔, an extremely successful Chinese company producing electronic appliances. Haier is said to have started off as a German-Chinese joint venture and, since they’re based in Qingdao 青岛, a former German colony, the logo is supposed to represent the connection and the cooperation between Germany in China. Consequently, the white boy with the blonde hair and blue eyes on the right is a typical German (<insert sarcastic comment here>) while the dark-skinned boy on the left is a Chinese. No more questions, right?

I would really like to know how much Tsingtao Beer 青岛啤酒 was involved when the guys at Haier’s public relations department came up with that idea. Fortunately, Haier adopted a different logo for the international market. If you need more information, follow these interesting links:

http://www.feinart.com/nov_07/articles/haier.html
http://peer-see.com/blog/the-brothers-haier/2007/02/07/
http://www.haierbrothers.com/

Whenever you travel to a foreign country, exploring the nightlife of a city is usually one of the most vital parts of getting to know and understand a place. After having been to Shanghai for about three weeks now, we still have to learn a lot about the city’s nightlife. Things just work differently over here. But we definitively figured that out: going out here is way more expensive than at home — which doesn’t seem to bother Shanghai’s rich and aspiring young generation.

Our first destination on Friday was Muse, one of the most trendy clubs in Shanghai at the moment — trendy and expensive. It wasn’t necessary to pay cover to get in, but it was also not allowed to sit down anywhere unless you booked a table for 3.000 RMB/night (roughly 300 EUR at the moment). Since the crowd didn’t give us the impression to be in party mood, we decided to go to another club. Relying on a friend’s suggestion and a fairly good review on SmartShanghai.com, we decided to give Babyface a try, another well-known club on Huai Hai Road 淮海路 said to be popular with the locals.

Now I know that local Shanghainese are neither the most open nor the most friendly sort of people, but what happened next was quite surprising to say the least. We asked the bouncer if the 50 RMB cover charge included a drink. They didn’t bother replying until we had asked three times. The place didn’t give us a bad impression at first. Not too upscale, mainstream club music and lots of local people who wanted to have a good time. Trying to order a drink made us realize what this place was really all about.

Drinks couldn’t be ordered at the bar directly. Instead, we had to ask waiters wearing red shirts to show us the drink list and get us something. It is certainly not surprising to encounter an arrogant attitude when you’re talking to barkeepers or waiters — nightlife in big cities is all about money and status. But it was indeed surprising that, after having asked for a beer, the waiter gave us a rude “Mei you!” 没有！ (i.e. “we don’t have beer”), snatched the drink list out of our hands and left. Wondering what was going on, we asked four or five other waiters, trying to order random stuff, in case they had indeed run out of beer Mei you! No luck.

We sensed that something was going on. Me and a Japanese friend went to the other dancefloor to see if we could organize a drink there. Beautiful people in expensive clothes were partying in the VIP area next to the dancefloor, the waiters didn’t pay any attention to us and some girl threw up right in front of us. Suddenly a waiter in a green shirt asked what we wanted. My friend asked for two beers, the waiter promised to get us some, went to the other side of the bar (where we could still clearly see him) and stayed there, doing nothing.

We stopped one of the waiters wearing red shirts. We asked for drinks. Seeing that we’re foreigners, he opened the menu and pointed at the imported champagne for roughly 1.000 RMB a bottle. He didn’t even look at us, he ignored us. We flipped over to the page with less expensive drinks and ordered a beer. Mei you! Okay then, a Cuba Libre please. Mei you! He tried to snatch his menu, but my friend was holding it firmly in his hand. He wasn’t going to let go.

I asked the waiter “What do you have?”, he pretended not to have understood what I was saying. He looked over his shoulder and checked for the security guys. There were two about three meters behind him. I asked again “What do you have?”. He replied with only one word. I didn’t understand what he was saying, but I noticed that he was looking at me now. Seeing the hatred in his eyes I realized what was going on. My friend let go of the menu and we left the place.

The next morning I checked Google for Babyface Shanghai. It didn’t take long before I found webpages where other foreigners wrote about similar experiences. The problems ranged from not being able to order drinks to being rejected at the entrance. Sometimes the bouncers deliberately start quarrels and fights with foreigners. It’s supposed to be even worse if you are ‘black’. Anti-foreign behaviour is obviously part of the management’s business concept.

It was an ironic situation. The club was packed with China’s better off youth who were drinking European alcohol, listened to American rap music and talked to their friends on Japanese and Korean mobile phones. I’m not sure if I should call this ‘racism’. I’m not sure if this is a problem limited to Shanghai or this night club. Or if it’s a general trend in China’s upper class. But the club is extremely successful and continues opening more branches all over the country. Seeing that it’s these young educated people who are obviously supporting this policy gives me an uneasy feeling.

Some pictures of Shanghai’s Xujiahui District 徐家汇区 at night. This is where Shanghai Jiaotong University is located and where I’ll spend the next year studying Chinese. So far I didn’t have the chance to explore too much of Shanghai, but I’ll definitely catch up with that soon In the meantime, enjoy the pictures …