Shanghai Stories
( A work in progress, searching for a publisher)
“ It makes a great deal of difference whether you call life a dream, a pilgrimage, a labyrinth, or a carnival.” —Kenneth Burke
A semi-retired former University Professor from the United States has started a new life in China. For the past ten years, he has lived in Shanghai watching it develop into the world-class city that it has become. Although a trained observer, he has not just been a spectator of the rapidly changing landscape and daily routine of the city. He has attempted to be fully engaged in its happenings. Relying primarily on a few cultivated non-verbal means of communication (he has yet to achieve any command of the language), he jumped in with both feet.
He was quick to realize that his love and passion for dance would be one of his most useful assets. He soon became immersed in the Shanghai dance scene. First joining the Latin Salsa mania, then the Swing Dance craze and later the new Tango and Hip-hop obsessions, he became a regular at most of the city’s dance venues from its live music bars and night clubs, dance halls and discos. Even the city’s street corners and parks and its movie sets were an outlet and meeting place for kindred spirits.
A long-standing involvement in basketball continued and served to introduce him to another circle of friends, while a newfound interest in magic brought him to a whole new fascinating subculture.
In these Shanghai Stories, this intrepid expat recounts some of his most fascinating, at times even unbelievable, experiences. With him you will humorously and sensitively pursue the confusion he experiences trying to understand the other’s thinking and way of doing things.
These encounters with China’s most dynamic city and its amazing people will be liberally illustrated with the wonderful drawings of talented sketch-artist, Yan Li Ying from Shanghai.
Stories and Commentary.
Missionaries, Mercenaries and Misfits
Dancing in the Park — There is more than one Way to Dance
Peacocks and Monkeys
So this is what it means to be “Shanghaied”?
Dragons in Qi Piaos –Unique Shanghai Women
“How much did you pay?”
Reliving the Decadent 30’s
Where have all the Taoists Gone?
Elite Companions
Dancing for Hollywood
On Being a Dance Host
Reinvented and then Rediscovered
Better City, Better Life