Catshanghai

February 21st in Shanghai feels a lot like December 28th in England. Lots of shops and businesses are still shut and my stomach is aching from all the food that I have eaten over the last few days. In between the frequent barrage of firecrackers and rockets, there is an eery silence that makes Shanghai seem like a sleepy village . After all, the roads are clear of honking polluting vehicles and the city is basking in the sunshine of a crisp, early spring.

The main festivities began on Saturday night. We went to Jenny’s parents to eat a huge feast of Shanghai favourites including sweet and sour fish, tofu, cold prawns, fish ball soup, chicken, pork, beef , fried pumpkin and salad. It was typical tasty Shanghai fare except there was more of it and the meal ended with sweet sticky rice filled with red bean paste and fruit.

It is a Chinese custom to give the children hong bao (red envelope with money) and to bring some food when you visit friends and family. We brought a cake from Bread Talk, which is a Singaporean chain of bakeries you see throughout Asia. So we also ate some cake, followed by a sweet rice soup washed down with black tea. The rest of the evening was spent playing Mah Jong and watching a Chinese tv variety show while munching table snacks such as sunflower seeds and chocolates. It was funny watching the presenters change clothes every 20 minutes like they were getting married or taking part in a bad taste fashion parade.

Just before midnight, we went downstairs to set off rockets before returning inside to wish each other Happy New Year and watch the Shanghai sky set fire to itself in every direction. It could have been the Blitz.

We left Jenny’s family at 1 am to meet Jenny’s pal Bee who comes back to Shanghai every year to see his mother and catch up with friends. It has a become tradition for him to hire a room at a local karaoke club where we stay up all night drinking, chatting and singing Faye Wong songs. This year we met Bee at Party World in Xikang Lu near the Jade Buddha Temple that was positively swarming with local people queuing up to make auspicious new year prayers. At Party World, I did my best not to butcher “Sweet Child Of Mine” and “Hey Jude”.

Karaoke is always followed by a visit to Bi Feng Tang in Changle Lu, which is Shanghai’s favourite all night post club hangout. Bi Feng Tang is a bit like a Hong Kong diner. I prefer Xingwang next door, but Bi Feng Tang makes really good prawn dim sum and bread cakes. I must stop talking about food. It’s giving me a stomach ache jst thinking about it. At this stage it was dawn and I was so exhausted that I was falling asleep in my tea. We got home at 7.30 am and slept through until mid afternoon.

Since then, we’ve had dinner again with Jenny’s parents and visited Jenny’s aunts in Yangpu and in Fuzhou Lu. I have never eaten so much sticky rice and I have heard so much Shanghainese that I should be well and truly fluent by now. I am not. I know about 20 words. Jenny’s family have always made me welcome by giving me mountains of food and bursting into rounds of applause whenever I utter one of my Shanghainese stock phrases. I am luckier than most in having such an inside view and it occurs to me that Chinese are much better at festive family gatherings than Westerners who are too busy worrying about which one of their divorced parents they should spend the holidays with. It is still refreshing to be in a culture where people who have less less know how to enjoy themselves. The Shanghainese I know think that tomorrow is going to be better than today. This optimism is not always well founded and is probably not shared among the very poor or exploited. Yet, if I ever go back to live in the West, Shanghai’s passionate optimism is a lesson that I will never forget.