It’s been hot, hot, hot and incredibly humid these past two months. Like the rest of the world, we seem to be experiencing the impact of global warming, and Shanghai has broken records for heat waves, as have many other parts of the globe. I’m glad that this week the temperature will be dropping, and soon the gentle months will usher in fun times at the lake, and I’ll be able to finally make use of my backyard and BBQ that I spent the past few months setting up.
When the Great Shanghai Lockdown began in April, nobody knew that it would last for another two months. Finally on June 1, the Shanghai government announced that people could once again roam freely in the city. Of course, there were spots here and there where that wasn’t the case, and for some, the lockdown persisted. Yet overall, the trend has been a gradual relaxation of strict lockdown policies and a return to normal life in the city.
As I relate in previous posts, I was in Kunshan, not Shanghai, during the lockdown months. As soon as things began to return to normal, which for us was earlier in May, I got busy with the Big Move, moving all my belongings over to the house I’m renting now on the edge of Dianshan Lake. By late June, I was able to return to Shanghai and reunite with my family after nearly three months. Since then, I’ve been driving back and forth between Shanghai and Kunshan as usual, spending weekdays by the lake and weekends in the big city.
Sunset at Fishery Cove. I’ve been trying out a style inspired by some late 19th century French landscape painters (and a crazy Dutchman).
As I mentioned in a previous post, one thing that came out of the lockdown months for me is that I rediscovered the joy of making art. I’ve taken up watercolor painting and drawing, and I set up an art studio in my lakehouse. It’s become a kind of obsession—sometimes I even get up in the middle of the night to paint. I’ve been devouring books and videos on art over the past two months, to the detriment of all the other books I need to read and review for my professional life. I can’t say exactly what prompted this art spree after so many years of neglect but I think the environment of the lake and the local farms and villages is very inspiring. I’m hoping I’ll have time to continue this obsession now that the new school semester is beginning again.
Looking back on my life, I regret that I didn’t keep up an art practice, much as I regret not having played piano for twenty years (though I did pick up guitar and I’m happy about that). It’s kind of painful to restart an art practice with all the skills I had when I was 12 or 13 (around the last time I took art classes and was drawing regularly). But I have to say it’s been quite a revelation to get back into it. For one thing, it’s changed my perceptions of the world, and I see things differently now. For another, practicing art gives me a deeper understanding and appreciation of the great artists whom I revere, from Van Gogh to Lautrec to Matisse to Jackson Pollock to more contemporary artists abroad and here in China I’ve followed over the years.
I highly recommend that everyone take up paint and brush, pen, or charcoal, and start a daily art practice. With minimal investment in materials and with some time commitment, you can reintegrate art into your life.
Crape Myrtles—one of the beautiful flowering trees in my new hood on the lake
The basic condition for post-lockdown is that everyone has to get tested every two days. I mean everyone, in both Shanghai and in Kunshan. Tens of millions (and the same thing is happening in other parts of China). All public venues require that you show your green QR health code with proof of testing within 48 hours to enter. Over time this policy has relaxed a bit, but it’s still largely enforced. To accommodate all the testing, they set up little testing stations on streets all over the city, with testers behind a glass window using armholes with gloves to manipulate the swabs as they swab people’s throats. In Shanghai they fill the testing vials with multiple swabs, and if one vial tests positive, everyone in that batch needs to get tested again. In Kunshan, they’re still using single swab vials for testing. At first, seeing the results of tests between Shanghai and Kunshan was a bit awkward, but over time they seem to have smoothed out some kinks in the system, and now the test results show up no matter where I am.
Hannah getting tested last June at our local neighborhood testing station in Shanghai
It’s a modest price to pay for returning the city to normal life. Now, nearly two months after they shut down the entire city, life is pretty much as it was prior to lockdown. Stores and venues are open, as are bars and restaurants. Even live music is making a comeback. Our favorite jamming venue, Magpie, has begun to allow musicians to perform on stage, and last night we jammed with several other musicians.
Even so, the impact of the two-month lockdown is still palpable. Many foreigners living in Shanghai chose to leave the city and the country during or after lockdown. You can still see foreigners trying to offload their belongings as they make plans to move abroad. Some have chosen Southeast Asian locations—Bangkok seems to be popular these days—while others have moved back to their homelands. The impact of this mass exodus is only beginning to be felt.
Moreover, many establishments that were thriving prior to lockdown have shut their doors. One sad loss for our neighborhood was the closing of our favorite bar and jam hangout, Hop Project, a craft brew bar on Dagu Road. Fortunately, we still have Brew Dog nearby (same company), and in another neighborhood, Brew Bear has proven friendly to our jams.
After several months out of the water, my daughter Hannah is taking her first swim lesson again. As I write this piece, I’m sitting in the café of the swimming pool as she gets back in the water with other kids and the swim coach giving them serious laps. My eldest daughter Sarah left China last month and is now in the USA, gearing up to begin college at UC Santa Cruz.
Performing the “Golden Nine” Grateful Dead songs at a live bar in Shanghai on Aug 5
Now I have two major “extracurriculars” in my life: art and music. Over the past few months of solitude, I’ve continued to learn new songs, mostly on guitar. I went on an REM spree, followed by a deep dive into Bob Dylan, while also picking up some other songs here and there. Now that bars and clubs are open again, we’re performing more and more. Recently, my bandmate JD and I crammed 9 Grateful Dead songs and performed them at a celebration of Jerry Garcia’s 80th birthday in Shanghai. Unfortunately, the band we brought together at the beginning of the year has dispersed across the globe in the wake of the Shanghai Lockdown, leaving only myself and my bandmate JD. Now that things are picking up again, we’ll be looking for some others to jam with and/or form a new band.
In terms of my “curriculars,” I do have a few articles and a book I’m working on, and a few other book projects on the back burner. For most of these projects I’ve already done significant research and it’s a matter of putting together all the materials I’ve collected into a coherent and integrated form. Same goes for a couple of doc film projects I’ve been working on over the years.
As with Spring and summer 2020, when I was “stuck” in my hometown of Acton Mass with my parents and daughters, the recent lockdown period gave me some quality down time and opened some new possibilities and perspectives for me. Most of all it made me want to slow down and savor the beauty of the natural world in which we live and to contemplate life and death and our place in the world. For one thing, I’ve come to appreciate and make time for more sunsets. A day when one sees a fine sunset is a day well spent.
Enjoying the afterglow during one of my daily sunset walks along the lakeside
While my friends and colleagues in Shanghai are still reeling from the two-month ordeal of being locked in their apartments with the existential threat of being sent to “quarantine camps”, I will remember April and May rather pleasantly as my “hundred days of solitude” when I was totally immobilized and immersed in my new home on the lake and was able to get in some serious “me time.”
Now my hectic life is returning, with frequent commutes to campus and to my home and family in Shanghai, and frenzied social activities on both sites. With the return of classes next week, I’ll be getting into work mode, and hopefully won’t get too burned out with all the commuting. Most of all, I’m looking forward to once again being in a real live classroom—my stage and my kingdom—and to having plenty of face time with our students. This above all else is what keeps me motivated to do what I do.