Our varying interpretations of Shanghai’s streets
I first met the artist Shannon Lee in a dreary Starbucks in a nondescript office building, taking a small break from our day-jobs as mild-mannered corporate executives (him,…
Street Stories
The city as their urinal
Almost every evening, on my stroll home from the office, I pass by a long stretch of a wall that encloses one of many giant construction sites found…
Haircare
I found him standing by the pavement, staring into the distance. He was wrapped in a large plastic sheet with a giant plastic clip cinched near his neck. His hair…
Before dinnertime, you could…
… sing a song. … run an errand. … play one last round of carom. … run around with a stick of celery. … trim your hair. And…
It’s a family affair
Along a quiet part of Huoshan Lu (霍山路), an old, wrinkled woman was parked by the curb in a rattan chair, quietly fanning herself. Surrounding her were two…
The transaction
In the afternoon that I have been hanging out at a scrapyard along Huoshan Lu (霍山路), I noticed an old man shuffling quietly through with a small bag…
Stating the obvious: it’s hot.
This was taken a few weeks ago, on what was then the hottest day of the year. But by now, everyone would have been used to 38-40 degrees…
Skaterboys
I was “chasing” 4 o’clock shadows at the intersection of 金陵东路 (Jinling Dong Lu) and 西藏南路 (Xizhang Nan Lu) when I heard a loud whoops and whooshes of…
A day of rest
He was sitting alone, surrounded by concrete sand and mud, reading a newspaper on top of a tiny table. Behind him was his home, a large blue storage…
And then the sun came out to play
This past weekend, the sun came out in its full glory, accompanied by clear blue skies and thin wisps of clouds. For weeks, Shanghai endured a perpetual haze,…