The Baker
I bought a shaobing from this young man, piping hot from the cylinder drum which he baked them in. You could see the wafts of aromatic smoke trailing…
Shanghai
Everyday is bring-your-child-to-work day
At the moment, existing or ‘live’ old neighborhoods that are spared from the wrecking ball are either refurbishing their exteriors or reconstructing in slivers of spaces that can…
Some grow up tough
Others are born tough. He stared intently into my camera and slowly brought his handkerchief up toward me, as if he was readying to wipe my lens….
Alley bend blur
“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.” ~ H.G. Wells
Hello, goodbye, again and again
“You missed them. They left two weeks ago for their hometown in Jiangsu.” The neighbor shivered a little in her shapeless coat while stirring a pot of boiling…
A balloon a day…
A neighborhood market can sometimes be like the beating heart where all arteries lead to, the arteries being the longtangs or alley houses that surround it. There is…
Home owner, house father
I had never met a resident in the longtang (弄堂) who owned all three floors of his shikumen (石库门). The structure is traditionally narrow – the door opened into…
Worn sole, worn soul
Apparently, in shoe factories in China, it takes two hundred pairs of hands to make a running shoe. Cutters stamp sheets of fabric to form soles, stitchers then…
The Singing Ship
This old and rusting ship was moored off the Pudong side of the Huangpu River (黄浦江) by Zhangyang Harbour (张扬码头), but is no longer there. Nobody was ever…
Carom precision
The balmy autumn afternoons seem so far away now that the cruel mistress that is winter taunts us with a wet chill that seeps into bones and dulls…