childhood

A slice of winter wonderland

[imagebrowser id=19] In the three years living in Shanghai, I’ve never really encountered a good snow day. You know, the kind that can silence a city, or in…

Malchik*

“The tanks are coming! The enemies are surrounding us!” he screamed, dodging bullets from the machine guns spraying from all sides. “Fatty! Quick! Hand me the grenade!” Fatty,…

Up in the air

While playing with (and by that, I mean being bullied by) a screaming bunch of pint-sized kids in the longtang one day, a ruddy-faced boy suddenly asked me, “Have you…

Family business

Children are excellent sales people at the market. Adorable ones attract browsing customers, even if you’re just selling garlic and ginger.  To call this grandmother’s place of merchandise…

Work’s Momentum

In their hands, these workers carried bricks that once made up houses that are now no more, in neighborhoods that the next generation will have no idea once existed….

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….

Homework is an unending journey

The entire country is in a perpetual state of self-improvement so as to reach the next level of the socio-economic ladder. Since time immemorial, each generation worked to…

Recounting childhood memories

This past weekend, I met with Terence Lloren who runs “Growing up with Shanghai”, a project series of sound walks with young Shanghainese who grew up in the city in…