Chinese Urbanism Anonymous

I grew up in Canton, where the wealthiest Chinese cities were within hours. For a child and an expatriate, the bustling rich of China struck 10-year-old me. The stories behind Chinese affluence mesmerized me, and they still do.

For high school, I moved to a boarding school in rural Qingdao. There, my notion of China – world’s second-richest country – was not so conspicuous. No skyscrapers nor shimmering nights. I was, at first, puzzled but soon realized this too, was China.And so, I experienced the ‘hidden’ China. I bought breakfast from a coarse street vendor for one cent and played basketball in the park with locals.

I repeated those weekends. I looked up-close the life of the people of rural China, so different in wealth and culture to urban China. I knew all of China wasn’t rich, but actually experiencing the chasm between the rich and poor was another enlightenment. It took courage, as it was definitely out of my safety zone.

Resting in a park, an old man came up to me saying hi. We soon talked about my nationality, to which he mocked the absurd price of iPhones. Every Chinese I knew to this point used iPhones. I saw people living off $5 a day, and cheap but unsanitary street foods. It was not Canton, but still China.