Curtains of denial
I have a weird love-hate relationship with the malls in China. Okay, with malls anywhere, and I am guessing that is pretty common. I can't stand the sameness or the blandness. That is, until that sameness or blandness serves me in some way. Especially in China, I can count on most malls to have cleaner-than-normal public restrooms and a Starbucks. In Shenzhen I could also count on most malls to have indoor play-areas. This time of year in Shenzhen we would either have pouring rain or 32+ degrees with 95+% humidity. I loved having indoor playgrounds available.
Here in Changping (or rather, in "Changping Urban Area") we don't have the gleaming temples of conspicuous consumption like in other parts of Beijing. Most days that's a good thing, until, of course, I really wish we had a mall close by.
Just about every other week we take a bus or hire a driver to go into Beijing. I wish I could say we are doing cool things at one of the museums, but mostly we've been doing necessary things (like well-baby doctor appointments) and grocery shopping for imported stuff. The past three or four trips into the city have ended with us at the same mall, called The Village, where Myles puts on his swim trunks and plays in the fountain.
While he is playing, and Brigid is usually napping, I sip a (oh, you'll never guess) Starbucks Iced Mocha and just marvel at how far removed we are from our current homebase in Changping, and much of the reality of Beijing. The mall buildings rise up around this fountain, and even though just outside the mall grounds is unmistakably China, inside, by this fountain, the sights, the sounds, and the smells are not of China. They are most definitely of the sameness and blandness of everywhere else.
And while I'm sitting there, watching Myles enjoy himself with the kind of pure, uninhibited joy he experiences when his playtime isn't interrupted constantly by the kindly, curious questions of Changpingren, I can't help but think about how much this mall (or any mall) so little represents anything about Beijing. Maybe it is because in the past few weeks the Discovery Channel we get has been showing a lot of programs about Chinese history. Maybe it is because our weekly trips to some portion of the Great Wall, or some of my recent visits to some of Beijing's churches, most of which were destroyed and rebuilt several times. It is so hard for me not to reflect on the often violent history of this city, and how the whole idea of this mall with its clean fountain and pleasant shoppers belies this past.
Shenzhen malls gave me similar feelings of disconnect. Drinking a Starbucks in the shadow of China's largest Gucci store, I would marvel how at the same time that I was there, Randy was in another part of this same city that had very different economic conditions. That is certainly true of Beijing, too. But this city also has its long history, punctuated by wars, rebellions, and revolutions.
At the mall, I feel as though we are shrouded in curtains of denial. Myles laughing and splashing, young affluent Chinese women and expat wives walking around with full shopping bags and sparkling pedicures, my cold coffee drink--it's like nothing bad has ever happened here nor will it ever.
As much as I would love to say how we've really embraced our move to Beijing because of all the rich experiences it affords us, sometimes it is really hard not to be drawn to that same mall and exist in that bubble for a while.
Here in Changping (or rather, in "Changping Urban Area") we don't have the gleaming temples of conspicuous consumption like in other parts of Beijing. Most days that's a good thing, until, of course, I really wish we had a mall close by.
Just about every other week we take a bus or hire a driver to go into Beijing. I wish I could say we are doing cool things at one of the museums, but mostly we've been doing necessary things (like well-baby doctor appointments) and grocery shopping for imported stuff. The past three or four trips into the city have ended with us at the same mall, called The Village, where Myles puts on his swim trunks and plays in the fountain.
While he is playing, and Brigid is usually napping, I sip a (oh, you'll never guess) Starbucks Iced Mocha and just marvel at how far removed we are from our current homebase in Changping, and much of the reality of Beijing. The mall buildings rise up around this fountain, and even though just outside the mall grounds is unmistakably China, inside, by this fountain, the sights, the sounds, and the smells are not of China. They are most definitely of the sameness and blandness of everywhere else.
And while I'm sitting there, watching Myles enjoy himself with the kind of pure, uninhibited joy he experiences when his playtime isn't interrupted constantly by the kindly, curious questions of Changpingren, I can't help but think about how much this mall (or any mall) so little represents anything about Beijing. Maybe it is because in the past few weeks the Discovery Channel we get has been showing a lot of programs about Chinese history. Maybe it is because our weekly trips to some portion of the Great Wall, or some of my recent visits to some of Beijing's churches, most of which were destroyed and rebuilt several times. It is so hard for me not to reflect on the often violent history of this city, and how the whole idea of this mall with its clean fountain and pleasant shoppers belies this past.
Shenzhen malls gave me similar feelings of disconnect. Drinking a Starbucks in the shadow of China's largest Gucci store, I would marvel how at the same time that I was there, Randy was in another part of this same city that had very different economic conditions. That is certainly true of Beijing, too. But this city also has its long history, punctuated by wars, rebellions, and revolutions.
At the mall, I feel as though we are shrouded in curtains of denial. Myles laughing and splashing, young affluent Chinese women and expat wives walking around with full shopping bags and sparkling pedicures, my cold coffee drink--it's like nothing bad has ever happened here nor will it ever.
As much as I would love to say how we've really embraced our move to Beijing because of all the rich experiences it affords us, sometimes it is really hard not to be drawn to that same mall and exist in that bubble for a while.
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