A Soggy Farewell to Shanghai, and Hello to a Troubled America

Most of my recent days in Shanghai have been days when I wished it would just stop raining. Today, however, I leave the rain behind to return to the United States for the summer. There are a lot of things to love about Shanghai, but the weather isn't one of them. There are a lot of things to love about America, too, but much also to give me cause for trepidation as well as anticipation at my fast-approaching if temporary return.

I arrived in Shanghai from San Francisco a little more than ten months ago, and on the day I arrived, too, it was raining. There have been nice days in the months since my arrival, however, and there have been days I'll never forget. It has been an interesting ten months, to say the least, the greatest part of which has been teaching at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), to which I'll be returning in September following my summer in the States. This is my second stint as an expat educator in China, and it is a life I sorely missed during my last several years in the States. The expat life has a lot to recommend it: it is a relatively free-and-easy life, with a largely tax-free foreign income, rent-free housing at least in my case, and a distinctly global flavor unavailable at home. At SISU are faculty members from more than 20 different countries, most of us live in the same building, and many of us are friends. Beyond SISU the city of Shanghai hosts tens of thousands of expat professionals and entrepreneurs from around the world. One's social circle in such a setting encompasses the globe, but also includes other expat Americans, most of whom tend toward a liberal or progressive point-of-view on politics and social issues. Among other Americans teaching at SISU is a fellow native of my home state of Arizona, and together we've had a lot of fun ragging on sheriff Joe Arpaio, governor Jan Brewer, and the state’s absurd new immigration law. While in China I’ve been active with Democrats Abroad, the official Democratic Party organization for Americans living overseas, with many thousands of members around the world.

As I've said, there are a lot of things to love about Shanghai. In a matter of mere hours now, however, I'll be touching down again in the USA, and I can't help wondering what to expect when I get there. From America, owing to my country's overwhelming sense of psychological isolation, the rest of the world always seems small and distant, but from the rest of the world America always seems big and close; and America's current problems seem almost as big and close from China as they seem at home. As I prepared to depart the United States for China in the summer of 2009, we had a new president with a new progressive agenda, and the afterglow of the 2008 election was still warm and fresh. Since then I’ve watched from Shanghai as so many of our hopes from 2008 seem to have faded; as the bold progressive renaissance we imagined in 2008 has turned to a tragic conservative resurgence much sooner than any of us expected; as Barack Obama's joyful new America has in little more than a year become a Tea Party Nation of bitterness and hate; as the economy has failed to recover, the Arizona of my birth has become a no-go area for immigrants, and the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico have turned an oily black. I'll be spending much of my summer, not in liberal San Francisco, but in various regions of Sarah Palin's seething and stifling "Real America," where I'm all but certain to see and hear things that will make my stomach turn.

Not that I dread my summer in America: I look forward to seeing loved ones and old friends, to the mountains and tall trees of California, to the rolling green hills of Mississippi, to "walk" signals at intersections that actually mean something, and to weather that isn't rain. I look forward to walking the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley where I've spent the greater part of my adult life, to the fog rolling through the Golden Gate, and to all the familiar food items I’ve missed over the past ten months in Shanghai. Thankfully, my family no longer lives in Arizona, so like many of my fellow progressives in America I'll have no trouble faithfully boycotting the state of my birth, and honestly I won't miss it a bit. Joe Arpaio can have Arizona, and if President Obama would like to trade his birth certificate for mine, I'd be happy to say I was born in Honolulu instead of Tombstone. Nor, save a brief flight transfer in Dallas between San Francisco and Birmingham, will I have any need to mess with Texas, or for Texas to mess with me. Even as I steer clear of Arizona and Texas, however, I’ll certainly be treated to more than enough of Palin’s “Real America” to last me for another year. The xenophobic rage that has risen in volume and shrillness among these so-called “Real Americans” since Obama’s election is one of the very ugliest aspects of American life today, and couldn’t stand in sharper contrast to the liberal expat world I have grown to love.   

One day, sooner or later, I'll be returning to America to stay, at least for a good long while. For this summer, however, I'll be glad to have a ticket back to soggy old Shanghai.

Hillary Meets and Matches Haibao at Shanghai Expo

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the USA and China pavilions at the World Expo in Shanghai on May 22, meeting the expo's mascot, Haibao, in a matching sea-blue suit as shown in photo at right. During her visit to the expo Clinton met Chinese children and youth at the USA Pavilion and toured the China Pavilion with Shanghai mayor Han Zheng.

Asked how she felt about the USA Pavilion during her tour, Clinton said only that she was "relieved" the project was completed at all, noting that when she assumed her current position US participation in the expo remained unclear due to lack of public funding. Commercial branding of the privately-funded USA Pavilion has received a great deal of negative coverage in the media, in which it has been described as dull and overwhelmingly corporate in flavor.

While in Shanghai Clinton also met with Chinese Communist Party municipal secretary Yu Zhengsheng and visited a Boeing aircraft maintenance facility, highlighting the importance of the US-China trade relationship before heading to Beijing attend the second bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Clinton's visit to China comes as part of six-day Asian tour also including stops in Japan and Korea.

Photo: Independent. See also: BBC, CNN, Voice of America.

Hillary Clinton Asia Tour to Include Shanghai Expo Visit, Beijing Strategic and Economic Dialogue

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton departs Washington DC on May 20 for a six-day Asian tour that will include an extended visit to China and brief visits to Japan and South Korea. Her time in China May 21-26 will include a visit to the the USA Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai and participation in the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing.

Clinton will first travel to Tokyo on May 21 to discuss regional and global issues with with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. Okinawa basing issues are expected to be among those Clinton will discuss with Japanese leaders.

Clinton will then travel on to Shanghai, where she will visit the 2010 World Expo on May 22. While at the Expo, she will attend a dinner in honor of the USA Pavilion sponsors and others who helped develop the USA Pavilion. On May 23, she will participate in a commercial diplomacy event to highlight the importance of US market access and job creation.

From Shanghai Clinton will travel to Beijing on May 23, where she and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will join their respective Chinese co-chairs, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, for the second joint meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Over 200 US officials including cabinet members and agency heads will make up the US delegation. On May 25 Clinton and Geithner will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.

On May 26 Clinton will travel to Seoul, meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan. While in Seoul Clinton will discuss regional stability and other issues with South Korean leaders including the sinking of the South Korean warship, the Cheonan.

Clinton will return to the United States on May 26.

(Sources: US State Dept. (Clinton World Expo visit briefing, U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue briefing), Foreign Policy, Agence France Presse)

Obama Club to Open in Shanghai

In yet another sign that the world looks upon the current U.S. president quite differently from his predecessors, Shanghai will see the opening of its very own Obama Club on April 26 (website under construction). I for one will make definite plans to be there on opening night, and can easily see it becoming a favorite watering hole for thirsty expats such as myself.

"Probably the largest entertainment clubhouse in Shanghai," according to its promotional materials, "the Obama Club is pampered and lavishly decorated - fitted with international top of the range multi-media, audio, and visual equipment designed to blow your mind.... The Obama Club will bring international glamour, excitement, and refined luxury to the Shanghai entertainment scene."

The club will open just in time for the opening also of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai on May 1.

(see also Huffington Post)

Teabag Express: Nashville SUV Driver Rams Car for Obama Bumper Sticker

An incident of Driving While Teabagging resulting in violent road rage over an Obama bumper sticker occurred in Nashville, Tennessee today. From WKRN, Nashville (includes video):

Road Rage, Accident Centers on Obama Bumper Sticker

Mar. 26, 2010

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Nashville man says he and his 10-year-old daughter were victims of road rage Thursday afternoon, all because of a political bumper sticker on his car.

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University.

He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

Duren had just picked up his 10-year-old daughter from school and had her in the car with him.

"He pointed at the back of my car," Duren said, "the bumper, flipped me off, one finger salute."

But it didn't end there.

Duren told News 2 that Weisiger honked his horn at him for awhile, as Duren stopped at a stop sign.

Once he started driving again, down Blair Boulevard, towards his home, he said, "I looked in the rear view mirror again, and this same SUV was speeding, flying up behind me, bumped me."

Duren said he applied his brake and the SUV smashed into the back of his car.

He then put his car in park to take care of the accident, but Weisiger started pushing the car using his SUV.

Duren said, "He pushed my car up towards the sidewalk, almost onto the sidewalk."

Police say Harry Weisiger is charged with felony reckless endangerment in the incident.

Friends don't let friends teabag and drive.