shanghai, china

i hold two images of china in my head, i tell HOM. there is the mid-century developing nation with leafy trees in dingy neighborhoods and drab-bish blue-clad middle-aged folk practicing taichi and wolfing down noodles on rickety tables before going to work in communal factories, courtesy of an amalgam of lu hsun's short stories and PRC docu-movies of the seventies. and then there is the high rise mega city with eight-lane highways electric cars state-of-the-art amenities and effortless elegance and sophistication, as if the bund leapfrogged into the new century without any intermediate squalor.

it is quite delightful to be able to integrate both images today.