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China has been the focus of many discussions on globalization and how it will affect this nation that is developing at an astonishing pace. NPR has been doing a series on old Shanghai. I found this piece today, A Cinematic Ode to Shanghai’s Vanishing World. This story is about the old traditional houses, narrow alleys and tight knit communities that existed in Shanghai, a city of almost 18 million people. Shu Haolun is a filmmaker who grew up in one of these old neighborhoods. His documentary, Nostaglia, will be about this old neighborhood and will be a kind of historical piece to preserve the sense of place and community that existed before the ideas such as “development” and “globalization” challenged this old way of life. From Louisa Lim’s piece:

Shu has produced an ode to this vanishing world. He starts his documentary, Nostalgia, with his reasons for making it: Soon, I’ll only be able to see our alleyway in old photos, and in this film, he says.

Walking around his old neighborhood is like stepping into his documentary. Neighbors exchange greetings and chat as they wash clothes in concrete basins in the alleyway. Imposing, carved-stone pillars and arches frame the tall, wood doorways of the gray, three-story buildings. The buildings are shabby, their facades patched and stained by the passage of history.

And soon, this tight-knit community will be dispersed. In April, residents of this neighborhood, known as Dazhongli, received notice that their houses will be demolished. No one knows when, but everyone realizes it will be soon.

Lim writing allows the reader to imagine a bit of what the film maker’s home used to look like and also gives the reader a sense of what attributes held this neighborhood together for so long. I think the sadness in this piece is that a large part of the residents are elderly. The psychological shift of this change of life so late in life is tragic.

This video is courtesy of Weekly Links of the Week and shows the cost of the swift economic development in China. The video is an underground journalist piece by Sky News, a British news network, that interviews people who have been forced out of their homes, shows footage of village protests, and demolition crews who are making way for the new and improved China. Now this is something that you will not find in the Economist.

Keep an eye out for Nostalgia - I may even see you at the film.

Tonight I felt my first earthquake in San Francisco. At first, I did not know what was going on, only that something was wrong and I instinctively went over to my husband. We quickly grabbed shoes, jackets and water before heading outside to wait a little bit before coming back inside. This seems so silly, but it is an instinct that is quite normal when you look around and see everything moving in your apartment. When we arrived back inside, I checked out the San Francisco Chronicle and found a breaking story on the front page. It is getting updated periodically tonight, so I am not putting up a specific site address. For information specific to this quake, you can go to this link (also found on the San Francisco Chronicle) USGS Earthquake Hazards Program - Northern California.

I also started doing a little research online on hand crank flashlights and radios. I found a model that is also available on NPR.org. By purchasing the radio on NPR, a portion of the sale goes to NPR. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions by buying the hand crank radio (with flashlight), but it will help me sleep better at night (especially once my new radio is delivered). It reminds me how much I take for granted, like safety.