Dear Readers,
Below is a short memoir I wrote about an experience I had when we were in Shanghai . We have since moved on to Tokyo and I will be posting a blog about that soon.
Shanghai is a completely different part of China. Many people say it is the city of the future, and in many ways it is the same as New York. Shanghai is always awake, busy and crowded. It is a global business hub. My dad told me, he saw me living there in the future. Shanghai is filled with modern skyscrapers and office buildings. But there are also old apartment buildings in the French, British, and American concessions. This city is so much alike to other cities I have been to, and therefore I don’t think I will remember the landscape and the city much, but I will remember the people I encountered on the way.
On the Sunday before we left Shanghai, we walked to Fuxing park. Fuxing park is a big open grass field where lots of the locals come to practice sports, diablo, kite tricks and even drone flying. I had my soccer ball in hand as we entered the park as I was planning on practicing my juggling. I began to wander over to a park bench while my my mom and brothers began to play badminton. On the way over to the park bench, an elderly man, with short white hair and crystal blue eyes passed by. He smiled at me before taking a sip from his Starbucks coffee. I smiled back and waved, then I continued to walk in the direction of the park bench. Once I had dropped my jacket and backpack on the bench, I looked behind me, searching for my dad to come and help me practice. I saw him, talking to the man I had seen just a minute earlier. I skipped over to them, and to my surprise my dad wasn’t talking, he was singing! And the old man was humming along. When my father finished singing, the man began to sing. A different song this time, I’m not quite sure what song it was, but he sang in perfect unbroken English. His voice was strong, clear, and on pitch. He finished singing a few lines and glanced over at me.
“Can you sing?” He asked, with only a hint of an accent.
“Well… I ummm…” I stammered.
“Why don’t you sing a song from a musical?” My father encouraged me.
I racked my brain for any song from a musical, and the only one I could think of at the time was ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie.
“The sun’ll come out tomorrow,” I began in a quite hesitant voice. My dad and the man looked at me expectantly. All I wanted at the moment was to belt out the song on perfect pitch. But I couldn’t get my voice to work right. I stumbled through the next few lines, trying not to make eye contact with the man. I didn’t understand why I was so nervous! I had sang for people so many times before!
The man clapped politely when I finished, and he and my dad started up a harmony of the song ‘Moon River’. I sang along adding a soprano line, all the while deep in thought. I thought about a similar, well not so similar, Sunday two years ago. I was in the car with my dad after a soccer game. I can’t remember if we had won or lost, but that’s not important. My dad was face timing my Saba and Safta. I had just recently been cast as one of the Von Trap children in the musical ‘The Sound of Music’. My Saba had asked me to sing a song from ‘The Sound of Music’ for him, but I was too shy, so I refused. We went on talking but I could tell he was disappointed that I hadn’t sung to him. At 1 am the next morning we got a call that my Saba past away. I never got to sing to him again, and I will always regret not singing to him.
The old Chinese man reminded me of my Saba, with his smooth voice and rough laugh. We finished the song and I pushed through the last high note with extra perseverance. My dad and I said goodbye to the man then, and he continued to saunter around the park sipping coffee and humming. I began to play soccer with some local Chinese boys my age, but all the time I heard a small voice in my head scolding for not trying harder to sing for the man.
再见 Zàijiàn,
Liv the Explorer
P.S. If you scroll down on my Asia blog page, you will find two new blogs about China. One titled Yangshuo and the other is titled
Longji Rice terraces.
Below is a short memoir I wrote about an experience I had when we were in Shanghai . We have since moved on to Tokyo and I will be posting a blog about that soon.
Shanghai is a completely different part of China. Many people say it is the city of the future, and in many ways it is the same as New York. Shanghai is always awake, busy and crowded. It is a global business hub. My dad told me, he saw me living there in the future. Shanghai is filled with modern skyscrapers and office buildings. But there are also old apartment buildings in the French, British, and American concessions. This city is so much alike to other cities I have been to, and therefore I don’t think I will remember the landscape and the city much, but I will remember the people I encountered on the way.
On the Sunday before we left Shanghai, we walked to Fuxing park. Fuxing park is a big open grass field where lots of the locals come to practice sports, diablo, kite tricks and even drone flying. I had my soccer ball in hand as we entered the park as I was planning on practicing my juggling. I began to wander over to a park bench while my my mom and brothers began to play badminton. On the way over to the park bench, an elderly man, with short white hair and crystal blue eyes passed by. He smiled at me before taking a sip from his Starbucks coffee. I smiled back and waved, then I continued to walk in the direction of the park bench. Once I had dropped my jacket and backpack on the bench, I looked behind me, searching for my dad to come and help me practice. I saw him, talking to the man I had seen just a minute earlier. I skipped over to them, and to my surprise my dad wasn’t talking, he was singing! And the old man was humming along. When my father finished singing, the man began to sing. A different song this time, I’m not quite sure what song it was, but he sang in perfect unbroken English. His voice was strong, clear, and on pitch. He finished singing a few lines and glanced over at me.
“Can you sing?” He asked, with only a hint of an accent.
“Well… I ummm…” I stammered.
“Why don’t you sing a song from a musical?” My father encouraged me.
I racked my brain for any song from a musical, and the only one I could think of at the time was ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie.
“The sun’ll come out tomorrow,” I began in a quite hesitant voice. My dad and the man looked at me expectantly. All I wanted at the moment was to belt out the song on perfect pitch. But I couldn’t get my voice to work right. I stumbled through the next few lines, trying not to make eye contact with the man. I didn’t understand why I was so nervous! I had sang for people so many times before!
The man clapped politely when I finished, and he and my dad started up a harmony of the song ‘Moon River’. I sang along adding a soprano line, all the while deep in thought. I thought about a similar, well not so similar, Sunday two years ago. I was in the car with my dad after a soccer game. I can’t remember if we had won or lost, but that’s not important. My dad was face timing my Saba and Safta. I had just recently been cast as one of the Von Trap children in the musical ‘The Sound of Music’. My Saba had asked me to sing a song from ‘The Sound of Music’ for him, but I was too shy, so I refused. We went on talking but I could tell he was disappointed that I hadn’t sung to him. At 1 am the next morning we got a call that my Saba past away. I never got to sing to him again, and I will always regret not singing to him.
The old Chinese man reminded me of my Saba, with his smooth voice and rough laugh. We finished the song and I pushed through the last high note with extra perseverance. My dad and I said goodbye to the man then, and he continued to saunter around the park sipping coffee and humming. I began to play soccer with some local Chinese boys my age, but all the time I heard a small voice in my head scolding for not trying harder to sing for the man.
再见 Zàijiàn,
Liv the Explorer
P.S. If you scroll down on my Asia blog page, you will find two new blogs about China. One titled Yangshuo and the other is titled
Longji Rice terraces.