False alarm on the emptiness - there is life in Shanghai! I hear it loud and clear.

I admit, I was pretty much bummed out yesterday for too many reasons and no reason at all. But something happened that ripped apart my preconceived notions of Shanghai and its ugly concrete mask. Underneath I found a beautifully scarred face, one that has been marred by the lines of its strenuous history.

Anyway, enough of the flowery bullshit. A friend told me that he loved Shanghai because of it's continuously changing nature, and the challenges faced in having to react to its fluctuating forces - as well as the VAST opportunities that are so obviously apparent here. I was jaded by keywords like "potential" and "opportunity" in regards to China. Jaded due to repetitively hearing it over and over from the media, my teachers, colleagues, friends - to the point where I started to question whether this idea was in fact true? Is China really on the cusp of becoming a superpower, or is everyone just guilty of regurgitating information, thus caught in the vicious cycle that allows us to believe that because everyone is saying it, it must be true! I just didn't see it when I first came to Shanghai. I saw emptiness. However, I tend to turn my head the other way and disregard repetitious ideas - out of ignorance or pretension? I'm not sure. But it wasn't until recently that I've been able to experience the Chinese phenomena first-hand. After having a great conversation with a friend in the program, I realized that the vertical ladder is extremely short here. Resources are at the tip-tops of my fingers and I can maneuver through situations with buttery ease. I am kicking myself in the butt right now for being so passive and sheltered during the last two months here - but at least this realization came to me now. I'm glad that I'm a step closer towards the answer I was seeking for to the question I didn't know I was asking.

Anyway, I am embarking on a musical adventure and attempting to discover and encapsulate the true nature of Shanghai's musical landscape. Comparing it to the backdrop of the Western scene that I'm so used to in LA & Boston, it is dramatically different. When placed side by side, I view the West as an aging old man and Shanghai to be a teenager about to hit puberty. Or maybe it's like the case of Benjamin Button and it's aging younger. I don't know. But anyway, as you can tell I'm not sure if Shanghai is in its youth or if its declining from its peak. I've had the opportunity to discuss these ideas and questions I have with some of the fore-running figures within the Jazz community, as rock/indie/punk are not very prevalent here. Although I hear Pepsi is trying to put together a "Battle of the Bands" event to help bring more publicity to the local talent here in China. In any case I must say I am having the time of my life meeting people, which is what I love to do, and learning about their roles within whatever lives they have built for themsleves here. My over-analyzing nature is coming to use when it comes to probing these individuals and it satisfies my tendencies to pick people's brains. Wo xi huan!

I'm still gathering the facts - but it seems that Jazz was actually influenced by Du Yu Sheng, an Opium drug lord that reigned in the 1920's. He is was an advocate for progressive music and coupled with the musical composer Li Jin Hui, they together paved the way for Jazz. Somewhere down the line the government put a stop to the blossoming cultural growth and Jazz was lost for about 40 years. And only just recently is it making a comeback.