Sight and Sound Around Town, Part I

Recruits

Dated August 8th, 2006, the recruit notice to be enlisted into army was posted at the entry of a neighborhood along Central Huaihai Road. In accordance, any one in between the age of 18 and 24, men or women, regardless of career, religion, ethnicity or educational background, looking for job or on the job, may register to join the army. Of course, several relevant documents such as personal ID or proof of registered residential address are required during registration. Blah-blah-blah...so much more to toe the line!

Qi-pao
In her kneeling prayer position and dressed in undersized qi-pao for her oversized drumstick limbs, a nifty looking ceramic woman was displayed at a storefront, the glass of which dramatically reflects montage of deciduous Phoenix trees and building from across the street. Qi-pao is actually an ethnic costume of the Qi folks, originally roaming over the northeastern region of China. Qi folks established the Qing Dynasty after their leaders dethroned the Ming Dynasty. They had then ruled China for nearly 400 years until the Nationalist took over about 95 year ago and in 1911. After revitalization and customized, Qi-pao is now a common dressing and taken as the representative Chinese gowns for many Chinese women. Nowadays, they prefer wearing jeans or t-shirt to Qi-pao; however, it is but usually reserved for formal occasion.

A wall painting
A sleepy fishing village just several hundreds years ago; it was an insignificant town even later on. Few critical history and events happened in this city. As a port city located at the river mouth of the Long River, Shanghai rose to its current regional, national and international stature only until the recent time. On the wall and immediately next to the door of a small wooden toyshop, the painting somehow depicts peoples from around the world, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of Shanghai.


Hu Fuming (1891-1927)
Located in front of the Luwan District Library, the bust tells about Hu Fuming. Hu was from Wuxi, Jiangsu. In 1910, he was admitted to the Social Science Department of Cornell; in 1916, he was a graduate student at Harvard. In the following year, he became the first Chinese at the University and the first Mathematician of China to receive the Ph.D. He was one of the founders of the Science magazine as well as the Science Society of China. The library was proposed named after him as the Fuming Library for Hu's contributions in the arena of science of China.

Jeremy
October 25th 2006