Park Life - Shanghai, China, November 2018

The parks in Shanghai are social centres – calm oasis in the middle of the modern frenetic city. Wandering around the parks of a morning I would stop to watch people practising tai chi, their movements calm and fluid. The same couldn’t be said for the group doing some kind of contorted face exercise. In another area a spot of ballroom dancing was the order of the day as couples took to the pathway twirling their partners accompanied by music. In a discreet corner old men sat hunched over a serious card game. Children, too young for school, ran through the throng usually accompanied by a grandparent. 













In People’s Park we happened along a particular spectacle - rows of elderly parents behind opened umbrellas. Pinned on the umbrellas was a piece of paper giving their child’s age, height, weight, zodiac sign, career prospects. All this detail provided in the hope of attracting the interest of the parents of a prospective suitor. According to the guide book, they come most weekends in the hope of finding a life-partner for their unmarried children, often without the knowledge of their offspring! It was a poignant sight – so many people with umbrellas looking sad and slightly desperate. We presumed the majority were looking for wives for their sons as there’s a shortage of men due to the one child policy, which was only relaxed a few years ago.  

Following the meandering path-way we happened upon an old lady in a wheelchair singing to her family. Her face radiated with pleasure as her family joined her in the chorus.