Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 12 | Page 92

The New Tales of Old Shanghai
Clearwater Bay School, Jiang, Isabella - 10
I
am a girl, just an ordinary girl. My name is Lily. I come from California. My father got a promotion but
unfortunately not in California, so I guess I have to move to Old Shanghai. I read books about Shanghai and
people wear these weird clothes. I have been worried for weeks, but my father was so excited to move and said there
are these Yulan Magnolia trees and they like rich, moist soil and should be planted where it is protected from
elemental extremes, but I don’t understand what he means. By the way, my father is a landscape designer.
Finally it was the day I was going to Shanghai. I had to leave all my friends I made in California. After a 16-hour long
trip we landed, exhausted! We had an insane amount of baggages. I counted 18. All people in Shanghai speak a
language called Chinese? I didn’t understand what they were saying so I just ignored them. The food there was weird
too. There were stuffs like hairy crabs, pork bellies and dumplings.
The house we stayed in Shanghai is much smaller than our house in California and I have to share rooms with my
mischievous little brother, his name is Jordan. My new school is terrible. My teacher, Ms. Kennedy, is super strict,
and I didn’t even understand what she was saying in the first couple of weeks of school. Today she gave me 11 pieces
of homework, which were due tomorrow!!!
When I was doing my lousy homework, my pencil was too dent, so I went to my room to get a sharpener. When
I was searching, at the bottom of the desk drawer I found a diary, an old, rusty diary, and it said that our house
apparently belonged to a little girl called Liang Liang! Did Liang Liang leave it intentionally so that someone would
discover it later? Or did she just want people to know she lived here? What is going to happen…
At night, I read her diary and one day she wrote about spring hiking in Pudong in 1982. She wrote about rice fields,
vegetable gardens, free-range chicken, wishing wells and fish ponds. It immediately caught my attention. On
Sunday, I asked my mum and dad if we could go to that same place to explore. When we got there, we were first
a bit disappointed because we didn’t see any things like wishing wells and fish ponds as Liang Liang described in her
diary. Instead we saw things like highrises and expressways. When I was grumpy, Dad suggested that we go to the
top of the highest building to take a bird’s-eye view. It turned out to be a fantastic idea. I enjoyed the beautiful
scenery! The view was breathtaking. The cars on the road looked like match boxes, the Huangpu River ran in front
of us like a velvet belt, and blobs of houses just laid around. We even saw the place where we were living. When I
arrived home, I started my own little diary about Shanghai. I compared Shanghai now and then. I went on field trips
and researched in the library and online. It started to make my Shanghai stay much more engaging.
Another day I read about Liang Liang’s 10th birthday. Her parents gave her a bicycle as a gift. So ever since she went
to school on bike and always took relaxing rides with parents in the neighborhood. It is a lot of fun since I always
wanted a bike because it is very relaxing and a very easy way to get to school and I begged my parents to get one for
me. My dad said there is something more interesting. He grabbed his cellphone and took me to a mysterious place.
I was really puzzled. I saw in front of me a flashy orange bicycle. He winked at me and said “GPS”. Then he scanned
the QR code on the bike and the bike was unlocked. I didn’t even see a lock and a key at all. Dad said “Go for a ride.
The trendiest way to get around!” We biked to the park, we biked to the library and we biked to the riverside. At
last, I asked my dad where we will park these cool bikes and he answered “we just leave them on the sidewalk and
someone else will ride it when he needs” I thought it was cool and amazing!!! Dad said this is what the internet brings
us.
Old Shanghai is not as bad as I thought it was. I actually had a great time!!! I got to meet new friends, try new food,
walk the spring hiking path in Pudong, read a little girl called Liang Liang’s amazing diary and learn how to use a cool
GPS bike. Hmm… I wonder which country we are going to move to next?