Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 499

felt as tightly packed as sardines in a can? Well, so did I, but probably about 10 times worse. The crowd itself reminded me of
salmons I had once seen during the salmon run, all trying to swim up the same river as fast as possible, desperate to reach their
destination. What a contrast this was to the old days, people meandering without a care in the world. Sighing, I added to my
mental list another thing to avoid in Shanghai, then pushed my way to one of the inner streets, where there was less people. After
about ten minutes, I had made my way to one of the poorer areas of the town, where the towers were reduced to little houses,
and the hustle and bustle of the city, and all the noise, faded away. I breathed in the air, then proceeded to cough. When did the
air quality get so bad? I frowned, then with a flick of my hand changed all the smog and pollution in a 10 mile radius around me
back into clear, crisp air, as the way it should be in autumn. Seeing all the window shutters closed, and doors shut, with no one
out in the streets, my eyebrows knitted in confusion. Taking a photo out of my pocket, I looked, and immediately felt as if I had
been transported back to that time, as a flashback ensured.
Last time I had visited Shanghai, one thing that had struck me the most was the sense of community, where everyone
knew everyone else, and not only that, but also good friends, especially neighbors. Everyday, the scene of old women sitting out
in the streets, working with their friends, amicably chatting and conversing, enjoying the sunshine, the fresh air, and most of all
their friends’ company. Everywhere you looked, you could see smiles, and feel the light and airy atmosphere. It was the time of a
simpler life, where one didn’t need much to be happy, and simply counted their blessings, and appreciated the little things in life.
When I left, one of the friends I had made during the time, a carpenter, gave a small chair as a momento, something which the
elders used to sit on while working or relaxing. Touched, I had kept it, and till this day, still sits in the corner of my room. It
reminded me of a better time, of a time where there weren’t any petty squabbles over the simplest things, of a time where
everyone was kind and giving. The chair represented how the values people once had, honesty, generosity, being caring,
ungrudgingly, are now mostly lost, in a world where all one thought about was reaching the top, being the best. Though little,
the chair was a powerful reminder to me, of a past world. Things do not have to be huge to make a difference.
With the flashback fresh in my mind, the empty street seemed like a ghost town to me. In my mind I could still see the
elderly in the street, superimposed on what I now see. Taking a quick snapshot, I shook my head, saying a quiet goodbye to the
community there once was here. I doubt people even knew who their neighbours were now, let alone would willingly spend
time with them.
By the time the week was over, I had managed to take all the pictures I needed, and began pasting them into a
scrapbook, comparing the images of the past to those of the present. The change was truly enormous, until you couldn’t even tell
that they are the same place. As I stuck the photos on one by one, I could only now begin to appreciate the hard work of those
who had allowed for this to happen. Not only those written in the history books, but the forgotten, people who had contributed
as much as they could, yet went unremembered, their deeds lost in history. Because of the combined efforts of everyone who
helped, now, Shanghai is glorious and imposing, China’s biggest and most prosperous city, boasting a blend of the East and the
West. However, as this dynamic metropolis continues to develop, one cannot help but think about the old Shanghai, of its
cultures and traditions, and how easily they can be lost. For 700 years, it has been a merchant city, a multicultural hub, yet as it
develops, traditional Shanghai quickly faded into memory, then no longer that. Now little remains of what Shanghai once was,
and what does remain developers are keen to demolish, to make way for more modern inventions, and historians are struggling to
preserve. Throughout the years, Shanghai has transformed from a glorified fishing village into an international financial trading
center, emerging from a relative obscurity into a well-known industry and finance hub. Lost in thought, I closed the book, and
walked away.