Human drama on the doorstep
Print Edition
SHANGHAI is home to an array of extravagantly named streets, such as Anfu Road (Peaceful Happiness Road), Yongfu Road (Eternal Fortune Road), and Fumin Rd (Rich People Road). Radio reporter Rob Schmitz lives on what is perhaps the most auspiciously named one of all: Changle Road, a 2-mile-long (3.22km) lane which provides the title for his new book “Street of Eternal Happiness.”
Schmitz first came to China in 1996 as a Peace Corps volunteer, and was assigned to Zigong, a prefectural-level city in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, to teach English at a teachers college.
“It was the most amazing time that I had spent in China,” recalled Schmitz at M on the Bund for the launch of his book. “We were perhaps the first ever foreign residents since before 1949. Every morning when I got up and pulled open the curtain, there would be at least 12 children outside the window, trying to sneak a peek at me. Simple trips to the wet market became public events as crowds of people surrounded us, scrutinizing and making amusing comments about our every move.”
Life in Zigong was hard. However, the bond Schmitz managed to develop with its people inspired him to become a journalist focused on China.
“It was hard not to be moved by day-to-day life there, and my yearning to capture these rare and fascinating moments led me to start writing; and later, when I was able to speak Chinese, to begin to talk to my Chinese friends about their lives and their dreams,” Schmitz said.
Returning to China in 2010 as China correspondent for American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” Schmitz was based in Shanghai. It was 15 years since his last visit and he was amazed at the changes he saw.
But in China’s gleaming financial capital, it was the personal stories of ordinary people that inspired his foray into non-fiction.
“I thought I would make it as simple as possible — the street that I lived on. And I think what I learned is that all the stories you could hope to entice readers with, they’re all there,” Schmitz said.
The veteran radio journalist talks about his new book and the process behind it with Shanghai Daily.
How did the book come about and what was the biggest challenge during the process of writing it?
It started as a series of radio stories that I reported between 2012 and 2013 for Marketplace. Every month of the year, I did a single story about somebody who lived or worked on a single street in Shanghai. My aim was to focus on the lives of laobaixing (everyday people) — their hopes, dreams, fears, and how they navigated this incredible change that was happening all around them.
In a simple walk outside my door to talk to my neighbors, I’d pocket stories full of joy, heartbreak, and drama — all the elements needed for a great book.
However, it’s a bit challenging to decide when to stop; where to find the connections and relationships, and how not to lose my objectivity while writing.
What was the most surprising thing you discovered?
It was Chinese New Year’s Eve, 2013. My friends handed me a shoe box of letters dating back to the 1950s that they’d discovered at an old junk shop in our neighborhood. The letters were written between a man who had been arrested for “practicing capitalism” and exiled to Delingha Farm, the first labor camp in Qinghai Province, and his wife, who took care of the couple’s seven children in a crowded lane home along Changle Road.
I tracked down the only son of the couple and got to know him personally after reading so much about him as a child in those letters.
Who was the character you liked the most?
Of my five main characters, Chen Kai, who goes by the nickname CK, is my favorite. He undergoes the most dramatic change. He had a miserable boyhood — at age 11, he attempted suicide after his parents divorced. Afterward, he threw himself into his studies and secured a job at a state-owned enterprise before turning his back on the “iron rice bowl” (secure employment) to chase a dream in Shanghai.
When I met him four years ago, he was a rather rakish, restless and insecure entrepreneur in his 20s, selling sandwiches at a shop on the street, and accordions over the phone.
Now CK’s confident and successful, and he’s on a new quest for spirituality. He’s discovered the tools to navigate a system he spent much of his life struggling against, and he’s searching for deeper meaning. I see him as a representative of China’s future.
What is the substance of the Chinese dreams? Do you have predictions for the future of China’s development?
As far as dreams go, individual Chinese — much like people everywhere — possess their own dreams, and they’re more intensely personal than a collective dream for the motherland.
There have been a lot of predictions for stormy weather in future, but I’m not so sure whether that’s going to happen. When you examine Xi Jinping’s campaigns since he became the Party leader three years ago, most are aimed at improving the lives of China’s poorest people.
This move is less altruistic than it is survivalist. Because the Party knows full well its history. They know where they came from — and they know the potential for instability among that population.
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