Meeting up with the culture jamming characters in the Dragonburn community was a welcome relief after spending the first few months in Shanghai scratching my head at what it was all about, peering at the expanse of monolithic multi-storey apartments and high rises.
Expatria in Shanghai in 2018 is a trip, to be sure, but there's a modesty about it all, an obsequious regard to the local customs and culture which is at once so familiar and modern and at the same time strange and so, well, Chinese.
You've gotta watch your step in China and not piss off the locals, there's more of them than you and they're just as afraid of the government as you are. Bless them.
No stark poverty here, though there are whispered rumours of it existing out past the end of the metro; it's all glittering metropolis, convenience stores, spotless vehicles, clean streets and dancing grandmas. QR codes, so many QR codes, turning phones into magic wands of consumer delight and sterile connectivity.
The polar bear pub crawl was my initiation into the Shanghai Cacophony Society. Sub-zero temperatures, ridiculous costumes, and a route through the French Concession that made no geographical sense whatsoever. By the third bar, I understood. By the fifth, I was a member.
You may already be a member.