Sense of Community

You will oftentimes hear people talk about the difference between a house and a home. From my experience living in cities, I have found that the turning point occurs once there is a community surrounding your house. It becomes a home when you have people you care about around you, and a physical environment that you appreciate. At GW, I found this very quickly. I made fast friends with my neighbors in my dorm and fell into a rhythm within a few weeks of arriving on campus. Despite living in three different buildings during my year and a half on campus, I found continuity throughout and always felt a sense of attachment to my house. At GW, my house was almost instantly my home. While it took a little longer, I had developed a similar feeling here in Shanghai, until last week when my community changed.  

I live in an apartment complex that is slightly down the street from Fudan University’s campus. My building has 12 stories, with no one living on the first floor. The backside of my building faces a two-lane street called Wudong Road. On the backside of the building, there were several businesses including two convenience stores, a western food stall, a cell phone stand, a Korean restaurant with a to-go window, a wonton soup stall, a fried rice stall, another Korean food stall, and a sit-down restaurant. These are the only businesses within a quarter mile of our building, and so they were always popular with all of the international students who lived in the apartment complex. Essentially it would be like living in Potomac Hall and having four or five additional restaurants next to Carvings. It created a community and was just a part of everyone’s lives.

Then it all came to an end this week when the police shut all of the food stalls and restaurants down, with the exception of the final sit-down restaurant listed above. It first started with the police showing up on Sunday night and telling all of the businesses to close up and hanging tarps over their entrances. Then on Monday, the police came and destroyed all of their equipment. Then on Tuesday, several men showed up and piled cinder blocks in front of the stands and completed closed off the restaurants with blocks and mortar. I have heard several rumors as to why the food stalls got shut down but have yet to actually find any solid evidence.

Within three days, the lively environment that existed in front of my building has turned into a quiet sidewalk. Or so I thought. This morning I walked out front and saw that one of the Korean Food stands had knocked the bricks down and was preparing to reopen. As bold as this is, I have faith that with time, the other restaurants will slowly come back to recreate the atmosphere that truly made this place I live my home.