Cupid’s arrow strikes hearts in Shanghai
Print Edition
FINDING Mr Right is never an easy task at the best of times. And it generally sneaks up on you when you least expect it. This is, indeed, the case with Angie Cassisi.
The 24-year-old Italian was working out in the gym when Cupid’s arrow was fired from Maxim Ivanchenko’s bow.
“We used to work together at the same boxing gym and went on our first date straight from there,” the 25-year-old Ukrainian man recalls how his love blossomed with the fashion designer.
They are still very much in the early days of romance, discovering each other and seeking out new exciting adventures in China’s most populous city.
Q: Do you have any interesting stories related to Shanghai?
Angie: Yes. I am an Italian. Usually when I mention Italy, people say things like Italian soccer, Italian shoes and Italian fashion.
But one day I was in the elevator with a taitai (madam) in my building, and she asked me: “Where are you from?” And I said: “I am an Italian,” and she got really excited. She took out of her bag an Italian laundry detergent.
She said her couch has never been so clean since she started using it, and despite it being expensive she was so happy about it. We even didn’t know where to look for this detergent in Italy, although she did say she bought it there. The woman was around 60 or 70 years old, so it was quite strange.
Maxim: I often go to a takeaway store where people don’t or can’t speak English. I’d been going there for a couple of months when one day I heard someone calling my name, “Max, Max, Max!”
I was really confused because no one there speaks English, and no one there knew my name. And I looked around, and I see this Chinese girl calling my name and looking at me. So, I said “hi” and she asked, “Do you remember me?” I said, “Of course,” but actually I didn’t.
So, she told me she remembered me from when I was doing French classes in France, and she told me she was a really good friend of one of my classmates.
Why is this story interesting? Because it reveals how small the world really is! To go from a country to a city which has over 24 million people. It goes to show how small it can be at times.
Q: How do you spend your weekends in Shanghai?
Angie: It depends. I would like to go to some interesting shows, art exhibitions if there are some, or just maybe have brunch with friends. A couple years ago, I liked going to clubs. Now I like sitting around in a popular pub area and having a drink. And also outdoor activities can be good.
Maxim: I would say it’s a combination of sports and active leisure, coupled with spending the evenings with friends. I recently started playing football on Sunday evenings.
Q: What do you love about Shanghai?
Maxim: I like that sometimes Chinese people are more interested in other cultures and countries. I appreciate that. I like to learn about other cultures and I like history, so for me, when I meet someone from a different culture, I always tend to ask something about where they come from.
Q: And what do you dislike about Shanghai?
Maxim: What I don’t like about Shanghai is the pollution, but after living here for a year, it’s not the worst part of it. The city is quite densely populated, and since it develops so quickly economically, people tend to be very much in their own world, and they don’t really notice other people around them. I wouldn’t say they are aggressive, but maybe a bit inconsiderate. China needs to work a bit more on developing a civil society in the culture.
Q: Compared with your countries, are there any shortages in Shanghai?
Angie: Maybe some food. Normally I get very lucky because I am an Italian, and you could find pretty much everything.
Max: In my country we have a lot more parks and green areas. You can go to a park at any time in the day and you can walk on the grass and sit on the benches, if you want to enjoy nature. But in some Shanghai parks you can’t stay on the grass and some areas are restricted.
Q: Any impressive memory during your life?
Angie: One day my friends and I met an Italian guy and his friends on the Metro. He told me he was doing some research for his PhD degree on a village where a lot of Chinese immigrants from Italy had settled. We instantly became friends and decided to go to this village he was researching.
We found that they all spoke Italian in the village and there were many Italian products there. It was a very small place in Zhejiang, maybe in Wenzhou.
Maxim: I went with Angie to Sanya. On the second or third day, we met a shaokao laoban (an owner of a barbecue store). He just started talking with Angie and said she speaks good Chinese.
Then he was looking for somebody to translate his menu into Russian, so I kindly agreed. It wasn’t a difficult job, but we helped him and did a bit extra on top, just to make it look nice and more adaptable toward people speaking Russian.
He gave me the name of the dish and I would translate it into something understandable for Russian people. I had no idea what was in the dish, although I’d want to know what’s inside, but we never went that far.
The next day he invited us for dinner. He brought us a lot of food and wine. This continued for a few days but, interestingly, he never joined us.
We wanted to have a drink and dinner together, so finally on the day we were leaving he joined us. After we finished a bottle of wine, he brought over six or seven bottles of beer. We were drinking and toasting each other, ganbei (cheers), and in the end got quite drunk.
It’s not a life-changing story but what is interesting is that some people speak Russian in Sanya! He and I couldn’t speak together, yet we could still kind of understand each other.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
