one of the newsreel screens projector is being repaired by the army technician. When he walks along the tramlines, he notices two glimmering
bar-girls in the moving rickshaw. Suddenly, Jim notices that the Chinese are already turning their spectacle to a crowd below the steps of Shanghai Club.
Jim sets eyes on a group of drunken American and British sailors who are arguing to each other and waves at the cruiser moored at the Bund. Jim
observes that these sailors urinate down the steps. Fifty feet below them, Jim notices expressionless face of the Chinese as the arcs of urine forms a
foaming street that run down to the street and to the pavement which covers clerks, coolies, and peasant women Ballard, 1984: 350-351. These
American and British sailors have the higher status in Shanghai because they have a duty to maintain the peace in this city, but it looks like they only use
their status for their own sake. This is explained that China is still control under the foreign power, in this case by the Allies Faction. Jim observes the
expressionless Chinese that cannot do anything about it, but Jim believes that someday the Chinese will punish the rest of the world and take a frightening
revenge.
2. Jim’s Experiences Related to Economic Situations
a. Jim‟s Experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War from
1937 until 1945 The number of beggars and refugees in China increased during the
Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 until 1945, especially in Shanghai.
One example, when Jim‟s family is on the way to the Christmas party at Hungjao, Jim observes many beggars along Amherst Avenue. One of them
brings Craven A tins box and asks for donation using it. The other beggars show their wounds and lurid. Another one is legless and he brings a wooden
dumb-bell in each hand. Jim notices refugees from towns and villages pouring to Shanghai. The other view that Jim sees is the peasants that consist
of adults and children that bent under the bales strapped of their backs, forcing the wheels with their hands. Jim also notices many wooden carts and
rickshaw coolies crowd the streets doing their habitual activity, like hauling at their shafts, chanting, and spitting, veins as thick as fingers clenched into the
meats of their swollen calves. Petty clerks push bicycles load with mattresses, charcoal stoves, and sacks of rice. Jim feels sorry for this people, but he
cannot do anything because it is very common in Shanghai during that time Ballard, 1984: 21-22. These people are pouring into Shanghai because they
want to find another chance to maintain their life. The condition during that time is very difficult because many Chinese have lost their wealth and
occupation. Their own government cannot help them because they are fighting against their own rivals and China is controlled by the foreigners
who never care about the native people.
b. Jim‟s Experiences when Surviving Alone in Demolished Shanghai after
the Invasion in 8 December 1941 The cruelty that is committed by the Japanese is also seen from the
way they treated the refugees who are camping outside the prisoner camp. The other days in the prisoner camp, Jim has a conversation with Mr. Maxted.
They are chatting until they reach the kitchen beside the guard house. They are ready to queue with other hundreds prisoners to get a food for today.
From their queue line, Jim can observe some of the groups of thirty Chinese refugees that camp outside the gates which are protected by barb-wired. They
consist of destitute peasants and villagers, soldiers from the puppet armies and abandoned children. They are not permitted by the Japanese to get in. Jim
notices that they have already there since three months ago. Jim usually sees some of these refugees force to climb through the wire at night to get some
foods. He also notices that for some refuges that are captured will be clubbed to death in the bank by the Japanese. Jim realizes that they will never be
admitted by the Japanese to get in and Jim is afraid if they will stay until they die Ballard, 1984: 179-180. This condition happens after a long war in
China. These refugees do not have anything to survive. Sometimes some of them try to get some foods from the camp and many of them die trying
because they are killed by the Japanese with cruelty.
c. Jim‟s Experiences to Lunghua Prisoner Camp after being Captured by the
Japanese Soldiers after the Invasion on Shanghai in 1941 China is famous with their traditionalism from every aspect. Some of
the traditions are seen from the occupations they have and the goods they produce. This tradition is seen when Jim surrenders to the Japanese after the
invasion into Shanghai. He and other Western prisoners are brought to a prisoner camp at Lunghua by the Japanese military. They pass through
Chapei area. This area is the industrial suburb of the northern Shanghai which contains tenement and derelict cotton mills. Jim sees the platoons of the
Chinese puppet troop patrol around the area and he smells the foetid air of human‟s fertilizer as the effect of the invasion.
Were they lost? For an hour, as they trundled through the industrial suburbs of Northern Shanghai, …
The endless street of Chapei ran fast, an area of tenements and derelict cotton mills, police barracks and shanty towns built on the banks of
black canals. They drove below the overhead conveyors of a steel works. Shuttered pawnshop stood outside the abandoned radio and
cigarette factories, … … They passed the ruin of Chapei ceramic works, … Ballard, 1984:
126-127. From the above quotation, Chapei area was a place for Chinese traditional
artists to produce many famous ceramic works before the Second Sino Japanese war in 1937. The Westerners built an industrial area in this place
after this place was destroyed during the war. These ceramic artists who lost their occupation then work in Westerner industry as workers.
d. Jim‟s Experiences when Sightseeing around Shanghai Bund Two Months
after the Second World War is Over Jim wants to see the change in Shanghai after the Second World War
is over. He walks down from SS Arrawa to the Shanghai Bund. He notices that Shanghai is more overcrowded than before the Second World War. He
sees thousand of Chinese, trams, limousines, jeeps and trucks of the US military, and also a horde of rickshaws and pedicabs. He also notices many
American and British servicemen in and out of the hotels along the Bunds. Beside, at the jetties along the Arrawa, Jim also observes many sailors
come shores from the cruisers moored in mid-river. As these sailors step from the landing craft, Jim observes the Chinese in their professions pursue these
sailors. The Chinese has many kinds of profession, such as pickpocket; pimp; prostitute; bar-trout; vendor of liquor; opium dealer, gold dealer; and pedicab
driver. Jim also contemplates that many American sailors who are assigned to protect the peace in Shanghai are walking away with some bar-girls.
As they step from the landing craft the Chinese surged forward, gangs of pickpockets and pedicab driver, prostitutes and bar-touts, vendors
hawking bottles of home-brew Johnny Walker, gold dealers and opium traders, the evening citizenry of Shanghai in all its black silk,
fox fur and flash. … Their arm around the bar-girls screaming obscenities at the sleek
Chinese pimps in their pre-war Packard, down from the blocks in the back-alley garages of the Nanking road Ballard, 1984: 345.
These kinds of professions have settled in China since a long time ago. Many
of the Chinese are working in trading and commerce businesses. Jim observes many traders in Shanghai who are trading many kinds of goods and services
to the customers.
On the other days before returns to England, Jim asks Yang, who has worked again as his chauffeur after the Second World War is over, to drive
him to Lunghua prisoner camp. Jim sees that this place has already been taken over by the Allied Forces as an airfield for British and American Air
force. On his way back to International Settlement through the western suburbs of Shanghai, Jim notices Nationalist soldiers in their American tanks,
trying to find the refugees and bring them back to Shanghai. Noticing these refugees, Jim realizes that there is no rice or land to crop anymore in
Shanghai. At the end of October he ordered the unenthusiastic Yang to drive him
to Lunghua. The set off through the western suburbs of Shanghai, and soon reached the first of the fortified checkpoint that guarded the
entrances to the city. The nationalist soldiers in their American tank were turning back hundreds of destitute peasants, without rice or land
to crop, trying to find refugee in Shanghai Ballard, 1984: 347.
From the above quotation, it is seen that China is agricultural country in
which the majority of the people as farmers. The lands and fields that once were used by the farmers to make living are being taken over by the
Westerners to build many industries. This condition is worsened by the Second Sino-Japanese War that destroys their wealth and occupation.
3. Jim’s Experiences Related to Social Cultural Circumstances
