For time and proportionality’s sake my excursion to South Shaanxi Rd. Post Office was a short one. For time’s, because I went there after lunch on a workday — my internship is at a firm not too far off, but still, spending any more time at the post office would mean less time at the office. For proportionality’s sake, because the office is a small, one-counter establishment, and offers little for show.

Other than the “Post Office of the Red Youth,” that is. This is one of those “youth post offices” I mentioned in an earlier post, of which there must be at least 11 in Shanghai. I was expecting something –well, not something grand because, come on, post office — something interesting, unique, perhaps even interactive, where I might find panels of information on the eponymous “Red Youth.” I was, in other words, expecting to read about young fighters in the Red Army, or at least some memorable quotes that everybody could readily appropriate, a prime example being Liang Qichao’s “A nation is only as strong as its youth,” a remark found in his rousing 1900 essay on the roles youth was to play in China’s reforms.

So imagine my surprise when all I found was a glass counter, a security guard napping behind it, and a few more glass stalls filled with, no, not exhibits or information panels, but stamp albums and envelopes showcasing all sorts of patterns, many of which are only tangentially related to Red (i.e., socialism and communism), Youth, or the Red Youth. Half of these were not even for sale. I went to the counter and asked the clerk whether this “Post Office of the Red Youth” had always been so deserted. “I don’t really know.” He said, “But you are here at the wrong time. They have activities here every month or so.” What sort of activities? Who hosts these activities? When will the next activity be? He did not seem to know the answer of any of these questions, so I checked his stamps for sale, found nothing of particular note, took a few pictures, and left.