Geography
Shanghai's Rain Does Not Make Sound
- Aquatic
- Floral
- Ozone
Shanghai’s rain falling in theWutong district is mute.
The houses in theWutong district are a hundred years old. New-style lilong, red brick, sloped roofs, eaves extending half a meter. Rain first hits the leaves — sycamore leaves are large, one drop of water becomes a sheet of water on a leaf, then slides down the veins, drips onto felt, finally drips onto stone slabs. From leaf to stone slab, about one and a half seconds. In those one and a half seconds, rain has already changed materials three times.
This is rain in theWutong district. It does not fall directly. It takes detours.
The perfumer first encounteredWutongdistrict rain at ten at night, on Yanqing Road. He had no umbrella, stood under a doorway, watching rain drip from sycamore leaves. He said he smelled jasmine.
Not jasmine flowers, jasmine leaves. When rain hits jasmine leaves, jasmine leaves release something normally not released — rain activates aromatic molecules in the leaves, this is a biological mechanism, not coincidence. He said that night he smelled that jasmine leaf scent, greener, sharper, more “present” than jasmine flowers.
He later studied it for a long time and discovered that jasmine leaves release leaf alcohol molecules when struck by rain — completely different from the molecules that create jasmine flower fragrance. Leaf alcohol is a linear molecule; jasmine flower fragrance molecules are cyclic.
This means Shanghai, the fragrance, cannot start from jasmine flowers. It must start from jasmine leaves. From the second leaves are struck by rain.
He started with aldehydes. Aldehydes are the most important molecules for Shanghai — they give fragrance an “air” feeling, like fog over the city, like the moisture lit by neon lights. But aldehydes are not the main character in Shanghai; the main character is aldehydes’ relationship with air: does humid air make aldehydes, or do aldehydes make air breathable?
He controlled the aldehyde concentration at 0.3 percent. This concentration is so low it is almost undetectable, but it changed the “surface tension” of the entire fragrance. Making it smell like it just stopped raining.
The rain has stopped. The sycamore leaves are still wet. The stone slabs are still wet. There is still water on the jasmine leaves.
But it is no longer raining.
Associated Notes: [Aquatic] [Floral] [Ozone]