Category Archives: noted

80s nostalgia

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More text message fun; this time 80s nostalgia

We miss the 80s, when medicine still cured illnesses; doctors took care of the sick and dying; people wore clothing for photographs; borrowed money was returned; you didn’t need a paternity test to know who the child’s father was; schools weren’t money making enterprises; being sick was respected; housing was allocated; idiots couldn’t be professors; the married didn’t take second wives; meat could be confidently eaten; rats were afraid of cats; and people had clean consciouses.

怀念1980年代, 那时候药是可以治病的；医生是救死扶伤的；照相是要穿衣服的；借钱是要还的；孩子他爹是不用做鉴定的；学校不是为赚钱的；有了病是看得起的；住房是分配的；白痴是不 能当 教授的；已婚者是不能找二奶的；肉是可以放心吃的；老鼠还是很怕猫的；人还是有良心的。

And sometimes I do wonder (with Rey Chow) if nostalgia is no more than dissatisfaction with the present, looking for an anchor (any anchor) in the past. . .

layered densities

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Came across Christopher Dewolf’s photos of the area around Diwang (or Shun Hing Square as it is officially known, mostly outside Shenzhen). Worth a look.

the fable of donkey island and piggy island

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乌有之乡网 (Utopia Net) offers socialist stories, analysis, and insight into contemporary China. Two days ago (Feb 21, 2011), they published the Fable of Donkey Island and Piggy Island, a story which challenges mainstream economic thinking – both American and Chinese – about how the past thirty years have transformed the world as we know it. Importantly, the fallout from trade imbalance that progressive Chinese intellectuals are grappling with in the Fable are the same issues to which the Wisconsin protests call our attention. Specifically, globalization has not trickled down to the common people, here or there, and so we continue to labor and not get what we need. I have paraphrased the fable, below; Chinese version, here.

Once upon a time, there were two islands, Donkey Island and Piggy Island.

The people on Donkey Island were industrious, working every day to produce grain. The interesting point is that the Donkeys were also very frugal and unwilling to eat this grain. Instead, they saved it up and then shipped it to Piggy Island, where the Piggies ate it. Continue reading →

Early Forms of Shen Kong

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These past few days, I have been thinking about new forms of Shen Kong integration. Shen Kong (深港) is an abbreviation of Shenzhen-Hong Kong, which is frequently used as an adjective, but may also refer to the two city area.In fact, these past few years, Shen Kong collaborations have included: a 24-7 border crossing, linking the subway systems of the two cities, loosening the travel restrictions on Shenzhen residents for visiting Hong Kong, the architecture biennial, and planning the Qianhai Cooperation Zone and the Lok Ma Chau Loop. In this post, I give a brief contextualization of Shen Kong history in order to explore how power balances have been shifting in the Pearl River Delta since 1980. Continue reading →

The Lok Ma Chau Loop

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In addition to the Qianhai Cooperation Zone, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have recently approved the Lok Ma Chau Loop, which will deepen integration of the two cities as well as displacing one of the few remaining nesting places for Black Face Spoonbills (黑面琵鹭) in the area. Also like Qianhai, the Loop was proposed a few years back, but only reached fruition as part of Shenzhen’s Thirtieth Year Anniversay. Three points. Continue reading →

over 350,000 illegal buildings in shenzhen?

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I have been reading and translating texts about the latest effort to clean up (raze and rebuild) urban villages to conform to changing definitions of what constitutes a modern global city, which is, of course, the goal of Shenzhen’s 2010-2020 overall urban plan. Below an excerpt from an online report on the results of a survey to catalogue all the illegal buildings in the urban villages. Of note: illegal status is defined historically, in other words: buildings become illegal over time (either they become dangerous or come into conflict with changing codes). Worth remembering: Shenzhen’s urban villages occupy roughly 4% of Shenzhen’s actual land, but are home to an estimated 50% of the population, and generate a significant percentage of the local economy.

去年6月2日，《深圳市人大常委会关于农村城市化历史遗留违法建筑的处理决定》（以下简称《决定》）颁布实施，为了搭上这个政策的末班车，深圳掀起了新一轮违法抢建高潮。按照此决定要求，要对全市违法建筑进行全面普查，建立违法建筑台账和数据库，并在一年内出台《决定》的实施办法。今年以来，违法建筑的信息普查工作在全市各区全面展开，实施办法的制定工作也在紧锣密鼓的进行之中。

截至今年6月2日，全市基本完成了信息普查的数据录入工作。根据信息普查数据统计结果，全市农村城市化历史遗留违法建筑普查总量为35.7万栋，建筑面积为3.92亿平方米，用地面积131平方公里；已申报了34.8万栋，申报率97.63%。与此同时，6月8日，《决定》的实施办法已经获得市政府常务会议原则通过，下一步获得市人大常委会通过后便可实施。

Translation: June 2, last year [2009], the “Shenzhen Municipality People’s Congress Standing Committee’s Decision for Handling Illegal Buildings Left from the History of Rural Urbanization” (below “Decision”) was promulgated, opening another surge of illegal construction in order to take advantage of this policy. According to Decision requirements, there would be a thorough inspection of all illegal buildings in the city to establish an archive of illegal building costs and numbers, to be finished within one year. To date, inspection of illegal buildings has been conducted throughout the city, even as the work of documentation has been accomplished with much fanfare.

By June 2, this year [2010], the basic work of gathering information and recording statistics had been completed. According to the survey results, there are 357,000 illegal buildings left from the history of rural urbanization. These buildings have a total area of 392 million square meters and take up 131 square kilometers of land. 348,000 buildings have already been reported for a report ratio of 97.63%. At the same time on June 8, the implementation of the Decision was in principal approved by the Standing Committee of the Municipal Government and will next go to the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress for final ratification.  You Xiping, Xinlang Real Estate, August 17, 2010

Life lessons

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Chinese politics confound me because they seem complicated and redundant. Fortunately, text messages simplify the problem. Of interest is the way that “family” operates as a metaphor to explain and justify power relationships. Actual job descriptions follow translation:

小姑娘看报，问妈妈：什么是党委，妈妈：党委就是你爸，整天不干活还老骂人。小姑娘又问：政府呢？妈妈：政府就是你妈，整天干活还被你爸骂。人大呢？人大就是你爷爷，名义是一家之主，但整天提着个鸟笼子，啥事不管。小姑娘又问：政协呢？妈妈：政协就是你奶奶，整天叨唠，但没人听她的。小姑娘还问：什么是团委？妈妈：团委就是你哥，整天在外瞎折腾，啥忙都帮不了，小姑娘最后问：什么是纪委？妈妈：纪委就是你，名义上是监督父母的，但是吃父母的，穿父母的，受父母领导，关键是还整天问这问那。

Reading the newspaper, a little girl asked her mother, “What’s the Party Committee?”

Mom answered, “The Party Committee is your father, who doesn’t do anything all day but yell at people.”

The little girl had another question, “What’s government?”

Mom answered, “Government is your mother, who works all day and still gets yelled at by your father.” Continue reading →

capitalist crises, news induced ADD, and making sense of the world

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I’m reading Bateson reading Margaret Mead:

Dr. Mead’s contribution consists in this—that she, fortified by comparative study of other cultures, has been able to transcend the habits of thought current in her own culture and has been able to say virtually this: “Before we apply social science to our own national affairs, we must re-examine and change our habits of thought on the subject of means and ends. We have learnt, in our cultural setting, to classify behavior into `means’ and `ends’ and if we go on defining ends as separate from means and apply the social sciences as crudely instrumental means, using the recipes of science to manipulate people, we shall arrive at a totalitarian rather than a democratic system of life.” The solution which she offers is that we look for the “direction,” and “values” implicit in the means, rather than looking ahead to a blueprinted goal and thinking of this goal as justifying or not justifying manipulative means. We have to find the value of a planned act implicit in and simultaneous with the act itself, not separate from it in the sense that the act would derive its value from reference to a future end or goal. Dr. Mead’s paper is, in fact, not a direct preachment about ends and means; she does not say that ends either do or do not justify the means. She is talking not directly about ends and means, but about the way we tend to think about ways and means, and about the dangers inherent in our habit of thought.

Lovely.

And on to thoughts inspired by the ever relevant Steps to an Ecology of Mind.

Roughly nine months ago, Shenzhen news media reported on the quicksand building incident (楼陷陷事件) and then a month later on the Foxcomm Suicides (富士康跳楼事件). Character by character, 楼陷陷 means “building trap trap,” however I’ve translated as “quicksand buildings” because the term referred to buildings that were literally sinking into reclaimed land in Houhai, Qianhai, and the Baoan Center District. At the time, both incidents received much Shenzhen press, although Foxcomm ultimately eclisped quicksand, both in Chinese and English. Indeed, I haven’t noticed any English press on the quicksand building incident and would appreciate links and/or references.

There are many possible explanations for the focus on Foxcomm rather than quicksand. Continue reading →

more about tea

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The price of tea continues to shock me, which in itself is interesting given that I’ve become accustomed to buying tea that sells for 300-500 a jin (roughly $US 45-70 for 1/2 a kilo). Today, while I was waiting for my tea to be packaged by an assistant, the owner of the shop invited me to try some Iron Buddha that sells for “only” 700 a jin ($US 100). I drank several cups and thanked him for his hospitality, but wasn’t tempted to purchase because I prefer stronger teas – Yunnan Red, puer, and dancong, for example.

But. When I actually translate prices into US dollars rather than simply think about the prices in local terms, I wonder what it is I’m doing paying over $US 45 for 1/2 a kilo of tea. Continue reading →

earthly abstractions

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Coming into Shenzhen on the Tianjin-Shenzhen train, I heard a broadcast about the City’s historic importance and sites of touristic interest. Nothing out of the ordinary, until the broadcast introduced the Daya Bay Nature Conservation Park. I tend to think of Daya Bay in terms of nuclear power and French technologies thereof, rather than in terms of conservation. Today, the unexpected juxtaposition of nuclear power and nature preserves has me thinking about paradoxes in urban planning.

Continue reading →