The biennale opening week has come and gone; I’m still standing.
What have I learned in all the rush?
1. If I don’t take the time to think, I don’t.
2. Serious distance between Chinese and Western values continue to destabilize these large events.
3. It really is about identity creation and maintenance.
Boom! Shenzhen is now online. Zhang Xueshi and Wang Lechi give us the 90 second version of Shenzhen history. Enjoy!
Here’s the youku version, which includes music@
Production stills from Mandala, or one version of what the future looks like!
We finish installing Boom! tomorrow. Through the process of designing, building, and installing the pieces, I have become increasingly aware of the labor necessary to make such a project. In fact, I’ve found it humbling to realize how little I have contributed in the face of my collaborators’ and workers’ skills and willingness to get it right; yes, this kind of artistic production begs Marxist critique. Below, impressions of folks who have worked hard to make Boom! possible. The tag Boom! Shenzhen will bring up other posts from the show.
BOOM! opens 9:00 pm, December 8 in OCT, B-10 venue. Please come.
The new publicity campaign for the Shekou line is advertising recent renovations. The look is high-end water color, with disconcerting images. It seems the intended audience is nostalgic for colonial times. But that would be westerners, no? Perhaps, the intended audience finds colonial westerners more civilized than the area’s actual foreign residents? Thus, the point is to attract a certain type of foreigners who in turn become a tourist attraction for neidi Chinese visiting Shekou? I’m confused.
乡下人三句话培养好孩子：1。孩子，爸妈没本事，你要靠自己；2。孩子，做事先做人，一定不能做伤害别人的事；3。孩子，撒开手闯吧，实在不行，回家还有饭吃。
城里人三句话害孩子：1。宝贝，好好学习就行，其他爸爸妈妈来办；2。宝贝，记住不能吃亏；3。我告诉你，再不好好学习，长大没饭吃！
Country people raise their children on three sentences: 1. kid, your parents are useless, you’ll have to depend on yourself; 2. kid, to accomplish anything, first you have to be a good person, never do anything that would harm anyone else; 3. kid, let go and give it your best shot, in the worst case, if you come home there’ll still be food to eat.
City people harm their children with three sentences: 1. darling, all you have to do is study, daddy and mommy will take care of the rest; 2. darling, always remember you can’t loose out to anyone else; 3. I’m telling you, if you don’t sit down and study, when you grow up you grow up, you’ll have nothing to eat!
’nuff said.
Episode 4 of the Transformation of Shenzhen Villages focuses on Nanling Village, which became famous throughout the country as the “争气村 (hardworking village)”.
Nanling’s [Shenzhen] story begins in 1979 with the last mass exodus of Baoan economic refugees to Hong Kong. That day, Shaxi Brigade [Nanling’s collective predecessor] Vice Secretary Zhang Weiji came home to discover that his wife had joined several hundred other villagers who had decided to make the run for Hong Kong. Zhang Weiji went to the border and called for his wife and fellow villagers to return home with him. One of the runners looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Even after I’m dead my ashes won’t return to this place.” In the end, 50 villagers and his wife returned with Zhang Weiji to what had become another of Baoan’s ghost villages. The secretary vowed to transform Nanling into a village where people would stay and live out decent lives. Over the next decade, Nanling became one of China’s most important symbols of Reform and Opening as a means of achieving rural urbanization. Indeed, both Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao have visited the village on inspection tours to promote and confirm Nanling as a model for other village urbanization projects.
Dates: Dec 8 through 11
Time: 19:45
Venue: Shenzhen University Small Black Box Theatre (located at the back of the Student Center)
This weekend walked around the Xinxiu area. Located just east of Caiwuwei, Xinxiu was part of early, early Shenzhen development. However, as the SEZ developed in a westerly direction (away from Wutong Mountain), Xinxiu got stuck in mid 80s architectural forms, with occassional circa 1992 eruptions. And yes, Shen Gang New Village recalls the early days of cross border investment and like “xiao kang” has vanished from everyday conversations. More importantly, these impressions suggest the human scale of early Shenzhen. Look closely and note the clear water, the open neighborhoods, and low cost housing options that are scheduled for upgrading. All this to say, unlike many other built, rebuilt and razed again housing developments, Xinxiu feels like a neighborhood, in the old-fashioned sense of the term.
Shenzhen Noted 