Walking Shekou today, I remembered that not only are urban villages subject to Shenzhen’s cultural industry inspired renovations. Older areas of Shenzhen, especially factories and housing estates are also being razed and/or remodeled to conform to different aesthetics and economic plans. Views on the process near Seaworld and the e-cool area, which used to be Sanyo factories (pictures of area, 2008).
Category Archives: photos
Coaster Raid Biennale Retrospective
Last night, Gigi and Michael of Riptide Collective hosted the opening for Coaster Raid Shenzhen’s Biennale Retrospective. Witty and fresh the Retrospective will be up for the final week of the Biennale and is well worth a visit. Venue:
市民中心B区南门，多功能厅东侧, 地铁市民中心站B出口
Civic Center – East Hall – Area B South Gate, Subway: Civic Center Exit B
flourishing
Walked the Peak today and remembered why I love trees.
living rocks in dragon’s claw
To get to the Trail of Morro de Hac Sa (黑沙龙爪角家乐径), we walked past high-end shop windows — Prada and Zelga and Lv, oh my — that grace the Avenida de Sagres, under the Rua Cidade da Sintra, and waited at the feet of the New Casino Lisboa, which glittered in faint noonday sun, the buildings size and audacity dwarfing its earlier, abruptly human-scaled incarnation. A #25 bus, carried us across the Ponte Governador Nobre de Carvalho Bridge from Macau to Taipa and then trundled through Taipa and Cotai, where 5-star accommodations rise like comic book illustrations on reclaimed land. We continued past the Vila Coloane to Black Sands, disembarked, and oriented ourselves away from the beach to the coast, which shimmers, alive.
Wandering Macau’s Historic Center
Macau’s historic center presents us a fundamental conundrum. On the one hand, it’s Qing / Republican China meets Portugal spaces charm and entice; I find these older spaces beautiful in ways that the city’s casinos and glass towers are not. On the other hand, these spaces manifest colonial legacies; the East India Company’s cemetery and crucified Jesuses that adorn the Portuguese churches give visceral form to the foundational violence of the contemporary world system. Impressions of world heritage, below:
OCT Bay: Give Happiness a Coast?!
Visited OCT Bay (欢乐海岸) this afternoon. OCT Bay is the third Shenzhen development of “The New OCT‘” to expand and develop their brand throughout China. The first effort was OCT (now OCT Loft) and the second was OCT East. OCT Bay’s advertising slogans suggest the state-owned enterprise’s ambitions to provide fantasy shopping experiences, for example: Elegant Christmas, Fashionable New Year’s (风雅圣诞，时尚新年). However, their motto, Give Happiness a Coast (给欢乐一个海岸) is beyond ironic. Water light shows, an artificial lake, and boat rides on the winding river, notwithstanding, the entire complex is built on reclaimed land from Shenzhen Bay. In fact, the former coastline (at least a km inland) used to be edged with mangrove trees and, further into the bay (in the middle of the complex), oyster cultivation. Impressions, below:
afternoon sun, tianjin
年30
We ate, we walked, and enjoyed flower market vestiges. May everyone have a wonderful Year of the Dragon!
out with the old…
I walked along the old Shenzhen Bay Coast today. Reclaimed land to the south, old Shekou to the north.
Collaboration with Elephanthouse Imagines…
Yesterday went to the Fotanian Open Studio in Fotan, HK. Good friend, Elia is the creative energy behind Elephanthouse (象舍), encouraging collaboration and participation to repurpose calligraphy — ink and rice paper and water. Recently, she and I began exchanging a traveling scroll on the 往生咒, a chant to help departed spirits crossover to the Pure Land. Our scroll was displayed during the open studio. Pictures, below.
Shenzhen Noted 