Category Archives: shenzhen fieldnotes

urban form and memory

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joshua kauffman and gwendolyn floyd

the bienniale opens tonight. well, bienniale the third. but it’s my first. i missed the previous two. i’ve been hanging out at oct loft with fat bird and silo, and these past few weeks, with gwendolyn floyd and joshua kauffman, co-founders of regional, which they define as “an interdisciplinary design and research network that performs and applies original analysis of global society, culture and commerce, uncovering and developing opportunities for profitable innovation and meaningful cultural intervention.”

their installation is called “foreground”, which was built out of bamboo. the design is derived from GIS data of a recently removed shenzhen mountain ridge. over the past twenty years, shenzhen has aggressively reclaimed land from both its eastern and western coasts. in everyday conversation this process is called “moving mountains in order to fill the ocean (移山填海).” with foreground, floyd and kauffman have respond to this transformation by using bamboo to re-construct a mountain that no longer exists. the contrast between the structure and the ground actualizes the difference between shenzhen’s pre- and post-urban topographies, creating a visible and material history for the area. more importantly, the installation enables bienniale visitors to imagine the lay of shenzhen’s land before urbanization and, in doing so, re-imagine how the city might reproduce itself in the future.

at least i hope so. one of the illusions of land reclamation and disappeared mountains is how quickly they vanish from consciousness. when i go to houhai and look out at the new landscape i have to think, and think hard, to recall something about what was once there. most of the time, however, i end up taking another round of photos and then doing a little side by side comparison. that was then, this is now.

its hard work to keep the city’s past and present simultaneously in mind. usually, i depend on the material world to do that for me. the old buildings, certain parks, particular roads–these hold my memories, which i enter by way of an evening walk. to the extent that it remains in place, shenzhen keeps my memory intact. but the city keeps getting razed. or rebuilt. or refashioned. and as the buildings collapse and new edifices rise, or factories get a facelift and industrial areas are upgraded, i forget. or rather, i loose access to memory. all that stuff are also doors to memory, and when a building gets razed, i am locked out of my past.

click for images of gwen and joshua’s work in progress.

jingjin flavors: authentic northern taste

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京津风味 breakfast team

there is a sociological approach to food. i could tell you that what’s interesting about “flavors of beijing and tianjin (京津风味)” on nanhai road in shekou (just between industrial roads 7 and 8, or diagonally across the street from garden city, where the shekou wallmart is located) is that tianjian people living as far away as in luohu and longgang will make a 1 and 1/2 hour trip just to eat a real tianjin breakfast. i could mention that at these decidely un-cantonese breakfasts, diners sit around and talk in tianjin dialect, reminiscing about life up north. i could also mention that the restaurant provides an unofficial meeting place for the tianjin hometown club (not quite an association). but instead, i want to rave about the food.

jingjin flavors serves up the most authentic tianjin specialities in the city and is well known on the chinese internet. according to the owner zhang hong, the secret to her success is the quality of her wheat products. she has employed seven tianjin cooks to make noodles, flat breads, oil sticks, dumplings, pot stickers, and bread crisps just like they do in tianjin. zhang hong believes that many of the tianjin restaurants that opened and failed in shenzhen, failed because they skimped on the wheat. “you don’t make money on wheat products, so many restaurants just made noodles or a flat bread. but anybody can do that. my long-term customers return to enjoy the tastes the remember from childhood, and that’s wheat. of course, the other dishes have to be high quality, but the real secret to gaining customer loyalty is a fragrant flat bread that takes them back to tianjin in a bite.”

for breakfast, you can order jianbingguozi (煎饼果子), soy milk with old toufu（豆浆加老豆腐）, or soy milk in gravy (with a swirl of sesame paste)（豆腐垴）, tianjin wontons in a claypot（沙锅馄饨）, sesame flat bread（芝麻烧饼）, and oil sticks (油条). go to jingjin flavors to satisfy every carb and salt urge you’ve ever had. it’s a delicious way of starting the day. it’s also a great way of discovering how some northerners are inhabiting shenzhen.

in the interests of furthering cross culinary understanding, i end with a photo of shenzhen’s latest campaign: don’t eat cat or dog meet, boycott cruel killing. stewed cat and stewed dog (separate dishes, not stewed together) are hakka specialities available in longgang. and again, i know people who will drive over an hour to enjoy the flavor of hometown food. i’ve made the drive with them and, if asked, will probably do it again. really. joys of anthropology of food are not to be underestimated!

运动会：　field day

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green oasis seventh graders come from the mainland, taiwan, malaysia, and india

so, yesterday was field day at green oasis. i enjoy field day for many reasons, not least of which is that field day makes the students happy, and happy students bring joy. nevertheless, what struck me during field day was the diversity of our student body.

facts that speak to the ongoing globalization of shenzhen. 49% our students come from outside the mainland (including taiwan and hong kong); 25% come from outside greater china (india and korea being the two largest non-chinese populations). for years, people have spoken of shenzhen as a city of immigrants (移民城市). however, what they meant by “immigrant” was “from other parts of the province/country” or simply “outsiders (外地人).” now the immigration situation isn’t so straightforward. most of these students won’t become chinese nationals. however, their parents work here for companies that are clearly here for the long-term. moreover, they have chosen to place their children in a chinese school in order to insure that these children will grow up into bi-cultural (mandarin-speaking) citizens.

this model is obviously different from the local chinese model, which educates with an eye toward helping chinese students become chinese citizens. it is also a very different model from the colonial model of an “international” school, which has taught euro-american or curriculums with an eye toward going to university in the u.s. or europe. those children live in china, but are not part of china; indeed, there is no intention to make them part of china. instead, the green oasis model entails educating international children to be part of china, without becoming chinese nationals. at any rate, we now have students whose mandarin is better than their (native) russian or spanish or korean or cantonese…

in many ways, the green oasis model echoes the larger chinese model of sojourning, where people (outsiders) live in other cities, but retain hometown identities. i’m beginning to think that sojourning increasingly enables chinese people to weave foreigners into the fabric of shenzhen life. so that the questions “where is your hometown (你的老家在哪里？)” and “what country are you from (你是哪个国家的人？)” become functionally equivalent in terms of social mapping. which is to say, that for many chinese, especially students, the u.s. and korea and india are no longer as foreign as they used to be.

field day pictures, which in addition to sharing childhood smiles, also illustrate how childhood has globalized with chinese characteristics…

in lieu of a methodology

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i’ve been thinking about the implicit methodology structuring entries to this blog. usually i go out on somewhat directed walks (where haven’t i been in a while? what’s new in shenzhen? being the two most common questions i ask myself. a third: what’s nearby that i can visit in the hour i have before a meeting…). i take pictures, i talk to people i meet, i play with the images, and then post with commentary. the commentary grows out of the infrastructures that have enabled me to inhabit shenzhen. my apartment in tianmian, my positions at green oasis and shenzhen university, the circle of friends i’ve cultivated. there is no longterm plan, rather a sense that the unfolding of the city will itself bring what is important to light.

i actually enjoy the process. and yet.

lately i have been trying to organize these thoughts into something resembling an academic presentation. re-working the pictures, re-membering the walks, and re-contextualizing the conversations present interesting challenges and ethical conundrums. it’s not so much what i didn’t ask or didn’t do; these absences seem somehow fillable. it’s rather that which cannot be printed which haunts me. thirteen years after arriving in shenzhen, i’ve learned to distinguish between what can be said and printed, what can be said and not printed, and what can’t be said, but lumbers about the conversation anyway. i am also acutely aware of the limits to my ability to make distinctions because i don’t know all that much. consequently, i’ve come to realize that much of my blog is an effort to get around or blur or stretch those borders into a different kind of understanding that may or may not fit into what i think an academic presentation “should” be…

浮生自语/ Floating Lives

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Silo Theater has returned to shenzhen!!!! this time to create floating lives with fat bird. we have been waiting and working to create this project since song jie and yang qian first met silo at the macau fringe 2002. we will be setting up a project blog at: http://floatinglives.blogvis.com. we invite all friends to come to the site and participate in the creation. here’s a first picture of the group:

mandatory group photo
front row (left to right): mary ann o’donnell, milou veling, bart sabel, jochem hartz, song jie, zhang yang
back row (left to right): jia huiwen, kang kang, yang qian

christmas 2007: garden city…and christmas-lit palms

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merry christmas-new years

it’s another christmas. unlike previous years, when the great christmas pumpkin made its appearance, this year, it’s christmas qua new years, which fits. many of my friends think of christmas as american spring festival. i will be tracking the shenzhen christmas make-over, which began the day after thanksgiving. these first pics are from garden city in shekou.


inside garden city, a christmas palm tree

the palm trees and bright city lights (santa goes neon after dark) at garden city seem a high-end moment in a citywide trend to shine. low-end nanshan clubs, for example, also decorate plastic palm trees with christmas lights. these lights, however, flicker all year.


blue


yellow

诗歌人间：Poetry in the World

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poetry in the world

last night, the center book city (中心书城) hosted the first “poetry in the world” poetry reading. the event was produced by the shenzhen newspaper conglomerate (深圳报业集团) and the shenzhen publishing conglomerate (深圳出版发行企业).　the managing producers were jingbao and shenzhen center book city. fat bird was one of the assistant producers, along with shenzhen newsnet and feiyang 971 music radio. i mention all this because poemlife did not participate. instead, the powers that be in shenzhen’s cultural ministries turned to 诗刊 for literary endorsement. now, from the point of view of cultural functionaries, the move from poemlife to “poetry” is understandable. unlike poemlife, “poetry” is a well-established cultural institution with good party credentials. in contrast, poemlife hovers at the edges of party control in virtual space. lamentably these politics meant that lai’er editor of poemlife and one of the original visionaries behind “poetry in the world” did not participate in last night’s reading.

we missed lai’er because last night was something of a triumph for poetry in otherwise unpoetic shenzhen. “poetry in the world” brought together poets from diverse generations and spaces, who might otherwise not share the same stage. thus, elder poets luo fu (洛夫) and duo duo (多多) read, as did a younger generation of poets lei pingyang (雷平阳), wang xiaoni (王小妮), yang jian (杨键), duo yu (朵渔), and yu jian (于坚).

in retrospect, what strikes me is the contradiction of the shenzhen art scene. there is money to bring in china’s leading poets for one evening and then a discussion the following day, but not the money or interest to nuture more longterm events like monthly readings or open mikes. my doubts have been reinforced by rumors that poetry in the world might not continue; it seems that for some, once was enough.

once edited, i will upload fat bird’s readings.

fat bird update: more shenzhen culture

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in order to create interest in poetry and theatre publications, book city (书城) will be holding monthly poetry readings and performances. the series will be called 诗歌人间 (poetry in the world). 　

the original idea for the series came from 刘静文　(liu jingwen), a culture journalist at shenzhen’s 晶报. when asked, liu explained that the inspiration for “poetry in the world”, was the 99th anniversary of new chinese poetry. as a journalist, he has written on new poetry and interviewed many poets, however, he feels that it would be a pity to limit the celebratation of new poetry to the newspaper.

at the same time that liu was thinking about ways of bringing poetry to a new audience, managers at book city were brainstorming about ways of making poetry more viable. they decided to turn the store into a cultural stage and called liu to help them organize the event.

liu jingwen invited the　poet lai’er (莱耳) to help organize the events because for the past 8 years, lai’er has edited poemlife 诗生活 one of the more successful online poetry magazines in the prc. liu explained that the internet has become one of the main venues for poetry in the mainland. moreover, one of the most exciting things about internet poetry has been the variety and conversations it has inspired. when he started planning, liu decided to bring the energy and influence of poetry to the readings.

liu jingwen then contacted fat bird because he sees a natural affinity between the theatre and poetry. he used greek tragedy to illustrate how in the past, theatre and poetry were the same. moreover, liu believes that from the point of view of the audience actors are more interesting than poets. “poetry readings tend to be very much the same,” he said, “but actors bring different meanings and understanding to words. this will encourage more interest in poetry.”

the first event is 回归 (return). return in this context has two meanings. the first, describes the fact that many poets have had to leave poetry in order to earn money. return will be an opportunity for them to re-enter the world of poetry.

the second meaning is a tacit comment on the role of poetry in the world. throughout the socialist era and early years of reform, poetry was directly implicated in politics. this was as true of the poetry of guo moruo （郭沫若） as that of bei dao（北岛） and huang beilin (黄贝岭). however, lai’er and other contemporary poets now see a trend for poetry to return to its proper place: the private worlds of individuals.

there is of course an irony here. by organizing public poetry readings, liu jingwen is advocating the importance of poetry to everyday life. perhaps, as many would have us believe, the differences between the politics of “poetry in the world” and earlier socialist poetry are both of degree and kind. but perhaps not. the human heart may be as moved by the explicitly political as it is by beauty. when yang qian was a child, he was sent to a factory to learn from workers. during poetry writing lessons, his master taught the children that true socialist poetry came from the heart. he then recited one of his own poems:

党是母亲我是孩，一头扑进母亲怀，咕咚咕咚喝娘奶，谁拉我也不起来

(very loosely translated and without all the rhymes)

the party is mother, i her child
my head goes straight to her breast
gurgle, gurgle, mother’s milk
no one can pull me away

“poetry in the world” will be held on the second saturday of every month at 8:00 p.m. “return” is scheduled for november 10, 2007. in decemeber, “poetry in the world” will commemorate the 800th anniversary of the birth of rumi.

Government Re-Contextualizations, or how the plan gets fixed

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boxed methane pipe, part of the rennovations on dongbin road

Upgrading continues in Nanshan. This morning we received notice that the Nanshan Bureau of Public Works will begin the second part of its 6 + 1 street scenery renovation project (街景整治工程). All the neon is part of this project, which includes upgrading walls (remember the air-conditioner cages?), planting trees and flowers (have I posted pictures of the wooden pots for methane gas release on Dongbin Street yet?), and replacing old billboards, presumably with new billboards (I know I’ve taken pictures of World of War characters creeping across buildings…) Pictures here.

It’s a very Shenzhen approach to governance: build something. It’s as if the constant construction and reconstruction of space will keep people in their respective places. So, for those of you wondering how renovation functions as a means of governance (and I know you’re out there), I’ve translated part of the brochure we received. What I’d like to call attention to is the history captured in the street names. These street names chart the historic progression of development in Nanshan. Some streets are “old” from before reform, some are “new”, built in close proximity to old centers in the eighties. Some streets speak to reform dreams. Still other streets were laid on landfill more than twenty years after old and new was defined by governmental policy. The renovation project homogonizes all this history, as if the streets appeared together one day, already complete unto themselves, derived from some perfect, omnipotent plan.

街区再造 品质南山
6 + 1城市改造工程是南山区政府继去年对蛇口新街、海月路、学府路、沙河路口、留仙大道、朱光路等六条街道和南海大道（一期）、创业路、沙河西路、东滨路（一期）的景观整治改造之后，对南海大道（二期）、蛇口老街+海昌街、后海大道（南段）、南山大道、南新路、东滨路（二期）、居仙大厦进行改造整治，改造内容包括建筑里面、路面、人行道铺面、广告招牌等。

Street Reconstruction, Quality Nanshan
The 6 + 1 Urban Improvement Project is a continuation of the Nanshan District Government’s street renovation project. Last year, Nanshan renovated the appearences of Shekou New Street, Haiyue Road, Xuefu Road, Shahe Intersection, Liuxian Main Street, Zhuguang Road, Nanhai Main Street (part one), Construction Street, Shahe West Road, and Dongbin Street (part one). This year, Nanshan will renovate Nanhai Main Street (part two), Shekou Old Street + Nanchang Street, Houhai Main Street (southern portion), Nanshan Main Street, New Nan Road, Dongbin Road (part two), and Juxian Building. Renovations include: building interiors, street fronts, sidewalks and storefronts, and billboards.

鲤鱼门： more landfill

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gateway to the coast that used to be, liyumen

school has been open almost four weeks and my life is finally settling down. this weekend, i was back on the nantou peninsula and instead of walking along houhai, i walked along the yuehai side. (facing guanzhou, right near the western railway station which connects shenzhen to hunan.)

in the early 1990s, liyumen was a beach front resort area, somewhat modeled after the hong kong fishing port of the same name, where good seafood might be eaten relatively cheaply. the shenzhen version included saunas, and massage parlors, and a very large badmitten court. over the past fifteen years,land reclamation has proceeded and liyumen is now a good half mile inland. however, the land has not yet been developed and is instead used to park and repair container trucks, which transfer goods from nanshan factories to chiwan port, just around what remains of nanshan mountain.

so liyumen constitutes a strange kind of timewarp, both as memorial to what used to be a shenzhen resort area and as a transition between industrial nantou and the new highrises that are being planned, please visit.