Had a buffet lunch at a five star hotel today. Delicious, especially the blueberry tart. If my friend invites me again, I will probably return to enjoy the breads and lovely fruits. Nevertheless, what has stayed in my mind is how it all felt unbearably like a Hollywood set. Or maybe it’s simply that I am inured to the scale of copycat luxury in Shenzhen; it takes more than dorian columns and ornate chandeliers, gold colored hallways and mosaic floors, Dafen paintings and leather sofas to impress me. What’s one building, when neighborhoods of 10,000 come and go each year?
the way we were
Going through old speeches of Deng Xiaoping, I came across his 1974 address to a Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, using Third World theory that Zhou Enlai had presented at Bandung 1955. Those were the days, when socialist utopianism inspired the oppressed Peoples of the Third World to roar their anger and retake what had been taken. Of course, two years after Deng’s New York gig, Zhou Enlai and then Mao Zedong would pass, the Gang of Four would be vanquished in a bloodless transition of power (if we don’t take the PLAs one-year foray into Vietnam as a concession to hardliners), and Deng Xiaoping would emerge as the new leader of the People’s Republic of China, employing cats of various colors to jumpstart the economy first in Shekou (1978) and then in Shenzhen (1979), with the SEZ established in 1980.
And yet. As events in the Middle East force us to reflect on the resentments that inequality and oppression foster, Maoist language resonates. And yes, Socialism with Chinese characteristics would qualify for condemnation as “that country which styles itself socialist” if only because the USSR, the other country that styled itself socialist disbanded as Gorbachev, Reagan, Thatcher, and Deng renegotiated the post Cold War order. Memory snippets from the Marxist Internet Archive.
[…] In this situation of “great disorder under heaven,” all the political forces in the world have undergone drastic division and realignment through prolonged trials of strength and struggle. A large number of Asian, African and Latin American countries have achieved independence one after another and they are playing an ever greater role in international affairs. As a result of the emergence of social-imperialism, the socialist camp which existed for a time after World War II is no longer in existence. Owing to the law of the uneven development of capitalism, the Western imperialist bloc, too, is disintegrating. Judging from the changes in international relations, the world today actually consists of three parts, or three worlds, that are both interconnected and in contradiction to one another. The United States and the Soviet Union make up the First World. The developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions make up the Third World. The developed countries between the two make up the Second World… Continue reading
choices, choices
I enjoy hanging with Daomei because he lives the unexpected life. To support his nascent acting career, he recently decided to become a lifeguard and is now completing a series of trainings, including Red Cross training to recognize and respond to heart attack symptoms and pulling dead weight through cold waves.
Daomei’s career swerves and occupational dabbling may seem familiar to Americans, but in Shenzhen, it sparkles. Moreover, it reveals a crack in what is often perceived (in China and abroad) as Shenzhener’s relentless pursuit of economic prosperity. Although it is true that many of Daomei’s classmates have settled for more mundane career tracks, nevertheless it is also true that for the tens of students who have taken paths opened by their parents or slipped into more cynical careers such as corporate drinking buddy, there is one who has left Shenzhen to roam Yunnan and another who pursued yoga. All this to say, Daomei is probably an extreme case, but he is no lone ranger — Shenzhen’s thirty somethings are grappling with the choices and individualistic possibilities that the city’s wealth has created for a small, but active middle class.
I can’t wait to see Daomei at the beach!
educational experimentation in shenzhen
For many years, I have noted the extent to which education has been closed off from the forms of social experimentation that characterize other aspects of Shenzhen society. Shenzhen was first to reform the danwei system, housing allocation, and even hukou laws. However, education has rigidly conformed to national standards — curriculum, methods, and goals, all have reflected national values and goals. When there has been experimentation, it has taken the form of international education — importing extant curriculums, such as the A-levels or American programs, rather than re-inventing Chinese schools. Even University Town (深圳大学城), which provides graduate education and research facilities has developed within a more standard academic model.
Yesterday, the opening ceremony of Southern Institute of Technology (南方科技大学) indicated a willingness on the part of both the national and municipal governments to invest in the search for new pedagogies. Differences with traditional colleges include: (1) size: SIT will offer small scale undergraduate education. The first class has only 45 students; next year, SIT will take in a class of 150, building until a cap of 400 students per class year. (2) recruitment: SIT recruits students through individual application rather than through the gaokao. (3) evaluation and graduation requirements: SIT has hired top academics to design classes and determine what course content should be. Moreover, at the level of specialization, students will be given the opportunity to design their own major. This is significantly different from the national standard, where undergraduate programs still reflect national standards. Moreover, there is little opportunity for students to study outside their major, let alone design their own. (4) residential dorms with house parents / teachers. SIT hopes to encourage a more familial atmosphere in its dorms and to provide life counseling for students as they adapt to academic life. Indeed, to my American eyes, SIT seems more like a liberal arts college than it does a university — Harvey Mudd, rather than a tradition technological institute like Qinghua or Cal Tech.
Four years to see what happens, at which point, presumably more cities and colleges will be given the opportunity to reform Chinese higher education.
my new favorite map
I have just found my new favorite map of Shenzhen. Published in 2009 by the Bureau of Land Resource Use and Real Estate (深圳市国土资源和房产管理局), the map is not only large, but reads like a beautiful promissory note. Indeed the map promises that, “The Beautiful Shenzhen Will Have a Brighter Future.”
Said map includes the complete plan of the subway system, which is still under construction, proposed buildings, and as yet incomplete parks. Moreover, in the spirit of international goodwill, it includes the addresses of foreign consulates in Guangzhou, a map of the domestic and international flights from Shenzhen, business hours of the city’s various border crossings, and a list of rail connections to other cities. Indeed, its as if the map was designed to anticipate growth, much like a parent buys larger clothing for young children to grow into.
I’m not sure if the purpose of this map is to attract people to live in the city or facilitate their passage through on their way elsewhere. I do think, however, that the point is to eventually find oneself off the map. After all, we are walking forward into the not yet constructed, rather than heading toward the already built.
If even the Japanese can become refugees, what should China’s mortgage slaves do?
The sight of Japanese refugees has forced us to rethink global modernity because if Japan’s house of cards can fall, then none of us are safe. Below, I’ve translated Yang Qian’s thoughts. Chinese version follows. Also, in Mandarin the term “房奴” literally means “house slaves”, however because the term refers to people who have been enslaved by their mortgage debt, I’ve used the expression mortgage slave. If anyone has a better translation, please advise.
If even the Japanese can become refugees, what should China’s mortgage slaves do?
By Yang Qian
The fact of Japanese refugees is something we’re not used to.
For Chinese people, we’re not surprised to see refugee centers and camps in Africa, the near East, or countries like the Balkans. While famine, drought, and panic cause people to loose their homes or even die of sickness in war torn places like Somalia, Pakistan, Chechnya, and Afghanistan. In these places, it’s not strange at all to see ordinary people take on extraordinary suffering. But who ever imagined that refugee camps would appear overnight in Japan, once the second richest country in the world, where 100s of thousands of people struggle with hunger and death? Continue reading
News from Tokyo (by way of Shenzhen gossip)
First night back in Shenzhen and went to dinner with a former student, who has just returned from Tokyo, where she has been studying a MFA in Theatre and Expression. What became clear over the course of the conversation was how Chinese political and news reporting conventions continue to shape understanding of what is happening in Japan. Continue reading
Householding perversions
I have been thinking about the Generation 90s beauty who would would give her chest as a pillow (献酥胸当枕头求降房价的90后美女), householding as a way of locating oneself in a larger social order, the phallic order of Chinese writing conventions, and the perverse nature of Shenzhen’s housing situation.
unethical sourcing
Yesterday at the Shenzhen + China / Utopia + Dystopia Conference, the phrase “anxieties about unethical sourcing” abruptly organized the links between all sorts of personal obsessions, ranging from contaminated food through counterfeit goods to cheap Wallmart chochies. I do worry about how oysters end up on a SZ table of seafood because I have seen the contamination flowing into the sea (here and elsewhere). Likewise, I understand the economic environment in which desires for profit might override a more general altruism such that multinational executives moves factories to places like Shenzhen (taking away the livelihood of previous industrialized areas like Wisconsin).
This has me thinking about the original use of fetishes in trade to guarantee that traders would conform to accepted rules. A classical anthropological conundrum: how do we deal with the unknown?
Bill Aichison in and around Xiamen
Friend Bill Aichison is preparing “The Customer is Always Wrong,” a performance piece based on his exploration of things Chinese in Xiamen. Teaser video and project blog worth a look.
Shenzhen Noted 