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Tag Archives: confessional moment
copycat luxury
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?
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.
viewpoints
Just saw Ajax at the American Repertory Theater, Boston and am thinking about reasons we go to war or refuse to bury a fallen enemy; the imperative to honor the dead precisely because once we have fallen what else remains but acknowledgement of a fundamental something that could not otherwise be named? So while I wait on a friend, I sit in a bar listening to people scream at each other, but they aren’t angry, it’s just that their voices raise when their interlocutor disagrees, as if persuasion might make it — whatever it is — true.
Sometimes, when thinking about cultural difference, I forget that it is painfully difficult within cultural similarity to accept incommensurable ways of being. In Shenzhen, I often suffer from a fundamental disconnection, floating lightly. But here, home, suddenly this homegrown feeling tricks me into feeling that the world is as I think; a mistake I rarely make in Shenzhen because I still have difficulty controlling my tones, let alone a tight philosophical argument in Chinese.
Sunlit Pines
Early Spring, North Carolina: long needle pines and dogwood.
China Talk
Today, I visited my niece’s third grade class to talk about China and had a practical answer to the question, “how do we teach across experience?”
First, show and tell. I brought in money, a kite, mini-terracotta warriors, a teapot and pu’er tea, and a map (and yes, like elementary students in China, these third graders saw how closely China’s borders resemble the silhouette of a chicken.)
Second, play. We looked at the money and compared it to dollars. Several students taught me how to make sweet tea and then I showed them how to use the teapot (and yes, teapots travel.) We also played go fish (去钓鱼!) in Chinese to learn about tones.
Third, detailed story-telling. The students loved the story of the Qin Emperor (秦始皇), wanting to know how many kingdoms he conquered, how many soldiers were buried with him, and what kind clothes he wore.
It seems self evident, but: why isn’t education always this fun?
border crossing
Yesterday, custom officials at Seatac detained my husband in order to convince him to surrender his Green Card because they said that holding a Green Card was a privilege rather than his right. They maintained that a Green Card only gave a foreign national the privilege of residing in the United States because a Green Card is not a “travel document”. Their language use implied that as a Green Card holder my husband did not have the right to freely enter and leave the United States. However, when my husband and I entered Seattle, we had been abroad roughly half a year, well under the one-year time limit on overseas stays for Green Card holders. In other words, my husband had the legal right to freely enter the United States. Thus, the officers had to convince my husband to surrender his Green Card because it could not be revoked legally.
I am distressed and saddened by yesterday’s events. I am distressed because by choosing to interpret my husband’s right to freely enter and leave the United States as privilege, the officers chose to undermine my husband’s legal rights, rights in which all Americans have enshrined in the Constitution. I am saddened because those same actions imply that the officers also chose to close American borders to my husband without considering that there are many ways of being an American family in a globalizing world.
Happy New Year!! Rabbit rabbit
I hope that the first day of the New Year opens new possibilities for all. May our lives make the world more beautiful.
celebrating
Yang Qian, our florist and his son.
Much happiness throughout Shenzhen. Children play, families stroll, and friends meet for dinners and laughter. Our florist has been exceptionally busy, bringing in orchids, daffodils, and lucky orange trees. Indeed, his sidewalk stand has grown several times its usual size as people purchase New Year’s flowers.
All this bustle is a sign both of how settled Shenzhen has become and how commercialized Spring Festival. On the one hand, many families are not only staying for the Spring Festival, but also bringing in relatives from neidi. In this sense, Shenzhen has become a “hometown”. On the other hand, businesses are staying open, especially restaurants, themeparks, and supermarkets. The malls hum, the parks sparkle, and department stores offer great deals. In other words, consumption is a key element of the celebration and thus, many migrant aren’t going home for the festival because, well, they’re still working.
Of note: the themes of Shenzhen identity, holiday spirit, and consumption all come together in Zhou Bichang’s (周笔畅) version of “The God of Wealth Arrives (财神到),” which was released in 2008, but is still played throughout the city. Zhou Bichang (笔笔 to her fans) was the city’s representative and runner-up (to Li Yuchun) in the first Super Girl contest and she both appeals to and represents the city’s generation 80; she’s cute, fashionable, and comfortable moving between Cantonese and Mandarin. Moreover, the values she represents are unabashedly neo-liberal or possibly even protestant (pace Weber):
财神到财神到 好心得好报 God of wealth arrives, god of wealth arrives, good hearts get good rewards.
财神话财神话 揾钱依正路 God of wealth says, god of wealth says, earn money on the proper road.
财神到财神到 好走快两步 God of wealth arrives, god of wealth arrives, walk a little faster.
To be rich may or may not be glorious, but come New Year’s in Shenzhen, it’s definitely a good time.
as the city empties,
i rest more easily, i feel less hassled by long bus trips, i notice more friendly gestures between strangers, i appreciate the happy jumping of toddlers overdressed in variations of pink bunnywear.
yes, i enjoy spring festival in shenzhen because the mass exodus of folks to homes elsewhere makes the city more livable.
i am not sure how we might establish an index for overpopulation because (a) we are not rats and (b) acceptable (indeed desirable) density does vary from culture to culture, nevertheless, yesterday, as i wandered through streets that were relatively empty, i felt more at ease. in other words, i experience shenzhen’s population viscerally and need quiet spaces.
and yet, the american solution of moving folks out of cities into suburbs didn’t work for me either – i grew up wanting new york and all that global energy.
and there’s the rub. i want today’s shenzhen infrastructure with a 1990s population and i don’t know if that is possible because so many people are needed to sustain this level of development. so new thought for 2011, is this what unsustainable development lives like? and if so, why does even crowded shenzhen appeal more then neidi? and how to unmake my desire for urban life?
Shenzhen Noted 