Tag Archives: snapshot

Confucious on the bus

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At dinner, a friend tells the following story:

She was on a bus with her two year old son. Suddenly, she looked down to see him scurrying away. He had seen an empty seat and immediately darted over. This story was told with great pride because it demonstrated her son’s independence and ability-he knows what he wants, goes after it, and succeeds. The story was met with laughter and smiles-yes, an all round great kid.

My a-ha moment: my mother never told such stories about me and thus I continue to line up and wait for others even when this strategy for boarding buses has long proven ineffective.

Indeed, I sometimes fear that I all I ever do in China is un-learn everything I learned in kindergarten. According to Confucian wisdom: at thirty one establishes oneself, at forty no doubts, at fifty know the will of heaven, at sixty everything sounds good, and at seventy, follow one’s heart and make no mistakes (30而立，40而不惑，50而知天命，60而耳顺，70从心所欲而不逾矩). But what if one changed lives at thirty? Can one actually become established and start over at the same time? Or is everything delayed? Or more likely, do we never quite get it right and doubt at 40, wonder about the will of heaven at 50, still become annoyed by chatter at 60, and make all sorts of mistakes when we follow our hearts into our 70s?

Sigh. Because I also know how difficult it is to go home and get back on track to a retirement of effortless grace.

i’m just a symptom of the moral decay…

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If I didn’t realize it in college, when I happily sang The Sinking Feeling by The The, I know it now – I’m just a symptom of the moral decay, that’s gnawing at the heart of the country…

My interlocutor explained that of the three ways to be unfilial, not having children was the worst (不孝有三，无后为大).

I laughed. He turned serious, “This is what’s wrong with foreigners. You have no sense of responsibility.”

I admitted that I didn’t want to raise a child and pointly asked, “Does China really need more people (中国真缺人吗)?”

He counterpointed that, “Every family needs their own (每个家庭都缺自己的).”

I laughed again.

He went on to explain that I had failed to continue my family line. Chinese abroad and at home have geneaologies that clearly mark generational differences. For thousands of years, each generation has followed the next. He himself had two children, three grandchildren, and hoped to hold a fourth.

I congratulated him on his happiness (幸福).

He nodded soberly and encouraged me to reconsider, “Maybe your mother-in-law can take care of the child and you can continue your carefree [and irresponsible] life.”

This truly is an argument I didn’t know I was in and can’t win anyway.

al fresco and imported greens

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al fresco

Originally uploaded by maryannodonnell

last night, we returned to a very old haunt–the nanyou food street, which used to be a thriving world of al fresco seafood, sichuan hot pot, and the odd miao restaurants. today, the street still bustles, but in a crumbling, obviously down-graded kind of way. it’s interesting to note that chains have moved in where independent restaurants used to be, while several spaces have been consolidated into larger restaurants, and rennovations were under way for another mega-restaurant.

for years, shenzhen has been actively upgrading its image by removing al fresco restaurants and other small, independent stores that used to spill onto the uneven sidewalks. all this grooming has resulted in neat, straight, clean streets that cut through beautifully tend and imported topiary–we are overwelmed by palm trees, where the restaurants and stores and kiosks used to be. the restaurants, of course, have (been) moved indoors, where air-conditioning, private rooms, and stylish chairs allow people to not only dine in comfort, but also eat in environments where open-toed high heals and business suits can be kept clean. after all, one of the downsides to al fresco dining is the grime that accumulates under the grill, between the tables, and in street gutters.

so, clear stratification under way in terms of unique dining experiences for those with money and increasingly mass produced for those with less. indeed, it is noticible that the al fresco restaurants continue to thrive in working class and older neighborhoods, while in more middle class neighborhoods (and those that have been subjected to beautification projects), the restaurants are all tucked away behind glass doors. unfortunately, for small restaurants, this layout is not comfortable. given the noise and proximity of fellow dinners in a successful chinese restaurant, big is better if you don’t have the sidewalk. thus, more fallout from the street-cleaning: larger, high capital restaurants do better in middle-class areas because they can provide a better dinning environment, while opportunities for low capital food entrepreneurs diminish.

yes, i am waxing nostalgic for old shenzhen, the shenzhen that friends once derided as “nothing more than a small town,” the shenzhen where al fresco dining was the norm, where workers and employees both jostled for tables under magnolia trees along uneven streets, and where cargo trucks rushed past, spewing carbon monoxide into our drinks.

exotic dubai

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dubai

Originally uploaded by maryannodonnell

the dubai-shenzhen connection reaches new levels of irony on the houhai land reclamation area, where “exotic dubai” is now an architectural style to be bought and sold in a soon-to-be-completed trés upscale residential area.

“exotic” is one interpretation of 风情 , which when refering to gender usually refers to the spiritual aspect of a woman’s sex appeal e.g. 多指女性.风情是女人的韵味，与性感有联系，两者的不同之处是：风情来自於“神”而性感来自於 “形” . likewise, when refering to place 风情 usually connotes whatever it is that makes minority groups “attractive”. this new marketing strategy not only begs the question: what other city has turned a bay into a desert in less than 10 years? but also has inquiring minds wondering: are they building artificial seas in dubai?

on that note, does anyone know if “shenzhen” is now or has ever been used as an adjective to describe real estate elsewhere?

Fake currency update

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In the interest of science (of course!), i’ve been trying to collect fake currency from various shopkeepers and friends and have been relatively unsuccessful. no one admits to having any counterfit bills to give me. the taxi drivers have been particularly vehement in denying their involvement with fakes.

three possible explanations. either (1) i come off as some kind of spy and no one trusts me; (2) there really isn’t as much fake currency out there as the signs and gossip would have it, or (3) all of the above.

a close friend did pull a fake ten out of her cash register for me, explaining, “the new help can’t tell the difference between real and fake currency.”

joys of field research!

more graffiti

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walking from coastal city, one of the large malls on the houhai landfill toward haiya, a mall built about ten years ago, i past this bit of graffiti. it does say it all.

morning walk 6 july: 鹿丹村

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ludan village wall

Pleasantly chilled inside Shenzhen’s upscale malls and glass towers, one forgets that outside mold relentlessly creeps across older surfaces, unmaking walls that once upon a time boasted distinct edges and sharp, modernist lines. Mold flourishes in Shenzhen. There was a time, an earlier, less refined time, when Shenzhen pioneers built in concrete, as if they were still living in northern climes, where winter snows deter topiary from swelling to monstrous sizes and arid lands hold in check uncontrolled growth. In visible contrast, glazed tiles valiantly slow fungal expansion on the high risen walls of post-millennial Shenzhen’s inner city villages and well-serviced business apartments. Indeed, so pernicious are southern spores that less than thirty years after Deng Xiaoping initiated economic reform and social opening, Old Shenzhen walls crumble, held in tenuous place through ad hoc measures, while unhinged doors slouch carelessly, indifferent to neoliberal respectability; razing these buildings is–like building them was–merely a question of time. Pictures of Ludan Village, July 6, 2008.

obligatory olympic torch entry

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中国加油！

i have been avoiding discussing the olympic torch procession, hoping that the sadness and the confrontation will soon lift, so that conversation might begin again. nevertheless, today i joined the crowds at city hall (市民中心) to greet the torch in shenzhen. originally scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., the procession was rescheduled for 12 o’clock. in those four hours, thousands gathered on city hall lawn and marched in the roads chanting: go china! go beijing! go olympics! (中国加油！北京加油！奥运加油！) meanwhile, police cars circulated, broadcasting the recorded message: the torch procession will not begin until noon, please go home and watch on television. those police officers not directing pedestrians or traffic were, like the rest of those of us, taking pictures.

comments heard:

my throat is so hoarse from screaming i can’t talk.

they [the government] is afraid of something happening (出事).

it’s 32 degrees, how many people do you think have fainted?

a worker from sichuan encouraged me to spread the word about how great this was for shenzhen. he reminded me that he wasn’t from here, but that he had many opportunities. he then started talking about a subject that seemed even more urgent: his lack of english skills and did i know anyone who could help him apply for u.s. copy rights for the products his company produced?

however, all the carnivalesque excitement, notwithstanding, i soon felt bored and started taking pictures of the amazing cloud formations that accompanied the torch. whatever else happened today, pictures of the event will show shenzhen shining beneath blue skies and white clouds. i then joined friends for lunch,who unlike the crowds outside seemed mildly frustrated by the whole thing. one commented that on days like this, he thought chinese people were pitiful; don’t we care about anything else? he asked rhetorically. another joked: thank god for schools and assembly lines, otherwise where would we keep all these people?! the fourth boasted: on a day like today you can get away with anything. no one knows who you are, and so no one stops you.

indeed. obligatory pics of olympic torch procession, shenzhen.

shekou upgrades part the second

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green panels

the transformation of shenzhen from an industrial processing zone into a center of creativity continues, this time with a green twist. rennovation of the old sanyo factories in shekou has begun. panels with green plants have been attached, giving the area an environmental conscious atmosphere, even though i don’t think the plants do anything but grow. pictures here.

海岸城：city on the fill

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coastal city, west and east

one of the newest, most expensive, and flashiest of the recent crop of development projects on houhai reclaimed land, coastal city (海岸城) sparkles even in a winter drizzle. i suspect that coastal city will soon enough fade into some post-whatever background, but today as i walked around both the east and west complexes, i wanted this to be important, not just an object of anthropological critique, i wanted all this building to mean something other than wild real estate speculation and irresponsible environmental policy. i wanted it to become a city to fall in love with, even though i can’t bring myself to say i like shenzhen. clearly if not misplaced, my sentiments are vexed.

so pictures.