One result of my trip to China last September was that my radar now sweeps over stories from that general direction with more regularity. Admittedly, I don't know if I understand more about China or just find myself wanting to read loads more about what's going on there. Regardless, I'll offer up a few curious stories seen over the last handful of days. If you're like me and you hold onto the hope of better understanding what's going on across the globe, these stories might help a wee bit.
The burgeoning love for status symbols in China has made it a coveted market for selling those goods. The NYTimes ran what I saw as a fascinating story Monday on the crazed expansion in the Chinese market for fashion magazines. They're mainly a vehicle for ads promoting luxury goods (a category of consumption that's exploding in China). "Elle" now runs over 700 pages. Other issues have been added or they split them into two. And they're expensive. Can you imagine spending over $3 a pop per throwaway mag when you make a bit more than $700 a month? It does fall in line with a culture that I saw openly embracing designer labels - not cheap knock-offs - where the idea of spending a few grand on a real bag is justifiable. Buried deep in this piece is the observation that this whole game could evaporate in a moment if the economy slows and how even the fashion mags need to steer clear of censors.
The Ai Weiwei story continues to evolve. Last week's announcement of his lost appeal on those trumped up tax penalties was more bad news for this artist after a long run of similarly unfair targeting. He's like an aging heavyweight boxer - I often don't know how he can keep getting back up to fight again after all the punishment he's been taking. Ai's latest rejected appeal feels like another punch in the gut. This man shows how even the most powerful artist still can't expect to exercise truly free expression in an evolving China. The hooks from this story are in deep for many of us, all around the world. To fill in much more backstory, I found much to marvel at in the profile over the weekend of the young American documentarian - Alison Klayman. Her film "Never Sorry" focuses Ai and has been on my "must see" list for months. I, for one, am glad Klayman was there to film and stuck it out for as long as she did to do so.
Another interesting tidbit I wish I'd known about when I visited last fall is a bookstore in Hong Kong that specializes in the books Beijing doesn't want the Chinese to see. Apparently there's enough banned books to fill a whole store. The fact that they can operate there after the handover is certainly a bright spot. And with the number of Chinese traveling from the mainland to Hong Kong more than doubling in the last five years (from 13-ish million to 28-ish from 2006 to 2011), there's a growing audience for it. Baby steps, people. But steps, nonetheless.
Showing posts with label hong kong. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hong kong. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Thursday, October 20, 2011
When Judd Apatow puts Seth Rogen in a lab coat, you'll know I'm onto something.
I'd intended to see the movie "Contagion" before heading to Hong Kong. What can I say - I'm a glutton for the sort of punishment that comes from being up to date on cultural discomforts. I'd heard good things. So when I finally got around to seeing it last night, I was struck by not only the obvious strong points - the powerful paranoia that breaks out, the way you almost immediately start counting how often you touch your face, the way everyone thereafter looks like a carrier of some sort. I also had to think that this was yet another recent movie dealing head on with the issue of animal research. Just like in this summer's "Planet of the Apes" where the research subjects are even more prominent (hell, they're right there in the title). Without hopefully giving away anything to those who haven't seen "Contagion", there's a pivotal scene where a monkey's very-human, still-OK response in the lab gives everyone reason for optimism. I'd argue that here again viewers are asked to actively consider animal lab testing. Am I wrong to think this is an increasing storyline? And since movie reviewers are always hard-pressed to find indications of a trend in the current crop of releases, I'd say we're seeing the leading edge of a trend when it comes to portraying animals in the lab. I don't know what this trend could be called - "monkey loving" is my suggestion. I'm not arguing that this perceived trend is necessarily anti-research. Although "monkey research = bad" is certainly the point of "Planet of the Apes". I'm just sayin' that the shorthand for animal testing as a narrative technique feels more out in front and centered. Put that in your banana peel pipe and do what you will with it.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wrapping a neat little bow around China? Good luck with that.
I still have to look back at my last - and probably favorite - part of the ten days I spent in China. Hong Kong. I got just a taste - delivered in a whirlwind of exploration and not much sleep. But it was enough to amp up my sense of urban life halfway across the world. I was completely caught off guard by how much I loved the blend of East and West there. This part of my tour was really only about exploring - not the spoon fed exposure to this business I'm researching. So I could just soak up tiny bit of a city that has blended East and West into a fascinating stew.
But since my return to Seattle and the dozens of conversations both large and small about this trip to China, I'm finding it hard to wrap a bow around it. Without giving away everything I've been working on for Pelting Out - please bear in mind that this blog is meant to slowly let out some line on the reel that is a big book project. A few nights ago I talked with one of my best friends about the broad arc of all this - China, writing a non-fiction book when fiction's been the gig for so long, how it feels to be an American overseas these days. This friend has always been one of my most unflinching, spot-on sounding boards. And as such, he made me think about what any of us know about China - those who've been fortunate enough to visit, those who complain about their rise, those who couldn't care less about the subject. I found us debating whether there's a historical comparison for China's rise. Maybe you've got one, but we came up bupkis. So rather than look for a big summarizing construct...I'm done with the China shtick in this forum. For the time being. But not before I lay out a few of the things I did in Hong Kong that so entirely entertained me for that brief recent period.
I jostled my way around the subway system. I saw how people congregate downtown on a Sunday, with crowds of what appear to be foreign-born women dancing in the street and throughout Statue Park. I braved the crowds to ride the Peak Tram (the world's steepest funicular rail line) up to Victoria Peak. I tried not to interrupt morning exercises of all kinds in Kowloon Park. I wandered the Night Markets. I got chops made for family - carved marble ink stamps with Chinese characters spelling out our Western names phonetically that are used to accompany signatures. I took an amazing ferry cruise not just through Victoria Harbor and back, but all the way out to Lamma Island for a seafood dinner. I even got a full clinic on using chopsticks correctly - an embarrassing but validating discovery during an incredible three-hour dinner seated next to a friendly local who wasn't the least bit afraid of pointing out that my technique needed tweaking.
After all that and much more than you surely care to read, I came back to Seattle. Sated, challenged, and armed with stories and pictures and impressions I'm obviously still sorting my way through. Do I want to go back? Absolutely. But for the time being, I've got fish much closer to home to catch and season for serving. Thanks for reading. If you check back, I promise there will be more (and less - shorter entries hereafter) that I hope proves tasty. All heading in the general direction of a much larger project. Or so I keep telling myself.
But since my return to Seattle and the dozens of conversations both large and small about this trip to China, I'm finding it hard to wrap a bow around it. Without giving away everything I've been working on for Pelting Out - please bear in mind that this blog is meant to slowly let out some line on the reel that is a big book project. A few nights ago I talked with one of my best friends about the broad arc of all this - China, writing a non-fiction book when fiction's been the gig for so long, how it feels to be an American overseas these days. This friend has always been one of my most unflinching, spot-on sounding boards. And as such, he made me think about what any of us know about China - those who've been fortunate enough to visit, those who complain about their rise, those who couldn't care less about the subject. I found us debating whether there's a historical comparison for China's rise. Maybe you've got one, but we came up bupkis. So rather than look for a big summarizing construct...I'm done with the China shtick in this forum. For the time being. But not before I lay out a few of the things I did in Hong Kong that so entirely entertained me for that brief recent period.
I jostled my way around the subway system. I saw how people congregate downtown on a Sunday, with crowds of what appear to be foreign-born women dancing in the street and throughout Statue Park. I braved the crowds to ride the Peak Tram (the world's steepest funicular rail line) up to Victoria Peak. I tried not to interrupt morning exercises of all kinds in Kowloon Park. I wandered the Night Markets. I got chops made for family - carved marble ink stamps with Chinese characters spelling out our Western names phonetically that are used to accompany signatures. I took an amazing ferry cruise not just through Victoria Harbor and back, but all the way out to Lamma Island for a seafood dinner. I even got a full clinic on using chopsticks correctly - an embarrassing but validating discovery during an incredible three-hour dinner seated next to a friendly local who wasn't the least bit afraid of pointing out that my technique needed tweaking.
After all that and much more than you surely care to read, I came back to Seattle. Sated, challenged, and armed with stories and pictures and impressions I'm obviously still sorting my way through. Do I want to go back? Absolutely. But for the time being, I've got fish much closer to home to catch and season for serving. Thanks for reading. If you check back, I promise there will be more (and less - shorter entries hereafter) that I hope proves tasty. All heading in the general direction of a much larger project. Or so I keep telling myself.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Saying goodbye to Shanghai. Nevermind. We'll all be back.
A very autumnal weekend in Seattle has my recent time in China feeling even farther in the background. However, things in this rearview mirror are truly closer than they appear. I'm still spilling over thoughts of what I experienced there. I expect that will be the case for quite a while, especially as I turn some of the most relevant into part of an early chapter in my book, Pelting Out. Before I move on, consider this a quick drive-by of Shanghai thoughts. Hong Kong considerations to come tomorrow.
Anyone who talks or writes about Shanghai (including what I've put up here already) must spend some time on the crazy rate of recent growth. The idea that China's overall economy can continue to grow at 10% or thereabouts annually must be at least somewhat directly tied to Shanghai's consumption of resources and spending. I was struck by the distinct contrasts when we ventured just outside Shanghai. Two road trips in particular - to places named Yuyao and Haining - showcased the rampant consumption by the Chinese on both the retail and wholesale levels. Our bus driver got lost in Haining, which led to some harrowing turns. More importantly, I saw first hand that the whole city spills out in every direction like a busted up Mall of America. Or a scattered series of them, interspersed with older, but still not decrepit shopping locations. Eventually when we found the Haining mall we'd intended to visit in the first place, I got to see multiple generations of mall walkers doing laps on an otherwise uninspired mid-week morning. Anyone old enough to have survived Mao's Cultural Revolution and the assault that it directed toward capitalism must marvel at the 180-degree turn of China in less than half a century. I dare say China is now as much about buying things as they are about making things. And they do both very much like pros.
Our visit to Yuyao was also directed at a mall - this one comprised solely of luxury goods. Plopped in the midst of a seemingly endless low-rise collection of hutongs, this mall would have nonetheless looked right at home in any American high-end suburb. The contrast was disconcerting. I wasn't content staying within the comfy confines. So I ventured a few blocks in each direction with my camera. There - in the land of designer knock-offs and copy-cat producers - luxury was still the intended pose. Even when I saw shop keepers huddled among their goods, eating their lunches clutched up close to their faces. When I ventured just a bit farther and the theme of the shops changed abruptly, the people were nonetheless there. Sex workers staring out from behind sliding glass doors waved as I walked by. I presume there are very few Westerners strolling out there unless they had a very different sort of tour in mind. As so often proved the case in the larger cities, a solitary Western male walking invites the approach. If I had an RMB for every time I got propositioned with "lady bar?", I'd have been able to stake a place in one of the ubiquitous shopping areas I passed through. It never felt pushy or - as weird as it sounds coming from the sort of fella who would never venture into that world - inappropriate to get the casual proposition. It's just commerce - no different than someone trying to sell you a coat or a fake watch.
I left Shanghai feeling charged with an initial exposure to some of the beauty and contrasts of this part of China. I made snap judgments, as evidenced by these short recaps. Yet their obsession with appearances and the commerce of this roiling city stick out in my mind as something utterly intoxicating. Somehow I think we'll all be heading through Shanghai at sometime in the not-too-distant future. Not Shanghaied by a crimp in the old-timey sense of getting there. I'm talking free will and new commerce. To see how the Chinese will essentially be setting the economic agenda in the decades to come. What will Shanghai look like in ten years - as the world enters the DoubleTwenties (the decade length moniker I'd love to trademark already) - and how many people will lean that direction for guidance on what to buy and how to make it? That is one of the biggest questions I have as I look back. Looking forward, I'm sure such a focus will only sharpen.
For tomorrow, I'll start just after being pampered by Cathay Pacific Airways on our pseudo-international flight from Mainland China to Hong Kong. That's a big border to cross, even since the handover of Hong Kong from Great Britain to China in 1997. I still don't understand the differences. But I'll tell you this - Hong Kong rocks with verve and just slightly to the left of the expected norm, much like the Nirvana back in the day.
Anyone who talks or writes about Shanghai (including what I've put up here already) must spend some time on the crazy rate of recent growth. The idea that China's overall economy can continue to grow at 10% or thereabouts annually must be at least somewhat directly tied to Shanghai's consumption of resources and spending. I was struck by the distinct contrasts when we ventured just outside Shanghai. Two road trips in particular - to places named Yuyao and Haining - showcased the rampant consumption by the Chinese on both the retail and wholesale levels. Our bus driver got lost in Haining, which led to some harrowing turns. More importantly, I saw first hand that the whole city spills out in every direction like a busted up Mall of America. Or a scattered series of them, interspersed with older, but still not decrepit shopping locations. Eventually when we found the Haining mall we'd intended to visit in the first place, I got to see multiple generations of mall walkers doing laps on an otherwise uninspired mid-week morning. Anyone old enough to have survived Mao's Cultural Revolution and the assault that it directed toward capitalism must marvel at the 180-degree turn of China in less than half a century. I dare say China is now as much about buying things as they are about making things. And they do both very much like pros.
Our visit to Yuyao was also directed at a mall - this one comprised solely of luxury goods. Plopped in the midst of a seemingly endless low-rise collection of hutongs, this mall would have nonetheless looked right at home in any American high-end suburb. The contrast was disconcerting. I wasn't content staying within the comfy confines. So I ventured a few blocks in each direction with my camera. There - in the land of designer knock-offs and copy-cat producers - luxury was still the intended pose. Even when I saw shop keepers huddled among their goods, eating their lunches clutched up close to their faces. When I ventured just a bit farther and the theme of the shops changed abruptly, the people were nonetheless there. Sex workers staring out from behind sliding glass doors waved as I walked by. I presume there are very few Westerners strolling out there unless they had a very different sort of tour in mind. As so often proved the case in the larger cities, a solitary Western male walking invites the approach. If I had an RMB for every time I got propositioned with "lady bar?", I'd have been able to stake a place in one of the ubiquitous shopping areas I passed through. It never felt pushy or - as weird as it sounds coming from the sort of fella who would never venture into that world - inappropriate to get the casual proposition. It's just commerce - no different than someone trying to sell you a coat or a fake watch.
I left Shanghai feeling charged with an initial exposure to some of the beauty and contrasts of this part of China. I made snap judgments, as evidenced by these short recaps. Yet their obsession with appearances and the commerce of this roiling city stick out in my mind as something utterly intoxicating. Somehow I think we'll all be heading through Shanghai at sometime in the not-too-distant future. Not Shanghaied by a crimp in the old-timey sense of getting there. I'm talking free will and new commerce. To see how the Chinese will essentially be setting the economic agenda in the decades to come. What will Shanghai look like in ten years - as the world enters the DoubleTwenties (the decade length moniker I'd love to trademark already) - and how many people will lean that direction for guidance on what to buy and how to make it? That is one of the biggest questions I have as I look back. Looking forward, I'm sure such a focus will only sharpen.
For tomorrow, I'll start just after being pampered by Cathay Pacific Airways on our pseudo-international flight from Mainland China to Hong Kong. That's a big border to cross, even since the handover of Hong Kong from Great Britain to China in 1997. I still don't understand the differences. But I'll tell you this - Hong Kong rocks with verve and just slightly to the left of the expected norm, much like the Nirvana back in the day.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Prepping for a trip to China, tracking the roots of the ginseng trade
I'm preparing for a big trip in less than two weeks. I've known about it for the past few months and the timing is fortuitous given my writing plans. I'm still largely unsure of what I'll see along the way. No withheld mystery here - I'm going to China. 10 days, a chance for a big drink from a wide open firehose. I'm being afforded the chance to briefly explore Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Call it a trade mission, because I'm going with a group of Americans and Canadians whose purpose and interest in visiting China has a specific business implication. But I have plans to be personally adventurous (within safe bounds - hello, unseen all-knowing Internet sniffers) along the way. As a matter of educating myself, I've been reading a fair amount online, flipping through maps and guides, and asking questions of some well-placed friends and friends-of-friends. I'm also finishing off a book this weekend that just came out in August by Tom Scocca - titled Beijing Welcomes You. One direction he pointed me is to mention a travel guide titled Beijing By Foot that is made up of set of 40 maps (printed on cards) that itemize walks around the city. I noticed that journalist James Fallows wrote one of the blurbs on their website. Not bad. I contacted the publisher and they can send a copy to my hotel after I pay by PayPal. Call it the ultra-modern equivalent of getting a TripTic from AAA. Costs more, pays off much much more. I hope.
For today's clue about why I'm here, doing what I'm doing as the sun struggles to burn off the Santa Barbara fog a handful of hours earlier than most recent days. A tangent got me wondering about the Trans-Pacific (if that's what you can call the connection between China and the USA) trade of ginseng. I've always been struck by how little truth in labeling there is on any teas or Whole Foods-y things that feature ginseng. It's rather like trying to find out what part of the moon your moon rocks come from - complete lack of specificity. I suspect this has always been the case with ginseng. And the crazy part is that ginseng from the USA has been making its way to China for centuries. When the trade with Korea (the traditional source of most of the ginseng consumed in China) collapsed, American wild ginseng entered the breach. Eventually, cultivated ginseng became a new trade opportunity. The degree to which that continues, I'm now exactly up to date. But this is something I'm thinking about, for the time being. We'll see if I learn more during my visit.
Like what you see thus far? Well, then become a Follower of my blog. Use the top box in the right-hand column. It won't hurt. It will actually help - updates come automatically, I'll be able to respond to questions, everyone gets a free hug. Or some of those things, in no particular order.
Until the next page turns...may you have a chance to go to the beach and eat pancakes after a workout.
For today's clue about why I'm here, doing what I'm doing as the sun struggles to burn off the Santa Barbara fog a handful of hours earlier than most recent days. A tangent got me wondering about the Trans-Pacific (if that's what you can call the connection between China and the USA) trade of ginseng. I've always been struck by how little truth in labeling there is on any teas or Whole Foods-y things that feature ginseng. It's rather like trying to find out what part of the moon your moon rocks come from - complete lack of specificity. I suspect this has always been the case with ginseng. And the crazy part is that ginseng from the USA has been making its way to China for centuries. When the trade with Korea (the traditional source of most of the ginseng consumed in China) collapsed, American wild ginseng entered the breach. Eventually, cultivated ginseng became a new trade opportunity. The degree to which that continues, I'm now exactly up to date. But this is something I'm thinking about, for the time being. We'll see if I learn more during my visit.
Like what you see thus far? Well, then become a Follower of my blog. Use the top box in the right-hand column. It won't hurt. It will actually help - updates come automatically, I'll be able to respond to questions, everyone gets a free hug. Or some of those things, in no particular order.
Until the next page turns...may you have a chance to go to the beach and eat pancakes after a workout.
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