Monday, January 7, 2008
kfc, bank lunches and pigeons
7 january
8 january morning train to harbin
men walking cows in the snow – strong orange sun rising in birch trees – clumps of small cottages white snow bound with puffs of smoke coming from each chimney – fields tilled with fresh snow – black bird slowly flying south against white ground – east orange turning to pink in west – factories belching black smoke into clean blue morning air – haystacks drooping under their own wet weight – black birds settling in white snow – long brick red factory walls – lines through the landscape – air smelling of morning snow and sweet chinese hot milk breakfast – dozens of cottages surrounding factories like nineteenth century England – over and over – everyone quiet reading newspapers on their bunks or smoking in the carriage way – everyone with a mobile phone – radio blaring with chinese noise - - cows in line eating leftover corn stalks
skating and swimming in bei hai park
3 january
The use of legal injections will be expanded to replace gunshot executions – considered more humane – but there is still a strong belief of ‘an eye for an eye and a life for a life’
287,000 people take their life every year in China (6,000) and around 3,000,000 attempted suicide (60,000) – not getting appropriate treatment for depression
Some good Chine Indie film titles:
Apple Lost in Beijing, Gimme Kudos (Huang Jianxing), The Nail (Jiang Zhi), Uniform (Diao Yi’nan), Bliss (Shen Zhimin), Walking On The Wild Side (Han Jie), Beijing Bastards.
as radical as ....
29 december - i go back to 798 by myself which i am very proud can do - i now have a card/picture of every place i am going - mandarin is not improving - go to the new ucca non-profit gallery, one of the first to be developed in china (really a museum but if you call yourself a musuem the party has a say in curating) - the the ucca was set up by guy and myriam ullens, belgium philanthropists who collected the new chinese art extensively in the late eighties and nineties - committed themselves to the new china, sold some turners that they had laying around and spent about $20 million on the new completely renovated factory building complex - this is the first museum here at 798 and is seen both as a stamp of legitimacy of new wave chinese art and also the 'mainstreaming' and acceptance of this once radical movement - it has mainly been set up as a counter o the prevailing culture of art as business - that art can also be curated, appreciated and even contemplated - not just bought and sold - sometimes art is used as a status offering of influence to sway favour - a cultural adaptation of gift giving on a much larger scale - the first exhibition is impressive - titled '85 new wave (5 nov - 17 feb 2008) it features 150 works from 85 of the chinese new wave artists - the work has an underlying radicalism with symbolism heavy especially post-tienanmen - the first room of he gallery contains an amazing 60 metre illustrated timeline of the history of the avant-garde movement starting with the death of mao of course - a volunteer arts student shows me around - he wants to be a curator!
rabbits and rice wine
28 december- today is a holiday so set out on a beijing journey with dan and anna - in our local street we run into the beijing rabbit which is local adaptation of the more universal chine rabbit story over here - as it goes the beautiful girl loved by the the rich king is accidentally sent up to the moon after accidentally swallowing some immortality pills that were close by - she finds herself trapped with the king/prince pining for her return - the king/lord sends up a pharmaceutical rabbit who as a chemist is commissioned to experiment until he discovers a pill that will bring the princes back to earth - meanwhile the princess looks down on beijing and sees the general population dying of a dreadful plague - in her compassionate manner she sends the rabbit down to dispense medicine , with his mortar and pestle, to the beijing population and cure them - which the rabbit does - the princess however is forever trapped on the moon but Beijing id forever grateful through their giving of offerings to the rabbit - that is dan in the photo with that rabbit - this deity of the rabbit was very quickly stopped with the communist revolution but has survived into the new revolution of socialist consumerism - we all then catch a taxi back over to the 798 art precinct in the dashanzi area - and view cui guo tai's amazing massive social realist expressionist grunge paintings as truth in beijing can no longer be bright and beautiful - the paintings of boeing jets, a huge submarine breaking water with its propellers threshing dirty grey water across the painting are wondrously awesome - at night we go to the 'little sheep' hotpot restaurant where we are offered 8 types of lamb, numerous varieties of mushrooms and noodles handmade in front of you - have have never eating so much without being full - we all get steamed as an extra bonus - i would love a gelato which is freely available here in the street but cold is bad - hot water is good - we end up at a bar and drink hot rice wine.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
brooms and mops
27 december
have become completely fascinated with the brooms and mops in beijing and have been taking many photos of them propped up against walls, corners, steps and stones - its the way they are left there alone, at a certain angle and with a certain propensity - they seem so much more associated with activity here, with so much more intent - maybe because there are so many and so ready to hand -they seem to hold both a strong memory (of their owner) - hey also have a powerful sense of design especially when combined with the colour red (which occurs often) - red being everywhere in china/beijing being very strong against the black which is also prevalent - so, in the temples i took many more phtos of the brooms and fire equipment- i also walked the streets to the bell and drum towers - struggling up the stairs very accomplished only run into american guy who was climbing to base camp mount everest the next day - always so relative - nearly everyone here speaks english with an american accent due to american teachers and cctv - he irony is not even funny - though iron is not in the vocabulary here anyway though sarcasm is very easily understood once explained - it is very cold but skies are clear and blue as the daily quota for fine weather leading up to the olympics has to be met - cloud seeding and factory shutdowns do wonders for the air
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