My computer is being a bitch right now, as is its custom. All technology conspires against me, but that’s another story.
Luckily, since I am among the happy Apple-toting hordes, there is an Apple (苹果） store in Beijing. Located in Sanlitun Village–an enormous and terrifying mall-like structure in the center of Sanlutun Area (embassy and tourist grazing area by day, ready to party by night) with imposing geometric architecture and a center courtyard featuring a LED screen ready to burn your eyes out of their sockets.
The Beijing Apple store is eerily similar to the various New York Apple stores, especially the 14th street one (detailed in my forthcoming memoir, Apple Stores I Have Known And Had Panic Attacks At) from the frosted fiberglass staircase to the eager geeks scrambling to out-nerd each other with shiny gadgetry. I knew that my sojourn to the (in my experience) somewhat-hyperbolically named Genius Bar would be a big bilingual headache, since I need help translating what I’m told at the American, English-speaking Apple store, but I sallied forth with my broken USB ports, irrevocably corrupted iPod (been spending too much time with Chinese government officials…), and a head full of dreams.
马克？ ? (Ma Ke) Asked the Eager Young Genius who greeted me.
Whaaat? 什么？
马克？ 还是i-P -O-D? He smiles, Mac or iPod?
They both have problems, I reply, 这两个都有问题。。
What ensued was a careful and utterly wordless examination of both my computer and iPod. Pressing keys, restarting, plugging and unplugging…(opening up applications, copying and pasting) Ten minutes later, he had finished poking and prodding. “Would you like me to tell you what the problem is?” I asked.
“No.” He replied. “No time today. Come back tomorrow.”
To put a fine point on it, emoticon-wise: -_-
Really: 苹果 can suck it. All over the world.
This entry was written by , posted on September 30, 2009 at 12:37 am, filed under adventures, beijing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
With all the horrible fuckery going on in the world right now, it’s good to know that
a.) NYT.com has finally come unblocked on the Chinese internetz
b.) Even in the face of flooding, oil spills, and general chaos, the NYT knows how to keep things light.
Blessed Seltzer!
(This post has nothing to do with Beijing. Deal with it.)
This entry was written by , posted on September 27, 2009 at 10:37 pm, filed under news. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
WHAT’S YO NAME?
In the interest of preventing us bumbling foreigners from butchering their names and/or feeling cool, many Chinese people have chosen English names for themselves. This can be hilarious or ridiculous or just indicative of evil hegemonic forces at work.
Let’s investigate:
My roommate’s real name is Yuan Yuan and this is how her family and Chinese friends address her. If you knew her between the years 1990-1995, you would know her as Annie. If you’re not Chinese and you met her after 1995, you’d know her, as I do, as Cleo. Does changing one’s name, a relatively major move in most societies, represent something monumental to those who choose Western names? To be a complete Liberal Arts ass about it, what does changing the signifier mean to and about the signified? I know many Asian people in the US who’ve changed their names, but that perhaps makes more sense in an English-speaking country. In China, however, when the native tongue and culture should reign supreme, all evidence points to an uneasy post-colonialist paradox.
So, do Chinese feel compelled to choose English names for fun or ease or because it represents some way to enter a Western discourse? I’ve met some people whose choice of names point to a definite irony about the whole thing (or, just a poor grasp of English) –HURRICANE, for example, is the name of a friend of my boss. I’ve also heard tell of Chinese people who’ve dubbed themselves POWER, SMACKER, and QUIET.
Maybe if you name yourself something weird, Angelina Jolie will adopt you.
I also will refer you to the incident of 2008 when my dear friend Soo Hyun decided that, even after a lifetime of having a Korean name in an English-speaking environment, the time had come to choose an English name. The choice: Bob Dylan.
I am changing my name to Ming Kwang Yang.
Luckily, that was a short lived (and facetious) idea.
Obviously, most Chinese probably don’t think “I am choosing an English name with full consideration of the post-Colonial and Semiotic implications of doing so!” when they decide on a new name, but rather something like “Hmmm, I bet it will be easier for foreign folks to pronounce ‘Sarah’ than ‘Xuan Rui Qu.’” Or something like that.
In any case, it remains a source of both amusement and contemplation. After all (Sorry. It’s too easy…): What’s in a name?
This entry was written by , posted on September 26, 2009 at 12:11 am, filed under chinese. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I secretly really love fashion blogs. True, it sounds strange coming from someone whose idea of fashion was, until fairly recently, wearing a blue t-shirt instead of a black one. Be that as it may, I, like so many others, have become somehow entranced by street and style blogs over the past year or so.
Amid all the (well deserved) flack the fashion and magazine industries are receiving these days, street and style blogs serve as a way to see what real people are wearing without the gloss and the size 0 bullshit.
As far as sassy style blogs go, I definitely recommend Cheap JAP.
Cheap Jap is written by a good friend of my friend Kim and is hilarious, DIY, brand-bashing fun. It could easily be called Confessions of a Shopaholic Who Is Not an Idiot And Has a Killer Sense of Humor And Makes Frequent Clueless References.
She could be a farmer in those clothes...
In the realm of more fantasy-driven style blogging, I turn to Garance Dore, who has an adorable little blog where she photographs the cream of the street style crop. Street style is one thing, but snapping Carine Roitfeld on the streets of Paris is, um, cheating. In any case, her blog is all beautiful and sunshiney and cupcakey and shit.
But this is a blog about Beijing! Which brings us to….Stylites in Beijing!, Beijing’s answer to The Sartorialist, style documentation, and much more! Apart from the fact that it’s based right here in the ‘jing, I admire Stylites for being a true street and fashion blog. From fashionistas and Sartorial stars to students to hipsters to typical Beijing youth style to expats who can rock a Hutong, Stylites runs the gamut of fashionable and interesting Beijingers.
Beijing is certainly not (yet!) known as a fashion capital, but there is a definite style one observes here–from students to old timers. Among younger generations, a punk sensibility tempered by Japanese and Korean style is pretty big (cue the flat-ironed hair sweep…), though hip hop style and Hello Kitty are just as apparent. There’s a definite Beijing uniform for some kids (apart from the brightly colored track suits most High School students are required to wear): skinny jeans, big sneakers, messy hair, keffiyah. It’s not an awful look, just somewhat unimaginative.
In any case, many Beijingers (particularly young Beijingers) are definitely becoming more adventurous and savvy when it comes to clothing and presentation and Stylites is a great documentation of that. As a proponent of any reporting that shows China in a fair and truthful light (as opposed to Western Media’s tendency to accentuate the negative da da da…), I admire Stylites for its focus on the individual in China–under each photograph is a short biography of the subject, often with surprising details. China is a big and complex place–no shit–but there are some incredible individuals here creating some remarkable artistic and social movement.
Fashion is just one component of how the individual self is being formed by Chinese youth, how new aesthetics are evolving here, and how it all shakes out on the streets of Beijing.
All photos (except for the Cher one…duh) in this post come from Stylites.net
This entry was written by , posted on September 25, 2009 at 11:17 pm, filed under style. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
MAD MEN
广告狂人
GUANG GAO KUANG REN
(Literally: Advertisement Madmen)
*whatever, translation. This season is blowing my mind.
This entry was written by , posted on September 23, 2009 at 1:23 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The age of branding is well upon us, but nowhere is it as apparent as in China. In a city of brand names, knockoffs, and bootlegs run amok, it seems that branding is essential in every area of life–from cell phones to clothes to concepts to individuals.
Beijing Brand Numero Uno
Perhaps partially because branding is a surefire way to indicate the status and power so many Chinese are hungry for, or perhaps because brands are so easily copied here, this issue of cultivating authentic brands and branding takes enormous precedence here.
On a very basic level, the Chinese are notoriously adept at filling the demand for foreign luxury brands. YaShow Market is Beijing destination number one for knockoff designer clothes. While the market lends itself to touristy shopping sprees and some impressive haggling, it’s also where one can buy one’s mother a “Prada” handbag lined with fabric reading “Hongqiao Factory Made.” (Not that I’ve done this or anything…) There are electronics markets, jewelry markets, even auto markets all promising Samsung! Apple! Chanel! BMW!…with varying degrees of legitimacy. In many cases here, the name is more important than the product and the knockoffs market is booming. While buying myself a cell phone (a slick crossbreed between an Oppo phone and an Apple phone that Steve Jobs wouldn’t quite recognize…), I saw a an iPone (as opposed to the less popular iJohnnyCake?) and an iPhone Air. A great idea, but a little too far ahead of the curve.
On a much larger level, the idea of branding oneself and one’s endeavors are of staggering importance. People will unabashedly judge their colleagues based on name, presentation, and pedigree–much more so than I’ve experienced in the US. Last night, I met a girl who works at a fairly prominent film production company in Beijing. We chatted for a while and she was quite amicable, if somewhat blasé towards me and my ideas. She asked me at some point where I had gone to college–when the name “Columbia University” was dropped, her attitude towards me changed completely. “她真厉害！” she exclaimed to my colleague (”She’s so impressive!” or…”intense” depending on your translation) I hadn’t done anything but mention an academic institution that, in China perhaps more so than anywhere else, serves as a major status symbol–a component of the Maya Rudolph brand.
Of course, this is not a new phenomenon, nor is it at all specific to China, but there is a certain unapologetic emphasis placed on presenting oneself, one’s job, one’s life, as a brand worth investing in. (I’ve seen business cards here to make Patrick Bateman weep.) It’s strange to see this commercial upswing, this blatant pursuit of status through luxury branding, as so accepted on a wide scale when the US is coming to grips with what a fucking disaster it can lead to.
There are many implication to this much bigger conversation about the Chinese impulse to brand (and, in effect, to compartmentalize and promote ideas and even people as products) and what that means about the individual in China and what the capitalist nightmare it all points to, but more on that later. For now, I’m off to buy some bootleg DVDs. Croterion Collection, anyone?
This entry was written by , posted on at 1:10 am, filed under adventures, beijing, chinese. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The cliche that has become my life:
On the subway, everybody stares up at me.
(More substantial posts are coming soon, I promise!)
This entry was written by , posted on September 21, 2009 at 7:08 am, filed under Uncategorized. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This week marks the Manhattan Short Film Festival–a festival that allegedly screens the ten best short films in the world, all over the world.
On Tuesday, the Beijing Film Festival is hosting the Beijing branch of the Manhattan Shorts at Yugong Yishan (愚公移山) off the Zhangzizhonglu (张自忠路) subway station. The ten films this year promise to be fantastic and come from the US, Sweden, Mozambique, France, Australia, Italy, Spain, the UK, and Israel. At least three of the directors of this year’s shorts are female, which is (as sad as this is…) a pretty decent percentage in the world of film-making.
A still from 'Plastic,' the short from Australia
So, if you’re in Beijing next week, come by Yugong Yishan at 7pm and check out the shorts! If you’re…almost anywhere else on the globe, find a location near you and check them out anywhere. Aaaah, the beauty of globalism.
This entry was written by , posted on September 19, 2009 at 5:11 am, filed under beijing, film, news and tagged film, manhattan shorts, shirt film, yugong yishan. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
One of the kindest people I have met in Beijing so far is Lily (高丽), who works at Yan Club gallery in 798. Lily basically runs everything at Yan Club–a beautiful gallery and events space where the Beijing 48 Hour Film Festival was held earlier this year. She gave me a tour of the space (which at the time held a group show of video artists from Europe and the US as part of the 798 Biennial) and very sweetly offered me a pick of the publications Yan Club has produced from their previous exhibitions. After much perusing, I decided on the melodramatically-titled, but strongly compelling “The End of the World and the Grim Fairyland,” (世界尽头与冷酷仙境) )a book of paintings by young Chinese artist Liu Ye(刘也).
The End of the World and Grim Fairyland Part 1, 2007
Liu Ye’s work is unlike that of so many Chinese artists of his generation (Unbelievably, Liu was born in 1984, which just makes me feel like the least talented, laziest person on the planet…) who adhere to a more deliberately political, boldy satirical aesthetic. Unlike these artists who riff on popular advertising and draw from Japanese cartoon influences, Liu’s work is subtle in its politics and poetically muted in both its conception and execution.
Belief No. 1, 2008
Liu’s work represents a unique direction in the art of a certain generation of Chinese. Something about his side by side rendering of international icons and anonymous architectural bodies begs up some very mature questions about what it means to be global, to be at home in the world.
The Day After Tomorrow-Sydney Opera, 2007
There’s certainly a maudlin slant to Liu’s apocalyptic view of the world as he paints the destruction of the world’s structures on a literal world stage, but not quite everything falls apart. His style of painting is bold and enduring; the images are crumbling, fading.
A tree in front of the door, 2007
Some pieces of art are stories and others are poems. In an arts culture where many artists are focused not only on stories, but also stores, it’s remarkable to see this kind of poetry. Traditional Chinese paintings and poetry, particularly from the Tang Dynasty, have always focused on nature and the passage of time. In this legacy, Liu is typically Chinese–drawing on the oldest of Chinese themes to inform his work, but there is also something futuristic about these images. In these paintings, we see what is beyond society, beyond globalism, beyond cultural politics, beyond what we have the power to build.
Liu Ye says: “The West has already finished building its gravestones…Developing countries are going on building their gravestones, continuously trying to progress…If you have a look at both of the works together, you will witness the cyclical nature of history.”
The End of the World and Grim Fairyland No. 4, 2007
Liu Ye’s exhibition at Yan Club in 2008 was, I believe, his most recent in China. Lily tells me he currently has a fellowship at Art University in Kassel, Germany. He should not be confused with Beijing-born artist Liu Ye (刘 野), whose portraits can be seen here: http://www.artnet.com/artist/10616/liu-ye.html
More on Liu Ye and Yan Club: http://www.yanclub.com/wwwsite/liuye.html#
UPDATE: Because today is the day many new exhibitions open at 798, I went by Yan Club to check out their new show. Lo and behold, their new group show features several paintings by Liu Ye! I was so thrilled to see his work in person (particularly A tree in front of the door, featured above), as well as many other artists including Shen Dapeng (also insanely young–born in 1983!), Liu Baomin, and Rao Songqing. More on these artists later, no doubt. If anyone reading this is actually in Beijing, definitely head to Yan Club and check it out!
This entry was written by , posted on September 18, 2009 at 8:12 am, filed under adventures, art, beijing, travel and tagged 798, art, beijing, liu ye, painting. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
You know, the Chinese government has pulled some pretty sneaky shit over the years, but this takes the cake:
According to thebeijinger.com, in preparation for the 60th anniversary of the PR China and ensuing pandemonium disguised as a celebration, “kite and pigeon flying have been banned in Beijing from September 15 to October 8.”
They’ve gone too far this time, I tell you. Too far.
This entry was written by , posted on September 17, 2009 at 9:44 pm, filed under beijing, chinese, news and tagged outrage, pigeons. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.