Freedom, Beijing Style

One of my projects while in Beijing is to research and experience the city’s notorious “underground” live music scene.  The scene is not that underground really--for several years now clubs have been operating in the open, featuring gritty Chinese rock bands.  One such club is 2Kolegas, which opened up two years ago.  Run by veteran rocker Liu Miao 刘淼 and his partner , the club is located beyond the Third Ring Road on Liangmaqiao Street.  It’s in a Drive-in Movie Theater Park.  The area of its location is parkland--meaning field and forest.  The club itself is small, and patrons can sit outside on a dirt-grass field and drink their beers while enjoying the (cough, splutter) clear Beijing night air.

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A Stroll through the Shanghai Night

Last night a dinner engagement with an old friend fell through and my wife had her own dinner plans with former colleagues, leaving me in the city center with two hours of empty time--a precious commodity in Shanghai.  I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Shanghai nightscape.  From Xintiandi 新天地, where my wife and I had gone to have a cup of coffee, I strolled into the darkening evening, heading Bundward.  

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All of Shanghai Under one Roof

One of the highlights of my week was seeing the play “Under a Shanghai Roof” 上海屋檐下, written by the famous playwright Xia Yan 夏衍 （1900－1995).  Xia Yan, ne Shen 沈乃熙， was born in the Zhejiang city of Hangzhou.  He took part in the May Fourth demonstrations in 1919 and traveled to Japan in 1920 to study, where like so many other young idealistic Chinese students, he was introduced to Marxist theory.  He joined the Guomindang in 1924 and after the “failed revolution” of 1927 he entered the Communist Party. 

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Shanghai: A Day in the Life

I read the news today oh boy…wait, I didn’t have to read the news, because I’m here.  In China, at last!  After several months of beta testing, this site finally goes LIVE.  Yes, folks, I’ll be here for the next several months, your roving reporter of the CHINA SCENE.  Though I’ll be busy the next few months, especially after the Dartmouth FSP program kicks off this September, I fully intend to keep posting my impressions and reflections on what’s going down in the P R of C as it revs up for the OLYMPICS.

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Battle of the Sexes: Shanghai Baby vs. Foreign Babes in Beijing

It recently came to my attention that Wei Hui's novel Shanghai Baby has been made into a film, starring Bai Ling as "Coco", the novel's protagonist.  Meanwhile, Rachel Dewoskin has turned her own non-fictional account of her stint as an actress in a 1990s popular Chinese TV series, Foreign Babes in Beijing into a film as well.  Interesting that both stories are being produced as films around the same time and that they both deal with female sexuality in China during the same era.  In one, Chinese women appear seductive, Western men are virile while Chinese men are weak.  In the other, Western women are attracted to virile, artsy Chinese men.  What a telling juxtaposition!  I'll get back to this theme at the end of this blog, but first, for those of you unfamiliar, here's a rundown of both stories.

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Public Manners in China and the Case of a Korean Blogger

Recently the Asiatimes published an article on a Korean journalist who wrote a rather unfriendly blog about the lack of public manners in China. The blog elicited a range of comments from other Koreans, many of whom felt that the blogger was being unduly racist towards his Chinese brethren. This is a discussion that most of us involved in the China field have been having for years and that will continually resurface. It always seems to come down to this: "the Chinese have private hospitality and personal warmth but lack public consciousness, while Westerners and Japanese have public consciousness but lack private hospitality and personal warmth."
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China and Genocide in Darfur vs. America in Iraq

An interesting discussion has developed on the listserve Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (MCLC) run by Kirk Denton. Last week I posted an article from the Village Voice about the attempt by certain influential Hollywood types and others in America to label Beijing 2008 Olympics the "Genocide Olympics". Another list member named Henri Day countered that the "g" word is often used for dubious political purposes, and noted that America's war against Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent occupation of Iraq has also resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Why should the events in Darfur be qualitatively different, was the question raised. He also pointed out that only the US government has officially declared the events in Darfur to be an act of "genocide" (I cannot confirm or deny this--others might know better).
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Sustainable Development and the "Eco-City" of Dongtan near Shanghai

Wired Magazine has published a feature article on the planned eco-community of Dongtan.  Dongtan is under development on the eastern edge of Chongming Island, a large island at the mouth of the Yangzi River near Shanghai.  It is an experiment in urban sustainability financed by the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corporation and designed by the European firm Arup. 

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Responsible Globalization in Asia and the World

Is globalization a fundamentally destructive process? Does it wreak havoc on the environment, destroy ancient civilizations, and create greater inequalities while enriching a small handful of elites? Or does it provide new opportunities for countless millions, helping to lift them out of poverty? For those of us who study China, the answer is obviously all of the above.
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Strange Cities: A Multimedia Site on Old Shanghai

Three years ago, while researching the history of jazz music in Shanghai, I discovered that one of Shanghai's most famous bandleaders from the 1930s, a White Russian named Serge Ermoll, had migrated with his family to Sydney.  It turns out that his son, also named Serge, is a very accomplished jazz pianist and quite well known here in the jazz community.  His granddaughter, Tatiana Pentes, has taken her family history and constructed a wonderful multimedia website incorporating some of her own original collection of photos and documents from her grandparents. 

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An Interview with Peter Hessler

Peter Hessler is a best-selling author and journalist. He has published two books of non-fiction on China, _River Town_ and _Oracle Bones_. He has also written feature articles on China for _the New Yorker_, _National Geographic_ and other magazines. Last November I met Peter in Beijing while he was researching an article on my friend David Spindler and his Great Wall project. This article was published in the May 21 2007 issue of _the New Yorker_ magazine. After meeting Peter, I was inspired to read his book _River Town_, which recounts his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer and English teacher in Fuling in 1996-7. I found the book to be an honest, perceptive, and insightful account of what it's like to live in China as a foreigner.
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Final Remarks on the Usage and Abusage of "Laowai"

It appears that the H-ASIA thread on "laowai" may be finally drawing to a close (I may be speaking too soon--Ryan may still be holding a few posts in his mailbox).  As one of the editors of this list, and also as the person who inadvertently started this conversation by using the term in an unrelated discussion, I thought it might be a good idea to summarize the gist of the conversation we've had.  Basically, the discussion has revolved around the meaning and usage of the term "laowai" in China today.  

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Frederic Wakeman, _Policing Shanghai_/ A Review

 Here's my next installment:  a review I wrote back in grad school (with slight revisions for this site) on what I consider to be one of the best studies of pre-Liberation Shanghai done by any scholar.  Fred Wakeman sadly passed away not long ago.  An homage, long overdue, to this outstanding historian and person is in the works.

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Resurrecting Old Shanghai: The Peace Hotel

I just read a news article stating that Swatch, the Swiss watch company, is joining with the Jinjiang Hotel Group, owner of the Peace Hotel, to renovate it.  This is interesting news because the Peace Hotel, from what I've heard, is rated quite poorly as a hostelry.  I recall that it was renovated in 1997 by the same New York firm that renovated the Park Hotel (guoji fandian).  They did a decent job with some features such as the 8th floor ballroom (though one questions whether or not all of the features in that ballroom today are genuine 1930s Deco), but apparently not so with the majority of rooms.  I've also read in online travel blogs that the service is appalling.  Whether or not the next round of renovations will change the software as well as the hardware of this fine historical building is another matter.