storyboard

The New York Times Sunday Magazine runs a story on how two Swiss architects got grey hairs doing commissions in China.  Herzog & de Meuron got sucked into the vast, murky, elusive web of Chinese business and politics when they won the bid to build the Olympic stadium. They deny the grey hairs being a result of it, but the shock is palpable in de Meuron's unvarnished words:

"This was a very enriching personal experience," he says — but like many such experiences, it was also exhausting and painful. "I am the sort of person who tries to find a solution," he explains. "You bring me problems, and de Meuron tries to solve them. It is too much money, or you can't do it for this building code, or the client wants concrete, not wood — I find another way. This is how it worked for me up to now. In China, it was very different. That was a challenge for me, not only as an architect but as a person. To have someone on the other side and they are experts in misleading you or trapping you. It is never one to one when they say if they like it or don't like it. They played with me."

 

photo via IIAS 

speaking of contamination (see previous post), pre-communist shanghai probably outdid them all. many do not know about shanghai's cosmopolitan past as international pleasure mecca (which explains its current swift revival!), or that a coterie of  artists from Vera Volkova (dancer) to Margot Fonetyn (dancer) to Noel Coward (writer) actually lived there. While living in Shanghai I was even put in pursuit of Volkova's traces by a friend of mine who was writing a book on her; the search catapulted me from a local ballet school in the French Concession district to a Russian business consultant (?) on the Bund  who happened to own a rare, musty looking book with a few very interesting Volkova photographs. Including one of the subsequently world famous ballerina performing with her two partners in a vaudeville show.

Another interesting era is Shanghai under Japanese occupation.  It might explain this.

monkey on chinese televisionlooking for a riveting piece of 16th century Chinese pulp fiction? try the hilarious adventure tale "monkey" (or Journey to the West).

penned by scholar Wu Chen An, who despite classical training never entirely renounced his attraction to bawdy folk tales, the story of the mischievous monkey is based on the actual pilgrimage of the monk Tripitaka to India to fetch the Buddhist scriptures for the Tang emperor.

Wu layers this earnest and no doubt gruelling undertaking with every bit of legend, gossip, superstition, and religious symbolism he's ever encountered and concocts a rollicking bit of satire.

the central irony of the book of course is that though it is plotted around a religious pilgrimage, nothing in it is sacred: taoism is run down as second-rate, the divine denizens of heaven are crushed by complex, impenetrable bureaucracy; Tripitaka, the monk designated for this important pilgrimage, is a sobbing, at times abject creature rather than a stalwart servant of Buddha; monkey, the disciple assigned to him by a Boddhisvatta, is a self-important brat, addicted to physical violence, completely unpredictable and prone to fits of savage rage. And yet, he is the undisputed star of the show , a magical genius who attains the much coveted immortality status (as Buddha Victorious in Strife).

the other star of the book is its supreme, unflagging pragmatism. disciples agonize about tattered frocks, philosophers fret about the cost of coal, immortals haggle about the number of transformations they are allotted, and scriptures command a hefty price tag. it is the unrelenting contrast between the surreal events of the novel - this surplus of magic - and the resolutely practical tone in which the story is told that generates its wit and narrative tension and makes monkey such an unexpectedly refreshing treat.

compare this:
copenhagen's new opera house sponsored by danish business baron AP Moeller

to this:
the chinese are not afraid to have a french come up with this sort of stuff: beijing's new grand national theatre designed by paul andreu near tiananmen, currently under construction.

fear me

oops. red alert. china's starting to buy up america. you know there's something wrong when communists go on a shopping spree. a strategic one, mind you. from today's slate, a detailed account of impending capitalist doom:

that's it people. the chinese have figured it out. military power? sure. but first i'll flex my economic muscle and it may just be enough to keep the west docile while I build up that weapons arsenal.
by the way, a Chinese friend of mine assures me China will not go to war over Taiwan - just lots of noise, he says. We know we're not strong enough yet.

well that sure makes me feel a better. ...on the upside: nice to know capitalism comes at a premium.