Say “concept store” to a hip Beijinger and they will inevitably respond with “check out FEI Space”, though this 798 shop’s eclecticism and location (a refurbished factory) make it feel more like a genteel flea-market. A major draw are the ceramic designs of co-owner Lin Jing, which ranges from trouser-shaped vases to paired-down teapots. Curating fashion, Creative Director and stylist Ray P. Lee offers international favorites Bless, Henrik Vibskov, Gareth Pugh their China debut, while Zhang Da, designer of Hermès’ new Chinese label Shang Xia, puts forth his experimental Boundless line. Not confined to the current moment, the antique furniture and leather bags – goodies like bicycle satchels and chairs reupholstered in vintage curtain fabric – inject a dose of heritage nearly absent from the Beijing retail environment. FEI is the perfect space for the modern fashionista or interior decorating buff for whom cleverly retro and tastefully revolutionary can be combined to get chic. Contact Information: B-01, 798 art district, 4 Jiuxiangqiao Lu, Chaoyang district Tel: + 86 10 5978 9580
With China’s design school churning out graduates and droves returning from the top schools abroad, the number of designers plying their trade has been increasing rapidly. Designer, curator, and entrepreneur Song Tao – a true mover and shaper – champions a fresh, but distinctly Chinese, aesthetic. Known for his product and interior design, Song is perhaps even more famous for the work he has done on promoting his peers.
Armed with a master’s degree in plastic arts from the Sorbonne, Song returned home to found Tao Gallery, a design space, in 1994. In 2002, he started ZI ZAO SHE, a brand that promotes his designs alongside those of other rising stars. This brand is known for its re-interpretations of classic Chinese shapes in contemporary materials like lucite. Subsequently in 2009, he spearheaded the China Furnishing Designer Brand Alliance and founded O Gallery in Beijing’s 798, a one-stop destination for viewing the work of China’s top designers as well as that of top international stars.
Song has curated shows from the Ullens Center to Art Beijing with a participant list that reads like a who’s who of contemporary Chinese design: Shao Fan, Sun Wentao, Liu Feng, Jia Li, Chen Darui, Ma Xiaowei, Wang Zhenfei, Fei Ruo, Xie Dong, Wen Miao, Xiao Tianyu, Gu Qigao, Wang Ke, Shi Jianmin, Gao Yiqiang, Huang Ying, and others. Many of these same designers have work that is available at O Gallery.
The future is bright for design, says Song. “The success of luxury brands like LV here in China taught us that people buy the real thing once they have the money” he comments. “Now plenty of people have the money. If they appreciate design, they will definitely pay for the original.â€
The reason I couldn’t make the Tod’s party is that I organized my own event to celebrate the launch of my dear friend Tally Beck’s new gallery in New York. The party also celebrated the launch of the Tally Beck Contemporary Website.
Think “Hotel General Manager” and the image of Joe Ho probably won’t come to mind. In Beijing, most general managers of international brand five star hotels are plump European men invariably wearing a boring black suit and sometimes even square toed loafers. The more stylish ones might don an Hermès tie, gifted by the wife. Most surprisingly, Joe is the GM of the Grand Millennium Fortune Plaza Apartments rather than the chicest boutique hotel in town.
“We were not created to sit down for long hours, but somehow modern life requires the vast majority of the global population to work in a seated position. This made our search for the optimal sitting position all the more important.”
-Waseem Amir Bashir, a researcher at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada.
I find it relevant for the general subject of counterfeiting. It also mentions the current position of South Korea as source of all things wacky and modern for East Asia.
Comments
I must beg to differ about Japan’s lack of creativity of export-quality stuff. HK and Taiwan have been borrowing Japanese trends and fashion for oh the past 30 years probably and the current popularity of Samsung phones is poor backup for the author’s argument. That being said, the comment on China’s educational system is spot-on. Our lunch conversation today centered around when if ever China will ever get around to getting a 3G mobile network. Don’t you ever get the feeling that you are wasting your time climbing the corporate ladder at low wages in a developing country for the next 5-10 years when you could be off doing more interesting things in the rest of the world? Maybe you really love Beijing and have really bought into the ‘China is the future’ story but I am quite convinced that unless there some drastic top-down change happens here, then the country isn’t going anywhere fast. Just based on your writing and clothes knowledge I am quite sure you could get a killer job working as some sort of apparel industry/China consultant to any big-name firm in Europe and making 80 g’s a year if not more, all you need is the connection with the job… My $0.02 Posted by Pescatore on 11/29/2006 09:40:14 AM
That’s very kind of you to say. Now I do just need that connection. I really appreciate your frequent comments here and I hope that we can meet up at some point in the near future. Are you still in Shanghai? Posted by stylites on 11/30/2006 11:34:54 AM
The more I think about it, the more fond I become of the sound of those 80 g’s you are waving for me out there. How is this done? Money is such a vulgar thing, but one has to be around vulgar people in life. Posted by stylites on 12/01/2006 05:54:07 AM
Also, let’s here more about the country going nowhere fast…perhaps a contribution to my blog? I see fewer jeans tucked into plastic boots this year, which I think means things must be progressing toward something better. Posted by stylites on 12/01/2006 05:57:35 AM
hear – why don’t they let you edit comments? Posted by stylites on 12/01/2006 05:58:47 AM
‘Going nowhere fast’ in my book means: it is over 25 years since gai ge kai fang and still I can’t have a more meaningful conversation with Zhang San Li Si on the street than either 1)’can you use chopsticks/can you eat chinese food etc’ 2)the ‘national representative’ conversation 3) ‘let me speak English to you because you obviously are incapable of having a proper knowledge of Our China’s incredibly difficult 5000-year-history language’ ten years ago when we were going to school I would have put the previous 3 conversations into perspective by saying ah well it is a learning experience, now they just bore me to tears so I’m leaving Shanghai probably at the beginning of ’08. If you hadn’t heard, apparently Dr. Han retired and now lives in Shanghai again, I have been meaning to look him up one of these days. Posted by Pescatore on 12/04/2006 08:31:05 AM
Chatting over pizza last night, two friends and I concluded that the only safe course of action in China is to buy the fake.
Almost no shop can convince you that you have bought the real thing. These days, good fakes sell for the same price as the original, so high price does not prove a product is genuine. The only way to feel confident is to buy the fake, for a low price. At least you know it is fake, and can feel happy that you got a bargain. If it falls apart, at least you didn’t pay full price. What if the thing you thought was real and for which you paid full price were to fall apart?
This is the environment of uncertainty and fear that fakes create. Since you never know, you can never have enough trust in sellers to buy something claiming to be real.
Moreover, sellers claiming fake items are real will charge too much for the fake. They also generally lack knowledge of the product and (faked) brand which they are selling. The best thing is to find honest sellers of fake products, or sellers who ackowledge that they do not know the precise origin or identity of the products they sell.
By the way, this isn’t my idea. I took it from someone else.
Comments
I’m tempted to try an item from hong kong. Which brand do you think is usually faked in better quality(I don’t mean overproduction)? Posted by Panna on 11/27/2006 08:57:15 AM
Well it really depends on what category of good you are seeking. I know most about fashion-forward menswear. In this category, I would recommend the fake Dior Homme, Paul Smith (the best), Kris Van Asche (sp?), and some more obscure Japanese designers that are being faked. Dsquared is also quite good, if you like their style with much weird logo-use and clever pictures. Avoid Versace, most D&G (there is some good D&G – it is clearly made by a whole range of producers with differing levels of quality), Gstar, Energie, and Gucci. I see keep away from sneakers. Although they look very much like the original, it is more difficult to assess quality. Why don’t you wait a little bit? I’m trying to find away for Americans to buy directly from China. The fake Dior stuff from HK sells at 3-4 times the domestic price. Posted by stylites on 11/27/2006 09:26:48 AM
Thanks for your answer. So I’ll try DH or Paul Smith… On ebay.com are a lot of chinese guys…. Don’t you recommend this way? I’m from germany so I would prefer to buy with paypal…but the shipping costs seems to be reasonable.. Posted by Panna on 11/27/2006 01:28:46 PM
I don’t really want to support buying fakes. It me feel bad to be giving advice about which ones are good. So should we be coming up with solutions for this problem? Should citizens of the countries in which the brands are produced not buy fakes? Is it unpatriotic? Are we supporting China’s rise and the West’s demise when we buy their fakes of our stuff? Posted by stylites on 11/29/2006 03:16:03 AM
Today I went to two potential distribution points for N+1. The Bookworm and Le Petit Gourmand. I left a copy of the magazine at the Bookworm and scheduled a meeting with their manager for Monday. Then I went to Le Petit Gourmand and talked for an hour with the manager. He was very interested and agreed to put a copy on display. He will arrange for me to discuss sales with their library manager.
N+1 is a new publication out of the Lower East Side with no equivalent in the literary world. It has been billed as an East Coast answer to the Believer, but the sensibilities of the magazines are very different. The commitment of n+1 has always been to a serious, academic engagement with a broad spectrum of cultural, political, and literary topics relevant to the here and now. Each issue of the magazine is comprised of essays on politics and the intellectual situation, fiction, translation, and reviews. The magazine aspires to an international focus and appeal and believes in the compatibility of passion, genuineness, humor, and rigorous intellectual thought. N+1 has been written up in a great number of brand name newspapers, among them the New York Times Magazine, the Boston Globe,the TLS, the Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, Revue des Deux Mondes…etc. The editors publish frequently in the New Yorker and New York Review of Books. They have published works of fiction, among them
“Indecision” by Benjamin Kunkel. And essays from the magazine have been reprinted in Harpers and the Best American Essays.
There is something appropriate about going to an auto show on Thanksgiving – no? Auto culture is such an important contribution of the US to the world. But, predictably, our gaze was attracted most by the European cars.
The models match the Lamborghinis in style. I always imagine a short guy in pleated pants, a black zip-up cardigan, and a black leather blazer jumping out of one of these and saying, in a nasally voice: “My Lambo can do 0-60 in 3.1 seconds.†It just seems like a supercar for flashy dweebs, the kind of guys who froth about hot chics like these models.
Below is the chariot of modern royalty, now the car for Shanxi mining barons to own by the fleet, and pay for entirely in cash. Ah, the ghetto economy…China probably already has a GDP twice the size of the US.
This model had a severe expression, matching well with the grill and headlights of the atrocious vehicle next to which she stood. Through all manner of Simian antics, I made her crack a smile, which brought smiles to all of the onlookers. I promptly frowned, and proclaimed smiling to be vulgar and fake.
If you do decide to buy an oversized Rolls Royce like this, please keep in mind that you need a chauffer. The new models may be ugly, but this is still the automobile of princes, statesmen, and magnates. You don’t drive it around town for a thrill. This may seem obvious, but Hong Kong princelings have been known to adore scooting around town at the wheel of this big toy. In an effort to stem this tide eroding the exclusivity of his empire’s most esteemed brand, a previous governor-general passed an edict banning this abuse.
I advise young and affluent mainlanders to study the way the male lead in the Lover (L’Amant) uses his Rolls. The film is a lovely ode to romance in a colonial setting, with an interesting reversal, from the racial perspective.
I will be posting more pictures from the auto show as they come in.
John Galliano? They would really fake that weirdo’s designs? At the same time, coming from Hong Kong, this cannot be real. I see this as a trend that the big brands really have to be wary of. Soon the fakes will really be bought unawares by the same people who would shell out to buy the genuine article.
These people do not have the time, imagination, or money to do it the hard way and create their own brand. Their profits are squeezed by the real brands for which they do manufacturing. This is their only choice, it seems. They have to piggyback. It is revenge for colonialism – revenge for the imperialism of our brands. Soon they will be producing the exact same quality and style at an only slightly lower price. No more shoddy knock-offs. This will be the real Dior Homme in every way, except for the identity of the person making the profits. Maybe they will only take action when the Chinese government actually acquires LVMH.
I just don’t understand why ebay doesn’t control this sort of thing. Is there any doubt about these being fakes? Good fakes, maybe, but it is embarassing for ebay and America, in a sense, considering we have created the platform for selling fakes of luxury European goods.
This is new question in the Chinese fashion world. Fakes are no longer just boring Prada and Gucci handbags and over-sized Zegna suits. Now we see loads of Paul Smith floral shirts, Catherine Melandrino silk ball gowns, and Marc Jacobs peasent shirts – not to mention mountains of Dsquared, Roberto Cavalli, and Y3. And the quality is good – with the pieces often being seemingly one off. These are not just black leather bags and logo T-shirts. We are now talking about very detailed prints and cuts – special interest high fashion goods. Often only one or two items are available in a given shop. You wonder how many are being produced to begin with.
This is a shop in the building next to the Henderson Centre. The prices are quite high for China, with Ralph Lauren pants selling for 20 dollars, Paul Smith shoes selling for 55 dollars, Abercrombie and Fitch tee shirts selling for 15 dollars, and Burberry sweaters selling for 50 dollars.
There is a bit of the usual stuff. The shop assistants were going wild while I did this, so I only got a few pictures.
These Paul Smith shoes are everywhere, on the web and in shops. I have a pair. I am ashamed of this.
This is the first time I have seen Dior intended to be Dior Homme selling in this way. This sweater is wool, very slim-fitting, and has rhinestones woven into the front. It says “made in Italy” and that it is intended for the Japanese market. The price is about 45 dollars. The avant garde styling and slim fit indicate that this is supposed to be the Dior Homme line, designed by Hedi Slimane, rather than crappy Christian Dior diffusion lines. For those who do not follow fashion, Hedi Slimane is considered one of the most revolutionary designers of men’s clothing. The Dior Homme line revived the prestige of Christian Dior as a menswear label.
Anyway, despite the great fame of Dior Homme, it had not until recently reached the shelves of stores like this that sell high-end potential fakes.
Before I started pictures, I asked to try one on. They brought out a different size from the back.
There were also many (10-15 on display) Dior tee-shirts in black and white with random patterns and words. These were selling for about 12 dollars. These didn’t seem as much like direct copies.
What I am interested in here is the variety of fakes. Some brands are clearly made in China. When you see polo and A&F it is not so much a fake as an overproduced goods. Paul Smith, Dior, and others are a mystery since they are not produced here. They are either (1) copied from pictures, (2) not based on the real product – just using the brandname, (3) copied from real articles of clothing.
There is a lot that can be said about this and I invite the contributions of others.
Comments
I too was wondering about the fakes that are clearly not from factory over-runs. And I am also curious about the real price of these goods as they leave the factory. Posted by passerby on 11/21/2006 08:40:22 AM
if u go for the “good fakes”, then u can simply replace the word “fake” by “without horrendous marketing costs and irrational profit margins” Posted by fish on 01/09/2007 05:43:45 PM
According to weather reports, it was a sunny day today. You could even see the sun if you looked hard.
The gases seemed illuminated and glowed more than normal.
At street level, by the broken rainbow at Jianguomen. It lights up at night.
Yesterday, we met up with Mike while he was at work at Beijing’s largest annual art auction. He is a spokesman and translator for the company. In his spare time, he covers the Beijing gallery scene and up-and-coming artists for leading international art magazines. One of his next pieces is going to be on foreign artist communes in Beijing. He is also an artist himself, and I’m very eager to see some of his projects. In these pictures Mike is wearing his first suit from Senli and Frye.
Mike is very happy to have a suit that matches his position, attitude, and personal style. The sacks that other local tailors had made were not the right thing for him. Note the thin lapels with high gorge, and single-button front. Observe the slim silhouette, perfect button stance, and trouser to jacket length ratio.
Mike is standing by a Qing Dynasty gate. The starting price is around 700,000 dollars for the gate.
Just in the half-hour we spent with Mike, several people praised him for his great style. He really pulls it together, a rare thing for Beijing expats. Mike shows us how to look professional, up-to-date and distinctive. I noticed that his suit had three fewer front buttons than the average for his colleagues.
It don’tunderstand why I am thinking of ways to produce more stuff. All I should really be considering is how to consume and produce less, and ways of convincing others to do the same.
The lobby of the Henderson Centre was a veritable jungle of models. There is an agency on the twenty-fifth floor, so we often get the visually spectacular. These four hot puppies were all taller than me, not to mention slimmer.
Sell beautiful fresh-cut Oregon Christmas Trees as a fundraiser and publicity event for your organization!
The Douglas Fir is a premium 7-8 foot four-sided tree, with a symmetrical, pyramidal shape and dense but uniform branches. The bluish-green needles are soft to the touch and produce a sweet fragrance when crushed.
Delivery to Beijing is Dec. 5
35 dollars a wholesale tree – You sell for 70 dollars a tree!
You buy 50-100 trees
This means a profit of 1750-3500
Sell to friends, colleagues, parents, kids, hotels, etc.
This tweed jacket and its fabric are becoming famous. Finding this fabric here in China and turning it into a blazer was brilliant, if I may say so myself. This is the third one that has been made, and I consider it to be a magnificent success.
This one is in a slightly different style than mine, but it really suits Colin. He is using it here in a very streetwear kind of way – appropriate for his weekend skater self.
Note the ticket pocket, kissing cuff buttons, and perfect gorge height and lapel width. This style and fit are perfect for Colin. Mine has wider lapels with and a very high gorge. I will post a picture of mine and the one that my friend Mr. Model is making soon.
I ran into Colin at an American Chamber of Commerce event analyzing new M&A regulations on Monday and he was wearing this jacket with a tie, dress shirt, and slacks. He looked so smart and formal that I didn’t even realize it was the same jacket. It just highlights the versatility of this piece. Mine is more exclusively casual, with visible stictching running the length of the lapels – a half inch in (this is a casual style of stitching-not pick-stitching like you see on suits), sewn on pockets, and no button-hole on the lapel. Let me note here also that all of our button holes are hand-sewn, including the lapel one.
Here he is with Riel, whose picture can be found below. Riel’s two suits turned out excellently. I do think Riel needs a casual blazer if he is going to continue running with modish blokes like Colin.
Comments
Real Kool stuff:) Posted by girlygirl on 11/12/2006 01:11:32 PM
Modish blokes need street Tuff protection. But yeah I guess a casual blazer wouldnt hurt Posted by Roch D. on 11/16/2006 09:16:28 AM
that’s true. It is a tough street here – particularly on the southside. Still up for a trip to the fabric market on Sat? Posted by stylites on 11/16/2006 09:32:18 AM
The question is why China hasn’t developed a high street type shop like Banana Republic (GAP), Zara, H&M, Topman, etc. These chains usually control every stage of production from design, to manufacturing, to branding, to retailing. The only one that has entered China is Zara, with a highly-successful branch in Shanghai. The others must fear pirating or believe that the market is not mature enough yet for their style and price level. I met a fellow last night whose real estate company approached GAP to assess their interest in entering this market. According to him, they shudder at the great investment this would require, with minimal returns in the short-term. They should develop their brands of course, since the middle classes that eat up their goods are rising fast. Still, fashionable mid-level brands like this are too easily ripped-off – this probably explains why China hasn’t developed its own branded retailers to sell on the domestic market.
Chinese apparel chain stores do exist, but they only sell goods at a low price-level (4-15 dollars). Some of these stores include Giordano, Robin Hood, or those others. The quality and level of these brands is not very much more advanced than athletic wear – and the prices are so low that it wouldn’t be worth ripping it off. They do not sell a comprehensive line of clothing that can take you from the gym, to the office, to a fashionable ball.
There are some chains selling more formal clothing – particularly men’s. One is called Romon, and there are several others. I assume that these can succeed because what they sell is so unfashionable that no one would bother ripping it off. Or maybe they are being ripped off.
Here’s where I’m headed with this analysis: Mid-priced, trendy brands cannot succeed because that market is occupied by fakes. You only have very low-priced, boring clothing, and high-priced designer stuff. The middle classes are left wearing polyester pants and Armanee. However, this will change.
My main concern remains fostering the domestic market for tailor-made clothing. It makes so much sense, given labor costs.
However, Chinese normally buy in order to fit into a high-status group, rather than to set themselves apart as individuals. Consumption is for belonging rather than individualism. We have to prove that wearing tailor-made clothing is a ticket to an elite circle.
Int’l fashion brands contend for China’s casual wear market
2006-06-26 02:40:35 Xinhua English
BEIJING, June 26 — The top 4 fashion giants of the world, Spanish fashion giant ZARA, the US casual wear brand GAP, Swedish fashion pioneer H&M and reasonably-priced German fashion chain store C&A, are expected to consolidate their position in the Chinese market in two years time.
ZARA has already taken the lead to launch its operations in Shanghai, and H&M has recently also announced its plan to establish a retail store in China next year.
As China kept its WTO-accession commitment to open up the retail market in 2005, foreign-invested fashion chain stores competed for the markets in the country. Early this year, Inditex SA, the Spanish retailer that owns ZARA, became the first one to enter China.
Unlike the high-class fashion brands, these casual wear brands known as the “fashion killers” have products that manifest a fashionable and trendy design, as well as have reasonable prices. They not only own the retail brands, but are also retailers, and therefore play an important role in the industry.
Insiders reveal that ZARA, which is still in an exploration phase in China, saw sales that reached 800,000 Yuan (US$100,000) when it started operating in Shanghai this March. In the next stage ZARA will enter into the Beijing market and its shop will be located in the soon-to-be finished fashion complex.
Fashion retailing consultant Kurt Salmon Associates released some statistics, showing that China’s casual wear market will grow at an annual pace of 10% to reach a scale of 468 billion Yuan by 2010.
Beijing is extremely cheap for clothing if you are willing to sacrife on quality and style. If you’re content with the dross at the Zoo or Yaxiu, then fine. Occasionally you happen upon something almost wearable. There is a reason the locals are swathed in polyester, beads, and trousers with seventeen pockets. It’s not just bad taste – there are few other affordable options. Office girls making 5500 rmb who have any style are willing to pay 1200 for a decent pair of shoes and 500 for a wool sweater. Why? There are only a few shops in Beijing where you can get decent quality for a non-astronomical price.
Add in the sizing problem for foreigners, and you are left with very little choice. The “made in China” stuff that you find at Banana Republic and French Connection cannot be bought here at a low price. It makes sense to buy made in China apparel in the USA, because that same apparel is mostly not available here. The quality of exports is superior to what is available on the domestic market. These brands are more expensive in China (even if the products are made here) than in the US and their shops here offer less selection. At the present, the Chinese have not developed an adequate alternative to the big brand names. There is very little non-brandname stuff of acceptable quality. Sometimes, you find decent items in the Waimao shops, but the selection is spotty – not to be relied upon in building a stylish professional or casual wardrobe. If you want a black merino sweater or beautiful leather oxford shoes in your size, you can’t just go out and buy them here, like you can in the States or Europe. So if you want quality, you can either have your clothes sent or made. Of course, the tailors that can produce clothing on the quality level of Topshop, Zara, or even GAP are sparse – not to mention those that can produce clothing on the level of Saville Row or Kiton.
There is a great opportunity here, both for tailors and retailors.
Comments
Shanghai has Zara, my coworker and I were there last night. Posted by Pescatore on 11/08/2006 12:48:43 PM
Apparently it is opening in Beijing, too. I wonder if I Chinese competitor will emerge. Posted by stylites on 11/09/2006 03:39:11 AM
I have seen ‘Giorgi Amoni’ being sold in department stores on Huaihai lu (virtually identical logo’, maybe the key is to get a name that can’t be easily duplicated. ‘Zara’ comes to mind as being quite good for this (Well…maybe ‘Sara’ sounds similar…). Posted by Pescatore on 11/13/2006 07:30:54 AM
That’s an interesting point, Pescatore. What is the distinction between just copying the name exactly and spelling it slightly differently? Is the mispelling just a mitake or a deliberate attempt to mislead customers? Is that mispelling legal by Chinese law? I suppose the assumption is that the Giorgi Armonis are escaping blame because they aren’t using the exact same name, though they are clearing still benefiting from the brand effect of Armani. The point here seems to be finding a name (or design) that triggers the same response of recognition or aspiration in customers that the original does. I wish I had a job that involved intellectual property theft and counterfeiting in China. It seems quite interesting. Posted by stylites on 11/15/2006 09:40:18 AM
Back in May 2006, That’s Beijing interviewed Sir Paul Smith. This was one of the questions:
tbj: Counterfeiting is big business here in China. How much of a problem is it for you?
PS: Providing they don’t have a bigger business than yours then I suppose it is okay. In certain things, like in fragrance, it’s quite a problem. But I don’t think we notice it so much because most of the fakes are of very identifiable, famous products or logo products. We don’t really use a logo so, touch wood, we don’t have too much of a problem.
From looking at Taobao.com and countless retail outlets throughout Beijing, it seems as though the counterfeit Paul Smiths have a far bigger business in China than the real Paul Smith. I suspect that many of the Paul Smith products on US and UK ebay are also fakes, made in China.
Back in May of this year, this proliferation of Paul Smith had not yet occurred. It seems to be a phenomenon of the last few months. I am ashamed to say that I have supported this dark process. At first, I didn’t quite realize they were fakes. They are quite good and marketed in an upscale way. The counterfeiters and their merchants do cash in on the brand value of Paul Smith. The people buying fake Paul Smith are the stylish, sophisticated people who would buy the real Paul Smith. Just like with the real Paul Smith, the fake Paul Smith does not sit next to the fake Polo Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton.
At least in the world of fashion, Chinaoften feels like a demented parallel universe.
Comments
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The “gay student group” in Sun Yat Sen University is actually a student group that focus on homosexuality，though it has an English name HappyTogether. it is not a corny gay or lesbian students group as you might think. Posted by catcherer.spaces.live.com on 11/08/2006 01:39:48 AM
Don’t worry. It is really a break through to have a gay student group in China. It is great that they will have that support system now. Could I be an hononary member? All I meant was that when you consider the illustrious underground history of homosexuality as a subversive movement, sometimes these student groups seem a little cheesey. Posted by stylites on 11/08/2006 02:40:01 AM
It is like an army of ghouls, or I guess an army of clones.
Please consider that almost every one of these listings offers each item in many sizes and styles, potentially in bulk. PaulSmith can also be found on the sites of wholesalers, not to mention on retail. Check out the bags if you have a chance. This is just the men’s stuff. Compare this to the total number of PaulSmith items on US and UK ebays.
This is a link to all the Paul Smith items available on US ebay:
PaulSmith is a big brand, but not exactly the very most mainstream type of brand like Gucci or Prada. It’s ironic, because just a year ago I read an interview with Sir PaulSmith about his entry to this market, and he commented that his brand probably wouldn’t suffer like more recognizable ones.
Taobao is China’s domestic competitor for Ebay. It is run by Alibaba.
The penetration of ecommerce in China is not deep. It has not gained acceptance beyond the usual list of prosperous coastal cities, Shanghai, Beijing, et. This is due to an internal logistics system that still lags behind developed regions and buying habits of consumers.
So, this is China with its 1.3 billion customers, but the consumer base for the stuff you see selling is a mere fraction of what it will be.
This raises many questions:
1. How many Paul Smiths are there competing against each other within just one province of China?
2. You can see several different levels of quality just for that one bag on ebay. If you’re a Chinese Paul Smith, is price or quality more important?
3. How does a Paul Smith gain take market share from other Paul Smiths?
4. When did Sir Paul Smith make the foolish move of sourcing from China? Or did he never? Is this just his punishment for having opened two measily stores on the mainland, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai?
There are many other questions, but I must work. Suffice to say, there may be more Paul Smith products just in Guangdong province than the entire rest of the world put together. This is an empire of Paul Smiths.
Here is my friend, Riel, a French Canadian, at his first fitting with Senli:
His two suits (charcoal and navy) were a tremendous success. I’ll try to get pictures up – maybe even some before and after, from a sartorial perspective. It was a revolution from huge double pleats to a slim, but strong, silhouette, perfect for Riel’s slim, but toned, build. I didn’t even realize he had such a great physique before seeing him in the finished suits.
I should note that over the next few weeks we will develop a system for online orders and measurements. This may or may not come before the proper website. Please keep checking back and referring your friends and colleagues to this site for top quality tailoring. Also, please mention it to anyone coming through Beijing.
My residential complex has two illustrious neighbors, both within a three minute walk. The first is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pictured below. It sits overlooking the Second Ring Road.
People have commented that it looks like a crematorium – or at least a storage space for ashes. On the inside of the Second Ring Road is the brand new headquarters of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China’s third largest oil company.
CNOOC gained fame for bidding on Unocal, a US oil company, and later losing to Chevron.
CNOOC building’s form is intended to evoke “images of offshore oil production: the prow-like shape recalls an oil tanker’s bow and the tower elevated, above the ground on piloti, suggests an offshore oil derrick”.
A sweet, very thin, boy from Socal informed me that the cycling of fashions in weight-loss remedies has reached a logical point: starvation. This should never have been in doubt. No carbs? Give me a break. I follow it, but I’m often behind the times. This makes sense. The no carbs look makes you beefy and irritable. If you can’t go the whole way to death defying anorexia, this article offers an interesting perspective on how culture shapes our stomachs:
The China Daily wins my heart like no other publication. They continually offer stories that break beyond the usual “policy entangled by rising price of oil†and “slumping sales take big toll†and, of course, they never ask“is China a threat?â€
With a government that backs content like the following articles, how can China be a threat?
“Hu Deng, a psychologist from Renmin University of China, explains two reasons why such a phenomenon has become popular in recent years. The first is a psychological factor. Men usually have Oedipus complex when they are under the age of puberty, but it would become abnormal when they still hold such feelings in their twenties. Some of them are unwilling to take up their social responsibilities, and tend to rely on people older than themselves. The other factor is from the media. TV series advocate that husband is the first child of his wife, which deeply affect men’s psychological feelings.â€
The new man will rely on a wife to ease him through the pangs of entering adulthood. He needs this because the growing-up process protracts further with each passing year. A thirty year old man in the developed world is still a child. The comforts of childhood ill prepare him for the life of responsibilities lying ahead. The materialistic, hedonistic life of early adulthood also does little to set the stage for the obligations and hardship that exist. The twin prisons of career and money, the, albeit still distant, risk of fatherhood, and the rest are unpleasant shocks that generally inspire in him a desire to scamper back into the womb. The protective female can help the new man negotiate this unpleasant process.
The following article shows why in a nation where over half the adult males smoke, women would be wise to grab the men while they’re young:
The China Daily selects the best articles from the foreign press as well. The next article highlights a situation that I have long expected to be problematic. Prostitutes are just too expensive for the ordinary worker. So how do poor migrant workers find satisfaction? Some solutions are laid-out here as well, but this is a challenge demanding creativity. I recommend that my readers join in brainstorming solutions. The openness with which the China Daily discusses this reveal the more constructive, less repressed, attitude that Chinese society has toward sexual issues. This is a hopeful sign. I think their society will avoid many of the hang-ups and problems that we have in the West. My read on the situation is far too simple though. I’ll go into this at a later time.
Today is Chinese Valentine’s Day. I have a conference call tonight and will not be able to do much to celebrate. Luckily there are two Chinese Valentine’s Days this year due to the lunar calendar, and one still remains. Read the following article to get an idea of the background of this holiday:
Perhaps I belong at the China Daily. The pay must stink and the management is probably unreasonable, but at least I would handle and present interesting information. Or my site can offer running commentary on the most interesting articles appearing in the paper. If I worked for them, I believe I could present all of these issues in a way that better draws in Western audiences. It already seems to succeed in drawing me in, though.
I must work hard to find the position in life that best suits me, though, living in China, I feel too old to be saying this. Many Chinese are thinking of for retirement at fifty and feel that you should be well on your way by twenty-three. It’s always funny to visit a factory or meet the heads of a company and find a sixty-year old man being treated like some kind of elder. With a father who is approaching ninety and still active in his field, it is hard to take this sort of thing seriously. He is an encouraging figure.
But anyway, I must not succumb to the belief that I am too old, even if it seems that to be so lost in life is excessively immature. There must be some advantages that I possess. I must find a way to relocate to an industry with content that entertains me. Rather than just complaining about working and the necessity of being professional, I must identify those irritating features of this job that can actually be changed. It comes down to content. Only drones can sustain long-term interest in highly industry-specific subject matter or financial analysis. These things are gray and made of cement and glass. Though the subjects I investigate in this job can seem interesting at first, long-term involvement in any project is stifling. I fear that my unwillingness to go in-depth prevents me from succeeding.
On the positive side, the overall picture of the Chinese and global economies gained in this job is beneficial – more as general knowledge that as something I would want to pursue over the long term. It is useful to know about as a backdrop to other, more intriguing, happenings, rather than as a focus in itself. For those who would succeed in business here, those more intriguing happenings might involve a specific industry. For me, the examining the specific industry or an individual company is the really stultifying thing.
My challenges are identical to those of so many frustrated desk-workers around the developed world (in the developing world, the young are happy to land a white-collar position). The usual result must be realizing some time in the late twenties or early thirties that such is life and then bending down to accept the grind, and working hard to advance. The challenge confronting the multitude is the amount of effort and confidence required to make a jump into something less humdrum, dealing with interesting content. I only became aware of this challenge recently. My defiance toward the future may have stemmed from an implicit belief that my glamour, body, and style gave me a natural advantage in this struggle.
The fields that seem more interesting to me are the same ones that everyone wants to pursue due to their perceived glamour. They probably require even more effort, due to the competition, and with my thorough lack of a background in anything, it would be hard to enter them. Naturally, it is probably only an illusion that these other fields are more stimulating. Maybe the hope that there is something better out there is all that I need. A happy childhood crippled me. If only I could be designing Lego sets. A glance over my selections from the China Daily might also suggest that I am now becoming a sex-crazed teenager.
Maybe I’m just not a very unusual person and the only thing that distinguishes me is my refusal to accept a tedious life – a refusal that blocks the success of many others too. So it comes down to this same boring problem facing the suburbanites of the Western world. They either have to really strive to do something interesting or accept that they will live a life much like their parents. The problem for me is that I came from a background and grew up in an unconventional way. I never wanted to be a regular person in a job, concerned with economics, personal and global. It seemed to be assumed that I wouldn’t have to face this vexing future, the fate of normalcy.
This is punishment for all those years of not actively seeking something better and feeling that I was among the anointed. Now, I will have to break my head along with the suburban and bourgeois kids to think of some way to liberate myself from the grind. Those kids knew early on that they had to work hard to escape being a lawyer or corporate android, so they used their imaginations and applied themselves. Seclusion from the real world shielded me from the knowledge of the teleconference, memos, and overtime. My non-action plunged me into it, and now, too late, I must follow the tedious course that they followed. I even have to write pieces like this. Life for the last five years has brought one humiliation after another. Every Monday offers a new realization bringing me to my knees.
Grand and vague expectations bring miserable lives for mediocre human beings. Compromise brings happiness, but emotionally spoiled little boys reject it. Unbearable to myself and others, I stare out the window during my long exile. At nine, I concluded that life was useless, blaming my parents for bringing me into the world. For those who wouldn’t accept the meaninglessness, I felt disdain. In the fifteen or so years since I have not grown up. Over the last five years, I have achieved what I set my heart upon as a boy. My life has next to no reason for being, and I rarely enjoy it. I am simple, juvenile, and perpetually discontent. I scowl at the practical world around me, wishing for a foolish life. My fetid longings never evolve.
Longing for complexity, I make the most boring statements. Longing for interesting people and beauty, I live in the land of concrete, physical and spiritual. Longing for color, I am surrounded by gray. Longing to be an artiste in charming Europe, I write reports in a purgatory between corporate America and economically booming China.
I must achieve a life guided by competence and efficiency to achieve happiness.
They don’t teach how tedious life will be in school. There should be some kind of warning. It would have been so helpful to meet the 25 year old me back when I was 15.
Comments
You have accomplished what you set your heart on as a boy? Posted by dalcibiades4 on 07/31/2006 10:41:03 PM
What of existentialism class with the illustrious Thomas Hodsdon. I think we got a bit into the dullness of existence in that class. Posted by Pescatore on 08/04/2006 06:46:31 AM
The problem is that back then it seemed life was meaningless for everyone. I now know life is particularly boring and empty for me. Others are out achieving their dreams – or at least enjoying their youth. Posted by stylites on 08/20/2006 02:15:39 AM
Note the urgency of the previous user, my ass? Are you a Texas redneck? Like it never happens in the US Posted by Shang on 08/02/2006 07:31:06 AM
@Shang: This is rather odd. What made you think I was suggesting that such scenes don’t occur in the US? I simply took a rather boring photo, put an innocent caption underneath, and aroused your anger. I sometimes leave the toilet paper roll looking like that myself. But maybe it is “Texas Redneck” of me to be so interested in toilets and such things. I’m 100 percent vulgar. My dear old fellow, you might have a point! I hope people will be able to forget George W. Bush and give the poor Texans some peace. @YY: I’m more partial to this comment, which reveals a greater sense of humor as well imagination. This is more what I had in mind. References to the appearance of our dear leader always bring a smile to my face. If only he were my uncle. Eradicating fleas (and dandruff) from that windswept or towering corporate hairdo is a fine use for the public sanitizing kettle, which is really not so public. Posted by stylites on 08/02/2006 12:07:00 PM
Older and lower class Chinese men prize a spotless member. Half of men wash their hands after voiding and half do it before. A small percentage of those who wash before also do after, thus washing their hands twice. Pudgy middle-aged fellows will rush in, wash their hands, and pee. I often wait at the urinal, feigning pissing, to see whether these fellows actually wash afterwards. Most of the time, they don’t bother.
After peeing, wealthier middle-aged men push open the stall with a shoulder and grab a wad of toilet paper to use while touching the door handle. These men fear the germs on the sink lever and door handle – probably with good reason.
The lower their class, as determined by clothing and demeanor, the more urgently men piss. Drivers really hurry in and shake with strong movements.
Yesterday I didn’t push myself far enough into the urinal, and a young worker, after washing his hands, took a minute to stand and stare directly at what was in my hand. He had a satisfied smile on his face. Maybe it was because he had discovered something new – that the two of us have a thing or three in common. Perhaps I should be less satisfied because he was satisfied.
Comments
“The lower their class . . . the more urgently men piss.” That’s genius. Posted by dalcibiades4 on 07/28/2006 02:45:28 PM
But I must say more on the issue of the Europeans. Their continent may be the only pleasant one, but their attitude toward the US is irresponsible. As juvenile and undiplomatic as the neo-cons are, they did not create these problems. They just aren’t handling them well.
The Continentals slaughtered the Jews and the British drew the borders in the Middle East. Before Europeans cast stones at the United States, they must consider that they laid the groundwork for all of these problems. As the current big empire, we must face these challenges, and it would be more responsible of the Europeans to refrain from further blackening the name of our country, and being snotty about everything when entering a conversation with an American.
I would like to say that to everyone actually. The image of Americans as a bunch of bible-thumping rednecks who overuse “like†is too widespread. Europeans and others don’t realize that Americais the intellectual center of Western Civilization. We are an experiment that carries on the torch of all of the great thinkers. We live and advance Western thought and beauty every day. At least I do. And it’s tough – such mental anguish. So many headaches and sleepless nights. This is being American. We write the new mores with our lives.
I hate to be overly nationalistic, but allow me this once. Being a pretentious, Europhilic pomo should give me the right.
Comments
–and others don’t realize that Americais the intellectual center of Western Civilization.– You fucking yankee bastard! You are the center of war, death, garbage, corruption and stupidity. root less, culture less, a disgusting mixture of all races of the world. 9/11 was great! They brought you just a LITTLE of what YOU are bringing to other people since decades. Europe and USA: We have NOTHING in common with elements like you! by the way: Why you call yourself “American”, you asshole. America includes Middle and -South america as well. You are a north american USA citizen, NOT an american. The continent america is not your property, so use the proper term! Posted by European Nationalist on 07/27/2006 02:15:03 AM
The comment above would seem to confirm Stylites’s hunch that Europeans aren’t quite as charming & beguiling as they used to be. But how astute our dear European comrade is about the etymology of “American”! Many thanks for the refreshing clarification! Posted by dalcibiades4 on 07/27/2006 03:06:01 PM
I refuse to believe someone as rude as “European Nationalist” is from the only continent with beautiful cities. Main Entry: 1Amer·i·can Pronunciation: &-‘mer-&-k&n, -‘m&r-, -‘me-r&- Function: noun 3 : a citizen of the United States Merriam-Webster But both North America and South America are our property. In fact, I welcome citizens of China, France, Germany and other countries to describe themselves as American also – or at least USian or “Citizens of the United States.” We are a global empire. Isn’t that obvious? Posted by stylites on 07/28/2006 02:06:15 AM
I know it’s vulgar of me to have even acknowledged European Nationalist’s comment, but this is my first time to really start running a blog. I must learn the hard way that you can’t give those with foul mouths and coarse sentiments a podium. Sadly, this site doesn’t seem to allow for monitoring of comments. It may be that I will have to switch blog sites again. Or finally just start my own website. Posted by stylites on 07/28/2006 02:26:24 AM
Allo, actually, in today´s time, europeans feel in fact as Europeans and not a member of a specific country within the European Union. The european constitution will be realized as well as the european passport in the future and more which is going on in the schools and education. I think you should study the current political situation and the feeling in europe firstly before talking like that. An European. (france) Posted by sdsdsd on 07/28/2006 02:50:39 AM
Perhaps you could recommend some online resources that would help us in better understanding the current Europe. It would be much appreciated. The American has historically wanted in education regarding the intricate system of politics and the delicacies of culture across the pond. This is an opportunity for me as well, since Europe is largely a construct of my imagination. It exists only as an oasis in a vast desert of pollution, brandnames, and generally uniform ugliness. I have spent my life living in places dereft of the culture and sophistication that I always believe exists in Europe. It is this belief in Europe’s superiority that keeps me going. Maybe some day I will finally make it to the continent that does not devour its own history. I would be so honored if on that day, I was welcomed with an embrace. Posted by stylites on 07/28/2006 07:56:47 AM
Firstly – ‘European Nationalist’ – an a-hole with a keyboard. Secondly – sdsds, sorry, not all Europeans feel more European that they do Nationalistic, in fact I’d bet very few do. No way the Brits, French, German, Italians, Spanish,…etc, will tell you they are European first. Nels – good of you not to delete that post of EN’s – when I get posts like that I always leave them as well so the whole world, or at least the small part that is watching, gets to see the fuits of an a-holes labours. 😉 Posted by sunnysideup on 08/02/2006 07:34:05 AM
Yes, perhaps it was best to leave that comment up. It defeats itself and strengthens my side of the argument, whatever side that might be. Posted by stylites on 08/02/2006 11:48:09 AM
Nice post nels! Don’t worry about the national-less bastard. Posted by chinamoon on 08/03/2006 05:30:34 AM
well I really appreciate your support, Admiral. Recently, I’ve been thinking that Americans abroad should really try to develop a coherent PR plan. Our country badly needs (and deserves) one. Our country’s image has deteriorated, but there is no good reason for this to continue. We need to work hard and think carefully about how to present the country. Posted by stylites on 08/03/2006 06:55:28 AM
Oddly enough your comments here basically were the same as those of Chris Patten the former HK governor, who gave a large amount of credit to the Pax Americana for a fairly large amount of good things that have happened in the world in the last 60 years or so. Posted by Pescatore on 08/04/2006 06:43:33 AM
Tell me one thing…u really believe in what u write????? hope not…otherwise u’re in serious need of help… take it easy and open your mind a little more cheers Posted by ahaha…that’s really good…who writes your jokes? on 08/17/2006 08:48:35 PM
u…u…u…u just don’t understand me, but u’re right. Can u help me? Posted by stylites on 08/18/2006 06:11:56 AM
The tone seems a bit shrill, but I agree with the following sentence:
“I predict that future generations of Indians and Chinese will literally worship George W Bush and Osama bin Laden for having pushed the West into a disastrous conflict with Islam.”
Knowing grins already appear here when the topic of conflict between Islam and the West arises. If only we could wash our hands of the whole situation and focus on the real problems. It’s too late of course. It will be interesting to document the Asian perspective, while watching this frustrating history unfold and the West shoot itself in the foot through a useless conflict with barbarians.
The demise of Christendom will be in Israel. The Germans and, to a lesser extent, the French caused our guilt and must shoulder much greater responsibility in forestalling this sorry decline, rather than just bitching about America.
The present state of Socrates is unknown – even the Chinese have no information. We all speculate. He could be burning eternally or basking in the rays of the absolute good. Theologians and prelates wrangled over this question in the forth century and let’s pray they will still in the twenty-forth. Surprisingly, the future of the debate could be in the East. Ms. Xu, the minister, gave the ugly thinker his due, exempting him from certain damnation. His fate is unknown, she conceded. In the midst of all those definitively in hell for their unbelief, Socrates may be alright. He may have seen ahead in a way that the Buddha, Zoroaster, and others did not.
I was happy to hear the old boy mentioned at all, here in the land of Burberry plaid and coin-operated abortions. It had been a long time since we had crossed paths. Church seemed like the place to be even if meant worrying constantly about Satan’s wiles. That Ms. Xu knew of Socrates’ multifaceted connection with Christianity heartened me.
She had just spent an hour railing against those who place the body before the spirit, prophesying their damnation. Now came initiation for the new converts. Obviously, I was the only foreigner at this church. Some little women ushered me and the other two new comers into a side area, behind one of those office-style partitions. Momentarily, I was face to face with Ms. Xu. Here I noticed for the first time the narrow scars running across her face – there were about three of them. They gave her not-unattractive face some definite character.
The initiation process involved much repetition and holding hands. Ms. Xu took pains to express the importance of faith over good deeds. Obviously I didn’t understand everything that was transpiring with the utmost ease. My progress in this language has been pathetic. But, the opportunity allowed to pick up a good deal of new vocabulary related to religion, which was a nice thing, no doubt. One fellow initiate hailed from the mighty Qinghua university, China’s MIT, where he was working toward a doctorate in physics. His knowledge of Christianity, or at least his ability to express it in his mother tongue, impressed me. He proved that scientists respecting religion do exist and can articulate their complex relationship with faith.
The China Daily is one of my favorite publications. It shapes my view of China and the world. My understanding of global popular culture comes from this source. I urge all foreigners living outside China to check its website frequently:
Forget the Economist and the New York Times. In the China Daily, you find interesting stuff. The following article is required reading for understanding our times:
I think they have the correct idea. They are the most progressive men in the world. There are many other fascinating questions here, but I don’t have time to go into all of them at this point.
(While I snicker at “reality”, the drummers and runners focused on it sprint ahead. Tediously jumping through the imaginary hurdles erected by like fools, striving to erect higher and higher smokestacks. If it weren’t for the annoying fact of disease, I could vanquish these frenetic robots)
The Protestants of China speak as much of Satan as they do of Christ. Satan and his demons are awaiting all those who worshipp idols, all the virtuous but irreligious Chinese of history, all the intellectuals, even all of the Catholics. Confucius, Sakyamuni, Lei Feng, revered perfect communist hero of the 1950s and 60s, are burning in hell. She uttered the last name with subversive pride. How brilliant a man is, how good a man is, how kind and faultless a life he lives – none of this matters when judgement comes. The worst sinners will be forgiven if they embrace Christ. The minister noted that many intellectuals had brought up the logical problems with faith. They had declared their doubt to the world, seeking to end the hold of Christianity. But what had happened to the man who declared god dead? This is what this scar-faced, middle-aged, Chinese woman asked. He lived alone and died in an insane asylum.
Maybe divine intervention brought me to this dull office building and this little room. The church was on the forth floor of an office building right to the south of the Third Ring Road. It is a barren and utilitarian section of the city, high rises and roads like everywhere else. The office building is right next to a Gome, the leading home appliance chain in China. The room functioning as the church was about five by ten meters. There was a white board and upright indoor air conditioner at the front of the room. Folding chairs served as pews.
My friend, the rockstar who I had met briefly once before, provided music with his guitar. He is about 1.95 meters and weighs much less than me.
Around forty people filled the room. There were perhaps slightly more women than men, but the difference was not substantial. About sixty percent of the people were under thirty. The others were in their fifties, with three or four very old people hobbling around.
The preacher with long scars running along her face was named Xu Chen. She made reference to these scars at one point.
Her sermon, long and delivered with feeling, kept me rapt. It related to the life of the spirit versus a life that values only corporeal existence. She mentioned the difficulties in China today where people think only of material things, and also commented on the problems in the West where people find a spiritual vacuum. The most interesting point she made was about Japan. Japan is a country where every single person has mental disease. Her main comments were on the men whose work obsessed life leads them to the most peculiar practices.
Japanese men are known to avoid returning home if at all possible, since their home life is so bereft of spirituality. They sleep in the park, or their office, or hotels just to avoid facing the discomfort of home. Far stranger are the things they eat, which include both dirt and feces, drawn directly from the toilet bowl. These practices are, purportedly, just the tip of the iceberg. This manifestation of the Chinese hatred of Japan even in a Christian setting was notable.
You have to love Hugo Chavez. Mr. and Mrs. Big (look at photos of the pair) are in Ukraine and they will visit Iran soon. No stop in Zimbabwe is planned for this trip. Ukraine is a loyal ally of Venezuela. It’s an important geopolitical economic relationship; bilateral trade stood at a whopping $16 million in 2005. On this world tour, Mr. Chavez is also swinging by Russia, where he will pick up 100,000 AK-47s, expected to tip the balance in the struggle against the Great Satan.
Mr. Chavez’s brother is discussing still closer military cooperation with Cuba, and Bolivia might supplement this formidable alliance.
Sadly, considering the rate that the US sheds friends, these foes have to be taken seriously.
“A survey in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen shows that 22 percent, 73 percent, 34 percent and 32 percent of white-collar male workers, aged between 28 and 33, would be prepared to do the housekeeping if the conditions were right.”
More on the weird dichotomy of Chinese men later. What some are willing to say and hack up in the earshot of young women continues to shock me. It is a question of differing habits between classes and generations, but the bums and muggers on Chicago’s Southside have a better idea of how to conduct themselves in the presence of ladies than many businessmen in China.
All the same, I’m starting to see that the men are the ones faced with the real challenge posed by rapid development. I admire the women who appreciate this fact.
Beijing sunny days can be vile. Visibility is no higher than on a rainy day. There is no illusion of gloom, just pure pollution, with the sun’s rays illuminating. I growled out the following nearly a year ago, but unfortunately it matches this month’s weather:
Snobbic fools, like me, steal the word “Europe†to symbolize their dilemma. I seek comfort from the notion of the old continent, unwilling to abandon their mess of unfortunate attitudes barring success in the Sino-American capitalist murk. To survive, I assume the false smile and “attitude is everything†by day. When night falls, the cherished nihilism, that self-defeating system, beckons. I reflect snootily on the ugly men in shapeless suits encountered during the day.
Must a definition of self have to be rejected if it is meaningless? That seems the only way to get by, but then what is there to embrace? Without mental war with ugly surroundings and a worthless future, what remains but the artificial work personality and a vague fight to feel ambition? It’s so difficult to embrace the neon grey modern world without smugly despising it.
The fantasy of Europe powers and saps me, as I venomously peer around this aesthetically cursed terrain: choking rather than breathing, ugly cinderblocks covered with billboards, their rooftops lost in the fumes, and youths craving bills with a portrait of a fat mass-murderer, so that they can buy an auto-crazed, luxury branded lifestyle.
Be careful, what you set your heart upon, for it shall be yours to endure.
I’ve despised what is practical, but the choice that determined my current surroundings seems the most practical one of my life, though that was not the intention. Studying the language had nothing to do with the engine of the world’s “growthâ€. Now the limitless growth figures involve me everyday.
Nascent at university, the fantasy of Europe fuels all my defiance. Now I fear the Sino-American hunger for profit, and pursuit of expansion.
Wretchedness consumes me as I watch the cranes and welding guns, and polyurethane and sulfur fill my lungs. The present is damned by the unattainable dream of old buildings, green trees, fresh air, little cars, intellectual scarves, and fatalistic defiance against the future.
A thin and gorgeous youth walks the empty street, breathing crisp, cool air. The sun shines bright and the sky is blue. He wears a long scarf, an Edwardian velvet coat, tight jeans, and Milanese shoes. His hair is a mess. He grasps an old book – it has been so long since I’ve read one that I don’t even remember the name. Oil is so expensive, environmentalism so strong, that only tiny electric vehicles drive the streets, and few at that, since mass transit is so good. He is heading to a concert, with a flask in his hand.
He doesn’t have a wife. He can take any one he wants and kiss their lips. Life is long and uncertain.
After walking the clean streets, unclear on what he should have been doing, he returns to his tiny cell, in the spire of a monastery. With his oil lamp for light, he tries to write, but there is not so much subject matter.
Comments
You look cracked out in that picture, lay off the ice! Posted by Pescatore on 08/04/2006 06:58:09 AM
This is one of the first males I’ve seen in China who has a really natural sense of style:
Those shopping in the luxury emporiums may not be seeking this look. The style ideas they do arrive at seem contrived compared to what this man is doing. Sadly, the picture does not capture his shoes, which looked like vintage Reeboks – very hipsterish. This gorgeous man was reluctant to have his photo taken, and he didn’t want to chat. I told him that he was handsome and had good taste, which made him finally budge. This is on Changan Avenue, the main street in Beijing, and maybe the world.
If you aren’t in China with all of the plasticy outfits and general “utter spanking newness”, you may not appreciate what this fellow has achieved.
At the intersection of Dongsishitiao and the Second Ring Road. Here is a guy off from work, heading home for the night, or maybe out for some lamb on a stick.
Last night, my tiny flat was a swank bar, Gallic lounge music seeping out like honey, the singer’s husky voice sultry enough to melt the iron door shut before me. I couldn’t help wondering what my dainty flatmate was up to, playing such inflaming music at so late an hour.
She had borrowed my key that morning, so I hoped she would hear me knock. She didn’t, so I banged. In the end, modern technology offered a solution. I contacted her by cell phone: “Princess, open the gateâ€. Three or four more minutes and the door opened. Wavy hair falling over her flushed face, bathrobe carelessly tossed on, and in the background, a man’s suit jacket neatly placed on the sofa in the dimly lit living room…she’s on an adventure. She tried to tie up her bathrobe, only to find it was inside out.
I cleared my throat and said, “Well, sorry, didn’t know you were busyâ€. She bit her lower lip, squeezing out an angelic smile, “I’ve brought my friend over…â€. “Hmm… you may want to give my key back since I’m leaving in a bit. I would hate to disturb you and your guest again.†She giggled softly and returned to her room. With the faint light coming through her door, I could see her duvet all ruffled, but no sign of her friend. Glancing nervously back into her room, my flatmate handed me the key. Before I could say thanks, she fled back to her room and shut the door tight as a young lady of her tiny build could.
This Mongolian princess was not one to bring home strange men. I had to find out what breed of prince drove her to so giddy and uncivilized a state.
Under cover of the crooning ballads, I inspect the living room for clues. First, of course, one can’t miss the suit jacket. Some say you can tell everything about a man from the suit he wears. If that’s true, I hope this man at least has a tender heart. Navy with a blend of gray – corporate drone, tick! Wool mixed with loads of synthetic fibers – stiflingly sensible, tick! No label for the brand or fabric used, just two spare buttons sewn underneath the inside breast pocket, and the lapel is ironed flat – made at a local tailor shop catering to bargain-seeking expatriates, tick! Lying next to the suit jacket is Mr. Man’s loyal Samsonite computer case. Recently accused of being picky about everything, I still can’t resist commenting that, despite Samsonite’s latest efforts, including hiring Isabella Rossellini to promote its chic new suitcases, most of us still know the brand for its quality and dull style. Would it be too daring to suggest that Mr. Man’s choice of suits and bags might reflect his personality? Let’s not be so arbitrary… or at least not yet.
I thought the investigation was ending, but the victorious little smile developing on the right corner of my mouth instantly disappeared when I was struck by two dark objects sitting calmly by my flatmate’s door, next to her rose leather peep-toe pumps. Innocuous enough: a pair of black leather lace-ups – plain, matte, large, nearly Dr. Marten style. I don’t mean those ornate ones for rockers. The Sex Pistols and The Damned would not have donned these clunkers. I feel bad saying this, since my own beau hails from the Mighty Stripy Nation, but do consider the kind of shoes an average American dude wears to match his synthetic suit and hard computer case, and you may just be able to picture what I saw. I hold no grudge against these shoes. They are comfortable, economical, and will be loyal companions for years and years to come. Compared to stilettos with heels sharp enough to kill an army of sumos and price high enough to give the most notorious brute a heart attack, these black leather lace-ups give me such an earthy feeling. What I adore the most about this kind of shoe is that they look pretty much the same from purchase till the day you abandon them. Maybe it’s the durable leather, maybe it’s the matte finish. I adore them so much that I even gave them a nickname – Broad Bean Shoes. These shoes resemble those lovely little plump beans.
As I was giving a tender last look at those black lace-ups, the French sweetheart finished her last song and some vague sounds came from the love nest. Even the most romantic nation had to close its show for the night. I sat down next to the synthetic suit and started looking through the CDs on the coffee table. The soundtrack of The Tango Lesson caught my eye. On the cover, a lady in a flaming red dress and a man in a white shirt and black trousers were holding a highly professional dance position, both with left legs bent, right legs stretched to the back and backs erect. Their hands clasp with such intensity that, even without watching the movie, it’s easy to experience the bursting passion and entangled emotions.
I changed the CD and turned up the volume. The night was young for my emancipated princess and her earthy new lover. What drew these two individuals together, I lack a clear answer. But I hoped that since the Francophone honey had retired, at least the Latino passion would get the pair through the steamy night.
Today, I heard our man works as Executive Solutions Wizard at a leading IT consulting firm. I smiled knowingly, thinking of broad beans, and rejoiced for my little triumph.
Comments
Broad Bean Shoes- how classic. Posted by Mr. B.Y. Jia on 08/04/2006 07:04:56 AM
The West can never rest again. Leisure, our reward for advancement, was fleeting. To maintain our current standards, we must run ever faster. We must remain vigilant, guarding our advantages. Now the West pours funds into China, so its talented, industrious labor force can suck down our wages.
The China cost advantage will remain for another half-century. The profit margins of our multi-nationals will continue to grow, and they will reinvest this money in China. Soon, their ranks will be filled with Chinese girls.
Globalization benefits the few on both sides of the Pacific. But at least the Chinese masses, particularly females, have the potential for advancement. Most Westerners, especially males, will only see their position erode.
The pressure from China harms me specifically. The female Chinese white collars run hard all the time, mastering English, adopting professionalism, and adapting to socializing on Western terms. How can a lazy half Middle Easterner like me be expected to keep up?
I don’t really understand any of this of course. My position is influenced by the sound of high heels banging on a wood floor and an omnipresent smile. Let’s leave analysis of globalization to the experts. In some ways, it is only worthwhile for some one of my stature to only say silly things on such vast subjects.
This is an excellent source of articles on globalization from a wide range of perspectives:
The challenge of being independent – starting a business or freelancing – is gladly doing boring deeds. Without pressure from a supervisor, to do boring tasks or write on boring topics demands real effort. Even in a job, success comes from self-motivation, eagerness to do boring things.
Society only pays for boredom, or at least what spoiled boys see as boredom – others have different ideas. Rambling young dilettantes could write for days on things no one else finds useful, enjoying themselves thoroughly, but profits would not flow in.
Boring reports on ugly products generate revenue. Only one or two interns read these reports. The top dogs want to chomp two or three bullet points and an investment target. The full report is too boring for them. The middle guys read reports, but only if they are composed entirely of bullet points and charts. They can devour hundreds of bullet points. They are all pacmen.
Without fear driving, producing those small dots would be tough. For fear of superiors, parents, and lacking a mate, we devote ourselves to boring things. Even with these fears, starvation can seem more desirable than boredom.
To be self-reliant – liberated from the grind – we must create boring things, without outside pressure. That means we must be either very disciplined or very fascinated by boring things. People from the developing world exhibit both of these characteristics. Now they also have initiative. Westerners should worry.
Lovers of boredom will dominate the future. The victors will be able to endure boring things and channel what they’ve learned from them into creation. The vanquished will write on blog websites designed by the victors.
The boring thing is really me. Or, at best, I am just too boring to navigate my way out of boring things.
We know of heroes and artists, but cannot become them. We possess the intellect and the emotional education, while lacking control of our lives and understanding of a world that grows more homogeneous but more complex. Several books and movies suggest escape is to appreciate the small things. The answer is apparently to delight in the silliness that nature and man inadvertently create. Only by savoring the small, can we banish vague dreams of the grand.
This polyester shirt has playboy logos and the word “playboy†all over the back and front. The middle-aged man wearing the shirt showed a notable absence of haughtiness. He didn’t seem to think wearing the shirt meant that he was a playboy himself. He also had on plastic sandals and khakis, and his face could have even had a mole with hairs coming out of it. I’ve been trying to locate a nice shirt with the playboy bunny on the chest. It’s a logo I would wear. Irony of this kind never gets old. I could take it to a tailor to be slimmed down, since, like other polo-type shirts, Playboy ones are cut to fit sumo-wrestlers. The problem is all of the Playboy shirts have disasterous colors and stripes like this one.
Supposedly, the playboy brand in China is licensed by the original magazine company. It is a high status brand and is freqently pirated. Determining whether or not this shirt is an original is challenging because genuine playboy products are also very tacky. The majority of Chinese recognize only the clothing brand and have not heard of the gentleman’s magazine or Mr. Hugh Hefner. Mr. Giorgio Armani commented that in China his company’s most direct competitor is Playboy. Western luxury brands like Armani must struggle to differentiate themselves from quasi-local competitors of this type. Shanghai Eastern Crocodile Apparel Co., Ltd. (Crocodile) is another key domestic luxury goods company. The ubiquitous (and frequently copied) Crocodile belt buckle can be considered a symbol of China’s rising middle class. The Crocodile logo bears a striking resemblance to that of Lacoste.
Whenever I write on something more concrete or China-oriented, I find that someone else has already done it better. Taking the photo was still a good idea. This article tells the whole story of Playboy in China:
Should you stay home playing bridge on a Friday night?
A horde of Korean black wannabes poured from the maw of Dic’s. Their youth or crudeness denied them entry. Perhaps better luck lay ahead for them at Pix. They shoved through, bellowing about rap, booze and hot chicks, three vulgarisms abounding on the dance floor below.
My dearest friend, who once passed through Beijing, suggested I examine Dic’s and Pix. He described them as the city’s loci of expatriate activity. Had he ever been to these two dens of sin, my friendh, a fine and delicate dilettante, would not have recommended a trip. But curiosity killed me, and my companions, a corporate prince and a bevy of golden temptresses, felt no site could better enliven a Friday night.
Lights were low. Sweat poured. Groins pumped. Hip-hop beats deafened, preaching Gucci and disobedience. The thoughtlessly young, the menacingly horny, even the deliciously plump vied for the favor of squadrons of oriental fawns preening on a stage. These braves clutched beer bottles, tensed their muscles, boogied, and feigned cocky smiles. Their hair was gelled to erection. No one could speak and expect to be heard, so communication was limited to tense glances between adversaries and backslaps between allies. Like in the world outside, status mattered most. But here no conversation tempered the brutal gazes and fashionable outfits of rivals.
Identical rituals occurred that night in London, Milan, New Delhi, and Lanzhou. The glamour of the coming dark beckoned throughout Friday. In all cities outside the Axis of Evil and a few Arab countries, urban youths awaited the same melody-less songs, revealing tube tops, and overpriced beer. The objectives and outcomes were the same also: victors would drag home a stud or writhing beauty.
Mothers in Boston, Mumbai and Chongqing wondered why this, of all mating rituals, had gained currency in the four corners of the globe. They lay sleepless, weeping for their daughter’s abbreviated maidenhood and womanhood devoid of charm. They recalled their own days of lovely flirtation and elicit paramours, feeling a certain schadenfreude toward the modern girls.
The mothers failed to grasp that songs about expensive cars and polygamy express universal truths. The new cycle of pelvic thrusts and dollars unites the most primitive with the most modern. The effect is base. Music made like a product, glorifies products. Serfs mass produce clothing that encourages status envy and lust.
Our culture of convenience and the splintering of family and community mean there are few better cures for loneliness on a Friday night. The young boy who rejects the beauties of the club turns to the ones on the internet. Maybe I’m just envious, unable to relate to all this. I missed a cultural step somewhere and feel out of place in a club.
Sunflower seeds slow my typing.
Comments
This catches the nostalgia for a past understood but not experienced and a fright of a present little understood. Cross generational stuff is hard but love creates emphathy. Posted by Golpashan on 07/14/2006 03:36:43 PM
Readers must have decided this blog will not ever again display new material. Life is busy. It is hard to have time to post. I have been very lucky over the last two weeks to have my parents in town. My mother in particular loves Beijing and is planning to visit me again in the Spring. I hope that my father also will feel well enough to come then.
So it has been a happy visit and they have brought energy and order to my apartment.
I have a great deal of new material to post once I complete editing and the like. So keep checking back. My parents are leaving on September 27. I will have ample time to write and post after that.
Comments
Have you been Beijing long enough to be a good guide? I beeen Beijing several times and I think autumn is the best seaon of a year for Beijing. Posted by webdai on 10/18/2005 09:24:38 AM
Reading my writing or reflecting on conversation, I often find it execrable that I always refer to the “Chinese†as if they are one big group of identical people, with identical perspectives on the issues.
I believe it is shameful to even speak of a people as a group, but anyone who has been in China should understand why it comes so naturally to me. We are always regarded as laowai here, and Chinese refer to themselves as zhongguoren especially in contrast to us. Upon first arriving, one might want to avoid the tendency to group all Chinese together. The fact is that most people, outside of the educated ones or some who have been abroad, force me to represent the entire foreign world – in addition to the United States.
Writing these this, I feel as though I just arrived here, and have just noticed the most obvious things about the country. Readers from China keep in mind that people reading this may not have been here before.
I don’t want to seem elitist or culturally insensitive. In China, foreigners deal with levels of people that they normally wouldn’t encounter in their own country. Half-hour conversations about politics with the bicycle repairman just don’t occur in the States. Even if they did, the bicycle repairmen in Hyde Park, Chicago, didn’t just emigrate from a stone-age village.
I would argue that even more educated people tend to want me to represent the United States, at least at times. In Germany even, being an American, you sometimes find yourself in the uncomfortable position of defending the entirety of US foreign policy (not that you shouldn’t rise to the occasion).
My point being that considering most Chinese see themselves as a big happy family, feel extreme nationalism, and view foreigners as largely identical, I feel entitled to speak of “the Chineseâ€. I always feel a little bit of multiculturalistic disappointment in myself when I do it though.
Comments
aaaaaaayyy fuckin mennn how many times have i heard: 1)”you foreigners XXX” 2)”we chinese YYY” …a good portion of the people in the mainland seem to think that they are some sort of UN delegate for China… I always want to look over my shoulder everytime I hear “ä½ ä»¬å¤–å›½äºº” and make sure there isn’t a gang of people following me around that I hadn’t noticed… That and of course if your face is white: “there-ain’t-no-way-you-can-possibly-speak-Our-Language-or-know-anything-about-Our-Country” Or the extremely annoying: “speaking mandarin with the tones all fucked up so that the dumb monkey can understand” In my experience, most of these things go on in the mainland and are probably unavoidable in the near-term as China is still a developing country… I find Taiwan and HK to be infinitely better in this respect. I tend to purposefully refer to ‘Chinese’ people as 大陆人or 内地人in these kinds of conversations-with-idiots these days. just my 2 cents… Posted by Pescatore on 10/09/2005 09:29:01 AM
pescatore, you don’t have to be so vicious, you’re no better. Posted by molls on 11/22/2005 01:34:29 PM
This will be the first of many installments on “streetwear†here in China…Once my digital camera arrives, I hope to do a website with pictures.
I met an extremely thin, not in the least bit unattractive, girl, wearing hot pink knee-length pleated shorts, in New York who worked promoting various high fashion brands – notably Dior Homme.
She was an American-Born-Chinese from the West Coast and she surprised me by saying that the young men in China were “so hot”.
Please don’t accuse me of being racist, but there aren’t many women I’ve met who say this. It turns out that I agree with her, at least in some cases.
In her eyes, they far surpass their American counterparts. She said that these punk and alternative youth had captured the spirit of Hedi Slimane’s designs without even having heard of him, let alone being able to afford his stuff. And of course they have the super slim physiques, wild-color dyed hair, and vacuous looks to really master this look. That this look is so homegrown in China made it all the more appealing for her.
Those of you who visit China or live here may be surprised. Most expats just add the Chinese fashion sense to their list of aspects of the country to bitch about. A group of white males all clad in a uniform of tapered jeans with black tee shirts tucked-in will sit around condemning the Chinese male for his bad taste in clothing. Their attitude of superiority usually transcends the sartorial, but it is interesting that a bunch of pleated puds would criticize Chinese dudes for their fashion sense. People who appear not to give a damn about clothing suddenly wax indignant upon arriving in China, and seeing people with a more distinct sense of style.
Granted most people in China don’t have the money or the interest to care about clothing and they tend to look as though they just came in from the village, which they often did. But the expats are usually complaining about the fashion-sense of the new middle class or the extremely style-conscious youth.
And our concern here is with streetwear anyway, so peasants and laborers don’t count, though they do choke the streets in my part of Dongcheng Qu.
I. The Hair Salons and Ducks
Even more than in the West, hair salons are a locus of style. This is where all the young dudes congregate to preen about and try to outdo each other in extravagance of attire. Tons of rail-thin boys in skin-tight black jeans and silver shirts or sleeveless white blazers haunt the doorways of the hair salons, chain-smoking, adoring only their own gaudy youth. Techno turned louder than the cheap speakers can stand is the soundtrack to their posing. Any shoe less than twice as long as their actual foot can never worn by these stone-faced jesters. With the number of roaches here, their choice of footwear makes some sense.
Enter the salon and you will see the master. He is “the Mongolâ€. His long silky hair with pink streaks, his refined beard, his chiseled features, his wolf-like eyes all reveal that his origins are on the steppe. He is the one who sculpts atrocious masterpieces on heads. His attire also introduces him. His sleeveless top is a combination of black web and silver rings. His shoes are pointy like those of his minions, but they are patterned with skulls and cross bones, repeated in a rainbow of colors. Overwhelming, but fascinating.
To the Mongol’s right stands an assistant. He wears all white, very tight. To his left is another assistant. This fellow has extremely long hair, a handsome face, a shiny floral shirt, black bell-bottoms – outlawed as symbols of western decadence during the seventies – and gold pointy shoes.
In the winter, the attire becomes extremer with the weather. In the middle of the gray and pollution, I see three dainty lads displaying all degrees of brazenness in their strut and attire. Bleached blond hair, ass-tight black jeans, and Jackie O glasses were prerequisites for joining this precious little clique. One dude had on a knee-length leopard print fake fur coat, another a matrix style black jacket with a mandarin collar, and another a tight green zebra-stripe suit with a red skull-pattern scarf. I tried talking to them. Though these boys were under twenty and dressed to the nines, there were no sissified antics to be found here. They had tough voices.
These were ducks. Ducks are the callow youths who throng the Karaoke bars and dancing clubs looking for a rich married women to buy them for the night. Though foppish, these were mean men of the night, who had a mission. And the women who paid for their service were often minor beauties themselves. They had apparently married overweight pig heads with BMWs, but needed the ducks for their non-monetary needs. These pretty little mallards were always impeccably dressed, in their special way.
Inability to connect with everything around won’t vanish. Brief are moments of toleration for the concrete and people, the gases filling the air, the hawker’s coarse yells.
The insurmountable walls rise again. Conversations with a Chinese bring back that familiar distance. Talking with an American reinforces seperation too. Both races are so commercialistic, naively optimistic. The past is forgotten for them; they look unreflectively and boldly ahead. Coarse acquisitiveness boils over in their souls, dissolving all philosophical spirit.
It’s tough being European. Raised by scholars, schooled in the classics, a spirit easily drifts across the Atlantic. When this well-groomed being then ends up on the other side of the Pacific, it might be doused with a wok full of boiling fish oil, orange and thick.
A grand history that can never be matched again weighs down Europe. The venerable continent fashions spirits that start life wise but fatigued. American rightists taunt Europeans for their streak of nihilism. This lifelong nihilism also dashes hopes of friendship with the upbeat, unreflective Chinese. This most practical race, they waste no mental space with decadent hopelessness. They make rational calculations aiming for the top spot, even if corruption and inefficiency sometimes dog their steps. History has ended for most Europeans. No national will to ascendancy fires their spirit. Europe has already been number one. They sadly step aside now, making way for those with rawer ambition. With luck, the new emperors will forget the wrongs their former lord committed and retain him as arbiter of elegance. Europe might even set itself up as Greece to China’s Rome, and let the United States go the way of Carthage.
We can still sneer a little at the concrete blocks the Chinese erect everywhere, and their excitement over BMWs and Mercedes Benzes. It is hard not get a jolt of superiority seeing all the billboards, fast food joints, and the ubiquitous Chinese panty-lines standing out under tight jeans. This is our only comfort. They may be building the greatest economic power in history, but it will not be beautiful like Europe was.
Joining the business world has meant forsaking lovely enervation and putting on a tie. A mask must be donned. One has to pretend to be the same as the capitalistic Chinese and Americans. These two races represent obsession with professionalism, superficiality, and contentment. Essentially: vulgarity. The European spirit is separate, but the only defense is labeling them “baseâ€. A man of taste and virtue cannot speak with children struggling for electric gadgets and gas-guzzlers. The carefree, unashamedly simple spirit, the absence of the grave or heavy: these are the things that impede communication. Here, no one hides their quest for improvement of nation and self. Most Chinese – and these very intelligent ones – aren’t afraid to position themselves in a larger organism, rejoicing when it succeeds, defending it from any perceived slight. There is no sense of failure or disappointment in China – just a sense that the future will be brighter.
The dilemma is: Can we abandon all of our unfortunate attitudes in order to succeed in the capitalistic, Sino-American, world? I play their smiling game of “attitude is everything†by day, but when night falls I gleefully return to my cherished nihilism, that self-defeating system, and reflect snootily on the ugly men in shapeless suits I have met. Must a definition of self have to be rejected if it is empty? It is difficult to embrace the neon modern world without smugly despising it. (0) Comments | Post Comment
My old blog at blogcity is inaccessible. It took a long time for me to realize that this was because the entire site, blogcity, has been blocked in China, and not because of content on my specific blog. I was wondering what could possibly have been objectionable. There was nothing critiquing the Chinese Communist Party in that blog, and there won’t be in this one either. In fact, this blog will do quite the opposite. I can only beg the scrupulous men who scan the web for evil pollution to not block blogsource. That would be inconvenient for me. The move would also be regrettable from the perspective of the Communist Party, as my interests correspond to theirs. Allowing my blog to live is a win-win proposition.
Nothing in this blog will be politically subversive. My issues with life and the world and even China have nothing to do with the Communist Party. I think the old boys are doing a swell job. There is no need for regime change, widespread elections, or any drastic political reforms. Drastic and rapid political change is always deadly, as the French Revolution and the Cultural Revolution made clear. For that reason, I don’t support any huge alterations in the status-quo in China.
My own feelings and impulses may often appear aggressive or subversive. But I don’t claim that changes in the nature of things that would improve my life would also make the world a better place for the majority of people – or anyone besides myself. Any reactions I have to society are selfish and my suggestions are too often self-serving. Empathy has always been a challenge. Without it, it is impossible to grow, or at least, to write something worth reading.
I was diverted into a dull monologue on myself, but now let’s talk about the far more interesting Chinese Communist Party. They are fine people. One can easily see that Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are earnestly trying to improve things, and they should be admired for that. They have a lot of difficulties before them, but I know they will prevail, and so will China. It has for the last nearly three decades, and prospects are good for the next three.
Opposing the Communist Party is senseless. I challenge anyone to show me a regime in all history that has more rapidly brought prosperity to a nation. The fast success of China has not been only due to domestic policy: development here has clearly benefited from foreign investment and an era of globalization. However, the brilliant policies of the Communist Party have allowed China to exploit the full potential of these trends.
Like many Westerners, I am often frustrated by the system of government here in China. “How can these people be content to live under a dictatorship?†This viewpoint is natural for a Westerner to have, but it is immature and one-sided, not accounting for real conditions or the needs of this country. Recently, I have grown-up a little, and now revised my thinking. I now acknowledge the strength and glory of the Communist Party. They should not accept any silly demands made by the West.
A well-known China specialist from the United States who I had the honor of meeting the other night commented that if China were to have a popular election today, Mao would be elected. That is to say, the peasants would elect Mao. The underlying meaning is that populism would have the run of the day. True democracy here would lead to redistribution of wealth, sapping all growth. Bringing democracy to China would mean a step backwards in development. The United States might claim that democratization is in China’s interests, but it is easy to see why many here believe that US pressure for democracy is aimed at stifling China’s development.
If anyone suggests that China implement democracy, I should hope they mean of a very limited type with property qualifications. Chinese must only point to the India example, to refute any argument that China should adopt thorough democracy. Despite that the “miracles†of China and India are often grouped together, looking at the standard economic indicators and their recent growth trends reveals that China has succeeded, and that it remains on a better course. We had property qualifications in the United States, in the beginning.
The problem with these calls for democratization the United States makes is that they don’t account for the reality in China. We imagine a people enslaved to merciless despots. The patent-leather boot of oppression eternally planted on the emaciated stomachs of a billion writhing coolies is often what Westerners imagine the situation here to be. Those who dare breath opposition are roped to the ground or slowly murdered with a thousand knife-wounds. This stifling society is the one that the West concocts as it preaches democracy and liberalization of the press. Anyone who lives in China knows this vision and reality are at odds.
I see a billion smiling coolies. They are watching their lives improve. The ones that are protesting should learn patience. Once their children have education, they too will live in beautiful homes and face computers all day. They will have a healthy appearance after eating much fatty meat. The number of people that have already made this dream their reality proves that the policies of the Communist Party are correct.
This has been my plea to the guardians of righteous thought and moral discourse. I say to them:
Observe all of this that I have said. Is my heart not in the right place? I am your ally. I cherish purity – just like you.
I want to crush pollution. This is my great campaign. Pollution seeps into more than just the air and water. The spirit, the heart, the way we think can be polluted. This can be a broad infiltration stretching across an entire society. This is cultural pollution. And this is what I have always devoted myself to combating. I have always wished to eradicate poison of the moral and intellectual discourse. Everything I say and write relates to this grand project.
I pledge to aid all others working toward the same goal of moral purification. I believe that my allies include the Chinese Communist Party and many others. In this one case, even though my writing is normally selfish, I believe that my new goals correspond to what is in the hearts of the majority of people. I sense a widespread dissatisfaction with the high levels of pollution in society. The average person wants to live in a purer society, so I pledge to subvert all of my usual ulterior motives and irony, and help them to scrub society clean.
Love your ally. Preserve me. Allow me to access my blog.
Comments
Unfortunately, it was my blog that ultimately caused blog-city to blocked in China. Look no further than the China Daily for evidence: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-07/22/content_462460.htm Posted by Gordon on 10/02/2005 04:27:41 PM
To be honest, i agree more with ‘china-lover’ moreso than ‘gordon’… gordon’s writing seems mainly the rantings of a disillusioned english teacher who came to china without knowing enough of what he was getting into… Posted by bai ma fei ma on 10/09/2005 09:39:04 AM
It’s funny. I read that article, but I never put two and two together. So, we have Gordon to blame…The “China Lover” article was rather transparent in its propagandistic intentions, but there is a definate tendency among expats to be unsympathetic. I know that Gordon has interesting and extreme opinions that should not be blocked. The opposition they generated is surely just the sort of nationalism the government wants to encourage. Any foreigners criticizing China are probably helping the Party. Posted by nels on 10/10/2005 02:41:10 PM
I like your blog. I wish I could see your previous one as well. I am just curious, did you ever backup your blog? or is it feasible to do so on blogsource? BTW: It would be great if you can break one long essay into several smaller pieces if possible. Posted by webdai on 10/17/2005 04:13:05 PM
I am glad to have a pleasure to view your Blog, as a Chinese,I have a srong feeling about our motherland and thank you for your help.We can believe China Gov. to settle them_whatever they are.Yes? Be glad to your friend,for I am studying Anthropoly and you can help me recognize China from a foreigner angle My English is poor,I am sorry.Can you catch my meaning? Posted by hiriver on 11/15/2005 10:22:04 AM
It don’tunderstand why I am thinking of ways to produce more stuff. All I should really be considering is how to consume and produce less, and ways of convincing others to do the same.
Note the flip-flops and sunglasses. 
