Beijing Yoof

Beijing is much more restrained than Shanghai when it comes to self expression but there are pockets of the cool kids, particularly in the Xidan area which I've taken to exploring to see if there's anything interesting.

I guess that Harajuku thing is beginning to emerge more confidently here and it makes a welcome break from the monotony of monotone or overkill on the colour red. I really like these folk because they have that spark of life which frankly takes a bit of courage. Some people like to invoke the 'nail that sticks out, gets hammered in' rule of thumb for Asia but I say bollocks to that. The nail that sticks out gets noticed.

....unlike most ego driven marketing communications that sadly pass for 'creative'. Few people are willing to champion these folk and yet they are just as valid a part of modern China as the migrant workers who build the endlessly emerging skyline. I also find them refreshingly modest and unchippy.

This is BRILLIANT

With thanks from Gustavo who is shaping up as a very hip and talented creative planner. (Picture taken last night at LAN club where the Ministry of Sound were playing)

DARPA

From DARPA - The people from the U.S. defense research agency that invented the internet way back in 1969 Via Dygicynic

Magnetic Strip

Richard has posted this excellent piece of work coming out of the Saatchi & Saatchi stable where he works in London. The music is impeccable.

Money From The Environment

Some of us have talked a fair bit in the past on the environment blogs including John Grant's Greenormal that going green is actually a massive business waiting to go ballistic. I guess I should have remembered this while meeting a twenty something in a Beijing bar who repeated three times that she was making amazing money from 'wind energy' farms in China... I thought it was a bit crass at the time but with the U.S. economy tanking on debt that only the consumer society could have created, it's probably good timing given that the banks are now being propped up by the Fed with our money).

Anyway, Amy from Terrarossa asked me to see what you think of this clip. I'd be grateful if you could let her know your reactions to any of it in the comments below. I've already given my feedback.

某些领导

身体越来越胖心胸越来越窄，
头衔越来越多学问越来越浅，
讲话越来越长真话越来越少，
权力越来越大威信越来越低，
年纪越来越老情人越来越小。

This is the only poem I've got into since I've been in China. On reading it for the first time I put down my mobile and stared out the taxi for a while. I think its more about power than a specific country or its officials, but what do I know?.... It was written in Chinese and perhaps the translation may have skipped some nuance? Or even a localised version of iambic pentameter. Either way I'm planet before country when it comes to nationalism. It's a logic thing really; entirely selfish I guess.

Here's the translation

Sketch of Officials

The body grows fat and fatter, the heart narrower and narrower
The titles accumulate more and more, the knowledge shallower and shallower,
The speeches longer and longer, the truths fewer and fewer,
The power greater and greater, the authority lower and lower,
The age older and older, the mistresses younger and younger.

China's Backbone

Here in China there's a large group of people that are only recently becoming recognised and represented in The People's Congress. They are the migrant worker population.

Sure there are lots more Herds as top thinker Mark Earls correctly espouses, but I think these people are the unsung heroes of China. I have wanted to take photographs of them since last year but felt that my presence would be intrusive and unwelcome. Just another white boy indulging his pampered ass in pseudo blue collar sympathies but tonight I took the plunge and asked if I could take a picture. A few got up straight away and ran out of range but the rest were happy enough and now I'm inspired to go further afield and get stuck into the rural areas and rust belts of China to learn more. Here are the pictures and they are a scene that is typical across all major cities late into the night across China. Nervous to get a shot as quick as possible I failed to do the settings on the camera correctly and so they are not good. But I wont make that mistake again. Expect more of this stuff.

As I type this I can hear a circular saw buzzing away at 8.15 PM on a Saturday night while the Neo Georgian building opposite my window emerges piece by piece each and every unrelenting day.