Fifa Street 3

It just gets better and better doesn't it?

Chain Surfing

Via three billion

Beijing Fashion and Trends

I got caught in Xidan again last weekend. That flat peaked baseball hat thing that was hitting London when I left may not have arrived full-on in Beijing yet, but I do like the perched and slightly tilted action going on below with subverted logos .

These guys really made me think I'd lost my antenna for what's going on because their piercings and punk goth look had in my opinion overstepped what Beijing tolerates as acceptable. Its one thing to be rebellious but in my estimation their look (even though its ace) would surely lead to some kind of 'social alienation' in this part of China. I think Vivienne Westwood collector and fashion lecturer Robert De Niet in London would be particularly pleased with those bondage trousers which, like the rocking shoes she designed, are somewhat impractical but look insanely good. Clothes for heroes indeed.

I bumped into them later in that cheap clothes mall I've been raving about and had a chance to ask them a few more questions where they told me in quite good English that they were of Canadian/Korean descent and here to learn Chinese. This kind of pleased me because I couldn't believe how much attitude their style had, although I will always be slightly disappointed in a city that doesn't have room for a few Punk Goths. I understand that Worcester wasn't the sort of place to wear this stuff in 76/77 either!

Here are some examples of those insane T Shirts I've been going on about.

Does Linda know?

Thus adding another dimension to the uncanny valley.

I have no idea what Beverdially Sweetbones Brondnated Beveriseeds means but its the sort of thing I'm beginning to enjoy and expect from Xidan. One of the things I like about the cheap shops is the resourcefulness they put into making them hip, and here in the Jing it seems that using magazine photography covered in glass on the floor is one way the young can inexpensively add some attitude. A lot of the shops also take pride in having rare trend curiosities to attract people in. Although that is a post for another day that I'm keen capture.

Walmart And China

The figures for Walmart and China are colossal. The United States' ability to voraciously consume, coupled with China's unsurpassed capability to produce has led to the fastest input output game in history with considerable impact on the planet's resources. There are still many people who would rather ignore the moral impact of our work without knowing that there are ways to square the circle, but it takes some thinking, and some conviction otherwise there really is no point just gushing 'awe' at cute babies and bunnies and things because that's just programming on your amygdala which you can overcome with your selfish gene and get on with the business of senseless consumption.

John Grant has done a much more courageous job of showing the way forward with his excellent book The Green Marketing Manifesto and also his blog Greenormal which is a must-read for those who like the communications business and dig frugality dictated by the brutal logic of finite resources.

Some time back, we talked on his blog if Walmart or M&S would insist on environmental standards in the distribution and supply chain, it would have an impact on both China and the rest of the world. If you're not sure how this works, it's enough to know that Walmart single handedly pushed the world into using barcodes when insisting on its suppliers using them.

The same applies for pretty much anything else they put their mind to.

Now Walmart are famous for being miserly with suppliers and parsimonious at best with employees but there is a strong Christian ethic that runs through the organisation and its values, which when misguided are unpleasant but when constructive can be a force for good.

Following on their news last year to become the largest purchaser of solar panels ever, thus creating economies of scale for others, I read today in the essential China Digital Times that they are making a push in October for all their Chinese suppliers to follow environmental and sustainability guidelines. This will likely be a future trend for China and its suppliers, but if embraced can drive wealth creation that is not at the expense of the planet and is surely the single largest opportunity for making money in our lifetimes by rewiring the economy for sustainability. Anything else is just loose change isn't it?

Emperor's New Clothes

I love this quick presentation by Anil Dash. There's something pernicious about the powerpoint effect that for many clients goes something along the lines of 'for each change of slide' we are getting agency value-for-money'. No it's not, its illusory value.

Via Angus Whines

Twittercloud

Tweet clouds - The bigger the word the more often I have twittered it. I am looking forward to coming back to this maybe in six months. Very revealing.

Via Russell Davies

Beijing Another View

I've never done a post like this but an email I received sparked such a good response that I asked if I could share it because I think it adds some really good flavour to the question what is Beijing like, through the lens of its vibrant music scene. Here is the response from Chris Emmerson which should really be seen in the context of two links that were sent prompting a private email exchange between three people, and which he has kindly agreed to allow me to share here. The links that sparked the conversation are:

http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/atlasofideas

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/china2008/story/0,,2264116,00.html

And here is Chris' response:

Finally got to these after a weekend off the intensive Mandarin. The science one was interesting: I did a study on perceptions of scientists back in the UK for a course I was doing, and the bitterness amongst that community is startling, particularly amongst biologists and biochemists. Scientists feel they have no status in the UK, and to do the 'good work' they all dreamt of as idealistic undergraduates they have to spent 15-20 years working in study groups they don't believe in, so that by the time they've reached the point at which they have the chance to set their own agenda they're politically conditioned to mark out and defend their own specialist territory, regardless of the value of research. A number of them suggested that since there was so much politics in funding, it was as well to have politicians actively running the show, since at least they might be expected to see the bigger picture and do politics well.

A lot of scientists end up in the private sector spending their lives tweaking established treatments so they can be re-patented: a fabulous waste of talent that was the elephant in the room as far as the article was concerned. So yes, China may have lucked onto a model that makes the most of a particular moment in its political and social history. I'd start on cancer if I were them, since living in this city is the equivalent of smoking approximately eighteen blue Drum roll-ups per day. I know because I smoked about eighteen blue Drum roll-ups per day until the day I left the UK, and my respiratory system has benefitted not one iota in two months.

As for the music: well....yes. If you're going to judge it in entirely musical terms....yes. And if you're a music critic, that's what you'll do so....yes. But personally, I'm finding the music scene here enormous fun. Possibly it's just that being in a foreign city gives you license to behave like a teenager sometimes but it's been a long time since I enjoyed going to gigs as much as here. The combination of aching cool and accessibility is striking. The bands all look like the cover shoot for your choice of cutting edge fashion mag the month after next, but you can wander up and chat to the lead singer after the set, even if you don't share a common language (you can also, in no particular order, learn a Taiwanese drinking game, teach a barman how to make popcorn in a microwave, discuss ska with a guitarist who thinks you're cool because hardly anyone he knows has even heard of Elvis Costello and get impressively drunk for under a fiver; although apparently if you're a Guardian music critic, you're above all of these things). There's also a bond with the audience that doesn't devolve into cloying sentimentality and I-saw-them-first one-up-manship which seemed to be an increasing feature of the London 'scene' the last time I was a hip young thing (which was, admittedly, never). And god knows, if most of them haven't got an original idea in their pretty little heads, at least they know how to put them together in a way that's entertaining.

In fact, I have wondered if it is the barriers to 'getting big' that keep things fun. Everybody's asprirations are on a similar scale; no-one's going to become U2 overnight. Having watched many documentaries about CBGBs, and then finally seeing the horror it had become in its final incarnation two years ago, D22 and its peers are the closest I've come to feeling how I imagine that scene was.

Right then. Now I've sorted out the future of science, politics and music I'll go back to my homework......

Go check out this post on the Guardian for more on the Beijing music scene and Ed's intelligent blogging on the subject.