tempting fate

.after spotting this beijing cyclist, i was left wondering:

. is this really is the safest way to transport four porcelain vases?


.and did he really want them to reach their destination?
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highlight gallery @ 798

.This gallery should definitely be renamed headlight gallery!
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behind the front

OR: Nadeemy finds a sarcasm-free moment to reflect on China!

China is on the tip of everyone’s tongues – if it’s not talk about the impact this giant is having on the global economy, it’s talk about how it will be received by the international community come the Olympics. “Foreigners” who have already visited China, often leave talking about nothing more than its pollution, the filth of public latrines, the commerce push of its mega-cities, and a few of the great sites. But this is the inaccessibility of the China experience. Without language, without time, and without the willingness to debase a huge and unexpected array of beliefs, I doubt China could be much more. After all, how does one get past years of constructed orientalism, mountains of cheap goods, and the frightening largesse of the statistics, when any single one of these factors is immensely overwhelming?

It is my experience that it is extremely difficult to integrate into Han Chinese culture. Han Chinese tend to circulate in small, closed communities, and are often unwilling to share, or of the mindset that they have nothing to share (other than culinary delights and a few historical sites) with visitors. This trend is only exemplified if one digs into the archives of insular Chinese politics, and takes into consideration the long history of xenophobic and protectionist policies, and the fact that no foreigner can ever hope to become a citizen of China.

Due to an unresolved inner conflict between my eastern and western halves, my father and mother, Asian life and Australian life, it has become very hard for me to speak out against the relentless barrage of ignorant prejudices about China and its people. Indeed, not to speak is the Asian way. To my own discredit, I confess that I constantly reduce myself to entertaining other foreigners with anecdotes about cultural mishaps, and cheap talk of bizarre and untoward differences.

Yet in reality, the transformation in my awareness drawn from Chinese life, has been something innately wondrous and magical. I have been drawn in by the intimate flow of life in the streets, and the joy in making small discoveries. The fleeting moments hidden around every corner, the tiny marketplaces in back alleys, the movement in the hutongs, the red lanterns on snow, the chaotic jumble of bicycles and carts, the worlds within worlds, and the innate calmness of a people who give each space, despite the crowds. But more significantly, I am seduced by the way China is deconstructing and reconstructing me conceptually.

To comprehend anything at all about China, one has to begin by knowing that not only the language, but the mindset and approach to life, are unknown to the western mind. European language concepts are not applicable in Chinese; words only cover parts of meanings, and new meaning take a long, long time to understand. But perhaps the most striking aspect of the Chinese experience is the result of being so firmly outside the sphere and influence of Christianity; to be momentarily free of the intense individualism and egocentrism of nations harvested on the belief that each of us stands alone to be judged before God.

Living inside an empire of communities which devalue the individual so entirely is mind-blowing. On one hand, I will always be conflicted, as I can not cease to believe in the rights and the power of the individual; yet, on the other hand, China has brought me to see clearly the negative offshoots of western individualism. As incredulous as it may seem, many of the “ills of the west” (depression, anxiety, and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia) do not exist in Chinese civilization, and are most definitely not treated, diagnosed or authenticated in the same way. I take the viewpoint now, that these ills only exist in personal belief, stemming from a negative egocentrism cradled by social validation.

So to end my artless musings, let me say there is nothing more fantastic than the risk of being shaped and changed in an unimaginable way, and to have every idea one has ever been fool enough to believe in discredited. And of China, that the strength of this nation is undeniable, and lies not in its government, but in the millions of people who believe more in the greatness of this central kingdom than themselves.
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nike in china

"THE NEW RED?"

Chinese tour groups across the nation are going all out to impress with the new emblem of home-grown communism!
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laptop feng shui

After a recent investigation, our landlord took the liberty of disconnecting our phone and internet. In her opinion, it was in our best interests to share a modem with a turtle-loving, pyjama-clad DJ, halve our monthly bills, and run a free wire into her room. Angered at the absence of consultation, we told her “no” to the new deal, “no” to the new cables, and politely shut the door. Always one step ahead, she must have had our old cables cut, because despite our continuing account with CNC, we can no longer get online. We have now been without internet for three days, and swamped with feelings of destitution and anger. This is what happens when the centre from which all things flow is uprooted.

So, I find myself perched in a damp corner of the bathroom with the laptop halfway out the window to steal a few heartwarming minutes of wireless, when the dusty spring breeze begins to draw me back into the horrors of the old world …
It was less than two years ago that I resided in a laptop-free zone, where we were forced to do awful things, like: communicate with each other, throw spontaneous pot-luck parties, play Pictionary charades into the early hours, and cover the walls in Pop Art. They were the worst of times, which were luckily cut short when the chai-drinkers left, and two high-powered “laptoppers” moved in.

At this point, let me iterate that being online 24/7 doesn’t equate with emotional or spiritual emptiness. To the contrary, the laptoppers brought focus and synergy to the living environment. The energy of the apartment, once vague and scattered like falling autumn leaves, began to revolve around two very distinct hubs. It was then I realized success could be at my fingertips too, because harmony and peace freely abound in laptop hubs. As the user is auspiciously centered for long periods within the flow of chi, good fortune, such as the eternal fountain of free entertainment, unfettering popularity on Facebook, and a soulful relationship with an E-cupped love puppy in a chat-room, are all potential and propitious gains.

If the hub itself does not reduce household interaction to the level of stabilizing harmony, my advice is to move quickly into the business of VIRTUAL FENG SHUI. Deflect that remaining negativity by protecting the walls around your hub with a series of LCD screens featuring moving images of wind chimes and lotus flowers. The advantage of Virtual Feng Shui is that it can be programmed to cater and respond to several different users. For example, if Turtle Boy’s beats would flow more naturally with eight synchronized goldfish in the west, when he entered the hub, the screens would provide.

Inevitable technological advances promise that soon enough not just Virtual Feng Shui, but your cyber friends, will be upgraded to holograms. Imagine the joy in the cups of your soul-mate from the chat-room, when she projects her image into your hub for a late night rendezvous, and finds herself in a spiritual hotspot, energized by a gushing waterfall in the north, 99 galloping horses in the south, and a lifelike three-legged toad, hopping straight towards her.
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