Seriously how is the above plot different from any given week here. I haven’t seen Avatar, nor do I really want to (preferring to convince myself that I’m able to lord some sort of indie-film-hipster sensibility over the easily entertained masses of humanity… it’s also hard to get a ticket). The film is a big deal here, and many have commented extensively on mainland interpretations of the film as an easily celebrated allegory for eminent domain, which seems like a fairly Sinocentric reading. Recently, the 2D version of the film was pulled to make way for the domestic epic, Confucius, which makes perfect sense since both films are science fiction/fantasy.

Ancient philosophers meh: Hunan claims to have mist-covered picturesque mountains similar to those featured in Avatar (English here), using the resemblance to draw tourists. The city of Zhangjiajie has renamed even named a local peak Avatar Hallelujah Mountain, the first two terms being phonetic transliterations (阿凡达哈利路亚, Afanda Haliluya) which just seems sort of wrong, though not quite Starbucks in the Forbidden City wrong. Popular culture will of course be interpreted in a local context, and instead of assimilation one should view these things as fusion. Perhaps we only wish the interpretations weren’t so crass. HT Ellie.

This is a very interesting visualization, which comes from the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, which captures information about travel times for any given area. These sorts of exercises are very interesting, when realizing that it’s easier (faster anyway) to travel from Shanghai to Chicago than it is to travel from Shanghai to certain parts of rural Anhui. The remotest place in the world is in the PRC: the Tibetan Plateau. Note that the scale is non-linear, so the differences between remote and non-remote are even more considerable than appears at first glance. It would be interesting to use the same methodology and restrict travel options to income levels, to examine economic determinants of geographic access.

The blue lines are shipping routes; apparently Shanghai is the third most central port in the world (after the Suez and Panama Canals).

China mobile has recently begun censoring text messages with ‘yellow content’ (sexting, basically). People were upset by the invasion of privacy, so the compromise with customers was to simply block messages that don’t meet the filter requirements, rather than prosecute individuals sending lurid packets of binary filth. It’s taken as a given that technology controls will eventually run into problems with commerce.

Bearing this important narrative mind, I asked a Shanghainese pro-d0mme friend over noodles how she felt about the new rules. Surely her scheduling methodology would be affected. She replied: “since most of my clients are from the US and Europe, I don’t care. I can still use English” [the filters not being calibrated to reign in worldly, cosmopolitan smut, as it were.]

I’ve been reading 中国不高兴 (‘Unhappy China’). It’s very accessible for someone with my level of language study, and has juicy material. Like this gem:

道德？你西方人甭跟讲道德！就像网上年轻人所说的：你从世界各大洲除了欧洲都卷了铺盖，你就有道德了。

Morality? You Westerners shouldn’t even bother speaking with me about morality! It’s like that netizen said: ‘[if] all of you pack up and leave all of the other continents (except Europe), then you will have morality.

This comes from Wang Xiaodong (albeit in one of the more vitriolic essays) where he refers to a comment made by a Chinese netizen that ‘Westerners should pack up and leave North America, Africa, and Oceania, and all return to their ancestral homes in Europe. Then they can talk with us about leaving T1bet.’ Another essay, 美国不是纸老虎，是“老黄瓜刷绿漆” (America isn’t a Paper Tiger, but rather an old cucumber painted green’) strikes a similar tone.

The book received a lot of attention from Western media, for being ultra-nationalist, and espousing tenants of a new political philosophy – 新爱国主义 (‘new patriotism’) that advocates the aggressive use of soft power in foreign policy, and reduced reliance on Westerners (culturally, economically, and technologically). Though I personally mostly agree, I also think it would be very wrong to characterize these opinions as being shared by everyone here – especially those in power. My experiences with party officials is that they are more critical than the average Chinese, though in a much more nuanced way. That’s unsurprising, considering they have to deal with whatever problems exist within the bureaucracy.

This is all anecdotal of course, and risks ignoring the ephemeral (but palpable?) sense of populism / nationalism that you get glimpses of. As of writing, Chinasmack, an amazing website that catalogues popular / controversial stories in China is under a Denial of Service attack. It would not be surprising that this is being done by ‘new patriots’ who feel the website portrays China in a negative light, especially right before the 20th anniversary of 6.4 – the notion that they are probably drawing attention to the very site they are trying to shut down seems not to have occurred.

Many of the essays in the book talk a lot about how Chinese, especially youth, must rise up and be strong, like when ‘young nationalists’ organized boycotts of Carrefour after Olympic Torch protests in Europe last year. This ‘defense of national honor’ is exactly the sort of activity that the authors would approve of, but stinks of the very same [unwarranted] inferiority complex that ‘new patriots’ take issue with. The biggest risk for people like me is misconstruing that such views are homogenous – even within ‘nationalism,’ there’s a large variety of views. Rather than risking polarization, discussion of these issues are an important avenue forward.

All sorts of interesting things are happening in Wuhan. Legal activism, child labor… and a 2 million RMB toilet. I know I complain a lot about the infrastructure here – couldn’t they have put it not in a park? Alas.

It’s nice not being in the U.S. right now. As it stands, I still hear far too much about the election – primarily from the internet, and people I talk to here, who speak the name ‘Ao-Baa-Maa’ with almost the same messianic reverence I’ve become accustomed to in my representative demographic (privileged 20 something academe types). It is easier to convince Zhou-sixpack that the two candidates aren’t extensively different on most major issues (a stance popular among those of us who consider ourselves ‘unique.’ Don’t worry it’s just a phase.) 

It’s too bad Obama support stopped being edgy some time ago. Now I must resort to contrarian arguments about America being led down the inevitably destructive path of crowd politics:

As the late Nobel laureate Elias Canetti observes in his great book, “Crowds and Power” (first published in 1960), the crowd is based on an illusion of equality: Its quest is for that moment when “distinctions are thrown off and all become equal. It is for the sake of this blessed moment, when no one is greater or better than another, that people become a crowd.” These crowds, in the tens of thousands, who have been turning out for the Democratic standard-bearer in St. Louis and Denver and Portland, are a measure of American distress.

Maybe? Should he win the expectations seem too high. Regardless, I have plans to eat pizza and drink wine early in the morning as I hit refresh on a browser watching election results come in.

I have arrived intact in Wuhan, better referred to as Woot-han – it appears to be an extensive neon corridor. A very awesome neon corridor. Will be out of the internet for at least a few days while I settle.