Pictures from Yuan Xiao Jie in Shanghai (上海元宵节及老城区夜景）

前天晚上去了豫园看灯会，观摩的主要是人海，但是喜气洋洋的，感觉还是不错。后来跟朋友在老城区溜达，久违的灵感也终于回来了，当然，这也跟我带新的相机出去也有关。谢谢长辈的提携以及各位朋友的支持！我要坚持拍下去！

Shanghai Business School Fire: now comes the blame game

Should they have jumped, why did the jump? Were they hanging off the rails of the balconies until they had no strength and just let go? Why didn’t any brave men climb up the stairs to rescue them?

Four women died after jumping off their dorm balcony, but now the debate rages on about what the problems are. Understandably, people are angry and the students are being quite vocal about the issue.

Talk of the electric heater, dubbed ‘热得快‘ has been the focus of many conversations online, as many students have said that the reason why they have to use such shoddy electronic appliances is because there is no heated water and electricity is turned off at night, so those students wanting a cup of tea, a bowl of instant noodles, or a hot shower at night have to use these appliances. There was also discussion of whether or not safety facilities, ie fire extinguishes and emergency exits, were up to par in Chinese university dorms, with many people arguing that they are not.

One post, from Aibang.com, explains these points:

最根本的问题是，学生从家里来上学，现在生活的一些设备离不开电，而学校仅仅是单纯的禁止个处罚有用么？为什么不改善宿舍的居住环境呢？如果学校有饮水机，或者将开水设备安排在每层宿舍楼，那么至少那种劣质的“热得快”那个学生还会买呢？你宿舍24小时供电，首先就会避免了因为停电而忘记关闭电源的事故发生，难道学校领导意识不到？

It’s true. Students born in the late 1980s and early 1990s–as all of the shanghai fire victims were–are used to having running, and yes, even hot water available to them at all hours of the day and night. They are used to having a bunch of appliances, be it computers or otherwise, always an arm’s width away. The poster of the above comment argues that simply banning and fining people for having such appliances doesn’t get at the root of the issue. What is being argued for, then, is an investment in safety education, facilities–that is, bringing student dorms into the modern era, equipping them so that these types of incidents won’t happen again.

Get your ponce on: Kee Club, Shanghai

I　hadn’t heard of this place until C. made it the point of a late night treasure hunt. We managed to find it, and wow–never seen a place like that in Shanghai. It’s really like stepping into another world, especially since the place is located right off of Huai Hai Lu. You’re in this stately and massive mansion with long columns. There’s a nicely tapered lawn out front, and a warmly lit den–I mean den in the sense of ageless couches, cognac, the company of your best friends, an unfinished and unharried game of chess lying on the table, a fireplace, a German sheperd lying at your feet, some Greek classics and Roman histories on the bookshelves. The fuckin Chivas life. The fact that the glass was frosted lent to the air of mystery and exclusivity.
Upstairs, there was a lounge, which was quite nice as well. YOu can go up the elevators or the winding stairs, stained glass and eclectic paintings surrounding you. The lounge itself reminds one of those Harvard-type alumni clubs in New York, where, since everyone belongs to the same elite club, only the slightest of nods and smiles from across the room is enough to acknowledge another “member”.

The problem, if you want to call it that is that the place is exclusive and therefore attracts some rich and poncey fucks, in which case it’s neither a world that I can or want to belong in. So perhaps my first night there will be my last as well. It was worth it though–it’s rare these days to see anything that can even remotely give my tired visual neurons a kick in the pants, and that place was it. Thank god we never bought drinks. Seeing the bill afterwards would have no doubt soured the rest of the evening.

Drunken phrasings

there is an insidious loneliness
that razes
things
it goes about its business
with a grin
like someone that knows
that everything can be swept–perfectly–under the carpet.

i cannot stay at gigs too long.
because their creativity unnerves me
makes me wonder where mine goes .
Surely no need for insecurity–we all have our own voices.
we all speak to different needs.
we all cater to different markets.
I long to be able to sweat under the irrationality of the spotlight.

There are some people that can plummet headlong into the days
whereas those like me
are always trying to slam on the brakes.
I imagine a life like that. I imagine a mode of life like that.
And after all these years, after the whole of my adult life so far.
I might be willing, after all, to admit that it was a mistake.
It’s not amazing that illusions exist, when reality is so patently obvious.
What is amazing is how far illusions can take you.

You can give up the love of the best of women
for that illusion.
Even as the antinomies take you to your grave
you believe in that illusion. You maximize.
You console yourself. You cajole yourself.
There is, after all, something better. Someone better.
Just wait and see. There is no greater faith, not even the faith
in God.

Foreign Policy/AT Kearney 2008 Global cities index: where do Chinese cities stand?

This recently published ranking is supposedly measures overall globalization, taken as some kind of composite of business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement. New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong were the top 5. Beijing made it at #12, and Shanghai at #20.

Shanghai’s highest ranked aspect was business activity, at #8， while in the other aspects it didn’t too well, which, at least by their standards, makes sense: Shanghai has attracted a certain creative class to it, both local and foreign, but it’s not like they really wield that much influence. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good creatives here, meaning painters and poets, ad industry people, filmmakers, musicians, etc. etc. but maybe in terms of GDP they aren’t amounting to much yet at least compared to New York, London, Chicago, LA, etc. Cultural experience has improved, with more festivals and biennales and international galleries opening up branches here. Rock stars don’t think it’s altogether that strange to insert a Shanghai or Beijing dates into their concert tours. But as far as cultural experience and political engagement, Shanghai is not going to do that well, for one, Beijing is going to wield more political clout for obvious reasons.

The next few pages present some different groupings. Open cities have a free press, open markets, easy access to info and tech, cultural opportunities: and of course you get NY, London, and Paris at the top there.

Lifestyle centers: where you enjoy life: Toronto and LA. As mentioned before, in terms of best cities to do business, Shanghai ranks 8th and Beijing 9th. A shout out to my bruthas in Taipei–you made it in the top 20 (#19). You guys could learn a thing or two from the communists about how to do business. Technorati Tags: london, beijing, politics, lifestyle, culture, business

Stuff about Shanghai cop killer Yang Jia （杨佳）

Some interesting statements during the court proceedings:

　杨佳当庭直言：我是无罪的，是他们违法，有罪的是他们。（指警察，发人深思啊）
[Yang Jia: I am innocent, is they who are guilty of breaking the law.]

　法官问：你有什么补充意见？杨佳说：“这些警察之所以敢这样，都是因为他们的背后有你们”。
[Judge asks: do you have any thing to add to your statement? Yang Jia: "the reason the police dare to act the way they do is because
you guys stand behind them."]

　法庭最后陈述，杨佳说：“被这样的警察管理着的国家，一个遵纪守法二十几年的公民最后都会被判刑坐牢。” （说出了绝大多数民众的心里话）

杨佳最著名语录：你不给我一个说法，我就给你一个说法。

[Closing statement. Yang Jia says: "a country run by policemen such as this will force someone who has been law-abiding for twenty some years to end up going to jail." The blogger says: (these are the true feelings of the overwhelming majority of people).

Yang Jia's most famous quote: If you don't give me an explanation, I will give you one.]

Elsewhere, citizen blogger and journalist Zola reposts a general letter calling for amnesty for Yang. The letter states a few reasons for this, beginning with some general reasons (the world is generally moving away from capital punishment, even some war criminals were pardoned in China) and then moving to some specific issues relating to how the case was handled (judicial mishandling, interference). Zola states what most others have said about this case: that the tragedy of Yang is that he was an ordinary fellow that was driven to homicidal rage by the pigs. Left with no legal recourse, stymied by a system that was patently designed to thwart demands like his, he had no other choice but to exact his revenge in blood. This open letter was signed by the following people:

中华人民共和国公民：（按签名顺序排，第一批签名人员名单）

艾未未（北京艺术家）、茅于轼（北京经济学家）、杜光（北京离休人员）、于浩成（北京法学家）、戴晴（北京学者）、张祖桦（北京学者）、王俊秀（北京学者）、古川（北京编辑）、陈永苗（北京律师）、李苏滨（北京律师）、江天勇（北京律师）、黎雄兵（北京律师）、唐吉田（北京律师）、杨凤春（北京学者）、王治晶（北京自由撰稿人）、夏业良（北京学者）、冉云飞（四川编辑）、廖亦武（四川作家）、张博树（北京法学家）、萧默（北京学者）、刘序盾（北京学者）、李智英（北京学者）、李槟（南京教师）、孙岩力（北京教师）、王卫星（北京记者）、谭洪安（北京编辑）、于赤阳（黑龙江公民）、张辉（山西民主人士）、贾瑞明（河北农民）、谢军（深圳设计）、王靖禹（旅英学者）、华乔（上海摄影师）、释妙觉慈智（广东法师）、林树坤（瑞士出版人）、范冲（北京学生）、张志强（北京打工之友）、李勉之（深圳工程师）、曹王澜（广东民工）、张赞宁（江苏教师)、龚光云(广东学者)、郭玉闪（北京学者）、周曙光（楚国人）、淮生（北京自由职业者）、马萧（北京记者）

2008年10月20日

YOu can see that Ai Weiwei (Mr. I hate my bird nest and the fake Olympics) among many other scholars, writers, and intellectuals from around the country. There was only one person from Shanghai that signed it, and that was photographer Hua Qiao.

The story has gathered some steam and AFP and a bunch of other western media sources are running this story, noting that there were protests in Shanghai outside the courtroom where Yang’s trial was held:

Huang Xuemin, a grey-haired protester, complained police beat her when she tried to enter the court premises.

“You see how police were treating us, and you could imagine how badly Yang Jia must be treated,” she said, showing the assembled crowd scratches on her forearms that she said were from her scuffle with police.

Obviously, this is only the tip of the iceberg, and there are vast amounts of debates going on online … personally, I just want to know the truth about what happened to the guy. I want there to be an investigation into whether or not he was mistreated by the police. I think that’s what most of his supporters want. As to whether or not he should die–well, he did kill a lot of people, and I don’t think there is any justification even if you were insulted or beaten or otherwise felt your dignity to have suffered as a results of other people’s actions. That said, I am *almost* categorically against the death penalty, because I feel uneasy with the idea of the state arrogating to itself to mete out this kind of brutal punishment.

Oh well. Yang Jia will face the firing squad, a dead chicken for all the rebellious monkeys lurking in the underbelly of Chinese society. And for those that support or otherwise sympathize for Yang, that will just prove what they’ve been saying all along.

Technorati Tags: yang jia, 杨佳, crime, shanghai, murder, police, expression china, chinese, media, newspaper, reporters, journalist, government, corruption

It gets cold here in late September

“It gets cold here in late September”—I dont remember the rest of the song anymore. It was the autumn of 1999, probably around late September or early October. The place: the main cafeteria at the University of Washington, Seattle. I had just moved there to start graduate school in applied mathematics. I was quite happy to be in the coffee capital of the US, where everyday was a battle to see if you could restrain yourself from spending too much on coffee. The cafeteria had musicians come in and play. I remember this woman’s voice, though I have long forgotten her face. “It gets cold here in late September” was the refrain, and for a reason unknown to me it has stuck in my mind for the last nine years. It’s the way that it was sung–the fragility of a girl folkie’s voice–that somehow mesmerizes you. Obviously there was more than just metereological iufnromation being conveyed: it is the sense of passing, the sense of the seasons changing. The poignancy is in the way that it’s stated, so simply, almost obliquely, like a passing remark, said by a woman standing by an open window, pulling a sweater out of her closet and onto her body. That summer, I had taken an extension class in songwriting. From then until now, I’ve written many songs, but none of have been like that song. They are sometimes plaintive, but much more heart on your sleeve. “It gets cold here in late September”, on the other hand, is so much more rich than the lyrics that I have written. Somehow, for me at least, it just captures and explains much more about life than anything that I’ve ever written.

Shanghai man leaves his mentally disabled wife on the side of the road

Where she got into an traffic accident and was killed.

Li Jun and his wife Zhao Xue were married nine years ago. He knew that she had a history of mental illness but they decided to get married anyway.

Later on, she became too unstable. When she got pregnant, he had her committed to an institution so that she wouldn’t do harm to their child. A few years pass and Li Jun still doesn’t have the means (economic or otherwise) to deal with her and so places her in a “pig cage” and feeds her a couple of times a day.

He meets another woman: they fall in love and he wants to divorce his wife to be with the new woman. The trouble is that you’ve got a person suffering from mental illness, you need to get their legally appointed representative to make that decision and sign that paper — in this case, his wife’s little sister. However the little sister had always been recalcitrant in this manner and even pretended to “disappear” so that Li Jun wouldn’t be able to find her. At wit’s end, Li decided, along with his father, to leave his wife by the side of the road. He put the little sister’s number on a piece of paper hung around his wife’s neck. He told her was going to buy something to eat and then left.

After a few days, they started getting nervous: no word of Zhao Xue, no calls from Zhao’s sister. Finally they contacted the police, filed a missing persons, and learned that on the very day he left his wife, that there was a traffic accident. A woman was killed and her body had not been identified. Father and son Li confessed to the crime, which in China lessens the sentence. They may just do one year in jail for their crime.
How much time they might do in hell for their sins is another matter.

mental, disease, illness, crime, death, traffic, shanghai

RedBox Art Guide for Shanghai and other cities: a pocket guide for the arty

I was at the Ke Center about a week ago for the opening of their new exhibit, and met the lovely Kat(therine) Don, director of RedBox Studio, who do graphic design and are also involved in the contemporary art scene in China. They made a bunch of these little colorful pocket-sized guides as a bit of a pet project. As you can see from some of the pictures above, the little foldable thing has a map on one side, addresses of some major art venues and galleries in the city, as well as some local and international events. It’s probably a bit more small and handy than having a magazine or guidebook, and perhaps more convenient than common digital forms of information, ie phones (Guanxi, smartphones), especially if you are an out of towner…and just want a simple thing you can slip into a pocket or purse.

I don’t mean to do promo for them. Just something that I noticed and thought was nifty.

art, redbox, guide, information, contemporary, shanghai, beijing, hongkong, scene, musuem, galleries, artists

I’ve got the munchies for Munchies

coney island hot dog from Munchies

I’d heard of this place from various people, not least from that famed purveyor of low-budget gastronomy Eric Hu and decided to give it a try last night. I ordered their Coney Island hot dog which you see above. In some sense, I don’t know why I am writing about it, there isn’t much art to the art of the hot dog. Slap it together, make it messy, make it good. They do that. It’s dead simple but it works. The pricing? Well, a bit much for something that simple, but what the hey, people get cravings and will go to any lengths to satisfy them. For me, it’s close to home so that means faster than average delivery times as well as the option of eating there when I want to go somewhere close.