dies und jenes
I was on a rescue mission sunday morning and boy I was lucky…I recovered my lost snow shoe just below the peak. Luckily there wasn‘t too much snow on it so we could see it.
The weather was perfect too so basically a great day.
lucky me with the missing snow shoe
Another day, another video this time a turbo version of a ping pong match in our atelier. I even won the game!
Another great Christmas present that I got in 2009 was a pair of snow shoes which came to use for the first time this morning. We managed to get up very early and head for the ‚Rittner Horn‘, an about 2200m high peak just outside of Bolzano. While it was raining in the city at the time we left it was snowing pretty much all the way up. Being so early we were really the first ones to reach the peak by foot to then see a great winter panorama of the Dolomites. The ride down was not the best powder ride I had but it was still fun except to the point when we realized that I had lost one of my snow shoes that were attached to my backpack. Well I went up again and tried to find it which was useless at this point since the clouds had conquered the mountain. I didn‘t see a difference between the ground and the sky and kept falling which eventually led to strong cursing and last but not least I wasn‘t successful in my search either. Up to this point it was a lot of fun and I‘ll probably have to walk up there again tomorrow and restart my search (Max will borrow me his snow shoes..I sure hope I don‘t lose one again 
).
I was watching the new animation movie Avatar yesterday, unfortunately not the 3D version of it, and while I was watching it I had a question in mind that I discussed with my brother earlier today.
The question is simply ‚Can birds fly loops?‘
My brother and I came to the conclusion that physically they should be able because their weight-wing-size-ratio is pretty good as opposed to planes which are not always able to fly loops (just check the Microsoft Flight Simulator and you‘ll notice how hard it will be to loop a Boing 787 and similar). But unfortunately this is not the answer because the wings of birds are very different to those of planes. The wing of a bird is creating the upward as well as the forward force to get up in the air. Planes have turbines or propellers to do so and have the wings fixed to the body without the ability to move (except maybe some early versions of planes which weren‘t very successful).
Max suggested to ask the internet – WolframAlpha – to get an answer but it didn‘t work either. Google was the only site that linked to possible answers so I found out that the hummingbird can fly upside down for a short time, no loops though.
One guy wrote a very nice answer:
I do not have a definitive answer to your question, but the following story suggests they can not. After all, birds fly for a living, not for fun, and the ability to loop probably would not help them find their next meal.
Well who says that birds have no fun when flying? Maybe they haven‘t realized that they should try flying loops.
Partly Cloudy from Dan Graham on Vimeo.
So yes this is 2010 and I‘m still eager to write here. 2010 – a new year and a new decade. Last year has been extremely ‚rich‘ on new experiences and of course it simply keeps going. If nothing goes wrong I‘ll graduate this summer to see myself once again in the state of decision-making for the ‚what’s next‘ question. Obviously I don‘t know what will be but since it has always worked out so far I‘m not too concerned, yet. But let’s switch back to 2009 once again. Christmas was just a few days ago and I got a really nice present from my brother. It’s a comic book titled ‚Shenzhen‘ and was drawn by ‚Guy Delisle‘ a Canadian Comic Artist who spent 3 months in Shenzhen. Despite the very nice drawing style that I really enjoyed reading I found myself in his stories having experienced very similar situations. As I wrote several times before (I believe it was ’several‘ at least) I‘m not unhappy that I went but the more I think about it and the more time passes I realize that it was a very interesting and extremely helpful time but certainly not the happiest time in my life (except maybe some trips in between ). Right at the beginning Delisle writes „I kept realizing that it will be a very lonely time here.“ which is luckily not what I can share with him but I understand what he means. The Chinese culture – to me at least – is simply too different and even confusing that I would not consider spending a long amount of time in the country.
The book is a very nice description of a city that is simply absurd to westerners.
Last but not least two rather general examples of the book that anyone traveling in China will probably already notice:
in the elevator
a very common scene in any public space since Chinese are literally addicted to Mobile Phones
(top-bottom – left-right): ‚I‘m once again in China, this time in the South‘ – ‚Last time I spent in Nanking.‘ – ‚I had forgotten all about the smells, the noise, the many people, the dirt, the monotony.‘ – ‚I realized that only the good sides remained in my memories…the exotic…‘ – ‚Time blurs out bad memories, the impressions remain naively positive.‘
another day another quote, this time from Paul Theroux:
Traveling is a process of disappearing
a lonely road
on a thin geographical line,
that leads into oblivion.
I read a very nice quote today from German graphic designer and typographer Erik Spiekermann:
„I cross the road when the traffic light is red even when children are present. Simply because kids need to learn that red doesn‘t mean anything. They need to check for cars and not just walk when the light is green. I could also simply write ‚rain is prohibited‘ because I want sunlight. Nobody will care about that.“
one of my favorite signs in Turkey/Istanbul…
The translation would be:
‚Danger! There is dog.
No wonder the Turkish have trouble with other languages… 
My strange life ‚in between‘ surprisingly left enough time to sort through photos a little bit so here is the first part of my ‚final trip‘ across China.
We started in Beijing, went south-west to Xi‘an, down all the way to Kunming in Yunnan Province (close to Vietnam and Tibet) and back to Shenzhen to leave the country for a few last days in Hong Kong before heading back to Europe. With a 36 hour train ride from Xi‘an to Kunming you can get an idea of how huge the country really is and how closely inhabited. I think the first time we saw some uninhabited nature – or maybe only with a few farmer houses – was in the southern part of Sichuan Province close to Yunnan already. Before that the sight was highly concentrated on industrial sites (sometimes more or less disturbing).
dragon ’tile‘ artwork in the Forbidden City
red (lantern) decoration for the 60th birthday
chinese mythical creature in the Forbidden City
the military parade was presented on screens anywhere in town (public places, sights, metro, etc.) so people who missed it could still watch it – here near the Olympic Stadium
guard in front of the Olympic Stadium (‚Birds Nest‘)
Tian‘anmen Square at night with HUGE screens showing the military parade…
…and thousands of proud Chinese photographing each other in front of everything – some more, some less excited
I was almost amazed to get a photo with no people that night – and the bike really has a strong symbolic value as well 
My second time on the Great Wall, again in Jinshanling but this time in autumn cloud
I like the ‚office‘ translation on this rusty sign – I wish the manager would have been there to talk to a little
Forbidden City
The Star Ferry is one of the many means to cross the waters dividing Hong Kong. It was founded in 1888 and is since then been extended several times but the boats remained as one of the historical artefacts in this else extremely modern town.
I just like the animation that’s why it’s on here .
I came back to Europe last week after another wonderful trip across China – this time even more ambitious than before crossing almost all the way from the north to the south by train, etc. I will certainly post some more photos in the next days/weeks until I will put this blog into a ‚pause-mode‘. It’s been fun to write and post photos, etc. during the last year also because I was on the road quite some time. Now that I have to settle down (at least for about one year) and eventually finish my studies I‘m sure there is much else to do and prepare for. So thanks to everyone who stopped by to see and read what I had to tell and for the very positive feedback I received (including my little counter which revealed a very suprising ~2300 people visiting this blog since I left Europe in May…ok my advertising wasn‘t the worst either ).
For now I thought I should post some photos of people since China is called the ‚People’s Republic‘ and I would say they absolutely deserve this title just in terms of numbers .
shortly after the 60th birthday on Tian‘anmen Square
Chinese at what they like most…
farmer woman in Dalì (Yunnan Province)
Xi‘an has a ‚Muslim Quarter‘ where you can find the most delicious culinary treats
on the train from Xi‘an to Kunming (36h) on hard seats – definitely the worker class train travel
old man with a chinese kite in downtown Kunming
farmer washing up spring onions in an irrigation channel in Dalì
CCTTV – Chinese Culture Traditional Transport Vehicle aka rickshaw / bicycle / tricycle
apparently a portrait of the Chinese teacher of the last emperor (seen in the Forbidden City in Beijing) – to me it looks like a portrait of a well-fed Brad Pitt
Can you see the opening in the pants? In China diapers just slowly become common. Parents instead cut in these openings and children just do what they have to do wherever they need to – be it just on the street or a supermarket.
a very proud lady in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace
and some more extremely proud people in front of the Mao Zedong portrait
While the People’s Republic celebrated its 60th birthday, the tanks were rolling and the women soldier in their tight dresses marching along I could finally experience the ‚China‘ that my ‚Guidebook to China‘ (I had bought the book before I came here to arrive not entirely stupid) talks about. Mark and I had met Lee Ming in Yangshuo 
while were lost somewhere in the rice fields riding our bicycles. So we ended up spending our time with him.
Since the government decided to have one week of National Holiday, which ended my work already last week, I sent him an e-Mail asking what he would be doing these days. So after he came to Shenzhen for two days he invited me to Humen, his hometown, to celebrate ‚Mid-Autumn‘ (the second most important festival in China) with him and his family. In between unbelievably delicious meals (which I would say were definitely the ‚centerpiece‘ of the whole stay ) I had the great chance to get to know his family and friends and to see where he lives. And really everyone who could speak just a little English tried to talk with me which was the first time to see here in China. My colleagues in the office never tried this hard.
Now I definitely have to reconsider my image of China and leave out the numerous rather negative experiences I had in the city of Shenzhen.
Humen bridge is connecting the city with Guangzhou across the Pearl river
friends and family altogether after the Mid-Autumn dinner
Mid-Autumn is also the day to fly ‚Wishing Lights‘ which we of course had to do as well
Lee Ming is an English teacher (just started this year) in a small Elementary School. He told his students of my stay and invited them to come and meet me. Unfortunately his message was misunderstood so only one girl appeared who was very nervous and too shy to ask me something in English (although Lee Ming told me that she is the best student in the class)…which is of course a normal thing if you‘re suddenly around a tall, blonde, strange-looking foreigner like me …
She was very sweet though and kept asking questions through Lee Ming. The best question was for sure ‚How can I become as tall as you?‘ That made me smile…
Humen was the key city for the first Opium War so you have memorials and Museums all around town praising the glorious victory against the British as well as Lin Zexu the Qing official who initiated the conflict.
Himmelweit is an exhibition project covering the ‚peaceful revolution‘ in Europe in 1989 starting next friday, October 2nd. Since my brother is actively taking part he introduced me to the group in Dresden that will have an exhibition titled brüche – Dresden | 1989 | Dresden. I was invited to design the invitation cards for them. The images result from two of the exhibition topics. See the second card here
I‘ll take good photos once I get a print version of it.
*UPDATE: click HERE to read an (German) article and see photos of the exhibition*
I haven‘t actually written anything about Shanghai which I will in the next days. For now just a few more photos that I like.
It’s not a lie either, Chinese really can sleep anywhere and I‘m impressed about that…
the Shanghai Tourism Festival started on that weekend so they decorated many parts of the city center with bright colors
don‘t know what this shop is about but I like the photo for some reason…I know it doesn‘t seem to be too exciting
another ‚non-exciting‘ photo that I like a lot, I don‘t know the name of the building though
China Daily, an english newspaper about China, published a very interesting article about two weeks ago. The author was commenting on Chinas recent step to ‚vitalizing the cultural industries‘. His main concern was of course the word ‚industry‘. China has shown that it is able to provide the world with manufactured goods. Shenzhen is once again a great example for this. It became rich due to the manufacturing industries that are set up all around town. But what does culture have to do with ‚industry‘?
[…] Culture in its broadest sense is the way we conduct our daily lives. […] Yes, our food is unique, and we all use chopsticks instead of forks and knives. Foreigners around the world are crazy about Chinese food, and there are Chinese restaurants everywhere you go. That is about it. […] At the moment there are probably more Chinese elements preserved in Korean and Japanese culture.
Coming back to the company I work at once again. You can basically see this here. Their ‚design‘ thinking is based on ’styles‘, ‚Western style‘ – ‚Chinese style‘ – ‚American style‘ – etc. They keep pretending that they maintain their ‚cultural identity‘ by simply adding a handful of elements found in Chinese architecture (in the few temples and palaces that survived) and copy the rest together from design books or the internet.
I assume the main problem is not that they wouldn‘t be able to do it different but it has proven to work very well for them. Customers ask for this kind of work and since they are the ones with the money a design office just like ours provides it. And I suppose once this cycle is running it’s hard to step forward and change the whole idea of ‚design‘.
When I realized this very early in the internship and talked with my flatmate and colleague about it we thought that maybe we can somehow show them different and make them question their ’style of work‘. Of course this was absolutely naive and turned out to be completely stupid since money controls the business. It seems that you cannot survive in China if you don‘t adapt to this. And what is even more frustrating is when your hear from the boss (behind your back never direct!) that he thinks you‘re just a beginner and have no experience and idea about design. Well yes to some degree that is true. My boss studied industrial design in Berlin though so he has seen and learned a different way. I assume that this should make a difference but I guess I‘m wrong once again. As I wrote before ‚Shenzhen is all about making money…and it better be as fast as possible!‘.
Johanna was once asked by a Chinese colleague if she could help to find an ‚African style‘ dentist clinic
Last night after a shopping day (oh boy how I like being in these crazy shopping centres) I came by one of the restaurants in front of our house and saw something very interesting. It might seem disgusting to you and I think the sight is rather unusual, that’s for sure. But still THIS is part of the ‚chinese culture‘ that my boss keeps telling me about after he just copied another hotel interior. I forgot to take my little digital camera but had the newly purchased cell phone for my dad with me so I pulled it out and took those shots. Not the best quality (I actually don‘t want to post the ‚best‘ photo since it really is critical ) but you can see the dog. The funny thing about it was that the owner of the restaurant came out and started talking to my colleague and asking whether I was an animal rights activist and would make him any trouble. He told him that I‘m from Germany and I‘m certainly not photographing it to make any problems. It was the first time I see this ‚live‘ so I wanted to take a picture. He smiled again and offered to take as many photos as I wanted
And now I can finally say, Yes in China they eat dogs!
strangely ‚delicious‘?!
I just happen to become witness of a very disturbing incidence taking place in front of my window at office. I honestly have to say that I shouldn‘t have taken photos but I think this story tells a lot about this city. On the building that is situated in front of my office tower a lady tried to jump off the roof.
I assume that a lot of people already realized – if I haven‘t told them personally – that I don‘t like the city of Shenzhen. I tended to think that it counts for China in general but this is simply wrong as I realized again in Shanghai last weekend. My colleague told me many times already that ‚Shenzhen is all about money.‘ And it is true it was never really intended for anything else. The city exists and grew because the government decided to set up a ‚Special Economic Zone‘ nearest to Hong Kong. So most people who live here decided to leave their home towns to earn money in Shenzhen.
I don‘t have any proof and I‘m most certain that the government will not reveal any statistics about suicide numbers here but I heard that it is many times higher than in most other cities in China. And I would say that this makes sense. Once they come here and work at whatever job they get – be it a cleaning lady, a construction worker, security guard, etc. – they realise that life is not all about money and having a prosperous future. I can even see that here in the office. A lot of people are not only quitting because they are unhappy about the work atmosphere but because they also have a feeling of ‚homesickness‘. Many workers left behind their family, sometimes wife and children, and came here for work.
I certainly hope that this will change in the future and the city – be it ugly or not – becomes a ‚real‘ city and not a comglomerate of people desperately trying to find their luck and wealth which it is today…
at first I only saw the police officers and firefighters on the roof…
..until the big fire trucks arrived (see the red dot on the tip of the building, that’s the woman)
I‘m following it since 10 in the morning (it’s just after 4 in the afternoon now), luckily she hasn‘t jumped.. although she was really close a couple of times
in front of the building they put up an air pillow and secured the area with police and soldiers
*Just when I finished writing this entry I saw a man sitting right next to her so I believe the situation is safe now.
I found this logo sketch a while ago in the portfolio of icelandic graphic designer Siggi Eggertsson. I really don‘t know whether the logo serves any purpose but of course I liked it .
Eggertsson writes about his logos:
Some of them are done in collaboration, some are for personal projects, some of them were not used and some of them have never been seen before. I quite enjoy making logos and identities.
I took this photo friday early morning near Nanjing Road, the main pedestrian and shopping street in Shanghai. It’s somehow funny yet sad that this homeless is sleeping in front of this luxury boutique window with the name ‚[…] Marx‘.
I just remembered something else of Beijing. We met Lulu, the cousin of a former intern here in Shenzhen who showed us around town one day. When we left her and spoke the usual invitation to Germany she said
‚I would like to see Germany, it’s the birthplace of [Karl] Marx.‘ .
Thank you China!
I like ‚em black & white…more infos to follow.
ok no b/w I had to add this in color – one of the many construction site signs found anywhere across town
kid on the campus of Tongji University
early morning dance session in front of the Shopping malls on Nanjing Road (close to People’s Sq.)
regular Shanghai scenery
Qibao old village far outside of the town centre is one of the main attractions for Chinese – with the usual ‚traditional souvenir shops‘
you couldn‘t simply walk when a car was coming, street guards were always checking that you crossed the road only on green light
the Mao statue in front of Tongji Campus library – one of 4 (at universities) with the arm lifted
saturday afternoon walk around the block…
Google translator or political statement? – found on a big information screen
people playing games in one of the ‚parks‘ (small concrete areas between the street canyons) – mainly also for money
one of the cyclo-people offering his services – from relocation to carpentry – oh these multi-talented chinese
kid playing near the car repair shops – reminds me a lot of my walk to Dolapdere Campus in Istanbul
‚trash collectors‘ sorting bottles – for each bottle they get about 2-3 cents
Last week I could enjoy the great pleasure of finally going to a ‚chinese style‘ club here in Shenzhen. It was one of Johannas last evenings so we decided to go to a place called ‚Lili Marleen‘. It’s a huge building full of blue neon signs that you can see from anywhere and I think already this would normally make me consider not to enter this place. In front of it two security guards in Army uniforms with helmets were checking who got in. The inside was somehow funny. They really put a lot of effort in the decoration – the side walls were full of LCD screens showing graphics but the rest of the place was decorated in a ‚wild west style‘ rather being rustic than modern. There was no dance floor so you had to dance around your table which was always the ‚home base‘ of a group since drinks were mainly served in bottles (and I don‘t mean only the beer). The music was in my opinion really crappy and consisted mainly of R‘n'B and black music which is absolutely not my taste of music but they had a really lovely addition to that. Around the room they had placed several small platforms where people could dance on or, and that was the interesting part, where live ‚Karaoke-style‘ singers could perform their show. The music performed by the singers was a wild mix of R‘n'B and Chinese-Cheesy-Pop which made the Chinese go completely crazy.
At one point a guy in a Spiderman costume showed up behind the bar and started a short barkeeping-juggling performance. The music then was some really nice breakbeat (the best music played this evening in my opinion) but of course people were too focused on Spiderman and didn‘t dance to it.
I simply started drinking overpriced Heineken and surely got in the mood to dance as well. So in the end people started inviting me for drinks were dancing with me or screaming a drunk but nonetheless heartily ‚Welcome to China!‘ in my ear.
And in between all this chaos the regular cleaning ladies in their work dress armed with shovel and broom were constantly walking around you and picking up anything that was on the floor. What a strange image…
if god is a DJ then Spiderman is the barkeeper…
short recording of one of the many ‚Karaoke-style‘ live performances
I mentioned Guangzhou before but haven‘t posted any photos yet. So here we go…even though I can once again say that I wasn‘t extremely impressed.
simply perfect living…
the train station is not particularly nice but it’s really interesting to see how many people and how they are traveling
This last sentence is simply great. I mean the Orchid Garden was truly an oasis in the middle of the city but this is once again an exaggeration ‚chinese style‘
fishes shouldn‘t be missing in a Chinese Garden for the ‚good luck‘ and such
now this is by far the most elegant inscription I have seen, I think the Chinese letters look so much better…
…than the latin one…sorry Cathy & Vince but this is ugly.
lovely tea house next to the fish pond inside the ‚Orchid Garden‘
chinese porcelain painting is very beautiful
Boredom seems to become my main concern at work. I have to admit I don‘t force them to give me a new task but it seems to me that I‘ve done my job for them anyway. Since it’s an interior design office graphic works are more rare than recent. But of course I can keep myself busy with own works that I postponed before. While I was doing one of these works I was searching my personal photo archive for material I could use for some graphics and found the photo below (same happened to the page ’scan‘ in the post before). I took it on a university excursion in 2008 to Munich at the ‚Deutsches Museum‘ (German Museum). Well as pretty much always I didn‘t write down anything about this sign so I really don‘t know when it was made. The sign basically says:
For public health reason it is requested to stop spitting in the train station building, the platforms and on the trains.
I think it is interesting that some years ago they also had to put up signs to ban spitting in Germany/Europe. In China it is nearly impossible to do so since the act of spitting is yet another cultural relic. Spitting is considered an act of cleaning from the inside that keeps away misfortune and promotes health. It is not simply called ’saliva‘ but rather ‚Jade juice‘ or ‚Gold drops‘. Spitting is very common here and probably counts as one of the most obvious differences to our western world. But what sounds rather disgusting to me is as normal as brushing teeth to the Chinese. You adapt to the sound of it after a while but what really frightens me is actually the ’swine flu‘. It’s not that I‘m afraid of catching it myself and if so to have trouble with it but the biggest concern is the speed it can spread here in China through spitting. I guess it won‘t be a problem here in the south but in the north it could become a big issue…
I mentioned it at some point and found it again ‚by accident‘ yesterday. I copied a page from a book about pornography/prostitution (I forgot to write down the title of it though) at an exhibition in Vienna. The article I was reading was comparing the ‚value‘ of pornography between the West and other parts of the world. When it came to Iran I was surprised to read the text below. This is by far the most absurd idea of prostitution…considering prostitution already absurd.
In Iran in contrast the mullahs saw a need to approve ‚temporary weddings‘ that can be arranged – for a certain fee – in buildings made for this purpose that we in the corrupt old West would simply call ‚brothels‘. It is impossible to estimate a percentage of women, who work in these dirty places – not counting the ‚temporary husbands – that get infected by genital diseases such as HIV. If one is pretending that a problem doesn‘t exist, it can certainly not be solved.
If western pornography is a symbol of western decadence then eastern pornography is a concomitant phenomenon of eastern repression. Pornography is mainly the result – or the dramatic indication – of a non-pornographic social defect. It is almost never the cause.
(sorry for any mistakes in the translation)
every 7th human on this planet is a Chinese farmer (women & men)
I wonder what the percentage would be together with India
I‘m finally adapting to the controversy of this country. I just picked up a custom-tailored woolen coat that I ordered about one week ago and they did a really good job, too…So I‘d better be cranking up my A/C tonight to get the right feeling…uuuhhh yeah…. 
We went to Guangzhou [goo ang joe] for one day since it is only about 1 1/2 hours by train from Shenzhen. It wasn‘t much impressive in my opinion despite some parts appearing quite lovely. We soon found out though that the buildings in this part of town were ‚left-over‘ from the British Colonial time. Maybe I haven‘t caught the ’spirit of the city‘ in such a short time but the air was smoggy and most of what you see is very similar to other chinese cities in this size. At least they have some historial places spread around town including several temples, a Mausoleum, etc. compared to Shenzhen which has about..well..maybe none.
But Guangzhou wasn‘t the main reason to write about today. On the train back to Shenzhen I was listening to some recordings I had made with my little MP3 player during the last maybe 1 year. First of all I was quite impressed about the quality of most of the recordings. But secondly I had great fun remembering the situation I recorded a clip. As I usually take many photos and keep filling up my hard drives with incredible amounts of photos since the digital technology reached me this ’sound travel‘ somehow surprised me today. Also because I know that I wasn‘t realizing this back then. And third I just like the way you have the little noises and then people talking – especially in the second clip with the music.
I recorded this while waiting in line to get some information about a train ticket from Belgrade further on. An old man was in front of me and it must have taken him about 10 min. to find out everything he needed. This was – surprisingly – the most clear recording I had.
Before I took the bus to Vienna from Belgrade I was in a small cafe and tried to kill time. I can remember that I sat there for quite some time and at some point they started playing the ‚Modern Talking‘ album with ‚Brother Louie‘ coming up – in terms of music the 80s and 90s have really never left the Balkans.
A while back I discovered an entry in my notebook from the same cafe – I suppose same day then – where I wrote down about the menu of this place. They offered „Mafin & Braoni“… Chris suggested that we should start a fashion label with this name after I told him about it
One of my colleagues asked me to help her with a presentation the other day. In particular she asked me to draw in the walkways and signage on an interior design plan that showed a ‚leisure centre‘ with a huge greenhouse including restaurants and an immense park area and a massage & spa centre at the other end. At one point I had to draw the emergency access ways for fire service and such. The area is basically just a huge square so the emergency ways are simply placed around the buildings. I happened to come across a small pond though. So I asked her if I should draw in something like a detour which she declined. She insisted on leaving it this way and instead told me „make green!“ pointing on the area and trying to explain me that I should use Photoshop to change it the way we need it….simply extending the grass area a little bit and cutting off the water.
Since this was just a map for signage, entries, etc. and not the final construction map I can just imagine what will happen in case of a fire in one of the buildings. Well the fire fighters will stand right in front of this pond then…luckily enough it wasn‘t a brick wall and water is always useful in such cases.
Sometimes I really think we are a little ‚uptight‘ and ‚overprotective‘ in Europe. Anything will work and China is showing us how
I was doing some research for my last trip across China before I fly back to Europe in October. I immediately realized that the country is too big and there is way too much to see and do. One part that I was considering a lot was the ‚Yangtze Cruise‘ from the city of Chongqing downstream to the highly critisized ‚Three Gorges Dam‘. The Dam was finished earlier this year and an area up to 175 m high has been flooded sucking up the former living space of around 2 million people. Nobody really recommended the cruise since the landscape and the sights have been thoroughly damaged.
At one point I came across an article about the documentary ‚Up the Yangtze‘ that is set around the famous cruise. It is fairly depressing but basically shows what I had read before. Below is the trailer but if you can get your hands on a copy of the movie I can strongly recommend watching it.
[I know I shouldn‘t write this but I saw that you can watch the movie split up in several parts on Youtube (I couldn‘t check though whether it worked or not)]
I would like to add two articles that I found concerning the ’smarter, more gracious and more high-class‘ residential space of China [see below].
The first one comes from the british Guardian and talks about Prince Charles‘ effort to preserve the traditional ‚Hutong‘ residential areas in Beijing.
More than two thirds of the courtyard houses that existed in 1949 have been demolished leaving 1,000 today, according to the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Centre.
Guardian: „Charles takes on China to save Ming dynasty houses from Beijing’s concrete carbuncles“
The second one talks about the same problem going a little more into detail and comes from the website ‚Architectural Record‘
The Death and Life of Old Beijing
we took a rikshaw tour in one of the rather central Hutongs that have been preserved for touristic reasons
I have two last quotes for today.
Confucius said:
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is easiest;
and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
The second quote comes from an architecture book that we looked through today with the title ‚Chinese Style Houses‘. At one point we really had to smile because the author wrote the following:
The Chinese traditional space is the residential space that is smarter, more gracious and more high-class than the western ones for it is the outcome of five thousand years‘ development.
I guess my statement with the first quote is clear. But for the second one…Well if they would have so many traditional spaces than I could certainly agree [just see the photos below]. If they wouldn‘t have had the ‚Cultural Revolution‘ I would also have to reconsider it but with the background I have already in terms of architecture/interior design/design you cannot take this serious. For interior design and architecture – I just wrote that recently – ‚good design is design that has been considered good already [in the western world]‘ seems to count the most. So combine these two quotes and you may understand more .
the small houses in the front row are the ones where I live…I think it looks a lot more dramatic from the roof of our office building than it actually is
facing east towards the city centre
If you‘ve looked close enough you recongize the guy in my new header, he was a construction worker in central Shenzhen living in a container house (although one of the more fancy ones) right on the main road crossing Shenzhen in the centre. The green tower in the back is the ‚Shun Hing Square‘ which is 384m tall and the 9th tallest building in the world (an even taller building with 439m is already planned in Shenzhen) and the 5th tallest building in China
this is no fake I took this photo with my small camera one day on my way back from work
I learned a lot the other day. Not that I‘m not constanly learning in this new environment but I got some possible answers to a few unanswered questions. We met two Germans last weekend working for an architecture or interior design office here in Shenzhen for almost four years already. Of course we came to talk about China and certain behaviours very quickly. They told us from their experience how a big architecture/interior design project is done in China. At this point I guess I should take a step back from my former critique against my boss.
Let’s say a person has the money to build a big hotel. He/She doesn‘t know much about design and since this is all a new topic in China ‚everything is good that has been done before, especially if it was in the western world‘. He doesn‘t start a competition where architects make an offer that he accepts but hires many companies to make designs that have to be at a very elaborate level when presented to the client. So an architect invests money first by creating his design without getting paid anything and certainly without a contract. It’s not that an architect or interior designer gets chosen by the client but quite the opposite they have to do very well in front of the client sometimes even getting in contact with a contractor and telling them that they do better than their opponents. So this person with the future Hotel gets 4-5 versions and then decides for one for some reason that are beyond from being reasonable. Sometimes he even dismisses all the designs and hires another company that wasn‘t in the ‚race‘ before. Sometimes companies also offer the contractor to build the design he likes the most for a lower price than the company who actually created it. Nobody will really understand how and why a certain decision is made then. Of course at this point I was thinking that my boss then cannot really work efficiently even if he would be extremely good. There are way too many aspects that cannot be considered. In the end especially small and more or less known companies work against efficiency investing way more than they get out of it. Sometimes they get a part of the planning or construction phase in the end which probably equals out the money spent at first.
The next phase involves construction companies. So called ‚mock-up‘ rooms are built by several companies to give the contractor the possibility to choose yet again. The construction companies also do not have a contract and try to be better than the opponent to make it in the end. But a lot of money is spent at first that easily turns out to be a loss if you won‘t make it. The market is mainly split up by big companies often being the result of a former state-owned firm.
This whole insight into the business shows one very important aspect. International companies come to China to make their products and benefit from cheap labor but the image – that I had in mind at least – was that China is open for everything as long as you accept certain policies which is correct to some degree. But I assume that the effort you have to build up a company is not worth a try if you start at almost zero. Chinas wealth mainly comes from this cheap mass-production but their inland economy seems very closed and ’suffering‘ from former political structures. China is the Peoples Republic with a Socialist One-Party government with a capitalistic economic system. So much for the theory but is this the reality? I would say no especially after this talk last weekend but I would also say that it goes far beyond my understanding.
I heard a very interesting quote today – supposedly from a movie or documentary (don‘t know which though).
guy: „[…] yeah I‘m traveling a lot.“
woman: „You must be very lonely then…“
that definitely made me think…
A friend of mine who studies Business once told me that he was shocked when the term ‚human resource‘ was introduced early in his studies. And it wasn‘t so much the term itself but rather the way it is used in business language. Luckily in Europe there are many policies and laws that protect a human worker from becoming a mere ‚tool‘ in the line of many to raise profits for a company. Back then I could understand what he meant but wasn‘t really aware of it (of course I couldn‘t since I hadn‘t even started studying nor had I any knowledge of how the ‚world of work‘ would look like). During my stay in China I get to understand the term much better and realize its extreme existence constantly in the office I work at.
I didn‘t mean to write about it so early already but with the recent policies that have been introduced against the (Chinese) workers I get more and more angry about the situation and keep loosing any respect for our boss. Although I have to admit that most of what I write here doesn‘t count for us Germans. We still ‚enjoy‘ somewhat of a special status but had our moments of conflict as well.
So here is a list of (un-)official laws/policies that seem completely wrong from my point of view.
First of all what also affected us Germans already: vacation. I know that in Germany and France vacation is a big deal and is enforced by state law. In China it is different of course. If you want to have days off you need to get the approval of the boss and even need to justify why you are not coming to work. But these days are certainly not paid. I guess this policy is more or less ‚common‘ in countries like China and that’s why I started with it.
Another office policy is concerning sickness. If a worker is sick he/she gets paid only 1 day each month for not coming to work. In reverse this means of course that the workers come in even if they shouldn‘t for health reason.
Just a few weeks ago one of the secretaries put up a note stating that everyone who comes in late gets cut off 50 Yuan of the monthly earnings (this is about half of the average day rate; I get about 80-90 Yuan [~9 Euro] ) each day. So most of our colleagues rather run to work than complain about it.
Working on weekends sometimes even sunday is basically required (except for us Germans fortunately) but is not paid. If you cannot work on a saturday you even get money off your loans. The calculation is stupid as well since they divide the amount of money you receive by the weekdays you worked in a month (weekends not included), the day rate is of course higher then so in the end it’s a higher loss for the worker.
But the best policy came out just this month. The secretary (I‘m sure on behalf of the boss) started categorizing the workers according to their status in the team and certain criteria that is mainly a highly subjective decision. Our German-speaking colleague told us for example that he was placed in the category ‚chief designer 3rd (lowest) class‘ which may sound good in the beginning but this means a cutoff of 2000 yuan each month (that’s his rent and the amount of money we get each month). He doesn‘t have a contract which is the next thing I would like to point out. Many workers have no contract and the boss talks it down by telling them that we are still a young and small office so once we grow everything will get better. The office exists since 1996 and due to a lack of leadership (to use a very business-like term) the company is not really growing and probably will never do so. But because the workers don‘t have any contract they have to face these policies without any possibility to complain. Same for social security. You can only get social security if the office registers you so most workers have no social security and even if they have they still pay the monthly rates the office does not pay even a part of it.
Before the secretary started this categorizing he came around asking our colleagues for their contracts so most people told him that they don‘t have one which then of course makes it easy to simply cut the money.
But the biggest problem is that the people don‘t stand up against it and rather accept their fate. And I asked myself already many times why this is so. The only way out is by looking for a new job themselves which obviously might be the same or even worse (who can tell?!). I assume you get the link with the introduction and the term ‚human resource‘ now. Everyone can be replaced and it seems more easy for our boss to change the team or loose the workers in a constant cycle instead of creating a more attractive work atmosphere. The second reason why they don‘t get critical is a cultural reason. Chinese rather pretend to live in harmony together than face a conflict. I knew this before but I heard exactly this sentence from my boss when we had a discussion about the holiday policy (of which he didn‘t tell us in the beginning and which also doesn‘t show up in our contracts): „Let’s not argue we have to work together in harmony. […]“
And to conclude this already very long text I have another story to tell. The (very much disliked) secretary started putting up notes more or less frequently since he has started working here in late May. The last note stated that our German-speaking colleague is responsible for the creation of the new website and has still failed to finish up this project. This behaviour casts a dark shadow on the work of the office and cannot be accepted. He forgot to mention though that I was on vacation (I‘m doing the graphic design for the website and have everything on my computer) and he was occupied with translation work for a project our office and a partner company started with the Technical University Stuttgart and was responsible for the interior design of two appartments as well.
My response note would have looked like this:
‚The Behavior of Mr Secretary with his constant denunciations lead to a very bad work atmosphere and is counter-productive in terms of efficiency and productivity. In the long run this will also affect our customers. I suggest an immediate dismissal if this doesn‘t stop.
Putting a smile on the face could also help.‘
Congratulations if you got this far you know much more about the work situation in my office.
from this angle you don‘t notice much; just walk a little further and the place reveals its real character
One morning I was walking along the beach on Phu Quoc island and came by this Hotel which never seems to have been finished. It immediately caught my attention so I just walked up to see what it was exactly. There was still a security guard who saw me but didn‘t care about me walking around taking photos. A French professor who owns a Hotel a little further down explained me later that the main investor of the ‚Resort‘ apparently changed just recently so he figured that they probably ran out of money. The main structure and facade is more or less finished and you can as well just walk by without noticing anything but when you have a closer look you realize that there are no windows and the inside is still in the first construction stage with only grey concrete in use.
For me the whole place seemed very surreal yet had an aesthetic of its own. I would definitely say that places like this Hotel attract me and was trying to figure what it really was. So when I was back I stumbled across a sentence that I think explains a lot:
„Swimming pools are signs of spiritual optimism, economic prosperity and the hedonistic good life, so the image of a pool dried up and cracked or half full of dirty water becomes a symbol of disappointed hopes and dreams. A sign on the wall by a pool that was filled in with grassy sod says, ”No lifeguard on duty,” which is funny at first, and then starts to sound like an ominous judgment about modern American life.“ – Ken Johnson (NY Times)
It’s an extract of an art review for a photo work by ‚J. Benett Fitts‘ titled ‚No Lifeguard on Duty‘. His photos are much better than mine but I think the ones below give an idea what I mean about ’surreal‘ showing the controversy of this building at such a paradisiac place.
moss is growing on the bare conrete stairs that lead into the first floor of the main building
the pool is dried out and the artificial pond that you cross when entering from the beach side is full of water lilies
I assume this was meant to become the restaurant facing the pool and the beach
Some weeks earlier this nice collection of abandoned places in the world has been posted on freeunibz.net showing some nice photos of places all round the globe. I‘ve been to ‚Varoshna‘ in Cyprus in December last year . It is a formerly well-established beach holiday town that became a ‚ghost city‘ with the separation of Cyprus in 1974. It’s still controlled by Military and only a few people can access it.
Less text more photos this time…
he was our cyclo-guide in Saigon…he was really funny and I think the sentence he said the most was
‚Many countries different Buddha but always sitting on the Lotus flower…!‘
‚Notre Dame‘ cathedral in Saigon is of course a relic of the colonial times
just the normal Cyclo-people in Saigon
it is really relaxing getting pedaled around
because of the rain season rainwbows were almost normal, here in Ben Tre a small town in the Mekong Delta just about 2 hours outside of Saigon
small channels split up the countryside in the Mekong Delta
I like the writing ‚Tourist‘ on the hat that we got on this boat tour
coconut ‚factory‘ in the middle of nowhere: a whole family is opening and peeling coconuts for further production of coconut candy or else
Mr. Lanh our boat guide was great (as you can see here) he was by far the most funny Vietnamese we met
traditional fisher boat near ‚Can Tho‘
floating market near ‚Can Tho‘…
…the Mekong Delta is highly fertile so everyone who owns a little land plants fruit and vegetables which are then transported by boat to floating markets
the offered fruit/vegetable is tied to a stick so you can see from far where you need to go to
This was the first sight on the morning after the rice wine. It’s a butcher shop that gets the meat early every morning. In the side alley you have a huge pile of bones (spines, legs, etc.) that workers cut and break to small pieces. A really bloody job…
‚Bai Sao‘ beach on Phu Quoc island with the whitest sand you can imagine
small fishers town on Phu Quoc island
‚Ong Lang‘ beach on the western side of Phu Quoc
we rented a small motorbike one day and Johanna took this picture while we were driving on the sandy (and fairly tricky) dirtroads on the island
well that’s how it goes, the old guy disappeared at some point I guess he’s had a little too much then
I have to start off telling from Vietnam with one little story that somehow ‚overshadowed‘ almost our whole trip. I don‘t know what it is but I tend to have these disastres with alcohol while on trips. Last time it was with the lovely turkish drink ‚Rakı‘ that became a little killer this time, of course, we ended up with rice wine. And it all started very nice. Since we only had about 9 days in Vietnam we decided against our inital plan to go up north and instead went from Saigon into the Mekong Delta towards Phu Quoc island on the ‚far-western‘ coast. One day we were staying in a very nice guest house typical for this particular place. They are called ‚homestay‘ and are usually run by one family who started setting up simple rooms/bungalows in the middle of the bush (at least from my point of view) on an island across the river from Vinh Long one of the bigger towns in the Delta. The following morning we decided to take a short walk before heading towards the coast. After a little while we came by a house where the people called the usual ‚hello‘ towards us. So we replied back but saw that they were inviting us to their house. It was around 9 or 9.30 in the morning but we of course couldn‘t insist on the rice wine they offered us immediately. So there we were sitting with four vietnamese men drinking one glass after another. The problem was that we only had 2 glasses so it was always one of us drinking with one of them which was not the best calculation for us. At one point we agreed to go (by moped!) and grab some food. I believe at this point we already had altogether almost 2 litres of rice wine. In the little shack that they called ‚restaurant‘ we had another half a litre (or more I cannot recall). After the lunch we tried to tell our (drunk) driver that we needed to get to the ferry to get back into town and catch a bus. So we went back to the guesthouse to get the backpacks but now were to heavy to stay all on one moped. So Johanna went first and I walked up to the road where another guy picked me up and offered to take me. We were driving right behind them even passed them and waited again but at some point we lost them. I first thought that they must have been much faster being in this drunk state. We arrived at the ferry and they weren‘t there. I decided to walk back a little and see if they ‚just‘ fell into the bush at some point but couldn‘t find them. So I went back to the guesthouse to maybe find the driver again but nothing there as well. I kept going back and forth between the ferry and the guesthouse and started to get really worried. I even went across to see if she was back in town already but always nothing. So at some point I had the glorious idea of renting a moped myself. Luckily I didn‘t get one but at least a bicycle in the city so I went back on the island and rode once again towards the guesthouse. At some point the guy passed me on his moped and I just started yelling at him (quite bad to be honest). He stopped and pointed into a direction we had to go. So he drove behind me and took me to yet another guesthouse somewhere off the main road where he and Johanna went. He slept a little bit and Johanna staying in a hammock had some trouble from the alcohol herself. I was happy to have found her. After that we went straight back to Vinh Long to return the bicycle (for some reason the crank fell off all the time so I just put it outside grabbed my passport and we left fast enough) and catch a bus but it was already early evening so we couldn‘t get to where we actually wanted. In the end I can really only laugh about it since nothing happened and I‘m sure nothing really bad would have happened we were simply really drunk; all of us.
I keep thinking how great it is that you do pretty much anything to get in contact with the locals…
I checked my camera afterwards and I think the outcome of this day is not too bad.
so with the guy above and those three we just kept drinking (they were always pouring the glasses and insisting this hospitality is impolite…)
don‘t know who this guy was he showed up at some point and I really cannot tell whether he is laughing at me or with me
his dad was smart enough not starting in on this drinking
