Years of Poems and Spirits

After we came back from Xin Jiang, we had very busy days: family visits, old friends, etc. So I never had the presence of mind nor the time to write down my daily experience. Here I am just writing down pieces of memory here and there. Not sure how readable they are but hopefully they will remind me of this trip in the future.

Eating Buddhism
9/18
Went to a vegetarian restaurant (with Teng Song). Exquisite setting, excellent presentation–reminded me of scenes from 韩熙载夜宴图. But a lot quieter.

Waiters dressed like Buddhist monks. Quiet voice and gentle demeanor. Menu full of Buddhist terms–as if dish names were randomly inserted into 大般若波罗蜜多经. When we walked out of the restaurant, 人人躬身合十，如送施主。据说开餐馆的老板是个五台山还俗的和尚，想来是不慎把“禅”经念成了“馋”经。

What is Buddhism any more? Are these “knowledge”? Metaphysical concept becomes stimulants for sensual pleasure. The force of commerce dictates interpretation.

Art Beijing 2007 and the Art of Commerce
9/19
My old pal Sun Ning is a newbie art dealer in Beijing. He took me to Art Beijing 2007. an industry expo.

Surprised by how many art works bear naked political statements: an artist uses egg shells to build a model of the iconic CCTV building. Chinese newspaper printed on a huge roll of toilet paper. Met a guy from Germany who was totally awed by another work: a pair of bloated breasts on top of a pile of RMB cash, 100 millions worth. And another: a bronze sculpture with very classic looking dragon on top of a characterless middle aged women as if raping her.

A very impressive piece of work: a bunch of toddler boys, dressed in full military uniforms as if in a meeting, all watching one boy whipping another boy who is kneeing on the floor with pants pulled down. The watching boys all appear disinterested and absent minded, with a hint of boyish innocence on their faces.

I was told the work is priced at $600K. I thought it was pretty high for an artist in mid 40s. But SN told me it is how the market works nowadays: an artist creates a unique style, manages to get in an oversea’s show, and being recognized by Western critics, his/hers works rocket up immediately. Then copycats will spurn up and fill in the lower tiers with less distinquishable works.

There are many many excellent works I’d love to have. But there are some that have too much 匠气.

Talking to Sun Ning really helped me to appreciate contemporary art. True appreciation has to come in incremental steps: who are the contemporaries, what are the works before and after the one in front of you, what segment (even age group) the artist is in, what others are saying, etc. Gone is the time when one can look at a piece of work and say, “I like it”.

颐园日暖桂兰香
9/20
Seeing blue sky for the 2nd day in Beijing. Visited 颐和园 with my parents.
Visited 文昌院 inside YHY. A pleasant surprise: it houses the best of antiques found in YHY. Because it charges extra, very few people were in there. We hired a guide to show us around. Having visited the Art expo the day before, I was not surprised at all at the selection by the guide: she picked the ones with the most stories, not those that appealed to our eyes.

After seeing so many tourist art works, it is easy to tell how great the collection is. I felt it wasn’t bad to be an emporer after all. Fell in love with a piece of 释迦摩尼, reminded me of those I saw in 敦煌. Didn’t buy after all.

Many bronze pieces from pre-Han dynasties. Great stuff.

Last night I came out a convenience store with a pound and half pastry in hand. I only paid less than $2 for all. That is supposed to be a good thing. But earlier, I learned an upper-middle level apartment—2500 square feet, in a good neighborhood with easy access to Airport Expressway—costs $400,000 in Beijing.

I remember when a comparable houses in Bellevue close to I-405 and I-90 intersection cost $400K. Still, even a piece of bagel cost more than a dollar back then. And what is per capita GDP in Beijing and Bellevue even after PPP?

It is easy to lament the bubble effect. Yet, not all bubbles are the same. As much a Marxist himself, Wallerstein argued in “The Modern World-System” that precious metal brought back by the Conquistadors was NOT the main source of capital that spurred capitalism in Europe—as Marx himself suggested. Instead, it was the widespread inflation on the continent that deprived the peasants of their wealth and channeled them to city centers.

I suspect the same is going on in China today. On the one hand, the peasants don’t own land and the state controls bulk of distribution channel—hence the price and ultimately, rural income. On the other, as far as I know, there is little or no subsidy for fertilizer, petroleum or farming equipments. This unequal inflation drains any agricultural surplus to feed urban middle class which, with excess wealth, can afford a so-so apartment worth 400 times of per capita GDP.

Furthermore, to sustain and to pacify rural population, there is an unholy alliance between the urban consumers and rural laborers: the peasants can live by if city folks consume more.

For example, there are millions of restaurants in big cities. Although per capita retail space in China today may still lag behind that of the U.S., it has increased by leaps and bounds from just a decade ago. What is more, there is so much waste along the retail chain, the same amount of consumables demand a much larger production base.

The net result is degradation of environment and natural resources. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the government knows exactly what is going on but chooses to keep the status quo in order to stay in power.

A year ago, I wrote a paper about recent Chinese coal mine disasters. As I was putting all the research results together, I suddenly realized how the central government played a shell game in order to conceal its weakness and stay blameless.

Basically, by publicly humiliating local officials or selectively punishing a few while doing nothing really matters, the central government is putting on a show of being caring, honest but being taken advantage of by a few corrupt local officials.

The same thing is happening to the environmental issues, I suspect.

I doubt I can ever anticipate just right before each trip home. Last trip home was over a year ago in the beginning of the summer. But the experience turned out much better than I expected.

But I just don’t feel comfortable this time around—even though I started my trip in the beginning of fall, which is the best season of the year. I was overwhelmed by all the senses impressed upon me: the view, the noise, the smell and the taste. So much so that I wondered either Beijing has changed so much or I am still under jetlag. Or both.

Beijing is ugly. There are so many construction going on, the high rises are like weeds in an unattended garden. If the buildings under construction are unpleasant to look at, those newly built ones are not much better: all are grey and cold mass of steel and concrete pitched against a perpetual grey sky.

Underneath the steel “weeds” are dirt, mud and pot holes. In between car horns and hamming from constructions, up comes stinky and rotten smell from drain covers. Filling in whatever time and space left, there are endless advertisements. They are at bus stops, poles, from radio, TV, on the surface of airport conveyor belt, and seat covers in cabs.

I used to adore the city. In high school, there was once a campaign of naming scenic spots in town. I wrote a lengthy letter to the local daily arguing for and against some of the names as if they truly matter. But now, just like everything else, I felt the city is slipping away from my memory and I am becoming an irrelevant stranger.

In retrospect, the trip didn’t start well. The Air Canada flight was terrible: the plane was old and dirty, the attendants were impatient and unfriendly. Unlike previous trips, this time, the jet hovered above Beijing airport in bumpy air for at least 30 minutes before landing. Yuk. No more Air Canada from now on.