Visa to the Other Revolution

Bureaucracy has a 'rational' character: rules, means, ends, and matter-of-factness dominate its bearing. Everywhere its origin and its diffusion have therefore had 'revolutionary' results... The march of bureaucracy has destroyed the structure of domination which had no rational character.
--Max Weber



I thought twice about writing this post. First, I didn't want to seem like a culturally-insensitive, whiny tourist. Then, coming to grips with reality, I thought the information herein may be of some use to others of my demographic.

I wrote most of this post earlier from a hotel computer. I needed the computer because my laptop had quit on me and was in the shop. I needed the hotel room because I needed to be registered with the local police. This is the law in China. Within 24 hours of visiting any city (and each time you return after leaving said city), foreigners must register their presence and place of residence with official affidavits from the host/landlord at a local district office. This is also a taxation mechanism. The prevalent easy route is simply to check into a hotel. Most visitors don't realize that they're satisfying these obligations as they peruse the breakfast buffet.

In major cities across the country, officials are stepping up security in time for the games. I was getting doubtful that I'd get an extension at all, but they at least entertain the idea here in Jinan. In Beijing, it's pretty much out of the question right now. All foreigners staying long-term on extended tourist visas and weird work-arounds are being cleared out by July 1.

It turns out that Shandong Province (of which Jinan is the capital) is hosting the Olympic sailing and some other water events. Jinan is not a typical tourist destination, and after the games, it will continue in that tradition. Government workers are not particularly accustomed to dealing with foreigners. The online address for visa issues was given as the Jinan City People's Government offices. After some confusion, they sent me up the street to a Police Bureau for Entries and Exits. [I had to go back to get clearer directions, though. As is typical, the clerk pointed in a general direction (in this case the wall) and said, "it's right over there." After going outside and turning the corner, i realized i had no idea what he'd meant.]

After arriving at the sparkling new Police Bureau, I was directed to a touch screen for a number (though there was no one else there). My number was called and after explaining my situation, I was given a slip of paper with the address of another Police Bureau for Entries and Exits office. A cab ride through tiny alleys later, I found my way to another touch screen. My slip read: 3004, there are now 02 people waiting ahead you, please wait peacefully until you are called. I did, and I was.

I asked the handsome, nicely demeanored policeman how one would hypothetically extend one's tourist visa. He demanded my passport and instead of following my instinct and saying i didn't have it with me, I complied. He wrote down my passport info in a ledger and started to grill me about the details of my trip. I answered evasively, but more-or-less convincingly. He said that I had broken the law by not registering, and that I was to register right away.

Things started getting complicated from there. He said I would have to bring my friend who I'm staying with in and that she
would have to show her registration and certify that I am staying with her. She isn't registered because our landlord is avoiding taxes on our rent. So, I found my way to the Runhua Century Hotel, where guests receive phone solicitations for in-room massages, a complementary plate of fruit and a glass of "OJ" [read leftover Tang from the Challenger].

On day two, I checked out of the hotel and requested a certification of my stay in the hotel. The clerk assured me that the credit card receipt would suffice. After pulling number 3008, I found out that she was wrong. After a trip back to the hotel, I returned again as number 3010 and was given a form to fill out. It requires a photo. The clerk that operates the camera was not there. After returning home to get a photo and drawing number 3012, I sat down to wait for the 01 persons waiting ahead of me. I sat watching the officer as his neighbors attended to several people. It looked like he was playing solitaire or checking his email, but I assumed it was official. Ten minutes later, 3011 wasn't called. So, I approached and placed my completed form down in front of him. He glared at me as he snatched it, scattering other papers across the counter.

He told me that, after all, they cannot grant new visas at this office. I explained that I didn't want a new visa, but only an extension. He asked, incredulously, what I would be doing in Jinan for so much time. When I explained that I would indeed visit other places, but would be returning to Jinan because my friends are here, he told me flatly that it was his suggestion that I apply for the extension in whatever city I was in when my visa expired. When I asked him if it was too early at this point to apply, how long the process would take, and when I'd be eligible for an extension, he firmly reiterated his suggestion.

That is a long account of how I have yet to receive a visa extension. My conclusion is that you'll have better luck if you have all your papers in order and only go once. They don't want to see you more than that, especially right before lunch. I had to duck under the lowering roll-up doors as I left.


UPDATE [7/3/08 ]:
My visa is being processed. It required an additional five trips. I had to provide: 1. Additional photo, 2. Recent bank statement showing at least $100 per day of extension, 3. Signed affidavit explaining where i had been in China to date, purpose, purpose of extension and planned itinerary, 4. Documentation of registration with the local police bureau (hotel registration documents), 5. Air tickets and itinerary, 6. CNY 940 (~$138).

This process allows you an "extension visa." You cannot apply for any other type of visa.

Super Bloc Superblocks

Over the past 50 years, Chinese city centers have developed very large blocks. Soviet planning brought International Style architecture and CIAM modernism to Chinese cities. The small, disordered alleyway was to be replaced by the order of the automotive-scaled thoroughfare. In this Corbusian vision, dense towers concentrate land use, leaving park space across the city. The lessons learned are that without careful attention, this actually obliterates human scale and walkability. A grid with fewer roads may exacerbate traffic as drivers have fewer routes.

Blocks here are often 600 meters or longer between through streets. (By comparison, Manhattan are 80 x 275 meters.) The interiors of these blocks are highly varied. Some contain blocks within blocks as cycles of development and in-fill have created layered spaces and cul-de-sacs. Many areas are walled off. Others are contained by continuous building frontages. As Beijing demolishes its historic hutong neighborhoods, some redevelopments present new spatial patterns with open plazas and throughways that break-up the superblocks. Scholars have studied the importance of walls and compounds to the Chinese. We will be doing some research into the physical forms of these blocks and the actual use of space. We'll try to understand a bit of how these spaces are being transformed, and how their use is formed by --and impacts-- planning and redevelopment processes.

More photos and notes here

Corbusier: "The Ordered City, the Chaotic City"


Corbusier: The Radiant City

Beijing Arts/Industry

Beijing has a booming arts scene. An epicenter of galleries, studios, and artists' colonies has sprung up near the airport in old factories. Rents were cheap and space was abundant. Now a new wave of redevelopment in the area has transformed the area in just a few years. Sounds familiar?



Photos here

Old Walls, New Streets

Jinan is widening many of its streets. The remains of building interiors form new edge conditions for both the streets and for those continuing to reside beyond the walls. The hidden surfaces of parti-walls are turned inside-out, becoming new exteriors. Temporary conditions of demolitions-in-progress are inhabited in improvisational ways as materials are carted off for disposal and reuse. Awaiting compensation, or unable to move, families and businesses continue to inhabit their spaces even as they become exposed to the elements.



Photos taken on Shanshi Road, 6/17/08, and on Jingsi Road 6/13-6/18/08 here.

Jinan Old City, New City

This week, a section of the Qing Dyansty Old City is being demolished to make way for redevelopment of the lake front. Many of the structures are 100-300 years old.



More photos here.

They don't get many Japanese tourists around here

Today, my coworker Allie and I went up to a redevelopment zone on the north edge of Jinan. We had been told that a large area of wholesale markets would be demolished. We have been generally perturbed by the physical-determinist and design-centric planning process, but this seemed like a really bad idea. I wanted to go take a look and maybe get the "before" to the pile-of-rubble "after" that we see everywhere we turn in this city. I was walking through the market taking some snapshots when a security guard asked me what i was doing.

me: "just taking a pictures."
him: why? what do you mean? who are you?
me: uh...?
him: come with me!
me: I'm a student from Berkeley. [this means absolutely nothing to everyday people b/c they've never heard of it.] I'm working with the local planning bureau doing research.
him: this way!
me: uh... is it not ok to take pictures? are you a public peace [公安 i.e. police] officer?
him: I'M A SECURITY [保安 i.e. private] OFFICER.THIS WAY!

He leads me to a little office and I try to calmly explain who i am and what i'm doing. they are very suspicious. they don't really care. Really, they feel like i've trespassed and they want to exercise their authority over their domain. A seated woman starts barking at me, but i can't understand what she's saying. This is really annoying to her. They get the boss (of this tiny room). I try my story on him. He asks me for my ID and i show him my Cal ID. He doesn't look at it and pushes it back over to me. I ask him what he wants from me. He says to sit down.

Allie's not answering her phone, and i don't have any of the bureau people's names or numbers. They're unimpressed by my mention of the vice-director. I call a student at Shandong Uni and ask him to put his professor on the line. He tries to explain for me. The little Napoleon actually yells at the prof over the phone! He hangs up and hands my cell phone to me, seeming a little nicer. He says that I'm not supposed to take pictures without permission and that his workers will escort me. I thank him and apologize for the misunderstanding.

Sadly, this was misunderstanding number two. I thought he meant escort me around to take photos. Actually, i was being escorted over to another office! Finally, Allie returns my call. She sees us crossing the street but can't catch up b/c of all the traffic. We go into another building and start up a flight of stairs. i try and tell the guy that my friend will come and help to explain. He doesn't want to wait and tries to drag me up the stairs. I tell him to let go of my arm. I'm glad that he does. I tell him to just wait a second and explain to Allie how to find me. She finds us and the guy tries to tell her she can't come, but she shows some attitude and he relents.

We go into the manager's office of this mall, and sit down. Allie does most of the talking and they are disarmed by her being a woman and a foreigner. It goes back and forth for a while and they say that we can't photograph the market buildings from the inside or the outside. we try and explain that the market will be impacted by the redevelopment and that we just wanted to document the environs. They say that the project we're talking about is to the north and that we should go that way to see the space. We apologize for the misunderstanding and they let us go.

It turns out that this was misunderstanding number one. We had been told at a meeting at the planning bureau that this market would be torn down. Today, at the planning institute, we were told that this isn't the case. This raises other problems and questions about transportation and land-use planning, but that's another (more technocratic) story...

In the meantime, here's a photo of the bottom-less mannequins that i snapped just as the guard nabbed me.

One Day Demolition

Jinan, Shandong Province, China - An entire neighborhood on Lishan Road was recently torn down in a single day. Locals and demolition workers are now picking through the rubble to reclaim reinforcing steel, timber, glass, bricks, tile, and other materials. The demolition is part of a larger series of urban redevelopment projects along the Lishan corridor. This includes a bus rapid transit (BRT) project. Researchers from the University of California Transportation Center (based at Berkeley) have been studying the project, trying to understand the policy-making process, implementation, and trying to suggest improvements.


Using a small hammer, this woman is reclaiming thin steel wires from concrete rubble.

see photos at my picasa page:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chenjching/OneDayDemolition

Shanghai Informal Economy

Along with Shanghai's commercial building and finance capital boom of the past two decades has come a huge influx of new residents. Many of these come from the immediately surrounding region. Because of hukou (household registration) restrictions, these people are unable to seek formal employment. Others, are simply trying to make a few extra yuan on the side.


Toy Vendor


These things cost 40 cents each. It'd be
tough enough without ten people selling the same schlock in the same
space.

Busker


This busker is playing in the tunnel under the intersection of Beijing East Road and the Bund.

4Rs Meets 3Rs

In the Hong Kong Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, a display defines the "4Rs of Urban Renewal": Redevelopment, Revitalization, pReservation, and Rehabilitation. Wandering around the Baoshan MRT station in Shanghai today, I thought about those 4Rs and the 3Rs of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle as Shanghai's own urban transformation Rs.

Reduce

a smashed tile floor hints at this demolished longtang's former inhabitants, who were relocated in 2003

Reuse

useable bricks are salvaged. workers are using them to rebuild a segment of the old wall. remnants of the last house of the demolished longtang stands in the background. some workers are now living in its fragile shell.

Recycle

these workers are smashing concrete by hand to reclaim the reinforcing steel.

Just down the street, space under the elevated freeway and the light rail, people Reclaimed space to --you guessed it!-- sell salvaged machinery for Reuse.

I'm a Believer!

There is a Chinese saying about superstitions that's something like "It's better to act like you believe, even if you're not sure." Meaning it's better safe than sorry.

Visiting the old canal town Wuzhen outside of Shanghai yesterday, I saw this being played out on tourists (and their wallets). It was unlike any other Chinese temple experience that I've had. I was struck by a feeling of being on a Fordist assembly line. The efficiency of the process was impressive, and left me wondering if this is a common means of producing spirituality (and its monetary expression) in China.

I've sketched a diagram:



1. Starting at Orientation on the front steps of the temple, the tour group is told the history of the temple, its importance and its ongoing restoration process. The visitor is also told the terms of the visit: no pictures, respect, and quiet.

2. At Reception, the visitor's tour ticket checked upon entering the temple, and s/he is given a badge. Each group has its own character to distinguish it from the many others on the line.

3. Crossing the forecourt, the group enters a hall with a central daoist alter and deities representing the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac. Here, an Explanation of the deities' significance, and the means of worship is explained. All major aspects of one's life can be linked to one's sign, and all the manner of problems can be brought to the deities. Offerings are made, protections prayed for. The group is given the good news that the temple is their to help visitors better understand their zodiac signs and their destinies.

4. Half of the visitors queue up to receive a complimentary card explaining the significance of her sign. The other half cuts the queue. Nonetheless, few if any of the visitors can comprehend the archaic expressions. This isn't a problem, because the temple comes equipped to handle this problem.

5. Passing into the rear courtyard, the visitors are lined up in a room off to the side. In each of four corners, men dressed in "traditional" scholar robes sit and explain the deeper meaning of one's problems and how they are linked to one's year of birth. The fortune teller then instructs the visitor how much incense to burn and what to ask for. Since I am not yet married and without children at 34, I needed to appease my ancestors and seek peace for my family. The massive incense sticks, sold right outside cost USD10-20 -- a mark-up of at least 500%. In other temples that I've visited in Hong Kong and Taiwan, fortune tellers and incense sellers did not enjoy such a monopoly arrangement, and aren't set up right on the temple grounds.

I skipped out, but I'm still praying for my ancestors' forgiveness.

Creative Destruction

Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage, and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.

--Walter Benjamin

the last remains of a demolished home

Shanghai --as is often said-- is a lens onto China's transformation, baffling in scale and speed. The whole city is a (de)construction zone, and I often can't tell if I'm on the inside or the outside of the barriers. A few days ago, I roamed around the demolition of a few blocks of longtang housing between the Bund and the Old Town on Renmin Road. A few fragments of houses remained within the old masonry wall. These buildings were half removed, leaving their sections sliced open like an ant farm. Gordon Matta-Clark would have been impressed. When the public toilet that remained standing on the edge of the rubble was occupied, locals climbed the excavation for evacuation, using the debris-littered back rooms as makeshift toilets.

the public toilet at the edge of one of several cleared blocks

I met two migrant workers living on the site in a seven-foot tall three-by-six foot plywood box. They said they were "renovating" (修房子), but there was no house there. They were watching over a newly poured slab as it cured.

although she let me photograph her and the interior of her small shed, she wouldn't tell me her name nor where she was from. the footprint of shed is the size a single bed.



living room 1


living room 2


the character on the wall to the left means "dismantle"

About a mile from the site, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center displays models, maps, and virtual reality fly-overs of the new Shanghai that is being built block by block over the dismantled old city. The recurring theme here--and in Hu Jintao's Party Congress speech--is "Harmony" (和諧).

the whole exhibit is quite impressively put together. above the model is a VIP-only viewing balcony. beyond that, you can catch a glimpse of the Green Shanghai exhibit.

Dual Economy

-- Shanghai Living --
Crosstown Cab Ride : ¥25
Crosstown Subway Trip : ¥5

Fancy Hotel Breakfast : ¥40
Steamer of Dumplings : ¥8

3 Course Western Dinner : ¥120
3 Course Sidewalk Dinner : ¥4

[US$1 = CN¥7.5]

My big ticket items so far have all gone on a credit card. So, walking around today three ¥100 bills (the highest denomination of the Renminbi) sat idly by while I spent my coins and small bills. When it came time for dinner, I was down to two one yuan bills. I spent one on a delicious grilled bun filled with pickled veggies. I was setting the other newer bill aside for Sam Warren because I've only seen it once. I wanted another, but I saw the vendor have to scramble to give a kid change for ¥10, so of course my ¥100s were out of the question. I went to several hardware and tool stores in a row asking for change. No one was able to change the bill. I ended up walking several blocks to a Japanese convenience store. The girl reluctantly took my bill for the ¥1.1 bottle of water, and lifted the register tray revealing only three other ¥100s. I went back to the stalls and enjoyed a deep-fried sausage and a red bean cake for dessert.

Sausage and squid


Red bean lunbin ("wheel cake")


[The vendors all refused to be photographed.]

Shanghai Longtang Alleyways

Density.

Shanghai's older urban fabric is characterized by high density row-houses. These two-story buildings face one another along narrow alleys. Unlike Beijing hutongs, front doors and living spaces face directly onto the alleyways. This makes an outsider like me feel like I'm intruding on a private space--especially as many of these compact mazes now form the interior of larger blocks that are now surrounded by newer, larger buildings. The latter are often built straddling the older alleyways.

The entry to alley 125 on Huanghe Road near Beijing West Road























the "art"-deco restaurant above it


and the interior of the longtang beyond


around another corner

Many longtangs have historical landmark status, and some are even being restored. Hopefully this trend continues and the protections are meaningfully enforced. This is in stark contrast to Beijing's hutong courtyards which are demolished at about 600 per year. That gives about 5 years until they're an extinct urban form. I am not against development and do not see this as simply an issue of private rights. However, the lack of democratic participation in planning processes (such as they are) engenders comparisons to Haussmann's Paris or Moses's New York, with similar issues of urban class division, and differential enforcement of rights.

Locke 1928

Since Shawna's too shy to do so herself, I'm announcing the
publication of her first novel: Locke 1928. The book will be released
on May 1st ["to celebrate International Workers' Day and honor the
Chinese laborers who gave their lives building the west"].

There are two readings scheduled:

April 24, 7pm at Black Oak Books, Berkeley
May 6, 3:30pm at Time Tested Books, Sacramento

Pre-order now! Deeply discounted on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Locke-1928-Shawna-Yang-Ryan/dp/0976298392/ref=sr_1_3/104-7260590-5296715?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175145310&sr=1-3

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Critical praise for Locke 1928, winner of the 2006 Maurice Prize for Fiction:

"A beautiful debut, Locke 1928 opens up a page in history that
sometimes is forgotten by both cultures that once coexisted in Locke,
a Sacramento Chinese farming town. By mapping out the familiar and the
strange territories of human passion and retelling the old myths,
Shawna Yang Ryan tells a story that, in the end, is about how America
was truly made."
—Yiyun Li, author of A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

"Many stories remain to be told. The delta part of the
California-Asian world still sits there, and Shawna Ryan went into it,
even lived it for a while. Her writing is crafty, sinuous, and strong
with evocative color and smell--she's good on odors-- and on physical
details, both heavy and light. (There is much adult physicality—heavy
drinking, puking—the story goes way into a juicy territory that it is
not so sexual as it is bodily inside and out). Shawna is precise on
society and history and persons. I have a deep respect for this work,
and no doubt as to her powerful future potential."
—Gary Snyder

"In this lyrical debut novel, Shawna Yang Ryan evokes the hard labor,
deep losses, and loving redemptions of Chinese immigrants, those who
loved them, and California itself. A startling, rich, and remarkable
work that echoes long after the book is closed."
—Louis S. Warren, author of Buffalo Bill's America: William Cody and
the Wild West Show


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More info at:

http://www.shawnayangryan.com
[btw angry is not her middle name--it's Shawna Yang Ryan]

Green My Apple!

Greenpeace has recently started a campaign to push Apple to deal with the toxic materials in its products. Here's my effort to start a google bomb for "Apple", "Mac", "iPod", and "MacBook."
It won't be easy because apple has so many pages of their own referring to the terms, but maybe 100 blogs or so?
Check out the campaign:

http://www.greenmyapple.org/

and make some links!
Apple Mac iPod MacBook

Also, the abhorrent conditions in apple's ipod factories in shenzhen and suzhou were recently reported on here:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=401220&in_page_id=1770

Potlatch Up The YinYang

HAPPY YEAR OF THE CHICKEN!!
新年快樂！　雞年行大運！

banqiao IMG_1336
fuzzy slippers & firecrackers: Originally uploaded by dahongdou.

Here in Taiwan, with Chinese New Year come endless banquets and house visits. This means traditional new year foods, fancy restaurants, red envelope exchanges, cookies, candies, and lots and LOTS of booze (glasses of single malt you can park a jetski in). In smaller towns and traditional (pagan, non-christian)families like mine, there are also a lot of rituals. Most of it surrounds ancestor worship with offerings of food and enough incense and "paper gold" burning to cloud the skies.

On the downside is the commercialism and focus on material wealth (發大財！！）. On the upside, there is the rare opportunity to sit down for shots with your great aunts, cousins you've never met, and uncles who are 5 years younger than you.

The banquet is one of many New Year customs attached to building and maintaining guanxi (關係--literally "relationships"). Along with the potlatch chinoise is the exchange of red envelopes (紅包-﹣hongbao) stuffed with cash (though only in even numbered totals, except for those containing "4," which is a homonym for "die"). There is a rich set of social etiquette associated with the hongbao, including all points on the spectrum between thank yous and bribery.

The second day of the new year is a traditional day for women to return to their homes. I spent the day doing some oldstyle house visits with my father and uncles. We went to the homes of all the women in the family to formally invite them to lunch on saturday. This kind of thing was more necessary in the past when wives lived very far away, were in farming families, and under the tyranny of mother-in-law's "open sky." In my family, these days, it is a ritual of gift giving and negotiation--how few drinks can we get away with before the next stop?[you're not ALL driving!] is it possible to NOT eat another meal? [you have to have SOMETHING to eat with your drink!]. The next day's potlatch ended with a drunken karaoke competition with the party on the other side of the dining room. my uncles won points for volume.

This year, the three day binge was followed, for many of us, by a three day purge. my guts still feel a little queasy. >yuck<

It's definitely the kind of holiday that leaves you needing a day off.

B*R*B, Taipei, reporting

news at 8
Originally uploaded by dahongdou.

watching the local news in taiwan can make you a very cynical person.
while half of the blather that is reported on the literally DOZENS of 24-hour tv news stations is transparently (a)propaganda, (b)gossip, or (c)lacking any professional standard of journalism whatsoever, of the remainder, half is (d)often of no news-worthiness, and the rest (e)just makes you sick to your stomach (and mind).

a few examples:
(a) like the best of their american counterparts, the taiwanese media likes to get into the business of MAKING the political news as much as reporting it. while the notion of an independent media came up as a topic of discussion during the last elections, a number of legislators and political party leaders continued to play public roles in various outlets. while the general public has long been aware of the political affiliations of media companies, people like to believe whatever serves their beliefs, and the news is very obligatory. in the aftermath of a less-than-one-percent-majority "victory" tainted by accusations of a set-up assassination attempt, several outlets reported that a supposed expert discovered evidence of the conspiracy. the expert turned out to be a hardcore partisan who had recorded news coverage on a vcr and had watched the sparse footage repeatedly for a week.
recently, the mayor of taipei, ma ying-jeou, and other government officials were publicly indicted for a local hospital's failure to admit a girl who was beaten unconscious by her father. no one mentioned the father's culpability for weeks as the media called for the mayor's resignation.

(b) there is no boundary between the major news sources and the papparazzi in taiwan. reporters regular stalk celebrities and stakeout ktv joints and hostess bars. a few months ago, the leading story for 4 days involved a well known tv host and his two dates, and their drunken run-in with the cops. this was followed by 5 days of video grabs of the two girls' revealing clothes and slinky figures. next, another few days of investigative reporting on the rising popularity of lowriders and showing a little bit of crack. the wearers of these fashions are known literally as "butt gutter babes" 〔股溝妹〕.

(c) too many examples to list. for a start, see (a),(b),(d). on the other hand, as an organizer, it is nice to have reporters take your press releases as the entire basis of their reports.

(d) one from my annals: a family notified the news media when the couple next door continued to have outrageously loud sex every single night. their children were losing sleep. their grades, reportedly, slipping. worse are the leering camera shots of girls in bikinis: at car shows, after plastic surgery, serving milk tea, whatever.

(e) a lot of the stories make you wonder about the direction of this society as a whole. i often feel very sad and angry. tonight's program showed hidden camera footage of unlicensed nurses working in an unlicensed hospital beating a comatose patient. they also turned off his oxygen. he first went into the "hospital" for an unrelated condition. this was their way of taking care of the lawsuits. naturally, this brings up all kinds of questions like: "how the fuck can there even be such a thing as an unlicensed hospital?" and, of course, "remind me again, why do i live here?"

Japanese Toys

tit_dl
Originally uploaded by dahongdou.

like Japanese children's songs
animate the objects
of everyday life:
the Shinkansen
the sorrow of a fallen chestnut
a block of tofu
in his tofu-box car
is this Shinto animism?
Perhaps--
at least in part
where the Japanese child
learns to invest meaning,
that the object is mutable
and can be made to say
anything.

www.tofu-oyako.com

why must i blog?

after much harangue-ing from mei_nu (at livejournal.com), inconsistency in keeping in touch with friends overseas, and the ultimate failure of friendster as anything but novelty surfing, i have decided to BLOG! the medium seems ideal for burning off the little scraps of my creative energy that i have that don't generate anything else (for my exhaustion or laziness). plus--i hope--it's easy and available. much unlike my desk and worktable.

so i look forward to sharing some thoughts/art/culture/politics as i wind my way out of my third year in taipei and back to the US. and all that entails. i know you're all as scared (and hopeful) as i am.

about the title:
大紅豆 [this is in chinese--i'm not sure it will show up]
"bean" is a homonym for "struggle." later, i'll figure out how to upload mp3s and you'll get the soundtrack to this page.

much love
jcc