When the Triumph Bonneville was sex on wheels and Roberts radios were avant-garde, “Made in Japan” meant cheap and garish. Those silly little transistor radios— hadn’t they heard of valves? How we laughed at their little noddy bikes that didn’t leak oil and kick started without breaking your ankle. Sony who? Raw fish? Well, the rest is history.
So we should not be in the least surprised that “Made in China” means stylish, futuristic, smooth. The only shock is the transition from agrarian to Bladerunner in less than a decade. Young Chinese designers smorgasbord sources from industrialised East Asia, China’s communist past, Russian constructivism and US counter-culture with cosmopolitan nonchalence. But they need to work harder in a world where multicultural western seven year olds understand the kitsch semiotics of Hello Kitty, love retro mobiles, and forgive Mao his eccentricities (those caps and suits were divine).
It’s racist, patronising and tiresome to even affect surprise at how modern China has become, but if you still have doubts, visit the V&A and enjoy the Angry Pandas, delicious graphics, beautiful installations and the agitprop skateboards for what they are: the finest Fusion design. I doubt if this exhibition reflects anything close to the reality of life for 98% of Chinese citizens, any more than Hoxton represents Heckmondwike, but why should it? Don’t look for subliminal messages: some of the work on display is mildly subversive, but only in the same way as Chop Suey is authentic peasant fare. Nothing I saw here made me think of tanks and students in big squares; some made me think of Neuromancer, but the overall effect was uplifting and, well, optimistic.I still don’t like sweatshops and the cultural genocide in Tibet, so you’ll be relieved to know that I haven’t been brainwashed. But if China Design Now signals a world which is coming, in one form or another, to your shopping mall soon then we should be as grateful as bikers were when Honda made motorbikes that started in the rain.This is an inspired and well-curated exhibition, (admirably and lavishly sponsored by HSBC).
Mao was a bit of a monster, but his kids are good at art— with a surprisingly western sense of humour. Let a thousand designers bloom. In the semiology of global contemporary design, China is proving an expert linguist.
Hmnnn…If Belstaffs can be anoraks too , Manx Norton had the edge
( Bonnevilles were a bit wobbly - my older brother still has one leg shorter than the other to prove it ) but sadly too right about Tibet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMSo9R3VTQ
However, I remain optimistic - naive perhaps, but Obamahow this year the whole world seems to be waking up from political gridlock ..
Dear Sir:
Now that China is scrambling out of the mess that was state capitalism or old-guard socialist communism as it used to be, according to my old fiancee Xiao Xiao, we can turn our backs on Pravda and the like and welcome this new state into the family of nations a la WHO, G10 and UNESCO and so on. Space is a wonderful healer of old dichotomies and ideologies. China is coming of age. Communism was tried, but found wanting.
A rapprochement between Britain and China is a welcome development, conscious always of our obligations to confront a few shadows, gray areas and lacunas left under humans rights conventions and so on, but overall the old China of Chairman Mao has now gone, and this is largely due to an explosion of space-port philosophy and offworld perspective - much of it due to Perry and Kim Rhodan of China.
Bravo to Prospect for leading the field once again!
Tim & Sarah Cox
Last night C4 news reported 600 Tibetan monks protesting on the streets of Lhasa for the right to complete religious freedom as :
“ an incredibly rare sign of defiance, the biggest demonstration
in 20 years ”
According to the Telegraph’s Robert Spencer in Beijing, the dramatic
scene was described by two European bloggers :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/13/wtibet113.xml
For all its confusions, we may have the internet to thank ( as well Prospect ) for the fact that in the long run the world will be ungovernable by tyrants
The Falun Gong, described on the edited BBC run website h2g2 as
“ the target of merciless persecution in China …” have faced a
near media black-out in the UK.
By the grace of God ( or Mohamed or whoever one is lucky enough to be free to enjoy ) the west has so far resisted the jack-booted ideology of communism, but not without blood stains all round , especially in Kashmir
Indians and Pakistanis who still perceive injustice at partition might scrutinise the alledged ‘ violent religious intolerance ‘ in China with an eye to the fact that strategically Britain divided Kashmir where it did in 1949 because the Indian military force was considered the more competent to face off the advancing Chinese
We are privileged to be free to be able to support the ancient cultural identity and religious freedom of Tibet. Britons refuse to be bullied by stocking-headed state socialism ( communism by the trap door )or indeed to have our own cultural identity further eroded
by the arrogant fools of our current government
( It is no coincidence they object to Polish immigrants - these hard-working, intelligent and highly motivated people will be unlikely to vote labour at the next election, whichever sheepskin coat it wears )
Hence the huge public support for the repeal of the hunt ban c/o http://www.countryside-alliance.org.uk , winners of the 2008 C4 News award
for political acheivement in the last decade , and supermarket chain Morrisons recent announcement that they will now be stocking meat and game sourced from British farmers only
I see one or two Falun Gong protestors opposite the Chinese embassy whenever I go to the RIBA. Without being callous, I’m not sure if you could classify a couple of people doing Chi Kung in the rain as totally newsworthy and therefore I wonder whether the ‘media blackout’ theory is going a bit too far. I’ve read Wikipedia but wonder how something that started in 1992 has amassed 100 million adherents. no question that the Chinese authorities have banned it, and I’m sure they did so brutally, but while I can understand why the authorities (including our forthright great helmsman Gordon by the looks of it) are scared of the Dalai Lama, it’s genuinely baffling as to how a couple of drabbies standing on one leg in the rain in front of a vase of plastic flowers can bring down the engine of totalitarian capitunism. I’m sympathetic, but sceptical, in other words, but open to persuasion. No blackout round here - enlighten us, as they say in Falun Gong! JK
China is doing what most successful developing nations do, which is to tightly control its economy until it is strong enough to deal with international competition. They did not want to repeat the massacre that was Russian liberalisation, and with good reason - The Russians, post Perestroika, have lost more population than the Chinese did in their disasterous great leap forward.
So whilst I am a long time supporter of Free TIbet, I am not convinced that the Chinese must democritise on anything other thatn a time-scale that makes sense for them, anything else is double standards.
The problem I see is far more environmental. I am glad they have good design, I am glad they have a large intelligencia, and I am glad that they have green thinking people at the top now, but the glaring issue with China is that half its energy consumption is based on the goods it exports, or in other words on our consumption.
Should we be celebrating that? The implications for those outside the consumption loop are huge. Indeed, with the likely effects on food supply of climate change taken into the account, the ongoing consumption of beautifully styled Chinese goods may veer dangerously close to a form of Genocide by inaction.
DT, Your analysis about the environment is very persuasive, but the heady luxury we all enjoy of being free to debate the subject in public cannot be reiterated enough
JK, This does not sound like your usual cuddly self. Whatever happened to a nation is only as healthy as the way it treats its
” drabbies standing in the rain on one leg ? ”
Perhaps you might stop by with a croissant or two and ask them in person ? Or, for more on the Falun Gong and other Chinese whispers,
Prospect might consider commissioning Chen Yonglin in person ( if government brollyboys have not yet given him the prod ..)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4612497.stm
Erratum : in fact, the Countryside Alliance won its 2008 C4 News Award for being “the most inspiring personality of the last decade”
Point well taken. Uncharitable cheap shot. En avant les drabs! At least we allow drabbies to stand on one leg protesting in Portland Place and Times Square without apparently putting them in gulags. I’d seriously like to know more about why they do it and why it upsets the Chinese government - including how much it really upsets them. Surely it can’t be the Heart Sutra - gate gate paragate, parasamgate bodhi svaha never hurt anyone. Maybe they’re genuinely bothered by the idea that ‘the law’ is beyond materialism, consumerism, desire and fear - all those things that keep people in power - especially in the Marxist context of religion as the opium of the masses - or maybe they are scared of latter day folk religious cults which may or may not morph into political groupings. Remember, the Aum started off with the best of intentions but caused mayhem on the Tokyo underground. as they say in the Heart Sutra, it’s beyond me. We should find out more I suppose.
JK, Was that a Steely Dan song ?
Bolted on these two http://www.youtube.com clips of Chen Yonglin speaking on an Australian news channel earlier. Alas, the blog label read
‘the mediator is monitoring your comment’ and promptly ate them both
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D5bZYO5UVRk
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=b9RavkOFBPs&feature=related
For the mediator record, Chen Yonglin’s comments are not my comments. Having not yet visited China, I cannot possibly comment. Our household has many useful items Made in China, we imagine them all to have been made by the nimble fingers of smiley folk singing smiley songs; and were up-cheered by the Think China cover story
However, gut feeling is that CY’s comments are not entirely fiction. In particular where his voice cracks as describes the off-label narcotics used to abduct a Chinese politician’s student son as part of his diplomatic experience
We might get a 8th opinion if the too handy blogroll did not lure readers away to other bloglands before they have commented ?
Sorry, you’ve lost me now. The Heart Sutra (Prajna Paramita Hrdya - Essence of Wisdom) is a principal tenet of Mayayana Buddhism,the last line of which I quoted. Roughly translated, it means: ‘Beyond, beyond, further beyond, beyond the beyond, Bodhi svaha.Aldous Huxley recited it on his deathbed (on Mescalin, allegedly). It is believed to be the distillation of the cloud of unknowing between samsara and nirvana. (I think therefore I’m not there yet so I need to think about not thinking). It paradoxically urges you to seek reality by recognising the emptiness of all the ’skandas’ - sensory perceptions, subjective feelings, notions of reality etc. It wouldn’t go down well with totalitarian materialists: if everybody went beyond the beyond we’d have no shops and no shoppers, never mind designer trainers. China hasn’t banned Buddhism. Quite the contrary. The V&A exhibition even has some Tibetan images - the one on the far left above is a stylised Lama. Let’s call a halt to this thread, though. Go to the V&A and enjoy the designs. They’re great and China is too.
PS. Bhodisattva was indeed the title of a fine early Steely Dan song with Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter on guitar. John
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/index.jhtml
Your monks are on fire ?
“No blackout round here “… “Let’s call a halt to this thread “…
“China is great “…
Is there a North London cocktail called the Bulgarian Umbrella ?
Afraid I’m no great fan of the wacky baccy brigade, purveyors of politicised undergarments or not . Nor the work of Jeff Koons
( although heartily applauded he and James Birch both for their efforts in raising awareness of Tiananmen Square) and can’t remember much of the schooldays cult read ‘The Tibetan book of The Dead ‘
However, Chen Yong Lin, who in defecting risked untold dread for his
family and freinds at home, is not a brainwashed farm boy, ( he spent a day in London, c/o The Foreign Press Association and the House , witnessed by Lord Avery and Shirley Williams MP ) but a former senior diplomatic servant, whose analysis of China ( in terms of body language, that this experienced gentleman’s throat is almost visibly gripped by fear during the 2nd clip speaks the thousand words ) would be significantly more reliable than ours
Favourite Telegraph on-line sub head of today :
“ Olympic concern over China’s clashes with Tibet “
Favourite magazine soon to lead the way yet again ?
And so say both of us. Perhaps with the (excellent) cover story, and this glowing review of petro chemical industry by-products, China has enjoyed the GM carrot…Now, time to wave your rythym stick?
I agree with DH’s comment that foreign countries are broadly better off being fiscally encouraged to evolve (had this been the case as was argued at the time, Iraq might not be still be tasting blood) but the UKs rubbish record for teenagers (and 9 yr old boys stabbed in the face while trying to defend their mothers from burglars)is no advert for sound political tips from the current cabinet thickos
The beauty of Tibet and its ancient culture is too high a price for observing the status quo in the region (we can enjoy our brilliantly designed Miele dishwashers and Audi TDIs and still condem the Nazis )and a muddled China might welcome the kind of lengthy intellectual persuasion that Prospect can be so very good at
Or, we can always head back to the bar and discuss football
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAjWi663kXc
I agree. I agree. Enough already. I wish I hadn’t been rude about the Falun Gong. It’s given me a right headache and apparently started riots in Lhasa. Typical me.
I agree entirely about the rape of Tibet - with the utmost respect, I used the term cultural genocide in the post which started all this - but I really think it’s a separate subject and one which I don’t really know enough about. I’d be delighted to hear from some (non partisan) folk who do. Everyone knows that the UK government have been painfully coy about Tibet and have not so far offered a meeting with the Dalai Lama when he visits in May. Indeed, our finest cordoned off the Falun Gong, Taiwanese and Free Tibet protesters behind riot shields and coshes (for their own safety no doubt)when the Chinese premier came to London in the golden time of Emperor To Ni the Peacemaker.
Then again, we dubbed the voices of Gerry Adams and McGuinness in the name of peace and freedom, invaded a sovereign state or two recently and stood by while millions of kids and mums in Rwanda, Darfur, Namibia, Palestine, Lebanon (there, I’ve said it) and countless other places were slaughtered in full view of the world’s media. Those folk don’t sell us cheap washing up bowls, don’t have sovereign funds and enough nuclear weapons to blow the world up ten times over, but I suppose that’s just me being oblique again. The answer has to be more complex and require a think tank to explain it. Om shanti om. JK.
JK, A design review post is possibly not THE place. However, I suspect that many Chinese artists or otherwise feel too intimidated to speak out, and any reading the blog design review will be cheered up by the odd glimpse of solidarity
Amid the current situation in China and Tibet, the UK mainstream press are more discerning about how great is China
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/17/wtibet317.xml
To do otherwise, and ignore alleged persecution of the Falun Gong..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/401268.stm )
might imply de ja vu of the canny businessmen and politicians who protested that Germany too was great throughout the kristallnacht untermensch policies of the National Socialist German Workers Party
To paraphrase Colonel Hathaway’s wife : “..What if it was your boy all alone out there in the jungle ? ”
A chance for Great Britain to show leadership, if our own control-freak HQ socialist party has not yet removed its backbone entirely :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VaP1HB7Vew