chinaculturedesk

The China Information Company

August 20, 2013
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Yummy

I simply love Chinese food – albeit I was not always completely sure what was being served. Anyway, Chinese cuisine has nothing in common with these dishes that are being served in restaurants called e.g. “Lucky Chinese”, at least in Middle Europe!

Enjoy some impressions from my travels!

Found this at the night market in Beijing – no idea what it is!

Hotpot before…

… and afterwards

Sweet delight

Some seafood

Please don´t call them dumplings!

No idea…

Delicious veggies

Miscellaneous whatever

Not sure… maybe lychee?

Enjoying Chinese food at the artist studio of He Chongyue – a wonderful cook besides being a photography artist. My interview with him will appear in the November 2013 issue of “Yishu. Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art”

 

Further bits:
Food at The World of Chinese.
Blogposts on Chinese Tea: Confessions… Twi Leaves and a bud. Poetically Tea.
Chinese cuisine (wiki).
History of Chinese cuisine (wiki).
Chinese Food About.
Recipes.

 

August 11, 2013
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Shuffling The Cards…

… is a series of exhibitions developed by curator Alexandra Grimmer, featuring Chinese contemporary art.

The 3rd round, Construction of Identity, currently taking place in Gmunden (Upper Austria) shows works of artists, which are not yet widely known in the West – and all of them are pursuing very interesting approaches off the beaten aesthetic tracks.

Opening on August, 5th, Alexandra Grimmer

Wang Wo – Masses: Social Structures

Wang Wo: Installation view. Digital prints

Wang Wo: Untitled History (series), detail

Wang Wo: Untitled History (series), o.T.N°20

Feng Lianghong – Chinese Landscape: The Inherent Language

Feng Lianghong: “abstract 1-9” (left). “scribble 0812” (centre). “composition 49-9” (right). Oil on canvas

 

Feng Lianghong: “abstract 1-9”

Exhibition at Hipp-Halle, Gmunden, Inside View

Wang Ai – Reconstruction of the Cultural Landscape

Wang Ai: Over the Old Landscape. Mixed technique on rice paper

Wang Ai: Flower Gun. Mixed technique on rice paper

Wand Ai: detail

Zhang Zhenyu – Political Landscape

Zhang Zhenyu: Dust

All images: courtesy of the artists.

 

The 4th round of Shuffling the Cards currently takes place in Gmunden, too:
Yang Jin. Don’t be afraid of strange places.

Further bits:
Shuffling the Card, 3rd round.
Shuffling the Cards, 4th round.

July 17, 2013
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How To … Taxi Guide, Part 2

Couple of month ago I have posted some hints on how to get along in a mega-city like Beijing without really speaking Chinese: How to…Beijing Taxi Guide.

Others are also concerned with this topic, demonstrating that potential weird experiences are (mostly but) not only confined to foreigners.

Take a look at Keoni Everington´s post at The World Of Chinese How to pass your next taxi audition!
“Based on years of humiliating denials, I’ve created a list of common reasons why cabbies blow off would-be customers.” Audition point deduction may be for example: Being a foreigner. Being old. Being disabled. Having a child. Being in a group of 4 or more. Carrying luggage. You will also find “Tips to Pass Your Audition”.

A story of such an importance that even China Daily Europe featured it recently 🙂

July 4, 2013
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Into the Cities

In China, the last decades with its dynamic developments brought with it many social trends, amongst it a movement from the countryside into the cities – young people looking for employment, for a better place to live, myriads of migrant workers.

What started at random, in the wake on ever increasing economy meanwhile turned into a political aim: Chinese prime minister, Li Keqiang, indicated at his inaugural news conference in March that urbanisation was one of his top priorities.
Ian Johnson describes this phenomenon in a recent contribution to the New York Times, “China’s Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities”: „China is pushing ahead with a sweeping plan to move 250 million rural residents into newly constructed towns and cities over the next dozen years — a transformative event that could set off a new wave of growth or saddle the country with problems for generations to come. The government, often by fiat, is replacing small rural homes with high-rises, paving over vast swaths of farmland and drastically altering the lives of rural dwellers. […] The ultimate goal of the government’s modernization plan is to fully integrate 70 per cent of the country’s population, or roughly 900 million people, into city living by 2025. […] In the early 1980s, about 80 per cent of Chinese lived in the countryside versus 47 per cent today, plus an additional 17 per cent that works in cities but is classified as rural. The idea is to speed up this process and achieve an urbanized China much faster than would occur organically.“

Many aspects to think about, among the critical ones:
Destruction of farmland, changes in social structures and life-style, loss of some cultural heritage witnessing traditional Chinese culture and way of life (one of the recent examples is located not in the countryside, but in Beijing, the stepwise destruction of the quarter around both the Bell and Drum Tower), or potential of creating a permanent underclass in big Chinese cities.


On the other side urbanization is generally regarded as one of the manifold manifestations of modernity. It represents for example a higher economic standard or a lifestyle less bound to traditional and thus mostly narrower notions. These developments reflect a process that has long since started in the Western hemisphere. Last not least, a continuously consuming city dweller is essential for keeping up economical numbers.

I am one of the last ones with a pseudo-romantic view upon old structures – an attitude foreigners and visitors to Beijing like to display when longing for “authentic” impressions during their trips. How many of them would really want to live in an undeveloped area without any functioning system of electricity or sewerage?
But between white and black there are many shades. Urbanity does not mean just as many people as possible living in high-rise buildings – it is something that develops gradually, together with changes in lifestyle and mentality, it is about new possibilities, about more education, it is also an attitude.

What it is then that is criticised really? Maybe the velocity, maybe the slight unease at a central government that decides for so many people where to continue their life, or maybe just envy of the old world at the dynamics somewhere else in the world…

 

Further bits:
Ian Johnson: China’s Great Uprooting: Moving 250 Million Into Cities, The New York Times.
Tom Miller: China’s Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History (amazon).
Dagongmei Working Sisters, post on urban migrant workers.

June 11, 2013
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La Biennale

On my way from the airport into the city…

Once in Venice, you cannot escape the Biennial! Just in strolling around, just on your way for a light lunch you stumble over it all the time… – have a look for yourself!

And isn´t she still beautiful?!

There´s more to come especially on the enormous presence of Chinese artists at and around the Biennial!

May 22, 2013
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Lost in Translation

Ever thought about how to translate your name or that of your company into Chinese? I went through this experience myself, and I can ensure you that this is quite a tricky thing (which I not yet have resolved satisfyingly).

You have to make sure the meaning and sound of every Chinese character or ideograph – a name with a negative meaning could really turn into a disadvantage!

Let me share some very useful information on that topic: Does your company or brand have the right Chinese name? by Janet Hau Ling Mo, co-founder of Zentron, provides some very valuable insight and shows how big companies such as McDonald´s, Ikea or Microsoft solved that problem.