Bourgeois Fantasyland, Being One in A Billion, and America

Some rambling thoughts

1] High density housing associated with poverty associated with disease. Poverty is everywhere here. Substandard sanitation, housing, etc. But, I think the way it is portrayed in the US is emotional, that of sympathy (and yes, becoming more apparent to me, that of crisis) and fails to address real issues of real people such as that of my relatives: once, concerns were centered on how to feed yourself and your kids, now it is population problems, housing problems, health issues, and standard of living. The issues that billions of people face daily are beyond the realm of architecture. Well, it's hard to predict where China will be heading in a few decades. Maybe totalitarian regime/socialist free market, in a sort of machiavellian manner, WILL prove itself to be better than capitalist democracy as it speed its way into higher living standards. But not right now.

1.5] [It seems that pervasive in the Chinese psyche is the idea that human life is perishable and replaceable. One in 1.3 billion. Who are you to be an ego-filled individual free-spirit when there are only so many jobs and so little resources. It leaves little room for self-indulgence, and the kind of philanthropy is not the same as in the US. The feeling is to find your own path, struggle, and protect yourself and your family above all else. I see this makes it really hard for Western companies to really break into the market, because they have to finangle with these cultural differences, where the Chinese are protecting their own interests and giving incomplete, indirect, sometimes evasive information to outsiders -- so I'm lucky to at least not look like a "lao wai" and get the in on certain information. Nonetheless, there is a commonality between people, a feeling of being "one big family" that is zhong guo -- people, even strangers, are constantly being referred to as sisters, brothers, etc. and in that respect, there is a bluntness I really love. None of that schmoozy "yeah, your hair looks great!" crap. If you're too fat, too skinny, your work sucks, you will be told. :p]

2] Architecture feels like a bourgois fantasy land when I see this material poverty. Architecture doesn't solve problems if it can't get past the policy and lack of resources / crumbling infrastructure. Maybe I can start out with a different kind of architecture that reshapes existing, unused structures. If I do the corporate/starchitect/boutique firm thing I'll really grapple with an ethical dilemma, I know it ... I just don't want to end up feeding that insular fantasy in the US by doing avant-garde, intellectually schmoozy stuff that makes architects happy (an architect's architect? an rich man's architect?). Not to say it's a BAD thing ... there are great results.

But, something's a little askew to me when something (what we call art in architecture, for example) aspires to achieve an ideal end through unideal means. (Why not be honest about it and recognize it for what it is instead of creating a religion around yourself ... self-fetishization's maybe the word. Feels out of touch with reality). That kind of work is not for me.

3] I watched 2046 twice, and I've only watched American teensploitation films since. Perhaps to balance out the overwelming sleeziness dripping from those highly saturated dream-like memories of romance, longing, and loss. Hot Chinese women orbiting the fantasies of one floozy Chinese man. I always wonder how these art house films would turn out if a woman was the director ... hot Chinese men, lush Chinese woman. Probably less sentimental and dodgy. (Does it really help the reputation of all those mustachioed Chinese Don Juans? Or maybe men do need a stereotype-hero artist to aspire to ... ) Kind of makes me want to start writing a yellow novel ... rar.

Anyway, my cousin's best friend from work is obsessed with American teen movies. She lived in Beijing almost her whole life. I met her for the first time and swore she was from Southern California, accent, dress, attitude, stilletoed swagger and all. She is verifiably a Hollywood teen-movie victim, and refuses to date anyone but American men. Goes to show just how pervasive and influential Hollywood is as the "number one cultural exporter in the entire world." She loans Danielle all these DVDs, and afterward we watch them, we are always left perplexed and making bemused/confused faces. Danielle and I proceed to contemplate her friend's taste in men and movies ...

4] Humanism is not dead, right? Next thought: the political polarization of America. The ideological split between the "blue" and "red" increasingly frightens me. The more I blog browse, the more angry I get at people's comments. Really, there doesn't seem to be a middle ground. This is probably because of the great disdain both sides hold for one another ... how does such a conflict resolve? I have no idea what this great American divide's going to do to the States in the long-run, but I'm shaking in my bones thinking about it. And it's SO deeply intertwined with the fundamentalist Christianity (that the Left chooses to unwisely ignore and belittle) ... it's a force to be reckoned with! ... (And hasn't there been, historically, a Christian fundamentalist revival in the US that sweeps the nation every 20 years since early last century. I figured there was one due around year 2000. Pray to God for sanctity of our RIGHTS).