A-yi's and Cultural Capital
Danielle and I have an ayi, who is this old lady who lives in the apartment underneath us (yeah, all the new villas that architects design here have servant's quarters bc rural folks and elderly can make more being servants than chillin in the poorer areas of the country). For 100 kuai per month, our ayi comes in every other day, sweeps the floor, dusts, does the laundry, and cleans the bathroom once a week. She doesn't do the best job, but I guess she's the only ayi readily available to us.
Today, I decided to hand wash the clothes I set aside. I made the mistake of bringing nice clothes to China. The water and detergents here don't treat fabric well at all (all I can do is hand wash and hope for the best -- that my stuff doesn't fade and pill). You can visibly watch your clothes wilting after each wash if your ayi machine washes; also, bc people here don't machine dry shit, everything smells like mildew after it hang dries. Washing my own clothes give me a really fulfilling feeling. Like I am bathing my kids or something. Even though my fingers are like icicles, it's really pleasant to see my pants drip-drying and sweaters laying comfortably on terry towels.
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I went with my friend Julia to the new house she bought in Pudong. She already has 2 apartments there, but she just closed on a 3 story townhouse, about 300 m square (3000 sq ft). (The bottom storey is a great room and servant's quarters). The kind of developments here are like bastardized and super high density versions of Southern Californian suburban developments. But I think it's a pretty comfortable place. All parking is underground, but it's not like the underground you imagine in the States. If you can think of a below 0-level plane that has sunlight access, plantings and ventilation in addition to parking spaces, you've got the idea. Chinese developments are very interested in surfaces -- you have this obsession with landscape and water and fresh air and south facing facades, in addition to an appreciation for laquered surfaces, rich woods, tiles, and ceiling variations. The interiors have this mix of attention to material detail, but also a substandard attention to detail in craftsmanship (but that's just a labor and economic problem). If only the 2 were joined ...
anyway, even though the typical homeowner here loves European Baroque/Rococo shit, I think there's this trend of Modernism (not unlike the Mid-Century Modern trend in the US right now) that's happening as well. It's not too bad. It's more that just seeing this growing self-awareness and aesthetic appreciation is really encouraging. I can't wait to see what's going to happen to China in a decade. I hope by then it's starting to import it's own cultural capital like Japan, instead of being mentally raped (like a typical developing country) by US and Europe. (Yeah, fuck you, Western cultural hegemony!)
You can see the capitalist system really pushing this awareness, too. For example, the shitty contractors are getting rooted out, and this isn't always a bad thing. You get more qualified and better skilled craftspeople who can make things with a higher standard and are accountable to the people that they work for. (Even though real imcompetency at all levels runs rampant here).
On the streets, everyday I see something happening in fashion. People are into EVERYTHING. Like I said, if there is anything to be said about Shanghai fashion, it's that it's fucking eclectic. It's like after they started free trade, the coastal cities went on a style binge; they really broke a fucking cultural dam. There are too many different people for fashion to be homogenous (like it kind of is in Japan). It makes San Francisco feel super sterile. It makes New York feel like a granddad. It makes Japan feel like its troubled, disenchanted yuppified 30-something cousin. Yah, Shanghai really is a global teenager. With all the requisite foreigners flooding in trying to tell it to be one way or the other. A real chaotic, incomprehensible dialectic between foreigners, expats, government, and locals. (I am starting to see that China is less of a unified nation and more of a collection of regions, somewhere between the heterogeneity of the EU and the homogeneity of the US demographically -- Danielle believes that as China delves more into the free market system, it will become increasingly regionally fragmented). Shit, this is only 1/100th of my thoughts ... okay. I'll stop writing.
Today, I decided to hand wash the clothes I set aside. I made the mistake of bringing nice clothes to China. The water and detergents here don't treat fabric well at all (all I can do is hand wash and hope for the best -- that my stuff doesn't fade and pill). You can visibly watch your clothes wilting after each wash if your ayi machine washes; also, bc people here don't machine dry shit, everything smells like mildew after it hang dries. Washing my own clothes give me a really fulfilling feeling. Like I am bathing my kids or something. Even though my fingers are like icicles, it's really pleasant to see my pants drip-drying and sweaters laying comfortably on terry towels.
----
I went with my friend Julia to the new house she bought in Pudong. She already has 2 apartments there, but she just closed on a 3 story townhouse, about 300 m square (3000 sq ft). (The bottom storey is a great room and servant's quarters). The kind of developments here are like bastardized and super high density versions of Southern Californian suburban developments. But I think it's a pretty comfortable place. All parking is underground, but it's not like the underground you imagine in the States. If you can think of a below 0-level plane that has sunlight access, plantings and ventilation in addition to parking spaces, you've got the idea. Chinese developments are very interested in surfaces -- you have this obsession with landscape and water and fresh air and south facing facades, in addition to an appreciation for laquered surfaces, rich woods, tiles, and ceiling variations. The interiors have this mix of attention to material detail, but also a substandard attention to detail in craftsmanship (but that's just a labor and economic problem). If only the 2 were joined ...
anyway, even though the typical homeowner here loves European Baroque/Rococo shit, I think there's this trend of Modernism (not unlike the Mid-Century Modern trend in the US right now) that's happening as well. It's not too bad. It's more that just seeing this growing self-awareness and aesthetic appreciation is really encouraging. I can't wait to see what's going to happen to China in a decade. I hope by then it's starting to import it's own cultural capital like Japan, instead of being mentally raped (like a typical developing country) by US and Europe. (Yeah, fuck you, Western cultural hegemony!)
You can see the capitalist system really pushing this awareness, too. For example, the shitty contractors are getting rooted out, and this isn't always a bad thing. You get more qualified and better skilled craftspeople who can make things with a higher standard and are accountable to the people that they work for. (Even though real imcompetency at all levels runs rampant here).
On the streets, everyday I see something happening in fashion. People are into EVERYTHING. Like I said, if there is anything to be said about Shanghai fashion, it's that it's fucking eclectic. It's like after they started free trade, the coastal cities went on a style binge; they really broke a fucking cultural dam. There are too many different people for fashion to be homogenous (like it kind of is in Japan). It makes San Francisco feel super sterile. It makes New York feel like a granddad. It makes Japan feel like its troubled, disenchanted yuppified 30-something cousin. Yah, Shanghai really is a global teenager. With all the requisite foreigners flooding in trying to tell it to be one way or the other. A real chaotic, incomprehensible dialectic between foreigners, expats, government, and locals. (I am starting to see that China is less of a unified nation and more of a collection of regions, somewhere between the heterogeneity of the EU and the homogeneity of the US demographically -- Danielle believes that as China delves more into the free market system, it will become increasingly regionally fragmented). Shit, this is only 1/100th of my thoughts ... okay. I'll stop writing.
posted by Miss J at 2:09 PM
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