ponderings of the pococurante

前天晚上去了豫园看灯会，观摩的主要是人海，但是喜气洋洋的，感觉还是不错。后来跟朋友在老城区溜达，久违的灵感也终于回来了，当然，这也跟我带新的相机出去也有关。谢谢长辈的提携以及各位朋友的支持！我要坚持拍下去！

I　hadn’t heard of this place until C. made it the point of a late night treasure hunt. We managed to find it, and wow–never seen a place like that in Shanghai. It’s really like stepping into another world, especially since the place is located right off of Huai Hai Lu. You’re in this stately and massive mansion with long columns. There’s a nicely tapered lawn out front, and a warmly lit den–I mean den in the sense of ageless couches, cognac, the company of your best friends, an unfinished and unharried game of chess lying on the table, a fireplace, a German sheperd lying at your feet, some Greek classics and Roman histories on the bookshelves. The fuckin Chivas life. The fact that the glass was frosted lent to the air of mystery and exclusivity.
Upstairs, there was a lounge, which was quite nice as well. YOu can go up the elevators or the winding stairs, stained glass and eclectic paintings surrounding you. The lounge itself reminds one of those Harvard-type alumni clubs in New York, where, since everyone belongs to the same elite club, only the slightest of nods and smiles from across the room is enough to acknowledge another “member”.

The problem, if you want to call it that is that the place is exclusive and therefore attracts some rich and poncey fucks, in which case it’s neither a world that I can or want to belong in. So perhaps my first night there will be my last as well. It was worth it though–it’s rare these days to see anything that can even remotely give my tired visual neurons a kick in the pants, and that place was it. Thank god we never bought drinks. Seeing the bill afterwards would have no doubt soured the rest of the evening.

From miscellaneous

I noticed that Boonna 3 cafe has a laminated document on one of their walls with a big red frowning face on it. Looking more closely I see that it’s a food safety document, and apparently, Boonna 3 failed because that’s what the red frowning face means. And they had to hang that up in public for all the people to see. I don’t think that many people noticed it, or really cared. So if you are in the mood for compromising your health and safety at Boonna 3, I recommend the omelette, which is small but quite tasty, with nice morsels of ham, cheese, and peppers. I’ve always liked their sandwiches as well, even though they never seemed to be quite the same as a “real” western sandwich that you might get in Europe or North America.

This is the first time that I have ever seen this kind of food safety document, and now I am curious to see what emoticon is used for the other levels or gradations.

From miscellaneous

As for Fortune Soup, well, tonight was the first night that I’d ever been there, even though they had a Weihai Lu store that has been around since around May of last year. I was at the new one on Huashan Lu near WLMQ Lu, just by Huashan Hospital. I paid 20 rmb for a chicken and mushroom soup, which was quite tasty and I think will be just the right thing for a quick eat or snack as temperatures drop over the next few weeks.

This recently published ranking is supposedly measures overall globalization, taken as some kind of composite of business activity, human capital, information exchange, cultural experience, and political engagement. New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong were the top 5. Beijing made it at #12, and Shanghai at #20.

Shanghai’s highest ranked aspect was business activity, at #8， while in the other aspects it didn’t too well, which, at least by their standards, makes sense: Shanghai has attracted a certain creative class to it, both local and foreign, but it’s not like they really wield that much influence. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good creatives here, meaning painters and poets, ad industry people, filmmakers, musicians, etc. etc. but maybe in terms of GDP they aren’t amounting to much yet at least compared to New York, London, Chicago, LA, etc. Cultural experience has improved, with more festivals and biennales and international galleries opening up branches here. Rock stars don’t think it’s altogether that strange to insert a Shanghai or Beijing dates into their concert tours. But as far as cultural experience and political engagement, Shanghai is not going to do that well, for one, Beijing is going to wield more political clout for obvious reasons.

The next few pages present some different groupings. Open cities have a free press, open markets, easy access to info and tech, cultural opportunities: and of course you get NY, London, and Paris at the top there.

Lifestyle centers: where you enjoy life: Toronto and LA. As mentioned before, in terms of best cities to do business, Shanghai ranks 8th and Beijing 9th. A shout out to my bruthas in Taipei–you made it in the top 20 (#19). You guys could learn a thing or two from the communists about how to do business. Technorati Tags: london, beijing, politics, lifestyle, culture, business

I was at the Ke Center about a week ago for the opening of their new exhibit, and met the lovely Kat(therine) Don, director of RedBox Studio, who do graphic design and are also involved in the contemporary art scene in China. They made a bunch of these little colorful pocket-sized guides as a bit of a pet project. As you can see from some of the pictures above, the little foldable thing has a map on one side, addresses of some major art venues and galleries in the city, as well as some local and international events. It’s probably a bit more small and handy than having a magazine or guidebook, and perhaps more convenient than common digital forms of information, ie phones (Guanxi, smartphones), especially if you are an out of towner…and just want a simple thing you can slip into a pocket or purse.

I don’t mean to do promo for them. Just something that I noticed and thought was nifty.

art, redbox, guide, information, contemporary, shanghai, beijing, hongkong, scene, musuem, galleries, artists

I’d heard of this place from various people, not least from that famed purveyor of low-budget gastronomy Eric Hu and decided to give it a try last night. I ordered their Coney Island hot dog which you see above. In some sense, I don’t know why I am writing about it, there isn’t much art to the art of the hot dog. Slap it together, make it messy, make it good. They do that. It’s dead simple but it works. The pricing? Well, a bit much for something that simple, but what the hey, people get cravings and will go to any lengths to satisfy them. For me, it’s close to home so that means faster than average delivery times as well as the option of eating there when I want to go somewhere close.

I’d heard of this place from various people, not least from that famed purveyor of low-budget gastronomy Eric Hu and decided to give it a try last night. I ordered their Coney Island hot dog which you see above. In some sense, I don’t know why I am writing about it, there isn’t much art to the art of the hot dog. Slap it together, make it messy, make it good. They do that. It’s dead simple but it works. The pricing? Well, a bit much for something that simple, but what the hey, people get cravings and will go to any lengths to satisfy them. For me, it’s close to home so that means faster than average delivery times as well as the option of eating there when I want to go somewhere close.

The sexologist Pan Hai has called for one of the idyllic islands off Zhuhai–Miao Wan Island–to be turned into a nude island. The blog post, written on July 15, is titled 中国应有裸泳海滩 (China ought to have a nude beach) and lays out some of Pan’s reasons he believes it’s about time for China’s own nude beach. As you might expect from a sexologist, he decries China’s puritanical sex culture, which he traces back to the Tang dynasty. What’s more interesting is what he says the ‘class structure’ behind sexual relations in China today–that is to say, sex can be openly bought, sold, and enjoyed by high officials–including Mao himself–but to do so, while preaching sexual prudishness to the masses, is nothing less than hypocrisy:

尽管统治者（包括我们的伟大领袖毛主席）自己从不禁欲，但他们却严格地限制老百姓的性欲。结果，整个中国社会，千百年来便形成了对于性的“二元化态度”或称“双重标准”。即：统治者可以荒淫无度，可以糜烂奢侈，而普罗大众则稍有“出格”，便会遭受道德、舆论甚至国家机器的制裁。

不是么？贪官污吏使用公款或者借用贿资包养情人（长期并多个），非但不受惩处，反而成为权势者的荣耀；小小百姓花一点儿小钱找“小姐”一乐，却时时受到专政机关的威胁，轻则罚款，重者拘禁——同样性质的男欢女爱，对于不同的国人竟有如此不同的“待遇”。这不仅深刻反映了当代中国“性道德”的虚伪，更反映了中国民主政治建设的一大或缺——缺乏实事求是的态度、缺乏一视同仁的公正！

Specifically, Pan mentions that while corrupt officials use their ill-gotten gains to keep several lovers, the little guy on the street trying to get a little action with a xiaojie gets fined and punished. Pan goes on to rail against that the development of Chinese sexual culture has been all but neglected, and what needs to be done to keep this from further slipping into abeyance is to make sure that “sexual development” get incorporated into official policy and pronouncements, so that people understand they have “sexual rights” and ought to strive to build “Socialist sexual culture with Chinese characteristics”* :

因此，当“以人为本”的理念连续写进最近几次党代会的报告之后，人们有理由要求执政者，重新审视自己的性观念，深刻认识人民群众的性权利，重新制定与性相关的政策法规，把“性文明”与精神文明、物质文明一起，列为人类文明的三大建设领域，与“经济、政治、文化、社会、生态”等五大目标一起，列为“建设小康社会”的共同要求，积极而又认真地打造“中国特色的社会主义性文明”，从而使十七大报告所讲的“科学发展观”，真正能够实现“以人为本”，真正能够实现“全面协调可持续”，真正能够实现“统筹兼顾”——既兼顾资源保护，又兼顾经济增长，更兼顾人的全面自由发展。所以，建设健康型的裸泳海滩，应该没有什么难以逾越的障碍。

Now what makes this island so special? Well, located some forty nautical miles or more from Zhuhai, these little islands are fairly isolated; only a few fisherman families live there. The beaches can be easily isolated so that you can limit the nudity and not be afraid that this strange habit will spread to the point that everyone feels obliged to walk around in their birthday suit.

Of course, there are plenty of priggish people that are opposed to this idea. Some of those who have criticized Pan object to his use of “linking up with the world” (与国际接轨）: just because the French and a whole bunch of other nations have nude beaches doesn’t mean that the Chinese have to in order to prove that they are on the same level. The writer linked to above thinks that the whole idea of sexologist is crazy, and to even make such suggestions is to defile five thousand years of Chinese history and culture. “What is a sexologist anyway? Shouldn’t they be trying to heal infertility?” the writer asks.

中华五千年的文明就这样被糟蹋，被诋毁，中华优秀的传统与作风被亵渎，这专家安的什么心？研究什么“性学”，你怎么不去治疗男女不孕？说什么裸体活动，疯子专家一派胡言。

Personally, I don’t know much about Pan Hai, but he’s definitely been a prolific writer/researcher on all matters sex, so might be worth reading if that’s your thing.

The above picture is from an internet survey on the issue of nude beaches in China. In case you were wondering, I am pro-nude beach, and after I submitted my vote these were the survey results that I received. I don’t know if they are accurate, real-time stats, but in any case, you can see that there is still a healthy margin by which the pro-nude beachers lead the anti-nude beachers.

I have to admit that my interest in this island is piqued: if it really is the Maldives of China, and has been relatively unspoilt by the Midas touch of Chinese tourist development, then I hope to go there before that all changes. The idea of going to a tiny island where there are few people has always appealed to my escapist tendency, but I had never considered anywhere within Chinese borders when fleshing out that fantasy.

*what a fucking mouthful

i went to this place and they let me in, after sizing me up and down a few times. but i couldn’t get the free drinks and food, so we had to have Dan stride over and exert some influence on them. Once i did get the Carlsberg and the free Greek food, i was much happier. Met a nice fellow, a journalist originally from Shanghai named Stephen Jiang. The lawn was nice, and thankfully they lit a 蚊香  under each table so that we could eat without being eaten by the mosquitoes. The food, what paltry morsels we did get, was good but then again I’m quite partial to greek and the mediterranean diet in general. Should be a place that will often pop into my mind until the thought of my pathetic wallet squeezes it into oblivion. Not that it’s expensive or i even know what the prices are: but i’m sure it’s out of my budget except for special occasions, ie when someone else is paying.

The night market was fun; we went there for Kendall and Lin Ling’s birthday (his tomorrow, hers already past?). You pick your food and serve these crustaceans a death sentence, after which you take your food to whichever nearby restaurant you please and have it served to you. It’s not bad on the whole, pretty cheap and seafood is always, well, different. The place was in the boondocks which added  to the charm, it was a mini-getaway of sorts. we ended the night at The Eager Beaver, a bar on Yueyang lu, had a drink and chatted for a bit before heading home.

[tags]food seafood Shanghai China urban asia city tongchuan lu Greek lifestyle aegean mediterranean restaurants[/tags]