Notes From Xi'an 西安随感

Christmas is coming and the geese and turkey that have gotten fat are sadly feeling a little apprehensive, while I am just feeling a bit ambivalent about this yuletide time of year. But, while preparations for this festive season have been passing me by there have been a few other things to keep an eye on.

The EU has entered into a period of disintegration or rejuvenation – depending on whom you are talking to – leaving debt issues still unresolved and the whole continent on the verge of  collapse or at the point of renewal. In the US, the Occupy Wall Street movement managed to highlight that only 1% of the population owns half of all financial assets and investments. At the same time the movement’s actions shone a light on the growing number of worker collectives being established in America. In China, the townsfolk of Wukan  have taken a significant step by cooperating  to oppose the land grabs and private developments being pursued on their lands.

Wukan

The town-wide cooperation in Wukan was fuelled by the fact a member of the community mysteriously died while in custody. At the point of writing the town was free of all government officials, while there was a military blockade to stop anything going in or coming out of the town. Only time will tell how this particular situation will be resolved, but these are issues that go deeper than what form of political organization or monetary system we have. Whether we look at these land rights confrontations in China; disgust about Wall Street bonuses in the US; or concerns about runaway debts in mainland Europe, there is an underlying constant. And that is that our governments are, on the one hand, unable to guarantee what many of us have gotten used to, and on the other, unable to guarantee what many have been looking forward to getting used to, and that is economic stability and opportunity based on a system of profit and growth.

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A week or so ago as I got bogged down in trying to protect this site from a malware attack – no easy task, I can tell you, for this computer illiterate fool – I did pay attention to the fact that a reasonable amount of content has been added here during the last three years, now over a 100 Notes. So, for my own simple pleasure, and as I have not given myself much time to write recently, I will pick a few Notes that I have liked for whatever reason and put them up in two parts – 5 Notes in each. The 5 below all come from the first year of this site. The second 5 can be found here, and were written during the last two years.

1. Ode To Xi’an  2. Some Habits Best Kept, Others Maybe Not  3. National Day Is Upon Us Here In Xi’an  4. Barack Obama, the Great Wall, a Shanghai Hall and the Importance of Tone  5. Copenhagen, Indignation and a Neo-Naturalistic Chinese Landscape

Ode to Xi’an

Xi’an. Modern city, city of the ancients, city of technology, science and education, city of a city wall, city of the Buddha’s finger, city of emperors, city of conquest, city of contradiction.

An ancient city of culture without culture, a contemporary culture sublimating a culture, a city finding balance in a future culture. The bright lights of a night city pagoda’s entertainment mall, wide freeways and san lun ches (三轮车s). Warmth, hospitality, overpricing, free drinks, lao wai (老外), differences and not a few similarities. Simplicity, clarity, haziness and pollution. Sixty in a class, extra curricula classes, never enough classes, I like my classes, I like my classmates, I like my school, I like my country. My country likes me.

River people, widowed people, homeless people, newly-housed people, proud people, loud people, peaceful people, people of a time, people of a place. Xi’an’s people. Silent people, singing people, walled-in people, self-determined people, educated people, un-educated people, realistic people, hopeful people. Different people.

Free will, no will. Expansion, development, disrepair, has been repaired, still needs to be repaired. Newly built, not really built, needs to be rebuilt. Does matter, doesn’t matter. What matters? Food matters. This food, that food, what food, whose food? Our food. Have much, don’t have much, don’t want much, want what I haven’t got, got what I haven’t got. Warriors, borrowers, investors, debtors, jokers, jesters, trustees, trust hers, trust whose? Winning smiles, legs for miles, public trials and McDonalds selling freedom fries.

Working life, lived life, living life, life of the past, life of the present, I like life. Xi’an’s life. Xi’an’s people. Zhong Lou, Nan Da Jie, Xiao Zhai, Bai Hui, Gao Xin, Chang’ An Lu. Happy people, sad people, living people. Xi’an’s people. We are those people.

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I start studying again and European markets go into intermittent free-fall, the governments of two ancient European civilizations are forced into change, and Chinese house prices begin to slide. If we also consider the fact this site was seriously hacked last week, then a more paranoid figure than myself might start to think his Chinese language learning was cursed. This recent instability in Europe is even being described as the next phase in what, back in 2008, began to be called the modern Great Depression. This was the last time, coincidently, that I was studying Chinese with any kind of vigour and commitment.

image taken from cogmap.com

Now, I know this language can be difficult, but these are consequences that go way beyond the normal side effects of language study, such as sleepless nights and soul searching. Fortunately, I do look up from my Chinese textbooks, flashcard software and podcasts from time to time. And so am able to recognize that this present turmoil in European economic affairs, and the recent malware attack on this site, are part of a wider mêlée and nothing actually to do with my Chinese studies at all.

image taken from pakalertpress.com

It has, though, become possible to get a sense that my renewed efforts will carry me to a point in the future when I will be able to fully engage in a discussion, in Chinese, about the benefits of different political and economic systems. And, given the environment we see around us today, I could be doing so with a people who have the experience of catastrophic failures in both Communist and Capitalist systems. Hopefully however, we will still be able to sit peacefully around a nice warm fire, eating a tasty bowl of dāoxiāomiàn (刀削面), and discussing the folly of the world we knew in our youth, while simultaneously planning for the future.

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10/10. In that greyish space in the top left of the picture you should be able to see three of the tallest buildings in the ming de men area. Not today. 11/10. That was yesterday. My zest for life took another battering this morning after waking to the sound of a good old-fashioned downpour adding itself to the already incomprehensibly gloomy mix. "Yes, we can."

13/10. "Oh yes, we can!"

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image from twentytwowords.com

Anybody who has followed my Notes here will know that I haven’t enjoyed watching Xi’an’s roadways move from a state of relative carlessness, though not a little carelessness, to their present state of frequent traffic jams (see here and here). Many people simply comment that it is just life, just development. But as Karl Gerth noted, it isn’t just life, it is a life chosen. Though, it is a choice that has been made to seem somewhat inevitable.

However, this Note isn’t intended to go over old ground or imagine for a second that it will be any different any time soon. That boat has surely sailed. It is just simply to observe, from anecdotal experience at least, that a few years ago not only was there a lack of cars, there was also a lack of cars going fast. Moreover, while there have always been many minor prangs on Xi’an’s roads due to the erratic nature of the drivers and pedestrians, there haven’t been too many serious accidents involving injured parties.

Both cases are now changing. I am seeing more and more people driving like the boy racers of our western provincial town centres, hough this is by no means the majority. But people are beginning to accelerate with force within any small gap that appears, and overtake at speed in more and more dangerous and pedestrian laden situations.

Further, and arguably more importantly, the lack of driving skills that the average Chinese driver possesses, which were previously offset by the lack of cars on the road and the low speeds that those cars were driving at, are beginning to be felt more widely and more seriously. At one time you could at least manoeuvre out of the way, or stop, as there was space on the roads to do so. Now, those options are limited by the sheer weight of traffic. Consequently, I am witnessing more and more cases of seriously and bloodily injured people. And, I have got to say, that really is very sad. (more…)

This Note may be somewhat symptomatic of these end-of-February days: a bit of a hotchpotch; wet afternoons, holidays over; Winter’s gone but Spring has not yet sprung; a world of potential, and a potential for disorder; a host of things to come, but none yet arrived; good news, bad news and a million comments on the news; damp and dark, leaves amazingly still falling; Arab world, another world; wise people, knowledgeable people and in spite of those people people; disinformation, inspiration and what does the future hold; I can jump, you can jump, what about now those billion Chinese have jumped?

That is by way of an introduction to this slightly more eclectic Note. It will include an extract from Jonathan Watts’ own introduction to his book: When A Billion Chinese Jump, which I have just got a hold of for the first time. I will add to Mr. Watts’ words a few pictures taken by Lu Guang (卢广), a Chinese photographer who captured what are now quite renowned images of ‘Pollution in China’. I will also include a couple of photographs from a photo-journalist mate of mine in Beijing, the pictures he takes always give me pause for thought; as well as often managing to bring a smile to my face.

In addition, I will add to the mix a couple of maps of China and the US that express the GDPs of their respective Provinces and States in comparison with smaller Nation States. To finish, there is an infographic showing the rise in Chinese language usage on the Internet, [Update 08/03: I have also added an infographic on China's Social Media Evolution] as well as links to a couple of good recent articles on the ‘Internet in China’.

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First, a couple of Chris Cherry’s evocative pictures, more of his work can be found over at his Flickr page (elephantonabicycle) or on his own site (christophercherry.net); where his mastery of the written word certainly supports his eye for a resonating picture. As an aside, the lostlaowai flickr page is also worth passing through.

see more of christopher cherry's pictures (flickr)

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Whatever might be said by some and whatever some people might tell you, there is no question that this is an amazing country, at a particularly incredible stage of development.

Xi'an's New North Rail Station

Of course, no one really knows where it is all going, but when you are being zipped along by an immensely smooth 350km/h fast train and you look out to see still-underused, but ready-to-go wide-laned motorways, as well as gleaming new train stations, dissecting and standing out respectively from within the terraced fields that make up the majority of this new route, you think the future may not be too bad at all: those chuffing chimneys aside. Well, at least not too bad for those actually riding the train, may be less so for those still working the fields.

Although, when I was talking to a couple of village labourers recently they were seemingly very proud and excited about the new gāo tiě 高铁 (high-speed train), and were aware of its speed and the various destinations along this new route. Time will tell how long it takes for them to be riding it, but that may well be missing the point, or it might actually be hitting it straight on (more on this below when I move away from this unadulterated positivity and highlight some of the concerns that are surrounding this rapidly developed rail project).

This is a country whose people have historically travelled by train; there has been a boom in air travel recently, but if the government continues to play its cards right (or wrong, again see below), this may well be a people happy to return to the tracks, rather than continuing to take to the airways.

And if this experience is anything to go by, that’s no bad idea. I must say from a personal point of view, I would choose this 300-mile train journey in roughly 2 hours, with half an hour cab ride each end, over the shorter flight and longer airport waiting time and travel. These trains are comfy enough, the seats recline and the legroom is fine, they could be a bit wider, but then I could be a bit smaller, and the average Chinese person actually is. Plus, give me a choice of looking out at some fields through a landscape-wide window or a pokey view of some clouds from a plane porthole and I’ll take the fields all day long.

I have also come across quite a few Chinese people who are not actually that enamoured by the air travel experience. If you don’t have much of a choice and money isn’t a factor but time is, which no doubt it often is, then the plane is for you. But when you’ve got more of a choice then that decision is not so straightforward. Whether the majority are able to ride these trains or not, there is a lot of pride swilling about at present, and they have got a pretty amazing system in development to be excited about. These developments may well also have some considerable environmental benefits, if they are not too careful.

However, there are some logistical and quality concerns arising from this new system, a couple of which I will outline below these brief references to Xi’an’s new station: (more…)

Before I begin this brief review of November’s news, or a few pieces of it that I have found of interest, I must just note that it took me 50 minutes in a taxi yesterday to do a journey that only takes 20 minutes on my bike. Although, I promise that after this brief aside I will avoid the issue of traffic for a few weeks, as it has become a too oft-repeated theme here and I am actually beginning to depress myself, let alone anyone else. But for now, back to yesterday, there didn’t seem to be any extra special road problem, it was just the sheer weight of traffic that was holding us up so long.

So, it was with a deep sigh that I concluded my re-reading of this extract from Karl Gerth’s book As China Goes So Goes The World, a poignant title if ever there was one, and one that China Beat picked up on this month. I had only just finished chatting with a friend of mine about the exceptional growth in private car ownership here in Xi’an, particularly over the last year, when I began reading it.

The article in no way contradicted our discussion or in any way led me to any brighter conclusions than the ones we had just dwelt upon. One of which was the almost inevitable sealing of Xi’an’s roads at some point in the near future, particularly in areas outside of the newly built zones in the west and far south, which do at least have somewhat wider boulevards and road junctions.

We seemed to both be acknowledging that the subway system, at least in the short term, is just not going to hit the spot in terms of a practicable alternative for the vast majority of car users out there. And with the increase in car ownership not doing anything like stabilizing, let alone decreasing, it really doesn’t bode well.

Gerth’s book managed to put this situation in a much graver light, by giving it some historical context and a consequential sense of the inevitability and run away, now out of control, nature of it all. To think an alternative, a non-private car based society and economy was actually being considered, or even expected, up until relatively recently. China really could have given its growth and increased global power some fluttering flags of moral leadership, if that is what it or we really wanted, but it didn’t.

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from The Illustrated Book of Laozi 2008 by Zhou Chuncai

An Introduction

This Note surrounds the focus of Jonathan Watts’ environment road trip book ‘When a Billion Chinese Jump’. It is however based on Watts’ comments in the two interviews that sparked my interest in his book in the first place, in The Guardian and over at ABC News Australia. For now I will simply highlight the book’s central strands as well as add my own brief anecdotal contribution. A second Note, I suspect with a graver tone, will follow.

A week or so ago, just as the gentleman that is kindly bringing a copy of this book over from England for me was landing in Xi’an I was taking off for Beijing and as I was returning he was taking to the skies again in the opposite direction. We should have better luck early next month. However, as well as missing each other, neither of us were seemingly doing much to assuage our own carbon footprints, though I can assure you our hearts are in the right place. And there in probably lies a simple way of introducing Jonathan Watts’ take on things green, ecological and sustainable in China.

In China economic pragmatism and growth are still out stripping concern for environmental consequences as motivating forces behind developmental practices and policies. The Chinese government is certainly seen as recognising the problem but the practical implications at this particular point of development means change isn’t happening fast enough. In terms of our own nations’ time scale of development and late-to-the-table environmental concerns, Watts concludes that the Chinese feeling that they to should be able to go through this heavily polluting stage of development is both ‘completely fair and utterly calamitous.’ As he continues:

‘In a sense, China is extraordinarily unfortunate to be hitting this stage of development at this time in human history.’

Watts doesn’t hide from outlining the stark choice between a future of global ecological balance or devastation. But, it is here he also focuses on the fact that it is a fresh search for the values that guide our choices that will have as much to do with the resolution of this epic problem than simple finger pointing; whether towards undemocratic regimes or global financial institutions.

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With the onset of summer interrupted by frequent rain showers it is may be not a bad time to partake in a bit of reflection, particularly with regard to a few of the transportational changes that have ridden into Xi’an in recent years; arriving on a wind of progress, though on the back of an almighty stimulus package, one that has included a few unpleasant side effects. The laid-back nature and slightly underdeveloped cityscape of Xi’an that I so liked upon arrival is changing.

There are so many cars on the roads now that it is even for me, let alone the slightly aged members of the local community, hard to believe that when I first arrived in China’s Western capital I really didn’t have to pay too much attention when crossing the road and never even consider waiting at a road junction. Not so now, walking between the lanes of oncoming traffic is not only restricted by increased car use but also by government directed traffic attendants, who, in such a short time, have vigorously put into place a road crossing etiquette that was almost impossible to ever imagine existing just a few years ago.

Having ridden a bike on a daily basis over the last four years it is easy, if not a little depressing, to recognize the increased volume of traffic that I now peddle, cough and occasionally splutter passed. ‘Passed’ though being the operative word, the term traffic jam or dǔ chē (堵车) has certainly entered the common cultural lexicon of Chinese cities over the last few years and Xi’an is no exception. I can often find myself leaving sleek blacked out and branded motor vehicles in my slip stream, as I jump between lanes and lights on my US designed Trek bike.

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Here is a list of articles that describe the frailties, or foretell the collapse, of the Chinese economy and maybe even the social structure of China. They have all come from the China news cycle over the last couple of weeks, most have been picked up through the Hao Hao Report. Their inclusion marks my retreat from a daily engagement, over the last few months, with that cycle. I have never been one for losing my self in the news of the day, here or at home, but by engaging here a little more recently I have certainly gotten more of a sense of the China news out their and the orchestrators of that news. I will endeavor to keep abreast of things but not quite in the same way. As always we’ll see how we go.

Below this list is an introduction to one of the articles; which draws a parallel between the over heated greed and growth of the Toyota Company and the present stage of economic development in China, predicting the inevitability of crisis. Further on is an exchange that I had with Charlie from Chengdu Living (apologies for getting Charlie involved again here) while briefly commenting on this article on the Hao Hao Report. It was only the third time ever I have made an extended contribution to a comments section, so I note it here for my own sense of reference but also as an optimistic interlude between these various prognoses of China doom:

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