In 1969, Chairman Mao commanded the construction of a second Beijing beneath the surface of the original city, designed to accommodate all six million of its then inhabitants, so that if nuclear war did kick off, folk would still have somewhere to hang out and play Mah Jong while the rest of us burnt to death in a shower of atomic rain. War never came, but the city is still there.
Posts Tagged ‘china’
Flirting with fireworks
Go over to VBS today to see the new film about Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese-born contemporary artist obsessed with gunpowder. You may know Mr. Guo-Qiang as the dude behind that “Footprints of History” fireworks display during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics. He’s also widely known for his mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2008. The work featured in this piece, “Tree with Yellow Blossoms”, which is a singed tree fashioned out of gunpowder and paper, was created as part of the Livestrong Stages Global Art Exhibition, an effort to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.“It’s a dialogue with the gunpowder and the sheet of paper. It is like flirting,” says Cai. Go here to check out Cai Quo-Qiang, some gunpowder and some paper getting it on.
The lost Jew of Dali
After being in China for a year I have to say I sorely missed Jews, especially their sarcasm and irony and a specific, sardonic type of humor seemingly nonexistent in China. And then I met Guri at Lost Angel Café in Southern China’s Yunnan Province. “You have real Yunnan coffee, right?” he asked the barista. “Not Nescafe?” And then he turned to me and asked where I’m from. I told him New York and he said, “Crown Heights?” What? Read more »
