In the summer of 2010 I was lucky enough to be able to make a visit to Gao Village. It was a rainy day, and we were behind schedule when we arrived. I didn’t take as much video or as many photos as I had hoped. Above is a small selection of photos, and the short Flip video below documents our arrival.
Categories: Books, China, Photo Essays, Video clips • Tags: Gao Village, Jiangxi
Shanghai offers truly magnificent sights. To me, the city is at least as beautiful as any of China’s famous natural scenic spots such as Huangshan or Guilin. It is even more impressive, however, because in a mountain or forest all you need to do is build some trails, chain off some vistas, and set up a few hotels—the scenery is already there. Shanghai, on the other hand, as been nearly entirely rebuilt over the past two decades and everything in […]
Categories: Bodies, China, Essays, Exhibitions and Fairs, Photo Essays • Tags: Expo 2010, lines, Shanghai, waiting
Right in the middle of my visit last summer, Facebook disappeared. It was added to the list of sites blocked by the Chinese firewall. At the time I was in China, hanging out with my friends, so we really didn’t miss not seeing each other on Facebook. When I mentioned it at a dinner, the feeling was that it was only temporary blockage that would surely pass. Someone at the table even thought it might have just been a glitch […]
Categories: Fieldwork, Random Reflections • Tags: China, internet, 敏感词
In late spring 1999 I spent nearly four weeks traveling from Nanjing, where I was living at the time, overland through Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan. Fodor’s had hired me to update some chapters in their China travel guide, and after a year of fieldwork the opportunity to do some solo travel–and get paid for it–was a welcome opportunity. While most of my memories of that trip have faded, a select few are still very clear. I can’t remember […]
Categories: Essays • Tags: China, memory, Nanchang, Photography, revolutionary martyrs
Late in the evening on June 3rd I was enjoying Sichuan hot pot in downtown Beijing. Twenty-one years later, rather than writing a reflection, I thought a video clip might be a better commentary.
Categories: Random Reflections, Video clips • Tags: hotpot, June 4
I have been mulling over and trying to make sense of what exactly took place at the Cultural Revolution theme restaurant that I visited last week. I have photos, video, and some notes I wrote after returning to my hotel room that night, but none of them help very much. I thought maybe some time to reflect would make a difference, but the past seven days have just made things seem even more unreal. It all comes back to one […]
Categories: China, Food, Play, Politics • Tags: Beijing, China, Cultural Revolution, memory, nostalgia
For most of the last decade whenever I have visited China I have always been impressed with how positive everyone seemed when compared to the U.S. Sure China’s income gap is ginormous and growing, the environmental issues are huge, and the dislocations of urban and rural residents are unprecedented in human history. In the face of all of this,however, most of the Chinese people I have encountered in recent years–from close friends to taxi drivers–have been generally upbeat. While back in the U.S. we have had […]
Categories: China, End of Times, Mythologies • Tags: 2012, apocalypse, China
I often travel to China with student groups or for research and never leave home without my MacBook. It is the place I keep things to read, write fieldnotes, store the many photos I take and keep in touch with friends and family through e-mail, Skype and Facebook. Lugging it around always seemed a bit much, and after a drop at the Tokyo airport last January that left a nasty dent in the corner of its otherwise immaculate aluminum frame, […]
Categories: Essays, How To • Tags: Anthropology, China, fieldwork, iPad
MUSEUM FATIGUE