China | MUSEUM FATIGUE

油条: The Simplicity of Oil and Dough

October 26, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

I have always been impressed with the charm of the Chinese youtiao (油条). I find poetry in the simplicity of taking a strip of dough, plopping it in a wok of hot oil and frying it to a golden brown. No spices, no salt, no sugar. No fuss. Just hot oil and dough doing their thing. Youtiao are quick, easy and utilitarian. They are made of the most basic ingredients, can be effortlessly produced by the dozens, and quickly snatched up […]

Categories: China, Everyday Things, Food, Video clips • Tags: food, translation, youtiao

Mitt Romney and The Chinese “Slave Labor” Factory

August 26, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

In an interesting video posted this past Friday, Mitt Romney describes a Chinese factory he visited back in his days at Bain Capital. The video was posted on YouTube by someone apparently pretending to be Rachel Maddow of MSNBC with the sensational title, “Mitt Romney admits to using Chinese slave labor at Bain.” Regardless of the source, however, the footage appears to be legitimately from the mouth of Mitt. The short two-minute clip reveals some interesting assumptions about China, globalized labor, and the miscommunications of […]

Categories: China, Global Production, Mythologies • Tags: bain capital, china factories, Chinese workers, consumption, current-events, Mitt Romney, rachel maddow, slave labor

Finding Red Flag Canal

July 14, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

One summer of my early graduate school career I made friends with the very large man who managed the audiovisual collection at the University of Washington. I don’t remember his name. He was friendly in a grumpy sort of way and loved quirky films and videos almost as much as he loved rollercoasters. I had come to him with a request for some films for a class I was TAing, when we got to talking about China. He told me […]

Categories: China, Memory, Museums, Mythologies, Nostalgia, Photo Essays • Tags: China, Cultural Revolution, 紅旗渠, nostalgia, Red Flag Canal, red tourism

A Visit to Gao Village

June 21, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

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 Expo 2010: Better City, Better Line

June 19, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

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

Performing Cultural Revolution Nostalgia

June 7, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

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

2012 Apocalyptic Anxieties

June 5, 2010 by Museum Fatigue

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