A bout de souffle

When you read laws in China, you will find that they are very thoughtful and accurately designed. So are also the standards of air quality. But it will be a large effort to implement them to a degree that there is a real improvement. The development model of China is based on turning the country into the "world's factory". Unfortunately it has been also been turned into the world's garbage bin. It is often said that this is the price for development and that now developed countries were even worse in the past. That's also true. Just that now clean technologies are readily available for use and they were not in Europe 50-100 years ago. People tell me that China has the "moral right to be polluted" like all other countries during the phase of industrialisation. Sure, people also have the moral right to have diabetes, to smoke, to wear no seat belt in the car and no helmet on motor cycles and make all the other mistakes we did before in the developed countries again. Enjoy!

I am glad to see that not just awareness, but also the determination is growing to resolve the problem of air pollution in Beijing. The immediate health effect might not be even too bad. But it is just not nice if you can't see the sky and feel like you want to vomit when you go on the street on a bad day. For the Olympic Games in 2008 it worked reasonably well, but was not sustained. The current Five Year Plan also sets clear targets for environmental protection and energy usage per GDP. I guess, everybody is holding his breath to see what happens. I am happy that I can do a bit more than that.

Beijing Motor Show

For professional reasons, I cannot write about specific cars on this personal website. And it is of course not easy to talk about the Beijing Motorshow (Auto China Beijing), without talking about cars. But perhaps even more important than the cars themselves, is the enthusiasm of the visitors. And I cannot deny a bit of pride when I saw that people are crazy about our products in China. Referring to the models exposed alongside the technical exhibits, I even heard that “German engineering is more sexy than the girls hanging on the cars in the other halls”. In our hall though, when I looked from the back at the camera displays and what people were “shooting”, they really focused on our cars and not on our hostesses – even though I personally think also there we made the better choices than many of our competitors. To understand the significance of the selection process of hostesses for us, you have to envision that a few months ago, hundreds of models came to interview in the Volkswagen Beijing Office. Waves of perfume were swinging through the smell of gasoline for days. As Volkswagen engineers are gentlemen, technical terms (for cars) like “ground clearance”, “bodystyle”, “notchback” and “bottom line” were thoroughly avoided not to make the ladies feel uncomfortable. Here and there you could notice some of my colleagues choosing a more colorful tie than normal, or combing the hair in the restroom. Quite sweet, isn’t it? - The Beauty and the Beast.

Visitors on the motorshow were crazy about “cool cars”. And what I found interesting as well as encouraging, is that “cool” is not only about speed and power any more. The few ones which had an exceptiontal technical concept or an outstanding design, drew the crowds as much as those who were just showing off horsepower. And in some cases, all that comes together anyways. For that just see the normal suspects. They are all great again. 

Even the display of New Energy Vehicles was not overwhelming, at least most exhibitors had something on that topic. Some Chinese manufacturers even seem to have noticed last minute that they are missing the display of an electric vehicle and quickly cut by hand a hole in the bumper and glued a household electric plug in, to make it look electric. Like this you can even see electric vehicles with a stick shift, which must be a superior invention (again!). I guess nobody ever wants to steal the Intellectual Property for that. This is a way to stay safe. We coined it the "No brain, no pain strategy". Without knowing it, they at least choose a matching background music: “Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies …”. But to be fair, this time such extremely incompetent examples were quite rare, and further consolidation of the industry is ahead. So, I am already looking forward to the next Beijing Motor Show in two years. "Nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel" (After the game is before the game), as the Germans say in soccer.

Kyoto and Nara

I took it as a positive sign of my ability to adapt deeply into neocommunist manners, that when I arrived in Japan coming from Beijing, I first felt like a caveman. But it luckily did not take more than 30 minutes to switch back to normal. So no permanent damage done. Japan is often described as a "cultural Galapagos" of East Asia and even it is a highly modern country, it preserved a lot of uniqueness. And I like it a lot.

It has been my third time being in Japan and the second time in Kyoto during the "Sakura" which is the time when the cherry trees blossom. Flying into Osaka, Kyoto is only a short local train ride away. In the high speed train Shinkansen you even shoot from one city to the other in only about 15 minutes.

When Kyoto was established as Heian-kyō (平安京, "tranquility and peace capital") is was modelled as a copy of the Chinese Tang Dynasty capital Chang'an (西安, Xi'an). Kyto remained the capital until the Emperial Court moved to Tokyo in 1896 as a consequence of the distructions during the Hamaguri rebellion. By contrast to Xi'an, Kyoto has preserved a lot of its charm and beauty. Kyoto is an important academic, philosophical and cultural center of Japan, has 14 UNESCO World Heritage sites and is definitely a region to explore with more time.

I was reading Lin Yutang's The Importance of Living on the way and had to burst laughing when he refused describing Buddhism in his book, because it is "too sad". Sharp observation, wise explanation and the good humor of Lin Yutang makes this book together with My Country and My People two absolute must reads for any Westerner who comes to China. I took a few chapters on Taoism (道教) twice and remembered my hopeless attempt to read Laozi in a German translation when I was a teenager. But now perhaps is a good time to catch up on it. In terms of Zen please be reminded of Eugen Herrigel's short essay Zen in the Art of Archery (I did not find the German original in electronic format) and D.T. Suzuki's An Introduction into Zen Buddhism. 

Taoism is for me a very sympathetic religion. First of all they don't set people on fire for believing in something else, don't blow themselves up in crowded vegetable markets and are also in other respects far less aggressive than for example the Abrahamic religions (Christians, Jews, Muslims). They don't believe in an old man in the sky who watches every move you make, but simply have an harmonious philosophy with their natural environment, themselves and other people. They don't even have dogmatic suppression of scientific research, do not burn books or pictures - and the best thing is: they have sex! Philosophical Taoism is a nice and colorful way of "explaining" the world around and makes undoubtedly good suggestions how to live in it happily and without annoying others. That's for me as good as a religion can get anyways. Also in the People's Republic of China Taoism is still quite common and under government supervision of a state bureaux called the China Taoist Association. 

Zen is a derivative of Mahayana Buddhism which goes back to the Chinese Tang Dynasty and is actively practiced mainly in Japan, Vietnam, Korea, China and also in some Western Regions. It practices a lot of meditation and tries to achieve enlightenment through "emptiness". Enlightenment or not - an interesting experiment has been undertaken by Richard Davidson by examining people with meditation experience in a MRI scanner. It shows that meditation changes the mind and increases attention. 

Opposite the Kyoto Museum (which I do not recommend to visit) I bumped into "David's Gallery Cafe". In the back part of the gallery leading to a small workshop I saw a painting of David Kidd by Claire Trevor. David Kidd started his time in Asia in 1946, aged 19, as an exchange student in China where he taught English at suburban colleges. He married Aimee Yu, the daughter of the former Chief of Justice of the supreme court of China and he experienced first hand the Communist Revolution in 1949. The New York Times wrote in his Orbitary in 1996 the he might have been "perhaps the only American in Tiananamen Square for the formal Communist takeover". He published his account in the book Peking Story: The Last Days of The Old China. Another book he published is All the Emporers Horses. After his devorce in the United States he moved to Japan in 1956 and established himself as an art collector and taught at various Universities and Art Institutions. 

Traveling by train less than one hour you reach the small town of Nara, which was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (710-784). Nara is a very pretty small town with huge parks. One of the attractions is the Todai-ji Temple, of which the Daibutsuden Hall is the world's largest wooden building. The whole city is full with ancient treasures and relicts, and it needs more than a day trip to explore it. For that case, the 1910 built Nara Hotel is a very nice place to stay over night. 

Sony NEX-7

The best camera I ever had was my full frame Nikon D700. Unfortunately, it was robbed at gunpoint in Puno (Peru) when trying to take a photo of the Titicaca Lake last year. With it I also lost most of my pictures taken in East Africa. Good that my secondary camera, the Fuji X-100, remained a good companion - except some trouble with exposure when set at Aperture priority on the Antarctic Peninsula. For my lost D700 my wishes are that it finally found its way to a photo enthusiast - even I do not encourage to buy anything from the black market. For the robbers my wishes are that they either see the light of salvation, a cell in a Peruvian prison or get a bullet in their head as soon as possible. Anything which stops their dangerous practice is fine.

I was about to repurchase the D700, but then thought that I might adapt to my current life style by switching to a lighter and more flexible model, like a mirrorless SLR. After comparing specifications, I decided for the Sony NEX 7 with the 18-200 mm zoom lens. This is small enough for snap shots and good enough in terms of quality, even it is clearly in the consumer segment. Like currently no other mirrorless SLR the NEX 7 uses a normal size D-SLR size sensor.

What I found amazing of the NEX 7 in this configuration was not just the small size and full capabilities of a D-SLR camera. But also I first time experienced that the so-called "intelligent automatic settings" are really intelligent. Further the landscape stitching and anti blur programmes are quite amazingly accurate. Unless there is really scene where the camera can not "imagine" the image you have in your mind, the automatic functions are brilliant and you can put your mind in peace on composition or speed (if required).

The NEX 7 is nearly everywhere outside Japan sold out and you need to sign up on waiting lists to get it a few months later. But I was able to pick up one in the "Bigcamera" store which is 5 minutes walk West from Kyoto Japan Railway Station. Beware that there are two versions: a Japanese (only Japanese menus) one and the Worldwide model (which also has a worldwide warranty).

My "Smartphone" is like a spoiled girl

You know these kind of girls? Everything is complicated. They wake you up at night and need attention. They need charging every day. You can not have a serious conversation without loosing the connection. They are in many social networks and they are full of gossip and junk when ever you look at them. They need expensive updates and accessories all the time to keep going. They freeze without warning. They loose power faster than expected. They are unreliable. When you need them most, they make a scene. They get wet in the rain, they faint. They call themselves smart, but just to make you feel guilty because you don't know what to do with them. Yes, my "Smartphone" is just like this - like a spoiled girl. A waste of time.

I was talked recently by my IT Department into an Android phone. They said, they can support this better until I found out that they cannot support anything really - not even my computer. Might be a nice phone. But just not my type. I will dump it for a new model from Sweden, the Sonim Force 3G. Built for life. That's better.

White surprise

After two days of yellow thick haze, in which you could not smell but taste the air, I did not not expect a lot when I opened the curtains this morning. But wow, what a nice surprise: all white. The little drizzle from yesterday kept going through the night and turned into snow. This was always a "wow" since I was a boy and I decided on the spot to get away from the desk, and get out to the Temple of Heaven.

I have been sitting the last two gloomy days at the desk (Friday I even took off from work) to write on a book chapter. Nothing about cars: so the clearance desk, the patent department, the intellectual property unit, PR and all the others who get nervous when they see these lines can relax. Anyway, they will not have time to come to this website, because they are so busy keeping the world in order.

But with the snow around I went out and enjoyed the fresh breeze of the day. The Temple of Heaven is a tourist attraction, so the best is, on a Sunday, to stay away from the main spots and just enjoy the park. Away from the tourist people gather here here to perform whatever they like to perform. This is one of the really great things in China: you can do and be whatever you like. Now you might think, that this does not sound like China. What about the "sthgir namuh" and "hceeps fo modeerf" (please read the terms form right to left). You are right. But you can go into the park and be a musician, a dancer, a singer and whatever you like. And you will find your audience.

It was nice to have a long weekend to get some more concentrated work done. Good ideas are like roaming around the landscape and you have to go out to meet them. They run after you when you go running, or bump into you when you go swimming. They also come to coffee and tea houses or they appear in interesting conversations. There are many places you can find them. Just one thing is unfortunate: they never come to the office.

Lettre International revisited

After a break during last year's travels I decided to re-subscribe to the quarterly Lettre International again. There were a few reasons coming together to do so. First, I was pointed by a friend to the literature magazine Grand Street which he said is something non shallow and worth reading. So, when I went to their website, I found they went out of business. Secondly, my container arrived from Hong Kong and I found an older copy of Lettre International and read it again enjoying it a lot. As most of my quite extensive library is on Amazon Kindle, I was looking for an electronic equivalent first. When you travel and move a lot you have quite some respect towards boxes filled with books and paper. But I found no electronic alternative, and when I look at the whole product, I guess there never will be. Last but not least, I found the quarterly periodical just the right dose to read a European cultural magazine when you spend most of your time in Asia. I signed up for 3 years, which will carry me through the normal period of my current China assignment. Now I am waiting for the next publication to reach me in Beijing, while I am still reading in the one year old copy when time allows. Hope my readership also contributes a bit that this magazine will not go out of business in due course. This would be a real loss.

The boat crossing the river

Just 40 minutes walk North of the Beijing 798 Arts District, at about N 39 Deg. 59.808' / E 116 Deg. 29.917', you get to another gallery and workshop district which is called Cao Chang Di. As this is still in the middle of local suburban Chinese life, this is also where artists live, and the galleries get more square meters per Yuan. This is also a place where some more serious galleries moved.

"In 798 you have to protect your works from this zoo of people, who lean against it to take a photo", I was told. Cao Chang Di, is definitely more refined in terms of galleries than 798, but still I also like the "zoo" mainly because I think it is so much nicer seeing young people there than in a shopping mall. It is better to see 798 as a Cultural Entertainment Centre, and I think it is nice to have it. Also the reputation and commercial value are the only arguments protecting it from being torn down and "developed" into another block of high rise buildings. And in the end also still many artists have to make a living on selling postcards and handicraft, for which 798 has much of space.

Cao Chang Di is different. Also "iewieW iA" (I spelled the name reverse to avoid trouble) has his studio there and he designed quite a few buildings in which you find very interesting galleries. Beijing Fine Arts is one of them and Alexander Ochs another. But the best is to stroll around and see what exhibitions are on. Just this will take at least a day.

On the walk back through 798 I was lucky to drop into the opening of an exhibition called "The Boat Crossing the River", showing the sculptures of Zhang Yong at the Joy Art Gallery, curated by Wu Hong and Wang Haitao. I did not expect much more than a clean toilet when I went in, but then had a nice surprise.

I liked most his sculpture "Night Crossing" which is a casted copper cube on which top you see only a head of a boy and a horse swimming in the waves. It was unfortunately impossible to take a photo of it, given the dim light. But even boosting ISO to 6400 it is just an object very hard to capture, because what makes it amazing, is only very small detail on the surface on a rough block. I liked also a few other sculptures and "Orientation" (photo) is one of the other sculptures which caught my attention. Perhaps a year ago, it would have been "Listing in the Rain".

Farewell to my photo website

After a long hesitation, I closed my Smugmug account today. It was my photo website for years and I still think it is the best one you can use. Technology, performance and service are just perfect, the price is reasonable and the professional version is really professional. On my to do list was a long time to revamp the website. But if you have to put something you actually like on a to do list, then perhaps it is better to let it go. I will in the next years realistically have not the time to maintain a professional photo website. And before doing it half committed, I better leave it. At the same time, I am developing this website also to contain more photo galleries and functions and I changed the design to match better to both: text and photography. I hope those who follow this site, still like it.

First Spring day in Beijing

Today temperatures were well above zero in Beijing, and it was a sunny clear Sunday with a blue sky. People were in a good mood, started going out buying flowers, strolling around the parks and sitting outside reading a book or playing cards or chess. Even the traffic was more quiet today, partly because it was a Sunday of course, but also because drivers were just not so aggressive. Urban driving in China often does not feel like transportation, but like being in combat. But today it was different. 

Still I did a bit of ice skating and many others also had the same idea: let's do it before the ice gets too thin. Even the group of men were around swimming in the ice water. This is amazing. They do not just dive in and get out again, but they really swim a few strokes and stay for minutes in the water. So I asked: "What's the trick? Some Chinese Medicine again?" A lot of laughter. I guess, there is no trick. They are just really tough. If things go well, I will finally get the container at the end of this week. The winter clothes which are in there I might not even need any more this year. It took then about 3 months to ship the freight from Hong Kong to Beijing. It is not the shipping itself which takes this time, but the procedures around it. Bureaucracy is a very sophisticated system here, as there are so many people who have to find employment in it. But once you figure out the process, things go surprisingly smooth. Of course the HR Department should take care of such things. But like with any HR Department, "should take care" is all you can expect.

The only small disadvantage of temperatures above zero is that you have to watch out on the street where you step. People tend to spit on the ground here, after cleaning their throats in a dramatic manner. And what was a little frozen ice patch before, is now - well, you know what it is. I know it is based on 5000 years of culture and this needs respect and tolerance. No problem. But better watch your feet.

Lomography

In Germany we have traveling shows coming to the villages and setting up what we call "Kirmes". They bring roller coasters, carousels, lots of beer and "Schiessbuden" (shooting budes). 35 years ago one of those also came to Feldkirchen and I was already quite good sniper at the age of 10, I took a rifle and won a Russian photo camera called "Diana" with one shot. Given the fact that in Roman Methodology Diana is a goddess often seen with bow and arrow, I found the way I got her quite matching and amusing.

Diana was always a camera you could do things with, which you could not do with other cameras. And the reason was: it was so cheap, that if you crash it, it does not matter. I even fixed it to a kite get a bird's view. The shutter I operated by a pendulum mechanism which just made click on a certain angle (which corresponded to the pre-calculated flight height). Then I put it into a sewage pipe and used it for my own kind of underwater photography. I have to say though, that there is not much to see in the lakes and ponds of the Westerwald. What else can be said about Diana? Well, just that it was a really bad camera - 35 years ago. It is really not much different from a Camera Obscura, just that it has a lens and not just a hole. And I guess it is simply put one of the world's worst cameras.

Now, something called Lomography has become a fashion and Diana (and her sisters) are reborn. Strange for me, because every mobile phone can take better pictures than a "Lomo". In the online shop, you have the choice between many different models in the range between about US$ 50 up to over US$ 100. People meet for Lomo-Events and pin their photos to walls and talking pictures with it seems a cult. In the Lomography shop which I found today were a few girls which only had frames for glasses on their noses. This is also a strange fashion I have now often seen in Asia. I suggested that if did not forget to put glasses in their frames, their might actually be able to see how bad their pictures are. But they just giggled. Never mind. I think it is actually think it is nice they have a hobby like that and I regretted a minute later that I said something so nasty.

I took the picture of the shop above and post edited it with a cross color algorithm and then a preset function called "Toy Camera". But it is still not what a Diana would make it look like. Today's Dianas I have seen are actually not made in Russia, but in China. Would be nice if the good old (and I mean literally "good old") Voiglaenders also could make it back like this. And when I think about all the old Chinese camera brands which are actually so much better then a Lomograph, then there are quite a few nice things which can be done to get them alive again.

798 Art Zone

Shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, a gigantic Chinese-Soviet military and industrial co-operation program was launched in the Dashanzi district North-East of Beijing. You find the site at N 39 Deg. 58.972' / E 116 Deg. 29.571' and it is now called the 798 Art Zone (798艺术区). The People's Liberation Army's demand for electronic components was not fulfilled by the Soviet partner to the extend required, so that China turned to then Communist Deutsche Demokratische Republik (German Democratic Republic) which just had been formed out of the Soviet Occupied Zone in Germany. To make it easy for foreign intelligence services, the Chinese numbered military factories starting with the digit "7". It started in the district with factory 718 and by time grew up to 798. Operation of 718 lasted from 1957 and the uncompetitive nature of the state owned complex did not survive the opening and reform policy and declined until it was largely abandoned in the 1990s.

This was also the time when first artists were moving in looking for cheap space. In 1995 also the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts moved workshops there and a nucleus for a growing cluster of artists was laid. In 2004 it was achieved that the destruction of the buildings was halted and a bill passed to develop the site into an Arts District. As a consequence the owner of the buildings did not renew lease contracts to have the chance driving out tenants and redevelop the land in a more profitable modern format. In 2007 though it was decided to keep and refurbish the Art Zone.

Today it is a lively place full of galleries, studios, workshops, design centres, cafes and restaurants. It is amazing what amount of space and hardware is available. Here is where you find everything from pretty nice galleries to Mao Kitch. There is not one list of galleries available online. So, the best thing is to go there and have a look.

Ice skating to the office

The Chinese new year started with a sunny Sunday. And as it was a working Sunday, I took the opportunity to commute to the office on my ice skates. This was a very nice commute, down the canal to Sanlitun in the morning. The water level has been dropping and the ice is cracky, but thick and safe. Only at some inlets it is melting. And at one point there is a hole which people use to (believe it or not) go swimming. At night going home, I did not skate, because I could not see the cracks in the dark and also I might have fallen into one of these holes. Many companies have started work today, even it is a Sunday. Together with having a working Saturday the week before, many had 7 days public holidays in a row. But the Sunday was not a quiet one, as everybody tried to get a headstart. From tomorrow, the calendar is packed and I expect a bit of a stormy week also, because we have quite high visitors. So, in terms of blog entries I might excuse myself for a few days.

Enhanced flavors causing me a headache?

I generally like Chinese food, and for all the years have not experienced acute hazards. But now a second time, after having dinner in a restaurant, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like I have turned diabetic and having a headache and fast heart rate. Of course the immediate thought is the "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome" which is said to be connected to the use of Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) as a flavor enhancer. Even the chemical has been considered safe as a food additive and is in use for a long time, it has also been connected with causing brain damage and obesity. MSG is also used in fast food, but I guess people going to anything like McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) actually are suffering the brain damage already before they enter the restaurant. It might be just a "brain damage enhancer" then. And obese people are often very skillful blaming the fact that they eat too much on others, specially when they have enhanced brain damage at the same time.

MSG is also used in many convenience foods, where it has to be declared as ingredient (E621). Again, the last time I was eating something like convenience food, were Military Combat Rations in the 1980s. But also back then my exposure to MSG must have been low, because I usually traded out the main dish against the chocolate, cigarettes and condoms with fellow soldiers. These were accepted for payment of goods and services from our US allies and increased my wellbeing and social position in the barracks. Once, using this currency, I even bought a fully loaded Smith & Wesson Cal. 0.38 Revolver from an American soldier. Well, talking about brain damage: he must have had a lot of MSG.

Perhaps my low exposure, is why I am more sensitive to MSG. But it is also possible, that my current discomfort has nothing to do with MSG at all and it is just the oil used or ... who knows? It is always tempting in Beijing, just to pop in a restaurant. But of course there is not much control on the ingredients.

Beijing in Spring Festival

During Spring Festival Beijing is laid back and festive. Most people which have their families not in Beijing, travel back to their home towns. Logistically the best thing to do during these days is to stay where you are. All others who also stay enjoy a week holiday and there are many things you can do in this city. Not just the cultural repertoire is huge, but also you can just get onto a lake ice skating, do a hike in the mountains along the spectacular parts of the Great Wall which are less "developed" or even drive up to a ski resort. Hiking, I was surprised that there are now also many Chinese going outdoors and enjoying the scenery. A few years ago, they did not go too much into the countryside. Now there are many "Donkey Friend Clubs", which are mainly self organized groups walking together far distances. For a first orientation, I found that the Beijing Hikers are organizing nice groups. There are a lot of foreigners in these groups, but they are not the typical Expats, but nice people which have been living long time abroad and many of them speak Chinese. I guess, that foreigners strolling around the Chinese countryside with a rucksack, already implies some self selection.

Of course, I would not be in China, if not everywhere small little businesses open to cater into all kinds of holiday demands. From the man with the mobile sweet patato bakery who is counting his money on the frozen lake where he sells his snacks to the ice skaters (see photo on the left), to extra capacities in taking family portraits in the China Photo Studio. Not to mention the huts selling the fireworks which turn the nights in Beijing into a self (un-)organized light show which is unmatched anywhere. I was wondering how safe it is when the firework's salesman is smoking sitting on a few tons of gunpowder. But you think it is "cool" just to smoke in a non-smoking area in Hong Kong and chase away the little policeman? That's nothing against sitting smoking on a pile of gunpowder chatting with the policeman on how the family is doing. Happy new year, health luck and prosperity for the Year of the Dragon.

In Memoriam Kodak

Today I had to submit my social security registration to Chinese authorities and was asked for a photo of a size that I did not have available. So I dropped by a Kodak shop. Done. As Kodak just filed bankruptcy, this might be one of the last memories, I might have of this formerly grand company. I was brought up on Kodak Ektachrome and always when my pocket money allowed me to buy one instead of Agfa, I did so. Better to take a photo less, but then it has to be perfect. I spent years in the darkroom and the first time I switched from Ilford paper and chemicals to a color process, it was Kodak too. Most of my old family pictures are Kodak prints and films also. The company is really an amazing case of a "Fallen Angel". They even invented the digital camera, and then did not develop it further and capitalized on it. Even the 50 Mega Pixel Sensor in the low range Hasselblad (which is still high above my range) is made by Kodak. Hard to understand for me why all Kodak digital cameras I have seen are so bad. Of course, I know that in big companies people can stand on each other's feet. But they really must know better. And sure, there can be also really bad strategic decisions. So often the "old guys" sleep on their brilliance and fall into the hands of "new guys" who only claim to know how the future looks like and do complete nonsense. Did this also happen to Kodak? After Voigtlaender, Borgwart, Hanomag, Zuendapp and Much another one of my favorite companies disappeared. On the other hand there is for example Leica more vivid than ever. But all I know about the Business Case Kodak is just speculation. It is just such a shame.  

Still more crafts than arts

I am really enjoying being in Beijing and slowly I am also figuring out the cultural life, which is not easy because valuable things are hidden. If they were hiding in a geographical corner, I would have no problem to find them. But they are hidden behind an enormous language barrier. Not that it would be too complicated to learn every day Chinese. But this is not helping at all when you for example go to a drama play. Of course language is essential for culture, like everywhere, and it is the main barrier to participate in it.

Because of this handicap I am looking at fine arts and Chinese painting first. But I have to say that the traditional pieces are not very impressive any more and the new ones are not impressing me yet. Of course the connoisseur will say I am ignorant, but in terms of traditional paintings I quickly had enough of bamboo, karst landscapes, cherry blossom, fish, horse and intellectuals hanging out in a countryside pavilion. Not that they are not well painted. But why do they have to paint the same things hundreds of thousands of times? Modern painters seem mostly to cash out on being pseudo critical on the Cultural Revolution time. Always just so much that they do not get into real trouble, but enough to ask for a price premium. Some of them make it even as "professional pseudo-dissidents" into the charts of Western museums, like Ai Weiwei. Most people even have forgotten how bad his artwork actually is, but only remember him as an "intellectual rebel" instead of somebody who was prosecuted for omitting enormous tax payments. Well, sure as an intellectual he does not know what his accountant does. Come on Weiwei! Sounds to me like virgins giving birth to the son of god etc. Who believes such a story? 

I also looked at photography. But most new things I see are not better than the Ikea Posters we had hanging in the the common kitchen of the student's dormitory in the 80s. Just that they did not have Photoshop back then. I was wondering why in Photography competitions Chinese photographers mostly excell in fashion and commercial photography. And the answer seems that the lack of talent is so severe that any potential artist is quickly absorbed into a career which is more that of a graphic designer. Reminds me of two or three years ago, I was pointed by a friend to a picture in the Ooi Botos Gallery in Hong Kong, because it was showing a black Audi A6, which was easy to be seen as a government fleet car beyond a mass of puppets lying on the floor. Not that I would be interested, but I was told Audi might be (which it wasn't). The photographer, Chenman, is now a celebrated fashion photographer - no more, no less. The old master's kept paining ever the same bamboo over and over again, and today's photographers mass produce the ever same fashion shots. 

However, if there is one place in China, where talent is concentrating, then it is Beijing. And as competition is slowly picking up, I expect that the next wave has to be better.

South Georgia Heritage Trust

On the trip to Antarctica I came the first time in touch with the South Georgia Islands. Even we did not visit them, I gained a much better understanding of polar and sub-polar ecosystems and the interest is even growing since back. One of the most interesting projects I heard of in this context is the rat-eradication program on South Georgia. This stands in context with the introduction of rats as a foreign species by whalers and early settlers which are disturbing the ecological balance significantly and by feeding on bird's eggs pose a fatal threat to the unique wildlife.

The solution brought forward by the South Georgia Heritage Trust is to poison the rat population by dropping baits from 2 helicopters. The plan takes advantage of the current glacier structure which did not allow the rats yet to spread over all the land. But as the glaciers are withdrawing as an effect of global warming, there is high time to kill every single rat on the island before these natural barriers leak and provide an unfrozen land connecttion for the rats to spread further.

The projects has two Bolkow-105-Helicopters in service and you might imagine the cost involved in this kind of habitat restoration. This is why the South Geogrgia Heritage Trust is grateful for any financial aids. More information and also the chance to donate online, you find on their website.

The Flowers of War by Zhang Yimou

The Flowers of War is Zhang Yimou's latest movie. It is based on the novel The thirteen Flowers of Nanjing by Yan Geling. After a few monumental productions, which I did not really enjoy, this movie was announced to be a renaissance of the artistic Zhang Yimou which would have benefited from his more recent experiences in modern productions also.

The story of this movie is set in the Nanjing of 1937 during the brutal invasion and occupation by Japanese troops. As this was definitely one of history's most savage crimes against humanity and one of the deepest traumas in China's collective memory, any story in this setting will shake emotions strongly. So does the Flowers of War. An American vagabond called John Miller (played by Christian Bale) makes it through the chaos of the battles into a fictive Catholic church. Here he ends up taking responsibility for the girls of the convent school an orphan boy and 12 prostitutes taking also shelter there. The disreputable John Miller takes on the priest robe and role towards the Japanese to protect the girls. The narrator is one of the school girls (Zhang Xinyi). In the middle of a brutal setting, unfolds a love story of the protagonist with one of the prostitutes (Ni Ni) which finds its end in them standing in for the convict girls being most violently forced to "serve" the Japanese soldiers in one of their parties while the girls can escape out of the city. If anybody needs an illustration why Iris Chang titled her book The Rape of Nanking, then after having seen this movie, it is terribly obvious.

Of course any movie set in the centre of the massacre of Nanking (now Nanjing) is shaking any audience emotions. But I found it pressing too crudely on the love and hate "buttons". For me the movie is definitely falling short against the movies City of Life and Death by Lu Chuan, Nanking by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturmann and also against John Rabe by Florian Gallenberger. I did not have the chance yet to read Yan Geling's novel. But I am looking forward to read it when I find a good translation and compare it with the very different story in the same setting called Love in a Fallen City by Zhang Ailing.

Perhaps it is that Zhang Yimou did not develop a deeper impression against the brutal background, that it also seemed to me on first sight like an anti-Japanese propaganda movie. The movie seems playing on sentimental patriotism and daemonizing the Japanese enemy. But sure, given the historical background there is also not much on the Japanese side which would allow a balanced view. The second thought I had that perhaps it is just another successful attempt of Zhang Yimou maximizing the box office revenue of his movies. After having started as a brilliant director, The Flowers of War again follow a soap opera recipe and the movie is for that disappointing. It could make Zhang Yimou the Andrew Lloyd Webber of Chinese cinema. And I will still go and watch his movies, but just as I watch a musical. Not more, not less. Just not sure whether Chinese cinema really needs a "Hollywood".

Beijing China Photostudio Ltd.

Beside the Hans Schafgans Studio in Bonn, my favorite "Photo shop" is the Beijing China Photostudio Ltd. on 180 Wang Fu Jing. When you click on their website you will find that it does not work. When you tell them it does not work, they will not care. And why should they? Established in 1937, they have been photographing not just the leaders of China, but hundreds of thousands people and families, including myself. On the upper floor at Chinese New Year you have families putting their reunion in photographic memories. You see moving scenes of grandparents dressing up in their best suit, while babies get pacified with milk, people choosing glasses without glass (not to have the reflection). Young couples go there to take a photo together which might become a document for lifetime, they love to look back to. And then all the buzz and discussions around making finally the choices which photos to print. But the Beijing China Photo Studio is not just a "sweet place", it is also highly professional: the photographers in the upper floor themselves, the editors sitting at the computers making minor corrections and last but not least the print shop. On the ground floor the camera and equipment sales is actually run by people loving photography and knowing what they talk about. In my quest of getting a few pictures for my office, I finally decided for some of my own photos and went there to make use of the print shop. When the editor opened the files, I saw that his eyes started to sparkle. They were also some Antarctic scenes and he was looking at it interested like watching a different planet. I thought if an editor who sees thousands of photos from his professional photographers, looks twice at my photos, this is a very compliment for a crude amateur like me. So I left happily after asking to make a few large prints and then still bought on the same street a wool coat, a pullover, two maps of China and Beijing and two tea cups.