China: It's Not Like They're Pandas
Sinology (that's a fancy word for the study of China) is a strange business. You get people who go into the mysterious Middle Kingdom, do something quite average like conduct business, go to university, or report on current events, and 2 weeks to 20 years later, they rebrand themselves as a China expert, something between “our man in Shanghai” and “the woman who went to the Great Wall, ate some pork belly, and lived to tell about it.” Then, they come back and tell you about the perverse goings on and odd values among the Chinese, and how it is impossible for a Westerner to understand what is going on in China, without reading their book, of course.
I’m not going to do that. From everything I can tell, they’re normal. Really normal. There’s nothing about the Chinese people or culture that we haven’t seen before. In fact, I would propose that they are the normal ones, and we’re the weirdos. An enterprising young Chinese person, and they are enterprising, ought to write the reverse story, about his strange and wacky adventures among the rather thick laowai, who can’t seem to figure anything out.
We don’t have to prove China belongs in the BRICs, but we may have to prove that they can think and be creative and aren’t the inscrutable mystery we think they are. China is undergoing a creative resurgence as significant as the economic rise, yet it's being managed from within, a kind of 'Cultural Evolution'. They're already changing the world of art. Celebrity, gaming, youth and underground culture are next, and that counterfeiting problem might just be the best thing feeding all of this creative energy.
Tate With Destiny: It's Not the Art Market, It's The Art
The world’s hottest art market got that way for a reason: excellent craft and intriguing subtext that owed more than a little to the Cultural Revolution. And it’s getting better as it’s getting bigger.
Your Friends and Neighbors: A Magnifying Glass for Celebrity
With a broad homegrown contingent proving a point or two about China, and a selection of icons from the neighboring Sinosphere and East Asia, there won't be much need for Western stars.
Game Over: The End of the WOW As We Know It
Say goodbye to the console game business. And watch how the Chinese are about to change internet gaming as we know it. They play more, harder, and by different rules, on the screen and off.
The Counterculture of Counterfeit: Why It's Good for Creativity
A smart holder of intellectual property might investigate what the Chinese are knocking off and why. It’s about inspiration as much as profit, yet we’re policing supply without understanding demand.
Bold and Beautiful: Butch Supergirls and Pretty Happyboys
A combination of reality TV, new wealth, and the one-child policy has created a sexual role reversal, driven by tough tomboy girls calling the shots and everyone creating their own personas.
Just Don't Make A Mess: The Perfect Amount of Trouble
Rebellion is for losers. Through self-policing and diversionary tactics, underground culture and street creativity skillfully stay out of the government radar, without losing the chance to be expressive.
What I like about Chinese pop culture is its relative restraint to the rest of the region. It has enough nuggets of Japanese-style otaku weirdness and Hong Kong and Korean intensity to make it interesting, but is balanced out by healthy doses of only-in-PRC populist kitsch and subtle introspection, a nice yin-yang of high and low, sacred and profane. That’s all I ever ask — a little creative balance and some choices on the menu.