The oxymoron of Chinese democracy

Recently, I have had much discussion with my friends about Ai Weiwei and the aftermath of his detainment by the Chinese Government. I consider myself as an artist and a designer, I have a natural tendency to empathize artists who are restrained to express their artistic ideas. However, the huge stir that Ai Weiwei’s detainment caused in the western media is what I want to talk about today.

 In case you have not heard of this incident, here is some background:

 Ai Weiwei is a well-known Chinese contemporary artist, designer and architect. His has held exhibition in Tate Modern, London, and was the design consultant of Beijing Olympics Stadium – “the Bird’s Nest.” He has long been an activist and a critic that expresses his opinions about government policies and corruptions through social media like Twitter. On April 3, he was arrested by the Chinese government and is now under investigation for “economic crime.”

To quote the Wall Street Journal, his disappearance caused an “international storm.” The western media has described him as courageous, and somehow heroic. As I read people’s comments on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and TED.com, I started to feel that I needed to stand up and express my own opinion about it.

 First of all, I absolutely admire Ai’s work. I think they are interesting, thought-provoking, and beautiful on its own. As an artist, Ai Weiwei is one of the most talented, intelligent, and brave artists that I have ever seen. By gradually gaining international recognition and support, Ai Weiwei then used his influence to express his opinion on human rights, government corruption and Chinese politics. While I agree with him on many levels, I was not surprised to see him being taken in by the Chinese government.

Ai Weiwei and his Sunflower Seeds installation at TATE Modern, London
These 100 million handmade porcelain seeds are thought to express Ai's concern for individuality.

After reading many angry comments that western readers made on the news webpages, I feel that many comments are made by people who are very idealistic, and do not understand the complexity of China. I was born and brought up in China, and I have lived in England for four years, and now United States for three years. I was well aware the difference in the value system of the east and the west. I have to say that many of the reporting and comments I have read so far from the western media are inevitably written from a westerner’s perspective.

 For example, many have stressed the value of “freedom of speech.” They believe that Ai should not be detained because he was brave enough to speak up his mind. They also talked about human rights, which is long an issue with China. They feel angry that a person can be arrested simply because he says what he thinks. And for that reason, the Chinese Government should be criticized and blamed by the West. Here, I want to say that China is not like the west, and will never become like the west. Our current situation is not solely the result of the Communist Party’s ruling, but is a complicated compound of the values, systems, and problems that were embedded in our 5000 years of history. China was never a "democratic" society, and our people are molded to become comfortable of having someone above them telling them what to do - there is even a word in the Chinese language to describe this characteristics of the Chinese people - "servility." Although China is slowly opening up and the new generations are becoming ever more independent and empowered, our demographics are still not the same as the west. What worked in the west may not work the same in China, and may even cause greater problems that are in the opposite direction of what we hoped.

 We cannot just simply conclude that “freedom of speech” is a great concept, and therefore must be immediately applied to the Chinese society. The reality isn’t that simple – there are many things that need to be in place, such as education, open-mindedness, and awareness of cultural diversity, before exercising the so-called “freedom of speech.” China just pulled a majority of its people out of extremely poverty, is “freedom of speech” really needs to be our next step? If the public is not educated enough, how do we make sure that our public discourse promotes greater intellectual conversation and critical thinking? A large percentage of Chinese people are still under-educated, which means that they might have limited ability of critical thinking, and can be easily aroused by emotional appeals that may lack of critical reasoning behind it. Therefore, I strongly believe that the first thing that we need to do is to invest in and develop our education system, to make sure that more and more people can make rational choices by engaging in critical thinking. Only when that happens, can we further promote freedom of speech and democracy.

 I am not disagreeing with the western media in firing at the Chinese government about their approach to freedom of speech. However, I do want to assert that we should not only assess a situation from a westerner’s perspective. We need to acknowledge that China has a long and a drastically different history from us, which resulted in the social situation that they are in now. Simply take what we have here and impose on them is not only unfair but also unhelpful. We need to analyze China for what it is, and then think about policies and strategies that can really help the society thrive, grow, and become more free and democratic.

Growing Chinese Film Industry

Huayi Brothers recently announced their plan to building East Asian’s largest indoor Film and TV Studio Complex in Jiading District, Shanghai. Named Huayi Brothers Culture City, the studio complex will follow the Universal Studios model, incorporating film studios, public tours and entertainment rides, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Huayi Brothers is China’s leading independent TV and film production company, and is best known for producing domestic blockbusters such as Feng Xiaogang’s Aftershock, Tony Chan’s Hot Summer Days, and Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle. Huayi Brothers Culture City will begin construction later this year.

The new Huayi Brothers Culture City will be within three hours’ driving distance of China’s largest film studio to date, Hengdian World Studio in Zhejiang province. An official of Huayi Brothers said, “We feel the market is big enough to accommodate at least two studio facilities in the Shanghai area.” Last year, Chinese box office experienced a growth of 64%, reaching $1.53 billion in total gross.

Chinese Film market is thriving at an astonishing speed. Soon, it will become one of the largest film markets of the world. Huayi’s move proves that huge potential is seen within the China film industry, both in production and consumption. At the moment, Chinese viewers’ average spending on going to theatres is far behind those of US audience, however, with the rise of upper-middle class and young people with extra cash to spend, I think the future of the Chinese industry is extremely promising.

Borders' Bankruptcy: Where is the future for books?

In one of my earlier blog entries, I talked about how traditional books still have the charm, and will not be easily taken over by e-books offered on devices such as Kindle and iPad. However, on Wednesday February 16th, the America's 2nd largest book sellers, Borders Group, filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, which heavily shaked the publishing industry. We can't help but wonder: Did this happen because of the competition from e-books? Did this happen because people are just not reading? Where is the future of book publishing and sales?

Many have argued that Border's failure lies in its lateness in catching up with the digital trend. More consumers have turned to online vendors such as Amazon for Paper books. One of Borders' main competitor - Barnes & Noble also started online retailing early on, and introduced its own e-reader for e-books. On the other hand, Borders has been slow in catching up with the digital technology, focusing on improving shopping experience in its brick and mortar stores. The bankruptcy showed that this approach is questionable in today's economy, and especially in the publishing industry. Amazon is experiencing steady growth over the past a few years, which shows that the problem is not that people are not reading, but rather, how they are reading.

Therefore, it is necessary that we re-evaluate the future the book industry after Borders' bankruptcy. Right now, e-books sales count for 10% of the market share of total book sales. And this incident confirmed that the trend will continue to grow. Readers will turn to digital versions of books, and for those who still love physical copies - online vendors will be their place to go. Simliar problem is also experienced in the news and magazine industry, where digital versions of newspapers and magazines are gaining popularity. An important lesson for businesses is: it is vital to pay close attention to industry trends, and to act according, and QUICKLY. Although I am a fan of physical books, I would expect that in the near future, half of the publications will be sold digitally as e-books, and a large chunk of the remaining sales will be made through online vendors. Hopefully, the impact of Borders' failure on the book industry will allow many publishers and writers to re-think their business, and I will be excited to see what is going to happen next.

Digital Media is the future

For those we are interested in media, communication, social networking and entertainment, I recommend that you follow Digital Media Wire (http://www.dmwmedia.com). It has very frequent updates that are focused on digital media, online entertainment, social networking, mobile technology etc. I am particularly interested in this blog because I believe that more and more entertainment in the future will be moving online, and following what's happening with digital media can assist you in predicting the future and where entertainment, communication and other industries are going next.

As Eric Schmidt - Google's soon-to-be ex-CEO - addressed on Tuesday (jan 25), that the future will be driven by smartphones, and most online activities will be happening on mobile technology platforms. Digital Media Wire covers many news and commentaries about mobile technologies and mobile entertainment, which will definitely be helpful to know whether you are applying for a job in the communication field, or starting your own business in this field. Also, one of the recent buzz words is "cloud" - meaning cloud computing, cloud music, cloud films etc., where everything is stored in shared servers and provided to users on demand, breaking the limitation of location and device-storage capacity. More and more "cloud-based" service providers are rising in the entertainment industry, and it definitely a trend to watch for.

Digital Media Wire covers all the above topics and more, which has been a valuable source to me.

Street Style Pic @ Beijing

I was in Beijing for a couple of days and a photographer took a picture of me for a Chinese street style website called P1.cn. Beijing is such a cool place - it's a mix of the old and the new, the traditional and the modern. You will see the most trendy people hanging out in "hutong"(very old and narrow streets), near the forbidden city, and around Tian'anmen.

Electronic Books vs. Traditional Books

With the presence of Kindle, iPad and other electronic book readers, it seems like the traditional books are losing to their electronic versions. Geoffrey Flowler and Jeffrey Trachtenberg from the Wall Street Journal think that traditional books may not be able to survive the digital age. Just like in the music industry, people have turned away from physical records and CDs, and embraced the new format of MP3s. David Kusek writes in his book “The Future of Music,” that music is becoming more of a service than a product. It is about “accessing” it, not owning it. Maybe it will be the same for the press industry. For books, it will not be about owning the physical books anymore, but simply about accessing the content. 

However, when Apple first introduced iPad in Hong Kong in July in a book expo, the above theory was not proven. During the expo, it was reported that traditional books appeared more popular than any forms of electronic books. People were more excited about traditional books than the iPad. In the traditional books section, people were lining up to purchase latest traditional books, in contrast to the desolate electronic readers section. 

I was once a “bookworm.”  I am obsessed with the world in these books and well as the physical books themselves. I like touching these books, smelling the scent of the ink, and feeling their weight. I like the cover, the spine, and even the little page numbers in them because they indicate a “process” – from discovering to experiencing, then to loving. For me, reading is not just an emotional experience; it is also a tactile experience. Literature is art, and I like owning the greatest artworks. I like seeing them lining up on my bookshelves, whether or not I have read them all.

And I know I’m not the only one. I asked several of my friends, and most of them told me that they actually prefer traditional books. “Reading on the screen hurts my eye,” they told me, “I just like books. They are so beautiful.”

I also heard from one of my designer friends that today’s book design is all about the tactile experience. It is not about the content anymore. The book design needs to create a tactile experience that readers don’t get from a flat screen. In order to compete with the freely accessible electronic versions online, designers pay much attention to the materials of the book cover, the paper, and the typography. Book design needs to give the book an “edge”, a personality – not just black Times New Roman on a white backlit computer screen. 

Therefore I believe, traditional books are not dead, and will not be. Yes, electronic books will become more popular and more prominent because they are cheap, accessible and easy to store. But some people – people like me, people who see a book as an art – will never give up the touch of the paper, the smell of the ink, and the satisfaction when you turn to the last page.

Documentary: The September Issue

This documentary follows the work process of the Editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, Anna Wintour, in creating the 2007 September issue.

The documentary focuses on how powerful Anna is in terms of influencing fashion designers and other who work with her such as the creative director of Vogue – Grace Coddington. In this documentary, you can have an idea of how an issue of a fashion magazine is created from initial ideas to the final product. We also see that the designers really respect the editor’s opinions and they would bring in different sketches for Anna to approve on before they actually go on and start working on the collection. So we often see this conflict between the designer and the editor when they do not agree with each other. This demonstrates that the designer’s freedom is limited. A designer cannot just do what he wants to do but he has to listen to different opinions and try to satisfy the needs of the clients and those who will publish your work.

This film also focuses on the relationship between the editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and the creative director Grace Coddington. Both of them have worked for Vogue for a long time and they seem to be in conflict with each other a lot of the times. Sometimes the creative director will have an idea or a photo shoot that she is very excited about but gets “killed” but Anna. In this film, the creative director is portrayed as more of an artist who is really passionate about the work she is doing. There is one line that I remember most clearly. Grace talked about when she started her career, a photographer she worked with taught her to “always keep your eyes open.” She said that no matter where she goes, she never sleeps in the car and just keeps watching everything she sees out of the window and they are all great inspiration. This is the same with design. We just need to pay attention to everything we see around us and they can all become great inspirations.

Vogue is the first magazine that started to put celebrities on the cover and became really successful because of it. It also influenced other publications that followed the trend. There is a conversation that the creative director is talking about how she hates to put celebrities on the cover but she knows that Anna is doing the right thing with the celebrity culture because the magazines will sell because of it. So we can see this clash between art and commerce, and most of the times art will have to sacrifice for commercial purposes because without the money, art could not survive.

In this documentary, we also see that the editor-in-chief is very meticulous about every detail in the magazine. The designers will bring copies of different versions of the cover for her to comment on and approve on. And she often will make very detailed suggestions such as the retouching of the photographs, type treatment and use of color. We can also see the process of the editors get together and determine the order of the pages for the issue. For example, they will put pages that have bright colors and dramatic photographs at the beginning of the magazine because they catch reader’s attention and are good to “open” the magazine.