Domestic Transformer

A big wow crossed my lips upon watching Gary Chang's mind-bending apartment. Chang, an architect in Hong Kong, gives a whole new dimension to an apartment that's merely 344 square feet. Through the use of sliding panels and walls he is able to sleep, eat, and even enjoy a late sunset in the same area of space.

Sliding panels and walls are longstanding architectural concepts in Asia. Korean palaces often consisted of interlinked chambers that could be joined by moving aside sliding doors, that would then create a banquet hall for special occasions.

Chang's idea merges such traditional concepts for the modern urban environment, while living green by making do with less.

Urban Gawkers of China

i like people. from blank on Vimeo.

I really enjoyed this concept video by Eric Leleu, on view at Art Labor Gallery Shanghai until June 10. The random walks of tourists, you discover, are actually set in a predetermined pattern, destined to take souvenirs photos by Tiananmen, the Temple of Heaven, and other iconic Beijing monuments.

Who says people aren't predictable?

Shanghai As Muse

I just came back from a fascinating panel on Asian Americans in the Media at Barnard College. Aside from the heavy representation in hip-hop, which I thoroughly enjoyed,there was also an unusual talent whose fusion jazz music is bringing his musical interpretation of Shanghai to an American audience.

Dave Liang gave up a career in management consulting to create the Shanghai Restoration Project, an electronic music initiative that's putting together excerpts of Shanghai '20s jazz music and splicing it with traditional Chinese instruments and the beats of hip-hop.

His music is evolving, but only because he's just starting to discover himself. I especially like this NPR interview and the accompanying video, because it gives his music a more definitive context.

Floating World

Art! Who comprehends her?
With whom can one consult concerning this great goddess?
—Ludwig van Beethoven

There's so much about art I know so little of, which is why pieces that connect me for a brief moment to a kindred soul is a gift. Guo Hongwei's deceptively simple works of everyday objects bring a redeeming glow to the mundane world of electric plugs and plastic stools. So much talent in a 27-year old makes me wonder where he'll be 5 or 10 years from now.





The supposition that art is a gift as opposed to a collectible, something that doesn’t try to sell you anything, runs counter to our contemporary notions of what constitutes a meaningful exchange.
-Lewis Lapham

The gallery business in New York is probably not at the apex of its profit margin, which according to one art dealer I spoke to, is for the better, especially for "those overinflated Yue Minjuns."

While this dealer is a respected expert in the field, I paused and reflected on that statement. We live in a time when a highway robber can no longer hold us at gunpoint, demanding us to choose between "your money or your art," because these are now indistinguishable commodities. It's time to consider the possibilities: will we be exchanging shares of art on a stock exchange? Going long on the formaldehyde sharks, and shorting the images of red-faced Chinese?



Then again, I guess hard times for the art-collecting rich don't call for such explicitly wide smiles. It cuts a little too close to the bone.

Guo Hongwei's works are on view at Chambers Fine Art from April 1st to May 15th

Wealth is in the air

Damien Hirst
Painful Memories/Forgotten Tears, 2008
Gold plated, glass and Cubic Zirconia

I just finished reading "Greed Never Left" by Michael Lewis, a retrospective of Oliver Stone's 1987 film Wall Street in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. If you've been keeping up with the latest movie news, Stone and his Hollywood entourage are preparing to release an overdue sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Stone expresses his usual pessimism about American capitalism, telling Lewis he returned to the world of finance and greed because we're apparently witnessing "the collapse of capitalism and the collapse of our society." This of course is Stone at his most ironic. After the release of Wall Street Michael Douglas was accosted by Wall Street bankers claiming kinship, seeking him out to say, "Man, I want to tell you, you are the single biggest reason I got into the business. I watched Wall Street and I wanted to be Gordon Gekko."

Stone's grave outlook, the ongoing housing crisis, and an anemic economy does make it difficult to imagine business as usual. But in Asia, the engines of enterprise are just starting to roar, with 62 out of 92 new billionaires on the annual Forbes list hailing from China, India and Japan. They are captains of industry as well as innovators like Lei Jufang, one of few women on the list who is pioneering a path in Tibetan medicine.

I've thought about an Asian equivalent to the wheeling, dealing, greed mongering world of Wall Street, and I don't think there is one. Could this be a by-product of a cultural gap between our two modernities? Does an emphasis on family values prevent moguls from reckless capitalism that has become so glamorous in the United States, a path so dangerously alluring that it is ultimately unstoppable? Only time will tell.

Happy Chinese New Year

In a world of multiple, co-existing modernities, it's only fair to celebrate multiple, co-existing new years. 2010 began over a month ago. Now the year 4708 is upon us, bringing my attention to a recent article on CNN Asia edition about the revival of the Chinese dress in Singapore.

Every now and then fashion designers take a stab at bringing back traditional clothing to the mainstream. Shanghai Tang comes to mind. But each time their success is met with limitations. In East Asia, for a woman to feel and represent the modern, her clothing must look modern, or Western. When I lived in Seoul, I wore two hanbok-inspired tops, a sartorial move that was met with surprise and amusement, not really by my non-Korean colleagues, but rather by my Korean associates. Was the traditional dress too confined to certain holidays and special occasions to make the quantum leap to daily wear?

Which is why I'm all the more piqued by the bold and striking designs from Mazzario Cheongsam and My Mandarin Collar. Would they make it into regular wardrobe rotation? Judge for yourself.

A Word About Toyoda

Are you okay? by Daifuku Sensei. Toyotas comprise the majority of Japan's armada of taxis, such as this cab in Tokyo.

An empire is slowly crumbling, and with the accelerator pedals out of order, it's impossible to stop the decline. When I first heard about the automotive recall by Japan's largest car manufacturer, I brushed it off as a minor footnote to the corporate biography of the most powerful company in Japan, if not the world. But this wasn't Hyundai circa 1986. This was Toyota, is Toyota, and a car company in free fall.

I'm not hopeful about Toyota's future. I say short that stock, and do it now. The scandal has been met with denial, indifference, and even arrogance, quickly followed by primal fatalism.

Martin Jacques ruthlessly noted that empires in decline usually do not notice an ongoing state of deterioration until it is too late. What does this mean for a company that embodies post-war Japan? I foresee seismic changes ahead, a threat to business as usual that's also an opportunity in disguise. I hope I'm not alone.

Slow is the New Green

Damyang Bamboo Forest by toughkidcst on Flickr

Laughter came easily when I read about the latest developments on Lonely Planet's reader forums. By way of a democratic vote, Seoul had been cast the third most hated city in the world by some of the world's most embittered and - dare I say - loneliest travelers.

Seoul, South Korea – According to one traveller comment, ‘It’s an appallingly repetitive sprawl of freeways and Soviet-style concrete apartment buildings, horribly polluted, with no heart or spirit to it. So oppressively bland that the populace is driven to alcoholism.’

With the exception of the 'no heart or spirit to it' clause, I actually don't disagree with a few of the observations. Seoul is terribly industrial. It doesn't have the sleek, hi-tech veneer of Tokyo or the glass tower ambitions of Hong Kong. Traffic chokes the roads and the pollution chokes the people. But there's a story to this urban malaise. In a wild bid to overcome post-colonial squalor and Third World treatment from smug, First World nations, the South Koreans were willing to bear enormous sacrifices to industrialize in an absurdly short span of time. In the quick stroke of 20-30 years, the past was literally bulldozed from memory.

It's a small miracle then that the past has stayed on, precariously intact from smokestacks and faceless factories, in places like Cheongsan Island, Cheongpyeong, and Hadong, the first Asian cities to be accredited by the Slow Food Movement. In order to qualify for Slow Food membership, towns must have a population under 50,000, promote the local sourcing of good ingredients, sustainability, artisan production, the careful and respectful preparation of food, and conviviality in the eating of it - Slow Food, as opposed to Fast Food. Clearly, small as these towns are, they offer something the big city doesn't.

I have visited the area where Cheongpyeong is located. Damyang is known for its bamboo forests, brooks and streams. Everything there felt so alive, untouched yet breathing. There, I could feel a nature more powerful and beautiful than anything created by humanity's imperfect hands. Next time I go, I will have to try the locally grown food.

It's interesting to note the concept of Slow Food began in the mid-80s, when a McDonald's was a looming possibility by the Spanish Steps in central Rome. Carlo Petrini and a group of like-minded Italian journalists believed that indigenous food customs were eroding away and began an idea that is now practiced in 15 countries. Industrialization and McDonald's have blanketed much of the world since then, and the McDonald's of guidebooks may hold sway with the unimaginative, but sometimes I feel we all need to cast aside the multinational brand names and their myopia, before it spells death for a vision that's right before our eyes.

Youth, Not Revolt

Something beautiful is taking place in the lives of 240 million young Chinese born in the 1980s to mid-'90s. And they reflect a similar, silent revolution taking place in neighboring Korea and Taiwan, a movement about caring deeply about social harmony and heightened empathy. Kirsten Høgh Thøgersen and Nandani Lynton, two European scholars in China explain in detail. Some of their most salient observations are below.


"Despite surface appearances, China's Generation Y is not becoming Western."


"Young people everywhere use the same technology and wear similar clothes. But some similarities are superficial."


"Despite their popular image as the "Me Generation," we find that Chinese Gen Yers hold up traditional family values. Gen Y feels keenly responsible both for their nuclear family and their grandparents, even for aunts and uncles. They feel responsible despite the fact that there is little personal communication; most say they cannot ask about details of family history or discuss personal subjects with their elders."


"We also asked young Chinese to choose one wish that would make their life happier. A typical answer was: "I would be instantly happy if my parents could have a beautiful house so they could feel really good." We then asked a follow-up."


' "And if you already had that, then what might your second wish be?" One answered in a flash: "I would like my parents to also have a fish pond in their garden." '


'The single most surprising result of our research is that 70% of the young Chinese consider themselves spiritual, while only half the Westerners do so. Many Chinese respondents answered: "I don't have a religion but I believe in a universal power." '


"Chinese Gen Ys want to keep their society built on collective harmony and effective relationship management. At the same time, their refusal to accept authority unquestioningly indicates a new level of critical thinking."

Photographs from Taiwan are courtesy of Miki. Photographs from Korea are courtesy of Sibuya.

When Art Meets Intelligence

Korean artist and long-time New York resident Do Ho Suh knows how to make visible that elusive place where concept becomes form, non-matter becomes matter, and culture becomes identity.



More information about Suh can be found here, at the Lehman Maupin Gallery.



Materials used: parachuting gear, resin, glass, metal, and the artist's old school uniforms.

















Suh and 11 other contemporary Korean artists are currently exhibiting their works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston through February 14.

Hall of Mirrors

"The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power." -Nikola Tesla

Samsung's LCD pavilion at CES 2010 in Las Vegas.

It's ironic, I suppose, as someone who lived in South Korea for 5 years, that I do not have a better grasp of the shapeshifting nature of technology. From 2002 to 2007, I witnessed the country easily surpass the U.S., Europe and Japan in broadband speed. In the subways of Seoul I noticed cell phones shrink in size only to grow back again with the advent of mobile network television. Social networking was one of the fastest growth sectors. Getting to know someone meant visiting her personal page on Cyworld. Expressing tokens of affection or gratitude meant buying your friends 'acorns' of cyber-currency through Cyworld's gifting system.

It wasn't too surprising then, that at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, technology giants LG and Samsung headlined the 4-day extravaganza of innovation's bleeding edge. Samsung's pavilion was a dazzling display of LCD might. Both companies previewed the future with 3D-TVs and the world's largest transparent OLED prototype.

Technology is a powerful ticker tape of human progress and with progress comes confidence. It's unnerving to think our computers and smart phones will be outdated in 9 months, but in Korea such change was as natural as the passage of time. The pace of change is great and with each technological upgrade, I could feel the country move up another rung on the ladder of perceived advancement. And while the changes never did quite translate into greater social happiness for all, the waves of the future did instill greater Korean confidence about tomorrow. And renewed confidence, with all its illusory advantages, can never be overlooked or ignored, especially when it can be a palpable form of progress all its own.

The Sartorialist

The following thought-provoking quotes on fashion and the body in Asia are from Martin Jacques' latest book, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order. Accompanying photographs are from Vivienne Westwood's Spring/Summer 2010 collection on display during Hong Kong's Fall/Winter 2010 Fashion Week.


"In Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong everyday dress as worn by men and women is highly Westernized."


"While Western fashion is preoccupied with clothes that reveal and emphasize the female form, for Japanese designers the shape of the body and the display of flesh are of much less concern."


"For thousands of years, Chinese dress was deeply entwined with social hierarchy, being one of its more important and visible expressions."


"Only the emperor was allowed to wear yellow, his sons were required to wear golden yellow, while nobles wore blue-black."


"Clothing was an instrument of order in a society dedicated to hierarchy, harmony and moderation."


"If people want to be modern they feel they must dress in a Western way: Western dress is the sartorial badge of modernity."


"The Western form - above all, skin colour, the defining signifier, but also other Caucasian features has had a profound and enduring impact on east Asian societies over the last two hundred years"


"For a Japanese to look in the mirror and wish to see a white person, or to emphasize those features which resemble those of a Caucasian - is a powerful statement of self-image."

Honeycombs

Ordos by EXH Design

Sometimes a building is so otherworldly time comes to a standstill and petty preoccupations vanish into thin air.

EXH Design, a cross-cultural studio in Shanghai, has done just that with Ordos, a prototype of a boutique hotel in Inner Mongolia. According to the firm, the architects took inspiration from the yurt, a traditional Mongolian dwelling. Yurts are round and unconventional spaces by today's standards, but they are also reminders of a culturally rich Central Asian past. Once inside you encounter the kind of sleek minimalism found in many of the world's other metropolises.





The Ordos region, interestingly enough, is also an oasis of China's green programs. There are plans underway for a 12-gigawatt wind, solar and biomass plant, the world's largest, as well as a tree-planting movement in what is one of China's most massive deserts.

China's emergence then, it appears, is not just about industrial might. It's also about the rising conscience of a nation that understands the potential of the future and the power of now.

Yang Fudong brings Prada to Shanghai

Still shot from Prada's Spring 2010 ad campaign

Prada's latest collaboration with Chinese video artist Yang Fudong is a testimony to the luxury brand's black-and-white view of the Middle Kingdom. China, the campaign seems to declare, is the luxury world's ultimate destination. The nine-minute film is evocative of both 1930s Shanghai and a disarming neo-surrealism that invites traditional Chinese elements into the modern world.

For more commentary from the Financial Times, go here. The footage can be found here.

I personally enjoyed the video. China's supermodels are second to none, and they appear at ease in Western uniform, even making it their own with irreverent grace. This video also seemed less concerned about a Western clothier overtaking the East, but more interested in how the East wears the West and subsequently redefines it.

Welcome to Manifesto

Wang Guangyi, Chanel No. 5, Date Unknown

The first blog post is quite like a first impression. It also establishes a precedent for the entries that follow. Manifesto was created to fill a void in the blogosphere on ways to look at Asian Modernity. There are a good handful of Westerners both in the United States and abroad who diligently blog about Asia from a Western point of view. This blog will neither champion an Eastern nor a Western point of view, but perhaps a yet-to-be-invented third perspective that draws from past experience to construct a new philosophy. And perhaps that's not such a bad idea. By simply changing the act of looking at things as they are through the exchange of images, thoughts and ideas, we might just make the world a better place.