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.