Rethinking McDonalds.

I don't know what it is with the golden arch, but I had a Big Mac today, and my mouth tasted horrible afterwards. My thought is that the quality of the beef patty left a bad aftertaste in my mouth, or that I just haven't been eating enough beef recently and am not accustomed to it. The taste is comprable to eating day-old white castle burgers. nasty.

After seeing Supersize Me and understanding that McDonalds has been selective in it's transparency about suppliers and it's meat inspection process, I figure I can probably get a better burger somewhere else.

Besides, I've found out that eating proportionally twice as many vegetables as meat and carbs has been beneficial for my energy level throughout the day and I daresay my health. Cooking for myself has been helpful in coming to that conclusion, since I don't have the competence to cook much meat outside of chicken.
to summarize?

"The only good thing about McDonalds are their ice cream and apple pies."

"Eat food, not much. Eat more vegetables."

Pictures

on facebook.
Beijing and Shanghai

Shanghai Expo

Will put up my thoughts later.

Parting ways

Spent the last 2 days doing some casual sightseeing, after blitzing the expo the last 4 or 5. Went to visit James Lee in Hangzhou and had quite a time just seeing what college kids do on weekends. A funny story about the trip...

After arriving at the wrong train station at Hangzhou, James told me to take a bus he thought went directly to the train station I was supposed to meet him at. After promptly agreeing and hanging up, I slipped the Iphone knockoff my dad bought for me into my pocket... except it wasn't my pocket. It slid out and the screen cracked. Massive fail cracked. the entire screen was useless and I couldn't use the interface at all. So when James called me back, I could do nothing but stroke the screen that wouldn't allow me to slide the bar to answer the phone.

To compound that I didn't know where I was going or where exactly to find the only person I knew in the city, I was the only person on the bus who could speak english, and the only one who couldn't speak chinese. I asked the people on the bus, including the guy next to me, if I could borrow their phone, using a comination of broken chinese and pantomiming that my screen was cracked. Curiously enough, the man I asked across the seat from me said he didn't have a phone, though that belied the bulge in his pocket, and the fact that he picked up his phone 15 minutes later. Another man I asked immediately put his phone that he was texting on into his pocket and looked away.

The bus dropped me off at an underpass with no trains to speak about around. I walked into a restaurant to ask, but was promptly given the blank face and a head shake. I wandered into a hospital hoping that someone there spoke english. much to my avail, the lady at the counter didn't know either and wouldn't let me use the hospital phone. She paged a doctor who "know english"... much to my avail she didn't understand that I was looking for the train station, looking to call my friend, or anything of the sort. I was pointing to my screen and trying to ask if I could use her phone, but she merely smiled, waved and said "go post office."

I was laughing inside, as I recall that my dad stated matter-of-factly that All Chinese people knew some extent of english.

Eventually James found me, but I think this experience brings me full circle to the conversation I had coming to China. There is a cultural distance (in which there is a language barrier) that allows me to get to the glass window, but to go no further.

Coming home today. Peace out China

Days 4 and 5 (6/24-6/25)

After some long days of walking and waiting in lines, talking with pavilion assistants and overall doing my best to engage the material and presentations that the expo afforded, I can safely say that I haven't visited all of the pavilions, but I have gotten the most out of my time. I'd have to say the themed pavilions are very impressive in terms of conveyingthe overall theme (duh) of the expo, which is to say that we must be very careful about the resources we have and that the future is brighter with smarter technology and planning for our cities, where the majority of the worlds population is and will reside.

The Country pavilions are fantastic and in some way or form are representative of the cultural importance of a society in cities today, wether through the way they present subject matter, and certainly in the design of each pavilion. A very nice pavilion I visited today was Estonia (iknowright), which acted on the part of savecity.org, an NPO that provides policy assistance and contracting to governments worldwide, where you could choose from 35 topics that would improve a cities well-being, and place it into a series of giant piggy banks with corresponding numbers. It's a good way of getting a feel for peoples opinions and makes them aware of things that one may do to make our cities better.

That being said, I missed many pavilions by virtue of there being so many people. for example, this friday: A 5 hour wait in line at the American pavilion, the German, French and Swiss pavilions were 3-4, and even a 1 hour line at KFC was very fun to be in. I'm glad I got to see what I did, which was what few people cared to go and see, actually.

My time at the expo is now done, promise I'll get photos out when I get back, along with some more observations.

To Hangzhou tomorrow, and then home on monday.

Days 2 and 3 (6/22-6/23)

My feeling throughout the first day was that the pavilions, while fantastic in their execution of construction and media presentations, was lacking in an important thing... substance. A lot of the pavilions, from my understanding, were no more than cultural exhibitions or tourism doodads. Hainan, for instance, was telling us all about it's history and economic development, and they showed us a fantastic video of people smiling and running around the beach, eating fruit and all that. What they didn't show was what exactly the province itself was doing to make it's cities better. After all, "Better city, Better life" is the slogan.

The spirit of the expo was indeed celebratory and meant to give a bright enthusiasm for the world ahead of us, (which is good), but at just about every Zone B pavilion save for the Republic of Korea, none really exhibited any concern for the future of cities, other than that economic and "cultural" growth was necessary for their betterment. Just about everyone was excited about how cool each pavilion looked and how awesome each culture was. It is something very important, I suppose, for the residents of China to experience what different cultures and regions of the world have to offer, in order to be a more respectful world citizen and more engaged in the public sphere for socially-direcrted projects.

My heart, as well as others I am confident, yearns for more details than a 3 hour line and a 3d video prism talking about the food of Northern China. I wanted examples, I wanted considerations of the present that necessitate such a bright future. How do we get there? What exactly makes for a better city, other than brainwashing kids and telling them they're the future, that you should invest in their region, some 3D HD televisions or come vacation (or wish you could go) there? Why should we think and live for things beyond ourselves?

How do you make a better city? Don't give us a cliche answer about positive attitude and promoting culture (which of course is not just cliche, but true).

Enter the UPBA (Urban Best Practices Area). Area E, tucked into the corner of the exposition and across the river from the main eye candy, retains nearly 55 permanent case studies of Cities and municipalities that have established or are working to establish elements for the improvement of sustainability, the environment and quality of life. The last 2 days were spent here, engaging topics on bioremediative river parks (Chengdu), distributed development centers and local food production(Alsace region of France), water filtration and conservation (Guangzhou), public transportation(Madrid), land use innovations and technologies for construction and household use that will minimize our carbon footprint (Broad Pavilion). There are so many examples I have gone through, having nearly completed Zone E in my time here, and I hope I can continue engaging how exactly a better city works, and how it fits into our present.

Beijing, days 5 & 6

Blogspot + internet crappiness = no pictures

Facebook + internet crappiness = no pictures

flickr ftw! (limited monthly additions, no time to tag :( )

Day 5
6/18/10
Got off to a late start because we were watching the NBA finals, game 7 (missed the second half). I have to make an apology to Ron Artest, I've been bugging on him this entire season for taking bad shots and gambling on defense, but I will say thay he delivered when it mattered in this series and the lakers might not have won it without him helping out on virtually everyone on the celtics, especially paul pierce and ray allen. A good series, congrats to the Lakers!

A quick visit to the Beijing CCTV headquarters. Evidently the adjacent cultural center, a part of the CCTV campus in the central business district, burnt down because of fireworks during the chinese holidays in 2008 or 2009, so the entire area was blocked off for reconstruction. took a couple of photos, but it was a shame we couldn't get closer. the building itself is huge, even from two kilometers away. amazing to think that the structural engineers at ARUP could have even thought about doing that sort of thing.

Beijing Olympic Park in two words: effing huge. They really put a lot of time and effort into the entire area, and the properties that they had to evict were certainly numerous. I couldn't imagine the sort of development going up due to property owners, land speculation and other policy gauntlets one would have to go through. With China, the 2500 x 1000 meter area alotted for the main park, is OWNED by the Chinese government (ditto for like, the rest of China).

The birds nest and Natatorium were fantastic structures to see, and better understand how they work structurally. ARUP is very much a big presence here in China, I persume, as they also were cotnracted to configure the strucutral logic of the National stadium which has logical principles in it's dynamic form. I find it ironic that Ai Wei Wei, whose Artist father was sent to a labor camp and whose name was previously soiled by the government because of their radical ideals in the 60's and 70's, was the artistic consultant on mediaitng Chinese culture in the design.

Equally interesting was the sunken garden and dragon's tail lake development to the northwest of the park, part of the Olympic Green. Pics to come.

And I got to see Danielle and Shannon again! studiomates and friends, cool to hang out again... and talk in english. I don't know when I might see either of them again, since both are or are looking to work in China in the near future. Perhaps it's in my cards too, though after my language barrier experience with taxi cabs in the city, I might have to study up some chinese first.

Day 6
A trip to Qinhuangdao, a coastal industrial city 2 hours from beijing via train. My mom and I went to Tanghe River Park, a part of a 10 km stretch of river that is currently in the process of being redeveloped as a greenway project to enhance the city's image during and after their participation in the Olympics (they hosted the Soccer Preliminaries).

Named after Emperor Qin ShiHuangdi, who sought immortality on a nearby island in the region, the city is a big port, most importantly in the transactions of Coal. The development on the city has led to very sophisticated master plans and projects by respected design firms, and a 1.5 km portion of the park is what interested me first. Designed by Turenscape LArchitects and nicknamed "The Red Ribbon", this portion of the park features a river wetland and a winding steel sculpture at knee height, which provides seating, environmental interperetation, lighting and planting space. It was the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) honor award winner of 2008 and selected by readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine as one of the seven new wonders of the architectural world (if you believe wikipedia). It was a fascinating project to see, and certainly was one of the least busiest places we've visited, which made for a percieved expansion of time, just watching the river and the trees and grasses blow in the wind on a hot humid day. In fact, it is probably because nobody knew where it was that we had such a great experience: the taxi driver didn't know about the red ribbon, so he dropped us off at the entrace 2 miles away. the throng of fishermen and gardeners in the park didn't know either, so we kept walking. Along the way we met a kayaker who pulled a floating dead fish from the water for "dinner". He mentioned that it was hidden in the trees. It was a journey worth it's effort.

Then we went to the Dove Nest Park, in nearby Beidahe, which is part of a waterfront conservation development effort along nearly 6 miles of the yellow sea shoreline. The coastal condition of the area where the Beidaihe River runs to the sea is a tidal marsh, which we visited at low tide. The expanse of flat landscape was breathtaking, and a cosntructed tidal conservatory that retains high-tide water in a pool serves as a wildlife and bird refuge, something important considering that 50% of China's wetlands have dissapeared in the last few decades, and 40% of the remaining ones are polluted. seeing the natural treasures of China and it's developments threatening them, QinHuangdao was a great bright spot for my perceptions that the government was premitting GDP growth at the expense of the environment. It's also quite scary to think that the government holds such sway that policy decisions are quickly initiated, versus the beauracracy and paperwork that one must rattle around in order to get money to do anything.

One more day in Beijing, probably going to hang out and shop or w/e. Be in Shanghai tomorrow.

Day 3 and 4 (No pics until better Internet)

Day 3
6/16/10
Visited the Temple of Heaven, quite a place. The temple, along with the major historical architecture of the time, was made of wood. Large Pillars and Stone platforms, as well as ancient cedars and cypress trees all made a very compelling coherent whole in terms of reading the overall layout. In fact, due to the Feng Shui beliefs in imperial site planning since before the ming dynasty, it becomes easier to spot and pick out elements of a site such as this. for example, the main entrance is always from south to the north, and one enters thorugh a procession of gateways, a logical linear movement from one ritual to another, or from more public to more private areas. Folks in China don't care much about weeding, but they have much love and appreciation for their trees and green space. Beijing parks are huge, larger than typical parks in Oakland County Michigan. Trees there easily will be 100+ years old and still putting out leaves.

We had planned on visiting the Forbidden City that day but my mom and I realized very quickly that the scale of our maps was vastly larger than we anticipated. The Temple was a good 2 Kilometers from one end to another and we ended up zig zagging our way through the complex, killing our legs and putting us in no position to do anything else but sleep at the hotel.

Day 4
6/17/10
Today we went and say Tiananmen Square, (the biggest public square in the world, btw), The Forbidden Palace and Beihai GongYuan, the North Sea Park. I remain impressed at the monumental feats that these projects represent, in terms of manpower, coordination, and the resources available. The Forbidden City would seem to be very interesting, the structures large and elegant, and that would be that. What Really struck me was that the palace only took 14 years to build the complex from wood, a 1.25 x 2 km surface area. The spans and columns are massive, and I can only imagine that the emperor didn't permit OSB or 2x4's in the process.

Beihai Gongyuan, which we visited after a hard rain, was truly beautiful, as it integrated fantastic structures and scenic constructions into a very comprehensive work in traditional gardening and landscape design. The procession across the lake and the sleepy complex of restaurants and pavilions on the island park made for a relaxing contrast to the hustle and bustle of all the attractions we went to. So far, it has been the most memorable and enjoyable attraction yet.

We visited a Hutong (a closed chinese neighborhood of adjacent courtyard residences connected by alleyways, which would be another lengthy blog entry.

To equalize the high points of our day, we went to the infamous Silk Market, where you can pick up fake merchandise like north faces, columbia, polo, nike and adidas, as well as a myriad of other off-brands. Everything can be had cheap... if you know how to bargain. I got a knock-off set of Celtic FC apparrel for a good price, but I probably still got cheated because I don't know how to bargain down. As my mom tells me, there are cute girls selling in the stands but they'd cut your pockets to get to your money. It's a part of Chinese culture that I hadn't really engaged in ever, and it was wierd.

Beijing Olympic Park tomorrow! BEAWW.

Observations, Day 1 and 2 (Pics coming)

Day 1
6/14/10

Plane flight to Tokyo - Sat next to korean exchange students from a high school in Madison Heights, MI. They thought I was Korean and tried to talk to me, but they were quickly dissapointed. The plane food sucked, and I can't believed i watched the tooth fairy, starring The Rock.

Plane flight to Beijing from Tokyo connector - Sat next to yet another exchange student in high school. made fun of me because I couldn't understand what she was saying in chinese. It didn't help that she spoke softly, either. After some awkward conversation in which we understood very little of each other, she jokingly put up her hands between us and said "Here's the gap between us. Look, it just got bigger!"

She's got jokes. I feel like a foreigner.

When we landed, I couldn't help but get caught up in the scale of the airport, which spans miles of flat runway and long, extensive terminals. The city is big, humid and smoggy, difficult to see much at night. I remain excited to check out what Beijing has to offer, but I can't get used to the funny looks i've gotten from people so far.


Day 2
6/14/10

We went to Mcdonald's for breakfast (16 RMB for a combo that would cost 4 US dollars in the states, which was cool). On our way in we witnessed a pretty intense shouting match between a young guy and three girls... the area they were sitting in was trashed and they had torn down a few signs. A girl was banging the door against the glass window and shouting and the man was freaking out and pointing his fingers. The people called the police and as we left they were still yelling at each other outside, as a policeman tried to arbitrate with a huge crowd of folks gathering. I can remember thinking from my readings on Chinese Garden design that traditionally, Asian culture was about balance, conservative and peaceful values, and seeking tranquility. I certainly was reminded that you can't really generalize or trust a book on gardens when it comes to people: Times have changed significantly with the intense growth and development of China in the last several decades, and as we know, attitudes do too.

Took a tour of the great wall and a Ming Emperor's tomb. Really interesting to learn about Jade and it's significance as a semiprecious stone to asian culture, as well as the wood-bracket construction of the temples. Traditional Ming culture was heavily invested in Feng Shui, an interesting concept that considers the movement of energy relative to the spaces and objects that we exist in. For example, Beijing's key places and monuments, including the tomb we visited, the Forbidden city, Tianmen Square, the temple of heaven and the Olympic Stadium all exist on a north-south meridian line, a boundary that regulates harmony and balance. Chinese culture, as our trips to the tomb and great wall have indicated, manifests itself in symbolism, finding deeper meaning in the everyday aspects of our lives.

Visited the great wall, which was pretty cool. Three million people died in it's construction, but our tour guide has stated that it was a long term investment.

That being said, the long term product is full of vendors selling cold water and cheap trinkets that have little to do with the great wall, trash and popsicle sticks everywhere, and black bear pits where all they do is eat carrots that you can buy to feed them, and consequently leave orange poo all over the place.

The best part was the rail-car system they had to get up to the wall, a mini roller coaster with greasy wheels and a camera taking pictures of you going down and for purchase later. It was basically an attraction to get to and from the attraction.... a distraction, I suppose.

Had a foot massage, part of the tour. A 14 year old boy pounded my feet for a good 10 minutes, doing every imaginable thing to them: knead, roll, punch, slap. I've never had anything like it! Just as it was the entire day, people couldn't stop staring at me. the guy was alternating between looking at my feet and taking awkward glances.

Wangfujing, a traditional alleyway marketplace full of vendors stalls, deep fried scorptions and street meat, cheap trinkets and fake jewelry, was quite interesting, juxtaposed with the expansive street mall that dominated the block around it, what with department stores and name-brand shops. My mind is spent just taking it all in. It is equally provocative to me that white people are a minority in the crowd, which is something I am not entirely used to.

I'm having quite a time! Hopefully I'll be seeing some classmates in Beijing soon. I'll get to uploading pics tonight.

Crouch

I am eagerly anticipating my trip to China. Leaving tomorrow, I'm trying to collect my thoughts about the country and it's culture, as well as my own thoughts coming in. I honestly don't know what to expect: I have heard a great deal of things, just little pieces of a puzzle I have yet to piece.

I have heard great things about the country and it's capabilities to achieve great things, organize and mobilize people and resources to accomplish it's goals. The Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Expo, numerous developments and restorations since the cultural revolution, the fantastic urban cities; are all part of this picture that sells China as a growing and sophisticated nation knocking on the door of the first world.
Yet, the environmental degradation, economic disparity between the very rich and poor, the cover-up of the undesirable policies and conditions of the government and it's people, the costs of rapid development; those are things that I (as well as anyone who has kept an eye on world politic) would also paint into this picture.
The country is facing a dilemma of identity: a capitalist economic policy with a non-democratic state, a land of traditional culture in the arts, building, agriculture ,music, landscape and literature is being replaced or juxtaposed with new ideas from developing nations and a rapidly industrialized urbanization that places the majority of Chinese residents in cities.
Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes (2006) is a fantastic movie for exploring what Man's relationship is with the environment he interacts with. Through his documentation through photography, China is portrayed as a fantastic landscape full of industry and consequence: the portrayal in the documentary proposes that these landscapes are not good nor bad. Rather, it is beautiful, it is at a scale where Man is marginalized ,and it exists. It is this movie that convinced me that Landscape Architecture is a field forth studying, and also aggravated my sensibilities, to learn more about Man's relationships with Nature.

I'm hoping to get a feel for what China is all about. the Next two weeks will be a time of documentation, observations, and hopefully knock-off Nikes and good food. fingers crossed.

Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage!

My name is Kenny Tang, and I officially have named my blog something outlandish and weird. I'd leave it at that, but I think my first post merits a purpose statement. Maybe not for me, but perhaps you might enjoy it.

As I move on from one school/city/circle of friends to another, I am also transitioning in the way that I think about things and how I learn. Journaling has been something I deem important but have never found the time to follow up on. The things one learns can be thought, dissected and expressed about in a blog entry. There are a lot of disparate elements in the narrative of one's life experiences, and I am no exception. I could use a little more critical thought, and certainly plenty of critical feedback to grow as a student.

The blog is named after the four words that the referee mentions as a preface to a Scrum, perhaps the most visually memorable set-piece in Rugby. In my time playing Rugby, I have realized a great many things, not just about the game, but the life lessons embedded in it. In a Scrum, a total of 16 men/women (8 from each team) face each other and lock shoulders, pushing against each other and with their teammates to contest for possession of the ball as it is put into play. The scrum is reflective of man's purpose on the earth: to play for something greater than him, to fight for the things that he values, and ultimately have a tight-knit relationship with his fellow players and their shared earth.

This blog is set up as a reference to the Scrum, a narrative of my engagements with people, place, circumstance, religion, politics, food and culture. The four words the referee states before a scrum are things that I will always remember, Rugby or not.

Crouch: Get low, in a posture for forward motion, anticipation of what is to come. People are expecting things, and being ready for whatever circumstances that await is of vital importance.

Touch: When the two sides meet, they touch each other to ascertain their distance from each other, and relative to their contexts, they will know if they are close enough to engage. Man investigates, ascertains, and feels out his environment and his relationships to time, space, and matter. As all things have a context in which they exist, seeking to understand those parameters is the beginning of understanding what exists in the world.

Pause: By sizing up the opponent, the players become expectant for the next word, preparing their entry into each others shoulders and contemplating the consequences of one's words and actions. It becomes important to consider a position in an argument, the pitfalls in choosing the wrong elements, the other side of what one is being told.

Engage: By being diligent in one's preparation, the players begin their battle of possession and territory. Cleats dig into the ground and shoulders collide. The product of critical thought is, at best, positive, and at worst, provoking.

My blog is, like many blogs out there, an assortment of cultural expressions. I'm hoping to really take in the things I learn, and I hope you're with me for the ride.