Absurdity, Allegory and China

It has been quiet here, I know. For variety of reasons I have taken a little break. I did a bit traveling late in June to Bangkok, though mostly I’ve been in Tianjin during this first summer of swine flu and the second consecutive summer of failed ethnic policy. Anyone who has spent a summer in Tianjin knows how unpleasant it can be. Though the air quality here has been dramatically better over the past year, once the humidity sets in nothing can keep it from getting uncomfortably steamy (and viral), and without much wind the soupy haze can become oppressive. The next week doesn’t look as if it will be any different, though the end of next week is liqiu, the traditional “beginning of autumn” in the solar calendar. We’ll see how global warming has affected the cooler arrival.

One of the summer highlights (h/t to Moira) has been the discovery of Google Music China, a legal music download site available to anyone visiting the site from a China-based ISP. There is a lot of music here for free, and much of it is at a near CD quality 192 kbps bit rate. Warning: you can get lost here for great chunks of time, and it might cost you the price of a new external drive. For those reading this outside of China, you can still go and see what’s available to us here for free, but you’ll get the message “Music streaming/download services are not available in your region.” For those in China using VPNs, you’ll need to turn them off to tap into the goods.

I’ve also been poking around the Tianjin rivers, though the clammy haze has dramatically cut down on visibility. Below are a few of the photos taken over the last couple of months.

Neighborhood charcoal 'factory' in Liuxia Dongli (Hongqiao). This is where loose coal is pressed into charcoal briquets (mutan): perforated cylinders of granular coal, approximately 6 inches in diameter and 4 inches high, used for cooking and heating throughout the ping fang areas, the one-story brick homes that are still found in some parts of the city, especially in Hebie and Hongqiao districts. The delivery men with flatbed trikes and small motorized carts are waiting for the next batch to finish.

Lock at Erzha, at the conflunece of the Xinkai and Ziya rivers.

Fisherman on the Ziya River north of Yongle Bridge, home of the Tianjin Eye Ferris wheel which spins through its cycle between the bridge's east-west traffic lanes. A first in the world: a Ferris wheel in the middle of a traffic bridge! This is another one for the "Why didn't I think of that?" list. I blame it on having slept through "The Geometry of Visual Sloganeering: Soaring with the Pigeons" classes.

Tianjin's stone boat along the Ziya River, at sunrise. The stone boat, a soon-to-open monument to the final victory of tourism and entrepreneurial excesses over official history and deep-rooted hatred of the foreign Qing, is a stellar example of the decadence that runs much deeper than the ideals and lessons of any party principles.