Absurdity, Allegory and China

I have posted several times in the recent past concerning the new CCTV Building project. It has become a sort of ramp for me, one that I am seemingly always huffing up. My feelings concerning this building are in constant flux. I have been taking many photographs of this project over the past three months, and the photoset on my Flickr site has been getting lots of looks. So, today I rewrote this set’s introduction, and I thought I might as well go ahead and post it here too.

The CCTV Headquarters Building and Television Cultural Center (TVCC)
–East Third Ring Road and Guanghua Lu
–Beijing, China

I am adding photos to this set on nearly a daily basis. Though they are in chronological order this is not a chronology of the construction project, since the earliest photos I have here were only taken on December 4, 2007, just a few days prior to what has been described as the first kiss, when the two towers linked up at the inside corner. Though I do not live in Beijing, I travel there often, and recently it has been nearly every week. During my visits I always set aside a few hours to wander the avenues and through the neighborhoods that surround this project. No matter what we think of this building, it has become and will continue to be the bold icon it was projected to become, though I don’t believe that anyone yet quite knows what that icon will truly represent, since it is still unclear where China is heading.

But the fact remains that this is a state-sponsored, state-of-the-art television complex that will be as efficient a tool as anyone has yet imagined for using the air waves as a means to further the reach of the Ministry of Propaganda. I would also add that in China, the concept of propaganda does not carry all of the negative baggage that it does in the West. It is very much the normal state of things here, and the thought that there would not be a propaganda ministry is one that Chinese leaders would claim is not worth the least consideration. I suspect from the Chinese official mind the question they could not help asking would be, “How could you not have one?” This is one of the fundamental differences that we must consider when trying to bridge this cultural divide.

I am most interested in how this project is seen from the street, as it rises above the neighborhoods that will, no doubt, be demolished as Beijing’s Central Business District (CBD) continues to develop. Whatever opinion we might have on this sort of development, the fact is it’s not going to stop. The grand view of this building/project has become the money shot, though it is one that is nearly impossible to get for those who are within its shadow. Most people in this busy area see it from the street as overarching background, as something massively over there, as two giant legs striding among them. And when they look up to see the cantilevered overhang hovering above them like the head of a splitting maul, I can do nothing more than imagine their thoughts. But actually, all I really know is what I think, which can best be expressed as complicated. As I said in a blog post on March 13, 2008, “It moves me in ways that I cannot adequately express, though I have found that I have gravely altered my understanding of the relationship between Beauty and Fear.”

No matter what I think of this building, the fact remains that it has done what an icon is supposed to do: it’s gotten into my head. I am not comfortable with the fact that it has literally done that, and this discomfort has stoked my deepest iconoclastic instincts. As I said above, it’s complicated. That being said, I hope you enjoy the photos, and I also hope that they might stir further discussion.

March 14, 2008

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