Absurdity, Allegory and China

The Kingdom from another angle.

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Bad Air Day Photos

August 12th, 2010 · No Comments

Yesterday (August 11, 2010) morning I waded through the mess masquerading as Beijing air down to the CCTV Headquarters project to see if the rumors, via Weibo, of the demolition of the TVCC were true. Was the building about to be dismantled as the rumor hinted. I am happy to report that I still don’t [...]

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · CCTV fire · TVCC · architecture · billboards

“Has anybody seen Lowry?”

August 11th, 2010 · 2 Comments

The Television Culture Centre, Beijing, CN August 11, 2010, 11:04 AM An extremely shitty air day in the business heart of the Kingdom. ________

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · CCTV fire · TVCC · architecture

Always More Rumors

August 11th, 2010 · No Comments

The CCTV Building project has been rife with rumors since before the first hole was dug, and the latest one (via niubi at Twitter) was spotted on Weibao, a Chinese microblogging service. The rough translation (and I stress “rough”) is “Heard that my foolish masters’ big underpants scorched little brother [TVCC] must be demolished tomorrow, [...]

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · CCTV fire · Koolhaas · architecture

And Yet A Few More CCTV Photos

May 13th, 2010 · 2 Comments

It usually takes me a bit of time to go through my photos after a trip to my favorite site in Beijing, the CCTV Bldg. project (or what I sometimes refer to as metaphor central) on the East Third Ring Road. In the last few days I have finally gotten around to looking through what [...]

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Tags: CCTV · CCTV fire · TVCC · architecture · photo

China’s Construction Habit

May 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment

There is a perennial incompleteness that haunts mainland Chinese cities, second and third tier cities as well as the nation’s capital. In the foreground of the above photo you can see scaffolding, green construction mesh,  and the top of a tent where migrant workers live in the very heart of the Central Business District, across [...]

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Tags: CCTV · CCTV fire · TVCC · architecture

A Few More of the CCTV Project (color)

April 28th, 2010 · No Comments

Here are some photos of the CCTV in color, all taken in the late afternoon/early evening, April 23, 2010

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · TVCC · architecture · photo

More CCTV Building Project Photos

April 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Photos of the continuing project. (click for bigger pic)

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · TVCC · architecture · photo

Civilized Chaoyang: What Was It Before?

April 25th, 2010 · 3 Comments

I am trying to imagine how I would feel if I went to New York and was confronted with billboards that said, “Civilized Brooklyn.” Or if I were walking through Paris and ran into large public displays that said “Civilized Belleville.” Of course I would wonder, “Why is this being addressed at all?” A weekend [...]

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Tags: CCTV · CCTV fire · Koolhaas · TVCC · architecture · language · propaganda

TVCC: Still a Hotel?

January 25th, 2010 · No Comments

Curious article in the Shanghai Daily today (h/t @niubi on Twitter), reporting on a Beijing News article regarding repairs to the TVCC building, the burned and lesser brother/neighbor of the iconic CCTV Bldg. This has been expected since Rem Koolhaas stated in a WSJ piece The Sky’s No Longer the Limit back in May 2009 [...]

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Tags: CCTV · CCTV fire · Koolhaas · TVCC

Sm(f)og

December 12th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Earlier this week while China was (and still is) doing Copenhagen, climate change and carbon chits, Beijing and Tianjin were muffled in a thick toxic fog that held the wintry coal-smoky air low to the ground to mix with the normal, everyday dose of vehicular and factory air pollution. If the air were a hospital [...]

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Tags: Beijing · CCTV · architecture · fog · pollution