Editors blog

anyMeta 4.6.58 - Atom module 0.3.2 2017-05-11T16:59:16+02:00 http://www.couscousglobal.com/feed/atom/47/en?q_object%5B0%5D=1060 Editors blog http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/1024 2008-09-09T12:29:40+02:00 The day after..in the hutong

21-8-2008 about hutongs and the post 8o generation.

The day after the debate we take it slow. In the morning we go to a cool Hutong. A hutong is an old part of town, the ones you always see in Chinese movies… 1.5 million people have been moved from their houses because of the Olympics and a lot of hutongs are torn down. Now off course they are very fashionable and very expensive. In the hutongs are the small café’s where you can get cappuccino and pizza, and the cool tshirt shops are there etc. After coffeer shopping we go to the friendly and wonderful Ou Ning, a curater, filmmaker , magazinemaker, researcher of the Chinese rockscene 10 years ago…. He shows us the magazin 0086 and I interview him about this whole post 80s generation issue. Now: Before I tell what Ou Ning said I want to state that all descriptions of generations fail, a generation is always divers and personally, being of the so called” lost generation” I always hated a tag on me because of age. Although thete is also some truth in it. Having said this, here is what lots of people think about the Chinese post 80: especially in the design and creative industry( a tag is also a way to market a group, isn’t it?) The young generation born after 1980 is very different from the geberation before. They are happy, they make thing to make other people happy, they are not interested in politics, they search for identity in a globalized world. They love Beijing, much more than other cities, because they love old tradition. They are nostalgic to their childhood things, the games, the sneakers, music, magazines, designs, brands, and the TV shows when they were like 6 or 7. They are the first generation who grew up with Internet and computers. They are mostly from rich parents and study abroad. For them it is easy to create subcultures through the Internet( like a “groupie-network, the groupies of Beijing bands , all beautiful and famous themselves)in the old days you had t print magazines, pay for the covers etc. they do it all online. 0086 is a printed magazine they make and like. The older generation thinks they are superficial, spoiled and egoistic. An exeption are the Hong Kong kids, who have very deep discussions and are much more inelelctual. Sorry guys, “dwebushi”(God, my Chinese is not improving…), if you do not agree, please react on the forum or after this blog… Tomorrow finally the Olympics than…I’m of to bed now after a great Chinese footmassage by a woman who is also post 80 but from a completely different background, like a few million I guess;):):):) maartje nevejan http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176 ARTICLE news http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/1001 2008-09-09T12:31:57+02:00 Talking to the Other

"Travelling we feel that something inportant is happening, that we are part of something while at the same time we are witnessing and creating it." Ryszard Kapuscinski" The Other"

Beijing 20-8-2008 Hello everyone. There is a strange silence on our site, where are you guys? We are open now for a week and a half, and there is not much action goiing on. I startt wondering if we are doing the right thing, if we made the right buttons on the site to react, or maybe the site takes to much time to follow. Anyway, everyone says it takes time to build up an audience, so I guess I am , as usual, too impatient. For those who are following or stories: Please let us lnow you are reading them by reacting on the forum, or writing an email. So how is Beijing? I have been talking to Waling Boers yesterday, owner of the BoersLigallery here. We met at 7 o'clock in the morning in the Beihai park while everyone was doing their gymnastics, taichi, aerobics, sworddance etc. The light was beautiful, the lakes were full of flowers, the people and he music dazzling. Waling has beel living for 20 years in diffrent places, and lives for four years now in Beijing.I Loved the way he compares the diffrent models in which he has been living and working. We talked about he arrogance of the West, and how we always judge other cultures through our model of living. About the rudeness of the Western societies towards eachother, that it is normal to say Fuck You, to whomever on the streets and how China everyone is very respectful and cautious about words and opinions. There is the more reserved way of communicating here in China, but at the same time the people are dancing and singing in the parks. It is very touching. After the park we make our way to Tiananmen square where I pay my tribute to Mao and young generations of all decades. In the evening I am filming Amanda, who lives in a Hutong. We talk about the other side of living in a country with reserved communication. Amanda is 22 and in 3 weeks she will start her studies in England. But is almost everyone she is an only child, and she has to leave her parents. There is not a lot of communication between parents and children. The kids have to perform so much when they are young, because the have to fulfill all the reams of the parents. Parents push and strive but never say that they love their children or that they are proud of them.....Also Amanda talks about he loneliness of her generation, growing up without brothers and sisters and with parents who do not communcate love. " I have never learned to live with my enemy, she says, never learned that you can go on after arguing....if i had a fight with a friend I just did not talk to her anymore, and found someone else". If I ask her what she wanted to have liked: " I would have liked to havean older sister, so she could teach me how to put on make-up, and shop with me, and eat with me. Now I always shop and eat alone." All the films will be edited the next few weeks. I am sorry we cannot put them on line right now, so please stay tuned........ I learned so much today. At night I watch CCTV and see our friend Jeroen on it. He is doiing fine, saying wise things about Western Journalism...I made a little clip you can see on the homepage. maartje nevejan http://www.couscousglobal.com/id/176 ARTICLE news