Beijing in the spotlight--but which Beijing?

We were excited to see Kate Merkel-Hess' thoughtful review of Beijing Time over at The China Beat. In her opinion, the book touches on issues of authenticity (and its less authentic counterpart) that are being more or less ignored in mainstream media treatment of China leading up to the Beijing Olympics. Is there a "real" China that's being covered up by the relentless governmental PR push ahead of the Games? Can we even justify applying the concept of "authenticity" to China in the way that we're used to doing in the West? Well, it's complicated, and Beijing Time authors Dutton, Lo, and Wu are here to guide us into the Beijing that a native sees--the Beijing of vanishing hutongs, a city built along cosmological lines as old as China itself.

From the book:

This is a city haunted by memories of greatness, extending from dynastic times, through the creation of New China in 1949, to the status as a postmodern global hub that is central to its identity today. Architecturally and spatially, Beijing incorporates many different layers and times, acknowledged and unacknowledged. While it continues to grow and to experience spectacular refashionings today, Beijing is also a museum, capturing centuries of Chinese nationhood.

Starting from here, the authors unpeel the layers of a city whose astonishing transformation in recent years threatens to obliterate all that came before it, revealing a mish-mash of buildings, ideas, objects, and sentiments that combine to form something more than the sum of their parts--a Beijing that no news story can hope to capture.

Comments

[Timothy Jordan]

Can there be anyh doubt that there is cultural stresses on the Chinese society? Advancement/tradition, innovation/conservatism, welcoming/protecting. All seemingly contradictory ethos all to further the New China.