police loop and a goodbye to baishizhou

[amw]

Following on from my last post, this afternoon i took a trip to Luohu District to pick up my passport from the police. It takes a little over an hour on the subway outside of rush hour

Comments

[fauxklore]

20 odd years ago, I spent a few days in Beijing (on the way home from a more complicated trip) and complained that the Chinese government seemed determined to tear down anything interesting and replace it with a modern skyscraper. I am sad to hear that attitude hasn’t changed.

[amw]

My mom spent a fair bit of time in China 10-20 years ago and said the same thing too. I'm not sure if it goes back further than the party, but the party for sure didn't help things with the Cultural Revolution.

The silliest thing is that there are loads of places in China that are "ancient", but if you read up it turns out almost all of those places were rebuilt "in the ancient style" relatively recently. It's like the government wants to capitalize on "ancient tradition" for nationalist and tourism purposes, but they also happily bulldoze it flat for property developers. I suppose if they build it again, that's just more money in the pockets of the state-owned construction companies, so in the end they win twice.

[king_of_apathy]

One of the strange things about mask wearing in Korea is that nearly everyone still does it on the street where you're outside in the open air, but in the bars and restaurants where the atmosphere is mixing in a confined space people are going without. Of course it's impossible to eat or drink with your mask on, but it still strikes me as a total mix up in priorities of when a mask should be worn.

The wearing your mask over your chin annoys the hell out of me, mostly because so many of my students are incapable of wearing a mask properly and do this all the time! If i'm outside away from the crowds i just remove my mask altogether and place it in my pocket. None of this 'my mask is on but it's not covering my mouth or nose' shit.

[amw]

It's the same in Shenzhen, lots of people mask up outside, but then take it off inside. It comes across as performative to me.

Here in Guiyang it's the same as Dongguan - nobody wears masks unless they are on public transport or heading into a building that specifically requires it. That feels more honest to me.

I don't really mind the dangling it round your chin, i first saw smokers doing it and i guess it makes sense for them. But if you're going to have it off for more than a few minutes it seems just taking it off would be easier.

[mhaithaca]

I think this post tells me more about Shenzhen than any of your past ones I've read. Definitely a shame to hear how much gets torn down and rebuilt -- even when there isn't (yet) a pandemic as an excuse. Safe travels!

[amw]

I've written a fair bit about urban villages and the gentrification of Shenzhen before, but it's kinda interspersed with other stuff. It's something that really fascinates me. There is a great blog called Shenzhen Noted https://shenzhennoted.com/ that has covered these topics going back over a decade, if you're interested.

[jenndolari]

"However. I also respect the people around me enough to wear a mask anyway when i am on public transport, inside shops or outside in crowded pedestrian areas, and i think it is a dick move not to do that

[amw]

I was talking with my Canadian friend R about this the other day and i came to the conclusion that there are some Americans - specifically the "basket of deplorables" - who seem to get their kicks from deliberately being assholes to other people