Reading China

Full article in Chinese

Excerpt:

You think that the building of  “Bird’s Nest” (Beijing National Stadium) is a process of merging Chinese design with internationalization. In this process, what insights do we get and what is the impact on the future?

China? No, there is no country called China. It is just a geographical name. It is because no one is responsible for this country. No matter whether you got an honor or you fail, no one will comment on you. Should we have a system or an institution to ensure our architecture moving towards a better development? There is no country like China. Even if it screws up, no one will come out to take responsibility.

This is a country ruled by the Party in an unitary way. Is it possible for the Party to screw up? It is impossible. Once after the approval by the party committee, no one takes up responsibility. Doing good or bad does not matter. No need to worry about them. It is like something never happens.

You may take a look at those lousy designs. What a Fuwa! Even its graphic design is below standard. How could you  make it a doll? It never works as a good design. It is even made a series of five. Now it coincides with the five disasters. People find it funny. These designs are too bad. There is no law of beauty and system. Under the unitary leadership, no law and fact are respected.

This is a global event. Choosing a good design should not be so difficult. How come the designs turn out like this. For example the route of the relay of torch in Beijing city follows the character of “He”, “Hexie”. What is in their (government officials’) mind? Extremely naive. Even the feudal society would not do this. In the current system, people only serve their senior officers. Even the relay route is “harmonized”. What could we say and do? This system has nothing to do with culture. The culture is dead as long as the party administrates culture. Under its leadership, there is no hope for culture.

What do you think about other designs? For example, the jade pendant bordered with gold and the torch with peaceful cloud.

Not a single design is qualified. Not up to the standard of Asia. It is even worse than the Chinese football team. Chinese design is worse than Chinese football. And there is no hope for nurturing in the future because design is culture. It takes time and many people’s effort. It is related to educational level, production skill, material, and people’s understanding of different aspects. In all these areas, China fails. You could not rely on technical skills. Cultural system is complicated.

How about the Olympic torch? It seems to be highly appreciated.

Let’s not talk about the details. Even police’s baton is highly appreciated too! So I think baton is even better. You may use it to deal with Tibetan independence supporters. In China, what values you may show to the world? It is a problem worth of serious consideration.
This is exactly what we want to talk with you. It is like serving guests with feast. Do you have your best dish to serve? Do you  have anything to show off ? There are tens of days to come to the Olympic Games. What do you show to the world? You only show that you are very nervous. Divide car into odd and even numbers for traffic rotation. Drive away the migrant workers back home. Drive away foreigners. A lot of foreigners have to leave. Because they are not able to get visa or renew their visa, they have to go. No one could stay.
There are so many problems. In this system, every officials are afraid of making mistakes in their own turfs. So now everything is restricted. China shows the image of an isolated and closed country to the world.  It lacks self-confidence. It is an extremely outdated and clumsy system. You are not able to speak the same language with the world. You are irritated by so many stuff. How could you treat your friends well when you are always alert to outsiders.  What time is it now?  Why does this country never grow up?

The 21th century is loaded with global imaginations. Some boast the power of internet breaking down national boundaries and turning the world into a global village. The Olympic Games has become a global event promoted by many countries as the Olympic Spirit: Fair play and friendship. Yet, over the past six months the controversies around China has posed a pressing fact: The Olympic Games is the golden opportunities for government to boost up nationalism and reinforce national identity. But internet is not helpful in facilitating cultural exchange and discussion. On the contrary, it is a catalyst for nationalism.

Power of Internet

On April 10, an internet user named “Shuiyin” put up a post on “Maopu” (http://www.mop.com) titled “Boycott of French product. Starting from Carrefour”. Since the riot of Tibet in March, it has stimulated many pro-Tibet groups to protest or even blockade the Olympic torch relay. This is even worse in Paris, France. Since Shuiyin’s post, the message of boycott movement was circulated on internet in a short time. Then it developed into substantial action.

Message delivery on internet is extremely fast and convenient. It matches the simple content of the boycott movement. This kind of movement does not need too many arguments. It is usually based on self-evident emotion. The action is simple and low-cost. “Carrefour is everywhere. Everyone could boycott it,” said Shuiyin. The logic of nationalist logic is so simple and direct that it translated the anti-Beijing Olympic Games action in nationalist way into something like this: “Actually France treats China and the Olympic Games in such a way. From today onwards, I don’t go to Carrefour. Please join me to boycott France! Boycott Carrefour!” “Actually” is self-evident. And Carrefour is equivalent to France. Thoe anti-Olympic Games French people are quickly read as “France”. And the Beijing Olympic Games and torch relay is even easier to be imagined as “China”.

Except the force from individuals, some even attempted to consolidate particular community networks. For example, compared to the boycott of Carrefour, Anti-CNN, formed earlier, made use of the hostile emotion towards the wrong and distorted coverage of Tibetan riot by CNN to form a new forum. In the commercial portal website (such as the military forum in China.com) or pro-government “patriotic” forum (such as “Strong Nation Forum” in People Web), there are already a lot of breeding grounds for nationalism. Now the online landscape of nationalism is even rich, complicated and grassroots.

In these seemingly grassroots turbulences, the capital of the newly emerging internet business  also gets involved. The portal websites, looking for higher hit rate, are very active in putting up a lot of posts and news instigating natonalists on front page. The columnist Chang Ping wrote an article titled “Tibet: Truth and Nationalist Sentiment”on April 3. He called for a more open environment for opinion in order to figuring out the truth about Tibet. However, this article is read as supporting anti-China forces or even traitors. China.com had put up the posts criticizing Chang Ping. The attacks on him and Southern Metropole Daily (the media he works for) came out immediately on internet. Almost at the same time,  Sina.com launched  “Against Splitting up, Protecting holy torch: Signature Campaign for Chinese all over the World”. It used a way simpler than sending post to associate protecting Olympic torch with national sovereignty. The portal websites echoed the nationalist sentiment. The Chinese internet economy jumps on the wagon of nationalism.

Nationalism and government power

Although internet nationalism is so grassroots and populist that the government feels alert to, it is not totally independent of government. The government power try to articulate itself with it directly or inderctly.

First of all, government’s censorship on opinion and news remains strong. Along with the internet development, its control of traditional media extends into internet to form the Project of Jingduen which monitor and filter messages around the clock. The rise of internet nationalism emerged against the background of a wide variety of  government restriction and imperfect information flow. For example, one of the enemies of internet nationalism is Dali Lamma in exile. A lot of internet users’ hostility towards him comes from the China government’s negative propaganda about the Tibetan government in exile. For example, many officials and media said that the riot was initiated by Dali Lamma. He is portrayed as a conspirator.

Yet this opinion is even quite far away from the real relationship between China government and Tibetan government in exile. Many internet users thought that Dali Lamma has been splitting up China and China government should not and will not make contact with him. But most China’s media, online and offline, rarely mentioned a fact: Since 2002, the representatives of Dali Lamma and China government representatives has had meetings for six times. The seventh one was originally scheduled as December last year or January 2008. For unknown reasons, it was postponed to May.

Internet nationalism does not respond to real politics much. Instead they are very concerned with western media whose criticisms of China and China government instigate many internet users’ nerve. CNN’s coverage of Tibet and Jack Cafferty’s discriminatory comments are typical examples. These western media have a lot of stereotypes about China. But internet nationalists are fond of dancing to the tune of these media and making a lot of simplistic dichotomies.

How do the government deal with these nationalist forces? It seems complicated. It keeps alert to whether it would be out of control. It also takes advantage of it and makes use of it to repress freedom of speech and some opinion leaders.

Chang Ping is a good example. His article was published in the Chinese version of Financial Times rather than in Southern Metropolis Daily. But the Beijing Evening News (a pro-Central Propaganda Department paper) stirred up the controversies and published the article titled “Southern Metropolis Chang Ping’s freedom of spreading rumour “. It attributed Chang Ping’s view to spreading rumour and targetted the Southern Metropolis Daily.

All media in China have connections with party or government departments. Highlighting Chang Ping’s relationship with Southern Metropolis Daily gave him and the company a lot of pressure. It was alleged that Chang Ping was sacked. The Southern Metropolis Group is seen as the camp of liberals and has been sufferring repression from above. The government might takes advantage of the nationalistic opinions to control media. This new development is noteworthy.

Lots of Hong Kong media see the recent nationalism as a phenomenon of “Angry Youth”. The anti-Japanese action some years ago might be seen as initiated by a handful of emotional youth. But in last six months, what happened on internet could show that nationalism is a constant rather than a special case in China media and opinion formation. It is also a part of cultural politics. In order to actualize free and critical cultural space, one’s opponents are not simply government but also grassroots and populist nationalism.

Zhao Bandi is an artist who has made a lot of works with his panda doll. He even designed a series of fashion with the style of panda. He recently joined the boycott movement against the Hollywood movie of Kung Fu Panda. He petitioned to the National Bureau of Film for banning this movie.

Q: Reporter                A: Zhao Bandi

Q: You must have heard a lot of objections to your view. Aren’t you afraid of being called “clown”?

A: I understand their emotion. But most reasons are short-sighted. Time will prove it.

Q: The screening of Kung Fu Panda is stopped in Sichuan. Do you feel happy?              

A:This is a great victory! This is the only example of preventing Hollywood from invasion successfully in the world. My friends and I are very proud of it.
Q:  The boycott of Kung Fu Panda is seen as speculation. Do you agree?

A: Is the invasion of Iraq by America also a speculation?
Q: It is alleged that the screening of Kung Fu Panda returns. What do you feel about it?

A: This is a low-profile “screening”. This freaky bear from Hollywood crawls into panda’s home only in such sneaky way. What a funny comedy!

Q: You don’t like this “freaky bear” from Hollywood. But your own works of panda are also seen as an insult to panda. 

A: I hope you read me and my panda in details. For example, in the panda fashion show, there are a lot of humorous and relaxing elements. My sense of humour is full of my infinite love for China. This is also the case for my panda Olympic Games. People are not used to sense of humour and think that there is only one kind of humour.

Q: Regarding the boycott of Kungfu Panda, Hanhan said in an interview that the Chinese society is suffering from a disease of “boycott fever”. What do you think?

A: The literati such as Hanhan is a kind of people who polish their mouth on grindstone. I don’t want to argue with them on the boycott movement.

Q: Do the Chinese film industry and people keep silent on this incident?

A: Among the sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth generation directors in China, I don’t see any bright future, although some of them have become regular visitors to the film festivals in western countries. Regarding this boycott movement, there are two kinds of people. Some are happy secretly because under the pressure of Hollywood, they don’t feel well without any way of striking back. But they are afraid of losing their possible “internationalized” way to Hollywood. Another kind of people worship Hollywood very much. Some internet users forward director Luchuan’s blog posts to me. He feels angry with the boycott movement. In his blog posts, I can see that he admires Hollywood very much. There are many directors like him. More accurately, they should be called “(Hollywood) movie lovers”. They paid a lot of effort in producing films only for handing in assignments to Hollywood teachers. Before his Nanjing is made, it already becomes obsolete.

Q: It is undeniable that Hollywood movies are epic movies and state-of-the-art… …

A: Let’s take another perspective. Don’t you think that the attack on Hollywood blockbusters launched by volunteers and me in China is the epic movie in real life? The film used for making this kind of film is not yet invented. I would like to ask the directors. How many lights and camera positionings are needed?

Q: Some internet users challenged you that if you were abled enough, you should make a big movie about panda.

A: Personally I don’t worship movies. I worship life. But in order to make a good showing for the Chinese film industry, I will seriously consider this suggestion.

Q: A big movie about panda?

A: Yes. Today, an investor from Switzland is going to discuss with me on it. Of course it is a big film. A Chinese big film on panda. It talks about Chinese people’s love and hatred. You will see my love, my love for China.

Source

Deng Fei from Sichuan

Since the  1980s, China government has been determined to build tens of thousand of primary and middle schools in villages in order to popularize 9-year free basic education and eliminate illiteracy in rural areas. With limited financial resources, the township governments raised money, designed and built schools and quality checked schools on their own.

This grand project led to a huge debt of 50 billion yuan. Some building contractors kept collecting debt from schools until December last year when the central government promised to pay off the huge debt of popularization of basic education.

On May 12 2008, a tremendous earthquake happened in Sichuan resulting in the collapse of over 7000 schools, the death of 4737 students, the injuries of 16,000 students. Another secret fault of the popularization of basic education is revealed. Beside huge debt, there are numerous  “killer buildings” terrifying the whole nation.
A lot of parents who lost their children gathered in different places of Sichuan to protest against the government. Urge the government to investigate these fatal school buildings, they form a power of anger shocking the disaster area and the rest of China.

… …

“Although construction fee is so low, contractors still find way to squeeze more profit,” said an informant in Shifang City to “Fenghuang Weekly”. In the early 1990s, the Bureau of Education of Shifang City set up a construction company to monopolize all school projects. But in the 20 towns of Shifang City, there are 44 collapsed schools which makes the most serious damage and casualties.

… …

Full article from here.

Author/Gilles Deleuze (alias)

I want to talk about the recent development of several newspapers in Hong Kong.

In terms of capital and ownership structures, the biggest change is about Ming Pao. Ming Pao Ltd is going to merge with two listed companies in Malaysia, Sinchew and Nanyang. But the plan is not yet implemented. According to this plan, Sinchew and Nanyang, no longer listed in Malaysia, will be owned by Ming Pao. Ming Pao might be listed in the stock markets of Hong Kong and Malaysia.

This is the media empire of Tiong Hiew King. As the biggest shareholder of Sinchew, he acquired 20.02% of Nanyang from Malaysian Chinese Association　in October.　Now the biggest Chinese newspapers are already owned by him. Now with his ownership of Ming Pao, he further integrates the two media groups in Malaysia into it. His business widely covers the Chinese communities in Malaysia, Hong Kong, US and Canada. But Ming Pao does not make much improvement in revenue and profit. Perhaps, after merger and acquisition, Tiong will make something news.

The development of Next Media is slow in Hong Kong. It increases its revenue from the sales of the Apple Daily to about 200 million (HK$). The revenue from advertisement drops slightly. The revenue from internet increases by 25.2% to 20 million. But there is still a deficit of 1.21 million. Its biggest development is in Taiwan. Its profit increases by 16.2%, much higher than the overall media group. The decision of Lai Chi Ying (chairperson) to invest in Taiwan seems to be right. So far there is not much further room for development in Hong Kong.

The Oriental Press Group, with its Oriental Daily and Sun Daily, increases its profit by 34 times. It sounds incredible. But the main reason seems to be the lower cost rather than increase in sales and advertisement. But what really happened remains unknown to me. I do not know whether its on.cc and Money 18 (protal websites) make any money. But their visit rates increase a lot.

The most gloomy might be South China Morning Post and SCMP. Although it continues to make money and its revenue and profit increase by 8% and more than 30% respectively, its sales is going down to barely 100,000 copies. Most of its revenue come from company notices such as IPO. But the regulation requiring listed companies to issue notice on newspapers is going to be cancelled. In other words, its revenue will decrease a lot (about 50 million). And I do not have any information on its new development.

The strongest one might be Sing Tao Daily. Its sales increase by 3.4%. It published free papers such as The Standard, Headline Daily and Express Post and their sales and advertisement revenues are going up. Sing Tao Group increases its revenue by 9.3% to 9,370 million. Its strategy to shift from pay paper towards free paper seems to be successful. For example, the free paper of The Standard takes away quite a big piece of the market of SCMP in Central.

One may think about the battle field of public opinion in Hong Kong from the development above. What conclusion you would reach? I will share with you my views on the broadcasting industry in Hong Kong later.

Additional information provided by chong:
Sing Tao Daily is a pro-Hong Kong government paper while Oriental Daily is pro-Beijing government. The Apple Daily is pro-democrats. It is believed that by expanding his Chinese media empire, Tiong wants to increase its bargaining power with the Beijing government on opening up the domestic media market to foreign capital. Tiong further published more Chinese newspapers in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Japanese adult video actress, Nonami Takizawa, arriving at a small village in China for shooting sexy photos, was surrounded by villagers as curious onlookers. This aroused anti-Japanese sentiment among some Chinese internet users. They criticized it as pollution to rural China.

Most users saw it as a “obscene culture” which should stay in Japan rather than moving to China. They felt angry with the Japanese getting Chinese rural village and villagers involved in pornographic industry.

The photos and video of Takizawa in bikini posturing in the midst of villagers are widely circulated on internet. Xiang Yujie, a blogger, found the them offensive as a contamination to the purity and innocence of Chinese rural villages, particularly the kids.

Yet some netizens disagreed with these accusation. They saw it as a normal phenomenon of entertainment. Hegelchong argued that attributing Chinese rural village to purity or innocence was ridiculous.

This is not the first time Japanese AV stars came to China for photo-shooting.

Yan But To

Wong Chi Wah (a Hong Kong comedian) had reminded us in his show that we should be alert to losing freedom slowly like a frog boiled in warming water. The Subculture Press continues to publish its political satire every year. This year, “Memoirs of Commander Tsang’s Spin Doctor” is quite popular in the book fair. Later Pang Chi Ming, director of the Subculture Press, fails to have a distributor to sell this book. All books are still kept in print shop. Does Hong Kong already become that “frog”? I go to interview Pang.

Pang: Pang Chi Ming
Yan: Yan But To

Yan: What is this book about?

Pang: This book is written by “Lau Tai Leung” (Lau Sai Leung, a “spin doctor” or advisor) “Commander Tsang” (Hong Kong Chief Executive Tsang Yam-Kuen).

Yan: Is there any market for books of political saitre?

Pang: We had a stall in book fair. We sold 500-600 copies. It’s quite popular. Some books could not be sold in this quantity even in a year. Many readers are tourist on individual visa scheme from mainland China.

Yan: Did you have any problem when you pbulished other political saitres such as “Broom Head” (a nickname for Director of the Bureau of Security Regina Ip) and “Stupid Tung” (a nickname for Tung Chee Wah)?

Pang: No. It’s normal. In Hong Kong, only publishing house could not deliver books to readers. You have to rely on distributors. There are distributors for bookshop, convenience shop and newspapers kiosk. Previously the distributors did not ask for sample for review before distributing the books. But this time, they asked for book cover. Later on, they said they needed to see the content. We followed their request. The distributors usually charge us service fees for distributing to convenience shops. But before we have any discussion, they already refused to distribute this book.

Yan: Did the distributor explain?

Pang: No. They have the right not to do business with you. If they thought it’s not good for sale, they would refuse. They would not say that they refused because of the political standpoints of the books. They said that they even distribute magazines like “Liberation” (an anti-Chinese Communist Party magazine) to show you no political censorship involved.

Yan: Distributing political magazine is different from political saitres in effect!

Pang: You’re right. But in fact no one dares to distribue “General Tsang”. It never happened before.

Yan: What problems do we have in our book distribution?

Pang: Book distribution is monopolized by a handful of distributors. For example, the Sino United Publishing Lmiited, including Joint Publishing, Chung Hwa Book Co. and Commercial Press, carries 80% of the market. These three booksellers have a lot of bookshops in Hong KOng. Without their support, “General Tsang” is also invisible in the market.

Yan: Achieving political control by economic means reminds me of the concept of “post-totalitarianism”. There are some scholars in China argue that it is a “post-totalitarian” political environment which only allows economic freedom but deprives people of political freedom. Hong Kong is moving towards this situation.

Pang: Now in Hong Kong, the government does not censor explicitly. Censorship is done in the civil society. The non-government groups use commercial reason as an excuse. For example, Anson Chan announced that she run for the election of Legislative Council. The Apple Daily made it headlines for two days in a row. But the Oriental Daily only covers this story bery briefly. They would not say that it is about self-censorship. They would use the reason of market. Now publishing, distributing and media are controlled by media owners and CEO. They claim that their decision is commercial one. This becomes the biggest excuse for defense.

Author/ bonnae

China’s Bureau of Broadcasting and Film (BBF) refuses to keep silent and has new policy. During late July and early August, some Chinese audience are not able to watch programs from the Phoenix TV. Despite the Beijing government’s emphasis on “harmony”, BBF’s action aroused people’s strong reaction and the attention of Hong Kong, Taiwan and western media before the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party Representatives (17th NCCPR). BBF, in the name of “market competition and political solution”, bans all cable TV services providing “illegal” satellite programs. BBF sees it as a measure of “national security”. It takes “political consideration” to “strengthen management”.

In the “Technological Development Forum of the International Exposition of Audio-visual Media”, Zhang Haitao, BBF’s vice-director, emphasized that the content of broadcasting and its medium could not be separated, particularly the mobile multimedia broadcasting (namely mobile phone TV). As Zhang said, the central government has made it explicitly that BBF will be in charge of it. The Jinghua Daily, affiliated to the People’s Daily, made a headline: “BBF competes for regulating mobile phone TV”.

In my article titled “Syndrome of Disgusting CCTV”, I argued that the state monopoly of discursive power is a form of ideological control over people’s thought. The existence of CCTV is a medium for monopolizing state discursive power.

Before the 17th NCCPR, the government’s opinion on striking electronic media outside China is only a beginning. Unfortunately, the Phoenix TV is only the biggest victim of this policy. Some critics see the Phoenix TV, in line with the policies of the Beijing government, making no difference from CCTV. Why couldn’t the BBF tolerate it? CCTV might be the reason. CCTV is a government TV station, having dominated the industry for decades. It saw itself as the “Big Brother” of the industry. Yet, with such a great amount of resources in hands, it acts like an arrogant tyrant. It has lost its credibility among people and turned into a mouthpiece of the ruling party.

CCTV has been giving advices to the Central Propaganda Department and BBF on restraining the Phoenix TV’s development in China. It is not new to Chinese media. What at stake is economic conflict and market competition. Although the advertisement revenue of the Phoenix TV is much less than CCTV, it is highly possible that it would threaten CCTV’s market postion.

In the process of marketization, CCTV made use of its monopolized resources to become a vested interest group. The current institutions of TV, broadcasting and newspaper encourage the state-owned media not to improve themselves and prepare for changes. The government departments in charge of ideology do not push them to improve in response to the audience’s views. Instead, the government frequently uses administrative power to intervene the market.

In the promising and influential market of the new media, the conservative BBF remains dominant. But now its opponent is not the weak TV media outside China but the telecommunications industry guided by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). Both BBF and MII are great forces pushing the new media market forward. But before the market is built up, the intense and embarrassing conflicts between these two departments occurs. It shows a lack of trust between government departments, particularly in the key interest distribution. No consensus is reached. The competition in industries is economically oriented. Behind them is the hidden war on regulating new media between BBF and MII.

No matter in the issue of restraining foreign media or that of new media regulation, the BBF is so outdated that it looks very embarrassing and ugly. It is an authority relying on issuing order and banning new things. It fails to provide any good solution for governing the industries of broadcasting and film. How could its credibility be sustained?

Without competition, there will be no progress. BBF is so unresponsive to the complicated interest structure and resorts to the single measure of censorship. In the wave of new media development, it feels panic and fails to take systematic measures. All these are part of the syndrome of anxiety. When the rigid administrative orders encounter the flexible market, could the BBF be immune from it? May God bless you.

Source

Two years ago, Li Yuchun (李宇春) made the cover of the Time Magazine as “Asian Hero”. But so what? Just another popular star. She got the western media attention probably because she was elected by “votes” (sending sms). This might contradict with the western image of “China” as an undemocratic country. But what is the real significance of Li to China? I would not say “nothing”. But it is not about Li as a youth icon. It is only about China’s entertainment industry.

If you wants identify any youth icon who has impact on China, you need to understand the everyday life of this country deeply. Just to name a few. Zola (Zhou Shuguang) as a citizen journalist is definitely a youth icon deserving our attention. China media had covered his stories for a while when he went to several cities to cover the stories of forced eviction and “nail house” incident. But it seems that no western media is interested in him. Although I am not an admirer of him, he shows the energy of contemporary Chinese young people who desperately want freedom and autonomy. He challenged the China authority in a new way through his citizen journalism.

Another example I want to say is about Hong Kong. Chu Hoi Dick and Chan King Fai have become well known by many Hong Kong people. Not all Hong Kong citizens agree with these two guys who are fighting for the preservation of the Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier. But they form a network with friends to challenge the Hong Kong government’s heritage policy and institution. They had re-claimed the Queen’s Pier as a temporary autonomous zone for eight months and made the connections with the long-lost tradition of youth rebellion in the 1960s. This inspires a lot of Hongkongers, particularly the young people. Chu and Chan are definitely Hong Kong youth icons. But they do not fit into the western impression of Hong Kong as an international city under the rule of China. Unfortunately Hong Kong is not even recognized as important as mainland China by most western media. Chu and Chan won’t have any chance to make the cover of Newsweek or Time.

Author/ Liang Wendao (cultural critic in Hong Kong)

The day after Yang Dechang passed away, I browsed idly everything about him on internet. I found that most comments and reports from Taiwan unanimously talked about his marriage with Cai Qin. Some titles are provocative such as “Cai Qin: Why did you leave in such a hurry?” and “The marriage without sex between Yang and Cai”. Some frankly said, “Yang is a dandy. Internet community equivocates”. Even some big newspapers talked about his love affairs in their immediate reports. From them, you almost forget that he is the first Taiwanese artist winning the Award of “the Best Director” of the Cannes Film Festival. Instead, he is just portrayed as a playboy.
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I have known Yang for ten years. In the year of 97, the Hong Kong Contemporary Cultural Centre organized a theater series of “China journey”. All drama was set with one desk and two chairs. It invited several directors from Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to produce a short drama. No one thought that Yang’s “Brother Nine and seven” was the most “dramatic” in this series. It is dialogue between two gangsters. His script and mise en scene are as accurate and perfect as his films.

Yong Nianzheng, chief organizer of this event, was very busy at that time. He asked me to rehearse his own work “This is a chair”. As a managing director I had the opportunity to chat with Yang every day. Although Yang’s works are characteristic of alienation and ruthlessness, his personality is rather amiable. He did not talk much but he showed his passion when a topic interested him. I remember that one time when we talked about Haruki Murakami and Wong Kar-Wai in subway, we forgot to get off the train after we passed a couple of stations.

I was still very young, impetuous and rebellious at that time. Probably he was particularly tolerant and friendly to a young man like me. Once when we visited his home, several grown-ups took soft drink but I wanted alcohol. Then he put down his tea cup. He took out some cans of beer and said, “Okay. I drink beer with you. Buddy, cheers!” I still deeply remember his smile, holding his beer and wrinkling his eyes. When I read the recent news about him, I think of his smile and I feel extremely sad.

Now when you walk into a DVD rental shop in Taipei, you find difficult to get his complete work. Even in some large DVD shops, it is also not that easy. Some internet users left messages like this: “Just an old man born in the 50s and 60s. What a big deal?” More comments are like it: “His work is too boring. I could not understand.”

Most Taiwanese do not admire Yang. Neither does Yang like Taiwan. His last work “Yi Yi”, the best according to many fans, was screened only once in a special occasion in Taiwan. It has never been distributed in Taiwan. Not even a DVD copy. The reason is that Yang did not want to. He disliked Taiwan’s film industry. He was dissatisfied with government’s indifference to movies. So did he hate the so-called “entertainment” circle.

In the early phase of Taiwan New Cinema Movement, there are two figures: Yang Dechang and Hou Xiaoxian. The audience was divided into the camps of pro-Yang and Pro-Hou. Those loved Hou said that Yang’s work was too cool without Hou’s humanitarianism and embrace of the native soil. The pro-Yang appreciated his work showing the ruthlessness and alienation of modern city life. Looking back upon these comments, I find this distinction too rough. Hou’s movies should be summarized as “native soil”. Neither should Yang’s be simply about ruthlessness and alienation.

But Yang definitely felt distance to Taiwanese-style “native soil”. Many years ago, he introduced me to read a thesis about the origins of Nazi’s anti-Jewish consciousness. The author traced it back to Nazi’s “complex of native soil” and pointed out that they were obsessed with the motherland and romanticized picture of countryside. They argued that the native soil represents people’s roots, honesty and tradition worthy of people’s devotion and even sacrifices. On the contrary, those Jews residing in cities were seen as rootless, diasporic, cunning and elusive others.

At that time the complex of native soil in Taiwanese culture was integrated into political rhetorics. We witness more and more Taiwanese localistic discourses coming out. Taiwanese food is seen as the best. Taiwanese art is viewed as the most delicate. Even in the field of philosophy, some advocated the notion of “Taiwanese philosophy”. Finally Taiwan reached the stage that whoever dislikes Taiwanese localism, denies the pure essence of Taiwanese native soil, and affirms the hybridity of Taipei city would be condemned as “not loving Taiwan”. Whoever dares not to love Taiwan would be the public enemy of the people. Some years ago, Lian Zhan, former chair of the KMT knelt down to kiss the land publicly. It seems that this is the only way to prove that KMT is not a “foreign regime” and he really loves Taiwan.

When the love for Taiwan is so excessive, “love” itself becomes questionable and nihilistic. Within several years, Taiwan becomes a heaven full of love and sentiment. All politicians, like the characters of Qiong Yao’s novel (Qiong is a famous novelist of popular romance), keep bubbling with love. They act so passionately and burst into tears in public. When you open the package of CD thick like a book, you read a lot of personal stories of the singer’s each song. In order to show their authenticity, they have to write down their touching emotions. The popularity of gossip proves to be an over-emotional custom of rural village-like parochialism. No one cares about Yang’s camera movement. All know that he abandoned Cai Qin. Yang is too frank about it. In Majiang, he reveals everything. He told the so-called love is only a calculation. The utilitarianism and ruthlessness of city have swallowed up the beauty of native soil people always talk about.

The more rough and direct the structure of feeling of Taiwanese culture, the more obscure and sad his films are. I believe he extremely hated the industrial pattern of Taiwanese film industry. Every time when a film is released, it is necessary to make up some scandals about the male and female protagonists? Does the director have to be interviewed by those stupid TV channels? Do they have to frequently address “Brother Hu” and “Brother Wu” (two famous TV show host) and play some humiliating games with Hu and Wu?

He had thought that abandoning film and joining the comic industry is a way out. Comic books is somehow a handicraft industry. This is his interest since his childhood (he has a collection of Tezuka Osamu). However, Taiwanese could not accept Yang’s style of comic.

Except insiders of film industry, most audience does not like Yang. Hou Xiaoxian’s films are also not good in box office. But for some stereotypes, most feel that Hou is “the director of we Taiwanese”. And in Yang’s eyes, Taiwan seems never be beautified. He was always critical of everything about Taiwan. A Taiwanese not loving Taiwan is not a real Taiwanese.

Didn’t Yang love Taiwan? In “A Brighter Summer Day”, Xiao Maowang (the petty Elvis Presley or “Hillbilly Cat”) visited Xiaosi and left a recording tape. In it, there was their favourite song of Elvis Presley, “A Brighter Summer Day”. Xiao Maowang told Xiaosi that Elvis Presley wrote back to them and said, “He is so happy to know that some people in an unknown island love his songs”. Withou a deep feeling and emotion, Yang wrote down such a heavy and absurd sentence! The most despairing moment is that Xiaosi neither knew Xiao Maowang’s visit nor the existence of this tape. The jailers did not allow Xiao Maowang to visit him and threw away the tape into rubbish bin.