14th March, 07 I love Beijing 我爱北京

DO WE SEE THE SIMILARITIES OR THE DIFFERENCES?

Beijing abounds with alley ways. There is usually some type of market or activity. there is nothing like a dingey looking market - humble etc.

The trains in Beijing have floods of people streaming through the subway tunnels often I feel like I am in an ant farm. Sometimes you feel the flow of human chaos as people dart around, as a river of grey hair pours down the stairs.

Choayangmen is where many Westerners live. There is McDonalds, Star Bucks, Bakeries and expensive clothing.



At starbucks you can buy a 18 yuan orange juice and sit with all the posers. There is a marble floored shopping place. with sworoskvky etc. 3,500 yuan for a necklace etc. (nearly my monthly wage). the average monthly wage is 2000 yuan. blah blah. anyway just seeing marble filled me with a depressing sense of emptiness. a shiny fake world.

Beijing is paradise if you like to shop. It is a bargain hunters paradise. However, you usually get what you paid for.

China is diverse...

"Chinese" what does that mean? it means nothing. 'China' doesnt exist. you cant use one word to describe a country. a land mass perhaps but --- i see more so many individuals than i see so called 'Chinese people'
people from my old work right and say 'it looks so different' it must be so different. it is not different at all.

its the same. people eat, sleep, go to work, have sex, have feelings. visually things look different in different countries. but from the inside they are the same.

why do we create this exoticised version of other places, other people blah blah.

to make ourselves feel more unique?

to make ourselves feel less alienated? so we dont think i am just another one of the billons of people on the planet.


so in China you will find that people eat some stuff we dont eat.
speak another language.
have very similar laws.

but appart from that - same. 3 meals a day, sleep at night, cars, roads, buses, trains, people, parents, teachers, gov, hospitals, breath air, drink water, mountains, trees, dogs, cats, houses, beds.
more similarities than differences. I could be sititng in Marrickville right now.

really is there anywhere that 'different' that you can go on earth. i mean man has roamed everywhere now. we have satelite tv the internet blah blah. i think we have all seen it all by now.
all the differences -----

which only amount to

- people eating slght ly different food
- people wearing slightly different costumes - sl dif music, rituals, history
these make good visual stories. but are only superficial differences.

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