A few trips to Beijing and Shenzhen this year hardly qualifies me as an expert on China, but I do think they gave me a feel of what is happening in the country and – more importantly – truly inspired me.
This is, after all, a country that in the last ten years has become the fastest growing economy in the world and in the process has built up a world class infrastructure and manufacturing base and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
Yesterday was a normal working day here in Taipei, so there weren’t many signs of the holiday spirit pervading the city when we ventured out for a family lunch: just the occasional Xmas tree like this one standing outside the shopping center at Taipei 101.
I guess everyone must be saving themselves for the New Year Holiday next weekend, as well as the Chinese Lunar New Year, which starts very late this year on February 14 - otherwise known, of course, as St Valentine’s Day.
I’m finishing off my Beijing Panjiayuan Market content with this short video showing some of the Cultural Revolution memorabilia on display there. Quite an exhaustive collection!
For more pictures of the items, please visit this photo gallery here.
During my trip to China I used a Kodak Zi6 handheld camera for shooting most of the “close quarters” clips featured in the videos I’m posting on the site. It’s a little bit big, particularly when compared with the Flip, but it’s easy to use and produces pretty decent 720p video quality.
My main complaint about the device is its lack of decent editing software, which makes it very difficult to produce and post video on the fly like you can with the Flip. On the other hand, going back and sorting through all the clips I have shot after a trip does help me get so much more out of the experience – reminding me of what I saw and at times showing me unexpected sights that I missed while I was there.
My visit to Beijing Panjiayuan market inspired me to experiment with some different ways of capturing some of the sights and atmosphere of the place. Photos are fine for showing a particular image but they are also very static and do little to convey the potpourri of colors, styles, and cultural influences that were on display in the stores there.
So here’s a video collage of some my favorite images from the market. There’s everything from Buddhist sculptures and bronzes to old weapons and armor and Cultural Revolution memorabilia: a collection of snapshots of artifacts that represent the development of the Chinese cultural melting pot over the millennia.
I’m a huge fan of this style of advertising from Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s featuring stylish and confident young women promoting all the accoutrements of the thoroughly modern lifestyle.
It has a quiet sophistication and glamour that stands out even amid the bright colors and brash images that characterize advertising in our own times, and I sometimes wonder why more companies today don’t try to revive it if only to differentiate themselves from the loud noise of their competitors.
I thought I was handling the Beijing winter pretty well. Until today, that is, when temperatures dropped to well below zero and the vicious wind tore shreds out of the tender skin on my face as I heroically battled my way to the office. Time to get back to the relative warmth of Taipei, I think.
On the subject of heroes, here are a few more pictures of some of the Cultural Revolution figurines I came across in Beijing Panjiayuan market last Sunday. I particularly like the PLA Soldier/Woman Peasant/Male Worker troika above, which brings together three Cultural Revolution archetypes in a suitably dynamic pose imbued with a rosy optimism about the future.
CES is just around the corner, and as usual we will be participating in the annual Lunch@Piero's press event during the show on January 7 and 8, where we will be demonstrating a wide range of our latest mobile, desktop, and embedded platforms.
In addition, we’ll also be attending the ShowStoppers event on Thursday January 7 in the Lafitte Ballroom at the Wynn Hotel and Casino. For more information, on both events, please click here.
