China's Addiction to Remembering the Opium Wars

China's fixation on the Opium Wars are the cornerstone on which the foundation of the Communist Party of China's legitimacy rests.  When you go visit the gargantuan National Museum of China on the east edge of Tiananmen Square, the section on modern Chinese history begins with the first Opium War in the 1840's.  So began China's century of humiliation at the hands of foreign imperialist, ending after "liberation" by the communists at the end of the civil war.  At least this is how the story goes in China today.

Of course the two wars between Britain and China did happen, and yes they were fought over British efforts to import opium into China, this fact no one disputes.  China's historians historical narrative differs from the wider world's regarding why the Chinese military and state failed so spectacularly during the wars.  The principal differences between Chinese and non-Chinese historical writings about the war are Chinese historians' efforts to dance around several key issues; bureaucratic mishandling of resources, military discipline, and the loyalty of average Chinese subjects (or average Zhou's if you prefer).

I know it will sound terrible, but I found stories about imperial bumbling of the wars incredibly entertaining at least for the first Opium War.  All the Chinese commanders, including at one point a 15-year old boy, seem so preoccupied with not having their heads chopped off that they falsify dispatches of incredible victories for the emperor, all while while their junks are literally blown out of the water.  Yes even 175 years ago 差不多 accounts of personal accomplishments from Chinese males permeated the Chinese landscape.  Lovell's account of the second Opium War is considerably shorter, darker, and a much more decisive victory for the British and their allies French.

The last third of Lovell's book focuses on how the communists have used the Opium Wars to justify their rule since the party's inception, and how the party's interpretation is a complete facsimile of their adversaries who fled across the Taiwan Strait.  Note: Chairman Mao once served as the director of the Nationalist's propaganda department before a political purge.  Under successive dictatorships China's role in history went from China being its own worst enemy, to a backward nation colonized by all of the imperialist powers simultaneously.

The reason for this transition is simple.  The former meant focusing on systemic problems within Chinese society and how they exacerbated problems during the wars, turning them into debacles.  The latter just meant focusing on the idea of China as a backward country that needed a ruling force with a firm hand to guide it along the path to "development".  发展至上.  As a foreigner looking at China through my personal lens, the myth of the latter truly reigns supreme in government propaganda about the war.  

This month I finished both Lovell's impressive book The Opium War and Preston's less impressive The Boxer Rebellion.  Be on the lookout for a future post about Beijing's prominent role in the rebellion.               

The Rogue State's Gallery

It's a little known fact that the North Korean government runs an art gallery in Beijing's swanky 798 arts district.  It's become something of an urban legend, and the gallery is tucked away in a corner of the compound making it hard for the casual visitor to find.

A four mop salute

Outside the gallery stands a replica of a large statue from North Korea.  You can see it pictured here with a salute of mops standing against it.  My guess is that the Dear Leader might be a neat freak.  As I mentioned before, this place isn't easy to find.  I found it completely by chance while wondering around the 798.  I didn't even know it existed before I went.

The expiation on the side of the building about what it is

Though the gallery doesn't allow pictures, I managed to snap a few before the workers told me in English to stop.  I also observed that the gallery employees spoke to each other entirely in Chinese.

One of the pictures from inside the gallery features a whole wall of paintings including people on horseback and a female factory worker.  Another picture shows a painting of the North Korean Soccer team celebrating.  The art is eerily similar to the art you will find in the "modern" section of the National Museum of China, but unlike the NMoC, this North Korean gallery featured some art with contemporary subjects (after 1980).  This fact only highlighted for me the interesting corner the Chinese government has drawn itself into in recent decades.

A sampling of North Korean art

Turning its back on Marxist-Maoist ideology while still trying to justify the party's existence has made the topic of contemporary life taboo.  You see this in everything from television and movies to books.  It seems like the majority of television shows on CCTV are either about fighting the Nationalist or Japanese, dramas about the imperial court, or food.  It's for this reason that foreign entertainment has become so big in China, and why its popularity continues to grow at breakneck speed.  North Korea doesn't have shy away from the modern world.  Like China it controls the media, but it doesn't have to worry as much about information slipping in from the outside world.

The fact I saw a painting glorifying a soccer victory in Socialist-Realist style didn't come as a shock to me.  What shocked me was that I haven't seen it in China, because almost nothing in China after 1949 is ever discussed in art.  As discussed in my last post, almost none of the art in the 798 comes off as anything close to unique.  In a way the North Korean gallery highlighted what government-approved art looks like before the grip of the state loosens like it has in today's China.

The gallery sold souvenirs like North Korean postage stamps.  I didn't buy any because I made a conscience decision not to indirectly support the regime in the DPRK.  As my time in Beijing comes to a close I am beginning to wonder if I have somehow passively lent support to the CPC by living here.  The truth is that I probably have in a way, and frankly I feel guilty for this in a way.

Things like this only help me appreciate that I am an American.        

Did North Korea win World Cup '14 and no one tell me about it?

Note: A new movie about an elderly woman dealing with her experiences during the Cultural Revolution was released last week.  I am holding my breath hoping it doesn't get pulled before I can see it.  

798

Alfresco dinning

Beijing's 798 Arts District is notable for being in a former East German constructed factory complex.  The area continues to gain popularity as a tourist destination, particularly for domestic tourists from other parts of China and foreigners looking for a more laid back alternative to Gulou.  I'll be blunt about it.  If you only have a week in Beijing this place is a skip, but I have lived here two years and I am running out of things on my Beijing Bucket List at an alarming rate.  The focus at the 798 is less on the art and more "looking cool for the outside world", but even this gives a great opportunity to enjoy and examine the "face" Asia's favorite one party dictatorship puts on for the rest of the world.


Businesses in the complex range from surprisingly good restaurants to expensive art gallaries without much in between.  Either way, don't forget your wallet because you'll need to leave it at the 798 when you go home.

Steampunk before steampunk was steampunk

There's a lot of hype surrounding this place.  Some people even go as far as to call it Beijing's Soho, though I'd certainly call this an overestimation.  It took me nearly two years to get the motivation to visit the place.  Most casual visitors to the capital skip it because of its distance from other attractions.  No one will ever accuse it of being easy to get to the 798 because there isn't a decently close subway station.  In fact 7.98 hours is roughly the time it will take you to travel to this place from central Beijing if you take public transport.

Hello! Anyone Home?

Most of the galleries are on the high end of the price spectrem.  I also though the galleries themselves are few and far between in this massive compound.  That's sort of the problem with having such a big, sprawling space, if you don't have enough things to fill it up it just looks empty.  Many of the buildings I peaked into were completely empty.  However the 798 has an abundance of cafes, bars, restuarants and stores selling knick-knacks.

A few stores in the 798 specialize in selling cheaply made pieces of Americana.  These stores carry the same things that your local Cracker Barrel sells in the gift shop.  This might seem odd if you visit China for a short time.  I have come to expect this kinds of things here in the Middle Kingdom.  When I asked the woman working if the items were made "here" she told me yes.  Maybe she just meant made in China.

After two years I have begun to find China's embrace of everything culturally "non-Chinese" as troubling to say the least.  Especially as the Chinese government's pension for nationalism abroad surges unchecked.  As a result this post might come off as condescending.  Though most foreign news sources actually do a wonderful job of covering China (though the Chinese government would certainly say the opposite), I increasingly feel the need to highlight cultural things overlooked in favor of politics and economics.  

American culture and American art permeates the 798 for several reasons.  For one, its simply too controversial in China to prop the wing of a PLA Air Force plane in a public place.  Is it anti-military?  Is it anti-CPC?  There's simply too much ambiguity and symbolism.  Two, everyone knows its easier to steal than create.  And finally there frankly isn't a lot of contemporary culture unique to China.  It's a dark thing to say and probably a controversial statement, but after two years in Beijing and trips around China and to several of the China's neighbors, I frankly just have to admit this fact publicly.

Wing and a Prayer

The scars of the Cultural Revolution and Maoism unsurprisingly run deep.  Yes these catastrophic and important events might one day seep their way back into Chinese Culture and discourse, either when China begins to come to terms with its past or accept the things about the present it refuses to change.  Until this happens you'll still find commemorative license plates from the film Pearl Harbor that people try selling to you as "unique" works of Chinese art.  Either way the image of some party official's wife hanging a fake license plate with Ben Affleck's face on it and calling it art is simply too funny not to laugh about.        

Be on the look out for my next blog post about the 798's mysterious North Korean gallery.    

The Chinese love Michael Bay films in a way laowai
cannot understand

Rusty factory equipment permeates the Chinese countryside

Vague Sculpture

My friend Kofi and a tiger statue

Street with exposed piping.  That's how you know it's hip