Shanghai Vixen

My mother and her delusions seem to be downward spiraling. I'm not sure how worse it can get, but somehow it always does. Sigh. The real reason I moved to China.

---

 

Hi [Vixen],

am wanting you to know that i have never felt more un-
healthy in my entire life.

I'm having trouble breathing

I can hardly move around (pain in right leg is now in left
leg, at least below the knee; i'm starting to think that
more than arthritis is at work

even walking is very painful, need support to minimize
the pain

my condo was broken into 5 times in the last week, with
noticable things missing each time. about 18 boxes of
lecture notes were taken along with some files with the
children's songs, and one whole box of childrens' songs
related material (my first and best to way to make $$
as my 'return' starts--which i'm wondering if will ever
return now

C. is too busy to help me, pick things up, etc (which
I accept and understand); last week it took 4 hours to
take the bus up to SavOn to get my medication (Ralphs
was out of bus cards, a waste of time; SavOn would not
accept my check--all were stolen and 'stop payment'
was placed on all; then I found 6 and they ended the
'on hold' status; even so, SavOn would not accept it; I
had cards for John Burton and his children, all sitting
still, I hope, under the counter there

whoever was here (I'm 100% sure who it is because
of the kinds of things that are taken--and sometimes
returned*;) was able to turn off the surveillance tape
and then erase back a bit, so there was no way of
proving who the burglar was (or plural)

Sean with the Honeywell security system (mine)
came over the day after I called and assessed the
situation; won't bother to explain, except that no one
will be able to turn it off again, or unplug it--unless
they want to pull out 3# of wall.; it will also be placed
in a hidden place.

18 important boxes were stolen, all perfectly filed,
the result of the past 5-6 weeks of solid filing; my
trash, the next morning, was packed to the brim
with round smooth bags all looking like they were
holding sheets of paper, no file folders. I should
have called C. immediately; i knew all of that
could not have been mine, but was confused by
seeking a 'dead' wall clock on top of the pile;
turns out there were only 2 bags in it when he
wheeled it out; when i went to add two more bags
in the am, i saw the clock on top and did not think
to call him and ask; i'm sure all those smooth
round bags, using the same kind of trash bags
that i use, were my lecture notes.

can you believe that anyone would be that cruel.

Sean was supposed to come yesterday afternoon
and didn't, which was very unusual for him (i just
talked to him on the phone and he fell asleep in
his car after a very long assignment in e.county,
his place of work before he was to come here; he
is fine--good news.

he comes tomorrow and puts an alarm on the
gate, and also the tarp! that cover my boxes; had
i had this protection a week ago, my valued things
would not have been taken.

you know that my starter disabler was cut two
different times, sending me into a panic state
(feeling very unsafe on the road); I will receive
a check for $3700 in a few days, with 2/3 going
to mom and the last 1/3 to pay off my credit
cards.

the house looks like a cyclone hit it--inside. So
many boxes were turned upside down.  All the
5 weeks of bills/letters etc. were stolen two
mornings ago--can find 3, not the bag they
were in; this was the day the gate was almost
pushed open and i called the police, when i
had been gone 4 hours just to get my meds;
i came home with THAT mail, only to have it
gone the next day; the five weeks of mail
from my first po box disappeared when "the
invader" got into my bedroom late Sat. night
when Conan and I were outside and i was
watching him move what remained of the
packed boxes into the patio; i came back in
and everything was turned upside down in
the bedroom, clothes and stuff stuffed under
the bed, the closet searched, and THAT BAG
OF NEW MAIL WAS GONE. so...it is 10 weeks
of bills + that i am missing, and i do not know
who does not know that i have moved to a
new po box (that is what bag #1 would have
told me, which the postal annex man had
held for me for 5 weeks--free.

my credit cards are gone; all my checks,
though I found 3 of the 5 personal sets
yesterday.

i need to order food today--it is a pain to do,
does not go fast.

still, i am glad i do not have a car right now.
with -- messing with my car, i haven't felt
save since that time going to lax (it had
been fixed less than a year prior to that,
to the tune of $1000.) (cars are expensive).

got to finish the dishes and vacuum, so i am
that far along that i will have vacuumed car-
pet by tonight (part of it is just moving boxes
around).

Mom's gardener's son has a truck and will
help me probably next Sat. to take 3 big
loads to storage. I will probably bring dad's
chair back here, even though i don't know
where to put it, as this will give me more
space to stack boxes. And yet, 18 good
boxes are gone and hundreds!!! of file
folders, that I still need...and most likely
will never see again.

oh, final note; i found a gold earring twisted
to a point of total ugliness on my bedroom
floor; it was only last night when i saw it's
mate in a dish in my bathroom (where it
had not been before), and realized that
this set was my very best and favorite set
that i had bought at May Co. when we
shopped along Fletcher Parkkway. They
were $30. a set then, and now are not made
that way (loops, the perfect size for me). So,
this lets me know that -- has all my jewelry,
which has been missing since the time i
took you to LAX at one of your earlier
visits (the time my missing registers turned
up--do you remember my squeals of joy?).
they were taken again about 2 weeks later
and have not been seen since that time.

i've said enough. got to get to work even
though i don't feel well.

need to know what is wrong with my hip-rt,
and legs, also if my left side is OK after that
very bad fall after you and i had met for
lunch.

A police officer came out Thurs and took a
report for a full hour, walking through the
house with me, looking at my sec. system
as well. he wants me to write up everything
that I can remember that pertains to theft,
breaking and entering, things damaged, etc.
I think they are about ready to put a detec-
tive on my case.

it is not only weird and scarry, it is illegal
what -- has been doing. If they find out it
is --, then that will mean serious jail time.
(I will manage to be gone by then, and
underground--the only way i will be able
to get any writing done and to have any
measure of peace; and to date! Right now
(and for the past 21 years) my life has
been too scary. You were able to get away
and focus on yourself. I have not had
that luxury since i married G. ("George")

I won't ask you to pray.

But I did want you to know.  Please save
this note in case it might be need for
evidence (if I am murdered). I fully be-lieve that -- is capable of murder; he has all the qualities that made me afraid of G. Definitely no conscience. Coldness. Meanness. He WANTS to hurt me, seems to find great pleasure in it.

Ed and mom, of course, either think I am lying, or grossly over-reacting. Ed even told the neighbors that I ewas "abusing" Mom, s that they would go and support J. in the restraining order that I needed, but was denied because of Ed having durable powr of attorney, thus negating any testimony to give credibility to my fears--INCLUDING A STATEMENT FROM MOM THAT SHE WAS AFRAID FOR ME, HAD BEEN LIED TO BY J., THAT SHE WANTED J. TO BE IN FULL-TIME THERAPY, AND THAT SHE WANTED THE 3-YEAR RESTRAINING ORDER. (but...she gave in to what Ed wanted, and the two males have been teaming up against me for a long, long time--even getting some coaching and tips from George as to WHAT A BAD PERSON I AM (TERRIBLY MATERIALISTIC, VERY UNHAPPY THAT I COULD NOT HAVE MORE THINGS, VERY ANGRY WITH HIM FOR NOT PROVIDING MORE FOR ME).

[Vixen], the whole thing is a lot worse than you know, and this is enough to say.

again, please print this out (my computer now/a person TWICE has removed all contents off of my email program)

It's not fun getting older, especially when you have one/two always "after you", scaring you, being deceitful, telling lis about you all the while, and having [Vixen's doctor uncle] buy the lies (Mom doesn't any more, but she still babies J and wants to cover up for him).

I hope I'm alive next week to write to you,  Mom

p.s., the lower key letters were easier to use, that's why there are not a lot of capitals.

Life's emotional blue balls, when you anticipate something and then it doesn't happen, comes in many forms. For me, it came yesterday: my latest deposit cleared the bank, which meant I could finally buy the pro camera I've long lusted for. It's a doozy, I tell ya. I've recently been withdrawing chunks of cash in preparation for this moment, and trotted happily to the ATM for a final installment for the big buy. "Home bank rejects transaction." Fuck, weekly limits. So am all itchy, metaphorically as well as physically from summer fun bug bites. Will try again today, but have a full schedule: lunch with a source/friend, one of the fabulous Shanghainese Hong Kong fashion dames, then a presser, then a few spare hours, then dinner with some gallery friends, then a PR cocktail, then a (hopefully not too drunk) swim.

Tomorrow night I'm off to Beijing again, this time for a Dolce & Gabanna store launch. A bunch of friends have recently moved to the 'Jing, so I'm expecting a fun, not very productive weekend.

Last night, one of the 'Jingers, Good Bug, called me up. Good Bug is a fellow dater of too-pretty, tall skinny Chinese guys. "So..." she starts, "I know this guy. He's really cool, and has no patience for stupid women, and I think he'd be good for dating foreign women." She disclaims that he's a bit out of shape right now, and has a bad haircut, but just needs a woman's touch, I should give him a try. Sure, why not? I ask for more details. "He's Shanghainese, but works in Beijing," okay, promising, "and is a really important curator." Uh oh, probably someone I know. "Um, what's his name?" "____." Yup, I know him, albeit not well. "____?! He's OLD!" "38's not old!" protested the 36-year-old. "To me it is, 9 years older than me. I have a strict +/-5 years policy, and even that's pushing it." Good Bug kept trying, and I told her of some of my bad experiences with older men; eventually she relented, admitting her own propensity for younger guys. Also, ____ is really short.

But! I appreciate her trying.

Perhaps the greatest trial of my life here is being constantly treated like a talking monkey. But, I figure I do some good by interacting a lot with locals of all stripes and showing that hairy pink people are people too.

Fat lot of good it does, especially when lots of laowai asininely promote their monkey-hood. A batch of Aussies have arrived to live as monkeys on display in a "Human Zoo." Look at the monkeys!

"Human zoo" staged in Shanghai

Members of the Australian reality show group "the Urban Dream Capsule" perform in a glass box in a shopping mall in Shanghai, June 20, 2006. The four Australian men will live in the glass box for 12 days, with the public able to watch them sleeping, eating and bathing. [Newsphoto]

I ain't just talking 'bout the weather.

The censoring of Mission Impossible 3's depiction of the city is utterly ridiculous. See story below. The government wankers are so obsessed with becoming a "Modern International City", all the while doing completely dumb-ass, counterintuitive stuff like moving all domestic flights to Pudong. Which means 1. it is now faster to take the train almost anywhere in China than it is to take two hours getting to the airport, two hours waiting, and then finally flying. (Of course the sight of gullible first-time laowai taking the magical Maglev-to-nowhere is always a bonus.) 2. Pudong Airport is the first and last impression most foreigners get of Shanghai. It's crappy, but at least it's clean, nice-looking and uncrowded crap. Now they're going to be greeted with the masses of jostling riff-raff who fly domestically in China - apart from the Shanghai-Beijing route, it's mostly urban peasants with disturbing personal hygene. Yeah, that's just GREAT for the modern international image.

The funny thing with the film of the scientologist midget is that they're only able to censor it for China viewers anyways, who by dint of actually being here already KNOW China's chaotic.

Why are they so obsessed with turning Shanghai into Singapore? The locals want to hang their laundry out, and foreigners enjoy such lived-in-ness, not the ugly, grimy from Shanghai pollution skyscrapers.

It's like how people who try too hard to be cool never are. Truly international cities don't give a fuck about their international image, ie the impressions of oblivious foreigners who pass through for a few days. The best way for Shanghai to achieve the international city status it desires is to stop worrying, stop trying to be Singapore, and embrace its vibrant if messy Shanghaineseness. Let the laundry hang out, let it ALL hang out! 

 

>Hi Mom,
>
>All's well. I just joined a pool, and am finding swimming once a week (along
>with the daily gym trips) to be very therapuedic. Although I am always very
>sleepy afterwards! I hope you will start using your pool soon, too. YOU ARE
AN INSPIRATION, [VIXEN].  I DO HAVE THE RIGHT KEY, IT STICKS AND I THOUGHT
I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO PAY $50. FOR A NEW ONE. I HOPE TO SIT IN THE
SAUNA ALMOST DAILY AND TO WORK UP MY STAMINA BY WALKING LONGER
AND LONGER DISTANCES. I STILL AM INTERESTED IN A HALF MARATHON
(NOT HARD FOR ME, OR A 10K AT MINIMUM). I FEEL LIKE A BIRD FLYING AND
FREE WHEN I RUN, AND WHEN I CAN SPEEDWALK, THEN I CAN DO SOME
OF EACH. 24 FITNESS IS NEARBY, AS YOU KNOW, AND I HOPE TO GO THERE
FOR 4 DAYS, GETTING A 1.5 HOUR WORKOUT EACH TIME, PLUS LEARN TO
WORK WITH WEIGHTS.  I USED TO BE A VERY DISCIPLINED PERSON (ALSO
COOK) AND I'M HOPING BOTH OF THESE STRENGTH COME BACK. WHEN YOUR
ENERGY IS AT THE 2'% LEVEL (THAT IS HOW IT FEELS) YOU ARE LIMITED IN
WHAT YOU CAN DO.  THE BUS TRIPS WILL HELP, AND...I'M SO RELIEVED TO
NOT HAVE THE CAR. WITH ALL THE THINGS THAT WERE BEING TO IT, INTER-
NALLY AS WELL AS ON EXTERIOR, AND I FEELING VERY UNSAFE EACH TIME
I HAD TO DRIVE. IF I AM SUCCESSFUL WITH MY WRITING AND SONGS, AND
IN TIME SPEAKING, THEN MAYBE I CAN BUY A SMALL HOUSE WITH A GARAGE
(AND HAVE LOTS OF ALARMS ON CAR AND GARAGE, PLUS 4 AIRBAGS, THEN
HAVING A CAR WILL MAKE MORE SENSE (AND I THINK I'LL BE READY FOR IT.
FOR NOW, WALKING AND GYN AND POOL SEEM LIKE GREAT WAYS TO RELAX
AND WORK FOR BETTER HEALTH.

DID I TELL YOU THAT THEY ARE SENDING A CHECK TO ME FOR $3600 AND
THEY HAVE ALREADY PUT $359 IN MY BUSINESS ACCOUNT AS A REFUND FOR
MORE THAN HALF OF MY AUTO INSURANCE, NOT NEEDED NOW.

C. IS TALKING ABOUT SUICIDE (SERIOUSLY) AND HE ASKED A FRIEND 
TO BRING A GUN WITH HIM THE NEXT TIME HE COMES.  HE IS DEFINITELY
MENTALLY ILL, DIFFERENT FROM DAVID, BUT IN THE SAME DEGREE OF
SEVERITY.

THE FRIEND WITH THE AX AND HIS PARENTS HAVE BEEN IN JOINT AND SEP-
ARATE COUNSELING, AND JOSH [I have no idea who this is] HAS REALLY CALMED DOWN.  HE HAS BEEN
AN EXCELLENT STUDENT, NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS, THAT THE DOC-
TOR PLANS TO RELEASE HIM IN A FEW DAYS AND THEY WILL MAKE NUMER-
OUS HOUST VISITS TO CHECK ON HIM, AND HE AND HIS PARENTS WILL
CONTINUE IN THERAPY--THE PURPOSE OF A QUALITY RELATIONSHIP, AND
HE BEING BETTER ABLE TO EXPRESS HIS FEELINGS. (THIS COULD HAVE
HAPPENED WITH [Vixen's Gege] HAD G. (MY NEW NAME FOR ---) NOT BE FIGHTING
ME SO ACTIVELY AND SCARING THE FIRST FOUR LAWYERS, AND ME.

BUT...ONCE HE RAN AFTER YOU WITH THE BUTCHER KNIFE, I KNEW I HAD
TO PROTECT BOTH ME AND YOU.

IT WAS/IS TRAGIC THAT G. NEVER TOOK [Gege] TO THE COURT-ORDERED
COUNSELING, WHERE I WAS TO PICK THE THERAPIST. IT WAS MASS CHAOS
SINCE TIME, AND SO FRIGHTING FOR ME (FEARING MURDER) AND ALSO
FEARING THE HEALTH -PROBLEMS THAT I KNEW COULD DEVELOP (IN ALL
THREE OF US).

I HOPE THIS ENTIRE EMAIL GOES THROUGH--IT IS LOOKING LIKE THE TOP
HALF WAS CUT OFF.

I'LL SHARE YOUR EMAIL WITH MOM OVER THE PHONE TOMORROW, AND YOU
KNOW HOW HAPPY THAT WILL MAKE HER.

ALL FOR NOW...  MOM


>
>I am very sorry to hear about both your fall and Chad. My best wishes for
>your speedy recovery, and his.
>
>Please do not wait until you have a clean counter to enjoy the tea!
>
>Love,
>[Vixen]
>

I take compliments badly.

I like them, but they make me uncomfortable. I'm not quite sure why. Partly, I dislike being the center of attention.  That's probably why I'm in a profession where the publicity is upon my products, not me.  Party, I'm a very introspective/introverted person, so I place more value upon my own assessments of myself than other peoples. Which is why, when people publicly call me unpleasant things, I take it almost better than when people say nice things about me.

I finished and filed the profile of The Director, my new and overwhelming friend, yesterday. Today was spent on a flurry of emails with my editor, with fact checking and corrections and photo requests forwarded to The Director.

At the end of the day, the mobile rang, declaring an +852 number, it was my editor. Now, I've never worked with her before. She's the boss of my old editor, who's moving back to the US. She has a flat, no-nonsense midwest American accent, inflections I am fine with in person, but they throw me on the phone.

"Do you ever come to Hong Kong?" She asked.

"Sometimes, but not that often."

"So when will I get to meet you? You're great. I love the piece."

My voice goes several octaves higher. "Well, I need to get down there one of these days. My friend on Lamma keeps sending me tantalizing emails..." I deflect into a brief discussion of Hong Kong and Shanghai pollution.

The editor pulls it back. "I'm so glad to have you still doing stuff for us. This has me really fascinated with [The Director]. Keep it up!"

"Oh, it's fun. I enjoy getting to publicize Shanghai's artists, they need and deserve it."  The editor continued to say how very awesome the Director sounds, and since has emailed me a couple times how she'd love to meet the Director.  Lihai women of Asia unite! :)

Otherwise had a wierdly quiet day. Fielded some phone interviews, researched upcoming birthday trip to Borneo, spat out some emails, looked into heath insurance - which I need to get before I turn 30, hence old and decrepit.  Got money from the ATM, got groceries, that was my excursion out today. This is freelance-dom: the good thing is you work from home, the bad thing is you work from home!

Although, to be fair, I've seen plenty of such exchanges - and characters - here in Shanghai. Obnoxious Chinese men can be found...all over China! Anyhow, this Bus Uncle is apparently a big bruhaha in Hong Kong, and spreading beyond. The joy of camera phones and the 'net: be a public ass, it will bite you in the ass. Good for improving the public 文明-dom though!

I got some rocking swag on Thursday night. Event was a design talk hosted by an advertising company, part of a series called "Black Sheep Nights". Sounds good, but in comformity-driven China, might not be too well-received. The swag is a memory sticks, 256 mb, encased in a little wooden black sheep. Cute, and useful! The talk was boring, so when my friends had to leave early for a dinner party, I escaped with them. Leaving early allowed me to swipe another one. Sweet. The pair of them are now happily perched on my desk.

That Cross pen from Mi Ya Mi is also proving among favorite swag. It just feels so nice to use. *sigh* I love stuff!

In other news. My neighborhood shoe and bag repair guy is one of my neighborhood buddies along with with my tea shop lady, the power and water bill collectors, and the army of cutely toothless old taitais. We go way back. He often slaps my back, but today when I picked up an order, he playfully slapped my ass. Oddly, I'm not that perturbed. Whatever, pervy old men, and he didn't seem to mean it in an offensive way, more just joking. Yup, I'm officially too laid back. I think I'll procrastinate further by getting a beer and reading in the park.

I am in the habit of dispensing abandoned kittens I find on the streets upon gooing Shanghainese girls. It's a charity for both, kittens find loving homes, and Shanghainese girls, finding a feline vastly better company, feel less pressured to marry the first dull man who looks at them twice. The girls always ask me the basics of cat care, and the funniest inquiry is whether cats need to be washed daily.  Shanghainese are entertainingly simultaneously obsessed with hygene and rather bad at it. Like the girls at my gym, who will sprawl about naked, genitalia moshed all over the furniture, but refuse to walk barefoot in the locker room. Hey, what's an STD to the spectre of foot fungus?

Cats do a good job at washing themselves, but once and a while they need a scrub down, and the Silver Lining got one today. He was smelling a bit sweaty, and had some poo stuck in his tail. I am dabbing my forearms with iodine as I write. Note to self: buy protective gear.

It's summer in Shanghai, which means throngs of tourists roam the street, looking lost and robable while alarming the locals with their loud Western ways. Easy pickings for mockery as well as scam artists. Wednesday, on the subway to People's Square for lunch with Iski and a swim, I found myself surrounded by a precotious gaggle of pre-teen Bananas. Over a dozen of them. They were being loud and boisterous, in the natural, individualistic and rather irritating manner of over-indulged American adolescents. The deluge of energetic English had me and the other occupants of the train casting about nervously. What?! Lots of foriegners?! Where?! Then our eyes found the token white kid in their group, standing quietly and wondering why everyone was staring at him when he was the one behaving himself. (Bananas and a Monkey! Sorry, couldn't resist.) Ah, then we understood. I passed them later on Nanjing Lu, although could hear them coming a block away.  Reasons to never travel in large groups.

The swimming is a lovely new addition to my regime. Free swimming card came with my gym membership renewal, although I have to shlep up to the Raffles outlet of my trusty if crappy gym. The upshot is that it gives an excuse to lunch with Iski, a white-collar drudge at MoCA, and amuse/horrify her with my babblings. Swimming is such a nice exercise, really tops yoga for stretching out the muscles after an hour of weight lifting, and there is something so comforting about being in the water. Return to the primordial goo, I guess! It's a fairly nice pool for a crappy cheap gym, with a glass roof, and windows along one side, so that if you get the end lane, even underwater you get a lovely view of the construction still underway in People's Park. (What ARE they doing there? It's been two years now!) The problem is that, after a half hour swim, I feel obliged to eat a lot and then fall asleep. I barely manage to stay awake for the subway ride home.

Friday night started out with a jaunt to 1918 gallery for a show by Liang Weizhou, who's a so-so artist but paints his cat so I give extra leeway. Lao Liang was not in attendence, nor was much of anyone else. Why? They were friggin charging for alcohol! This is allowable perhaps in America, where alcohol is expensive, the people are rich, and galleries are easily filled, but in Shanghai, we require this bribe to come out to shows. It doesn't have to be good alcohol, cold Suntory is enough, but don't try to squeeze us for money. The gallery is doomed. No matter, plenty of goods to be had at a party at SD's lovely deco flat. It was dominated, though, by the sort of older, semi-professional but not Guoyu speaking expats, with the only Chinese in attendence the wives and girlfriends of the white guys. At least these are the older, cooler sort of Chinese wives and girlfriends, not the skanky young party girls who date younger foreigners. As always at such events, I quickly retreat from the main room and talk the whole time with the Chinese wife contingent, because I can't find much to discuss with the average expat. They just ply me for language, culture, shopping tips, or try out their various China stereotypes on me, or goggle over how long I've been here. There was one Chinese guy there, the semi-cute artist who hit on me at the April opening of the Ding Yi solo show. Only, one, he totally didn't remember me, and two, he was trying to flirt with all the single foreign women there, and particularly the older and less attractive - therefore more desperate - ones. Foreign Fetishist alert! Seems there are ever more of these about. I've attracted a few, but then they realize that I speak Guoyu, so they can't practice their Chinglish on me, and that I don't find them exotic or their attempts to appear Westernized remotely impressive, and so move on to easier prey.

I left early to meet up with a friend visiting back from Finland, ah fun with the wacky Scandinavian contingent! The departed Finn is my favorite of that crowd, visited in Helsinki last year, and quite miss having her about. Xinjiang food, yet another warehouse for DJs, that plague upon Shanghai, and then overpriced (ie not free) champaigne at a bar. Liquor mixing ill advised for needing to meet the Director at 9:30 yesterday morning.

We met at a KFC, where she and the AD were having breakfast, and taxied up to M50.  Second time hanging out was stranger than the first, because this duo really is a steam-roller of middle-aged take-no-prisoners lihainess. They are so very opinioned, and just never stop the roll of talking about this person or that project and exactly what they think of it. Which got old. I don't mind that they didn't try to include me at all, but I did mind how difficult they made it for me to join in, and try I certainly did, throbbing head notwithstanding. The exhibition was mediocre photography of a very beautiful old village in Shaanxi. Being the token Laowai in attendence, I was corralled into posing with the photographers - not because I am a noted arts journalist, but because I'm an exotic Monkey. Sigh.

The Director and the AD are completely oblivious to the cultural scenes in Shanghai outside of film, so after I took them to H-Space to see the show by my friends Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing; I think the works by the latter are quite interesting. The grand dames of film, though, immediately dismissed the show. "Shanghai art is just too sweet," declared the Beijinger AD. "People actually buy this stuff?" At my affirmative, she continued, "Yeah, just stupid Laowai." Um. Then to the ShanghArt warehouse next door, giving them an overview of the works up, a smattering of some of the best in contemporary Chinese art. They dismissed it in hand, embarassing as one of the artists - the friend who opposes my possibly dating ABCs - was right there. He was just amused, though. The film dames bustled off, and I stayed to chat a bit more with the artist before wandering to a few other galleries.

Not many people around on a Saturday morning, to be sure, but I visited the new Island 6 space and had a nice long visit with its director T, of undetermined European origin, and cute for a white boy. (Hmm, if I got drunk, maybe?) It's a gorgeous space, in an abandoned, wild field next to the creek. Eventually it will be turned into a Chinese "park", ie lots of concrete interspersed with a few scraggly trees, but for now it's resplendent. They've built a deck, and are debating whether they could get away with installing a pool too. Nice just hanging out there; if I didn't live on the other side of town, I'd definitely rent an office in that complex.  Afterwards, I wandered around the park, photographing the empty but protected old warehouses there. When those fill up with occupants, likely galleries and bars, they'll be so awesome. But they're hauntingly gorgeous now, hollow ghosts whispering with memory and possibilities.

On my way home from the subway, I bumped into my old colleage K, with a booth on the sidewalk promoting a new yoga studio. It's an improvement, he recently was selling fake Chanel perfume out of his manpurse. K's total shabi laowai, total stoner, been here longer than I but speaks barely any Mandarin, dates a succession of sketchy peasant girls who pick him up at bars and then wonders why they all turn out psycho, and really should get job or leave already. But he's also a really sweet guy, and a very loyal friend, so I am very fond of him.

It was far and away enough socialization for one weekend, so I stayed in Saturday night, reading photography tips for the EOS 30D I will soon buy for my birthday, chatting online with Manila Moxie, and finishing watching Jia Zhangke's "The World". It's more watchable than most of Jia's stuff, to be sure, but has these inscrutable cartoon interludes, and rambles on for two and a half hours before ending quite abruptly. Now there's good rambling films - Wang Karwai - and bad. I can watch a Wang film in once sitting, but Jia's take several efforts, and I'm always glad when they're over. Dude needs an editor, preferably one bearing a bullwhip. Nothing worse than a screenwriter/director in desperate need of some discipline.

Ha! There is justice. Of course, we know the real reason it got pulled was that someone from the film bureau actually saw it, and was like, "Wow, this is really crap!" (Disclaimer: Vixen has neither read nor seen "Da Vinci Code", it just sounds awful.) That, or they realized it was about religion, which made them squirmy. Hey, that's fine, religion makes me squirmy too!

I'm all for more promotion of domestic films, but sadly the domestic films they choose to plug are usually AWFUL, the likes of "Hero" and "The Promise", which do good box offices for some reason, but which NO ONE likes. Of course, it's depressing that the most successful foreign films in China are 1. Titanic, 2. Pearl Harbor, and 3. Da Vinci Code. Either Chinese filmgoers have really bad taste (see above re Hero), or they're fairly susceptible to big marketing campaigns, or simply the only reason they'll shell out 60 RMB to go to the cinema, versus 7 RMB for the pirate DVD, is to see really big explosions. My vote goes to the latter two.

Also in today's news: Bare butt of women writer stirs readers up. She calls herself the Kafka of China, and claims that posing naked is existential. Hmm. Not a bad strategy. Next time I do something completely skanky, idiotic, and/or ill-advised, I'll just say I was being existential. Yeah! That'll show em! ...

 

"Da Vinci Code" pulled from theatres
By Wang Shanshan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-09 06:07

 

Movie theatres across the country will stop screening "The Da Vinci Code" from toIday, three weeks after its general release.

The withdrawal is to make way for domestic movies, Weng Li, spokesman for China Film Corporation one of the two co-distributors of the Hollywood blockbuster on the Chinese mainland told China Daily yesterday.

The decision was made in response to calls for promotion of domestic movies by the Chinese Movie Distributors' Association, the Chinese Movie Producers' Association and the Chinese Urban Movie Theatres Association last month, he said.

"We are not against foreign films," the spokesman noted. "My company will continue to arrange their screenings in China according to market demand."

A gatekeeper at the Cineplex in Beijing's upscale Oriental Plaza said: "It is surprising news. The movie has drawn the largest number of viewers in the year."

Having made 104 million yuan (US$13 million) since its release on May 19, it was well on its way to becoming one of the highest-ever grossing foreign films.

It has been reported that its box office proceeds were approaching that of "Pearl Harbor," which made 105 million yuan (US$13.1 million) as the No 2 foreign film in Chinese box office history.

"Titanic" is first, raking in 359 million yuan (US$45 million).

Before the movie was released in China, the Chinese Catholic church issued a notice to followers nationwide asking them to "firmly boycott" it, accusing the movie of going against, and distorting, the tenets and history of the Catholic church.

"The contents of both the movie and the novel are totally fictional," said the notice.

(China Daily 06/09/2006 page1)