The Olympics are coming up. The culture show did a great program last night about China. China is going to be all over the news media in the next month. So it's time to take a look at China's role in the next 20 years. So here's a few random thoughts.

China is moving at an incredible pace. They seem to be compressing what happened in the West during 1890-1990 into 1990-2010 So with the benefit of hindsight and this year's technology, they're running at at least 5 times the pace we did. 50% of the world's cement and 50% of the world's construction cranes are in China now. It feels to me like China is in a race to get to a post-industrial economy before they burn out, raw resources become too expensive or they stifle themselves with pollution. Can Gaia sustain this level of growth from 1/6th of the world's population? Can they get from a Feudal model of a few rich and a vast army of poor to a predominantly middle class culture without destroying us all in the process? What does a nation of 1Billion middle class even look like.

I can't think of a single Chinese global brand with the possible exception of The Bank of China. How long before the first Honda or Sony or Toyota appears out of China?

One of the most telling comments on the Culture Show last night was that China felt like the USA. There was the same confidence and arrogance, the same nationalism, the same inward view and the same lack of understanding of why the rest of the world should criticise them.

There's a Starbucks on every corner of every major city in the world. Every one is exactly the same. It's created by a Roman military style, command and control, organisation structure. There's a chinese takeway on every corner of every major city in the world. They're all different but all have the same style. They were created by a hive mind of individuals all acting independently but to a common model. Is this a metaphor for the difference between right wing authoritarians and left wing libertarians? Is there something to be learned there about a fundamental difference of approach between the USA and China?

China has 5000 years of culture to draw on. They also have 2000 years of Western culture to draw on. While the show last night did show a few instances of uniquely Chinese design, the majority looked very derivative. Do we really need a Warhol-esque Mao cartoon in the style of the famous Che poster? Or a Happy-Tree Friends Panda with fangs and dripping blood? Or a Chinese Punk/New-rave/Trance boy band? How long before a major global cultural movement emerges out of China? Because at the moment it seems to be all magpie like remixing, not creating.

in reply:-

Whereas I do find it an eloquent piece, I fail to understand who is the audience of this rather Racist writing. When you note down your observations and fears, may I dare ask who do you represent Mr. Julian?? I don't think we represent any KKK here on the Ecademy. In today's Global Village we do not need segregationist. Rather we should try to assimilate. We must celebrate Modern China instead of trying to cast doubts on their designs or abilities . Taiwan is part of China and the whole world including US, acknowledges this fact but China has never invaded to reoccupy it. They have not been expansionist in their designs or actions. What's the phobia about??

In today's global world there is nothing original anymore. Do you see what is the major segment of Creative IT people working in Silicon Valley?? Do you find all "Original Americans" there? And how would you define Original American then? Why would they reinvent the wheel to create originals whereas what they do seems to be working and they are beating the whole world but at the same time whole world seems to be benefitting from their production economies translated in affordable life-style!

Forgive me for my rather curt response but I felt my responsibility to point out that Ecademy does not represent only one type of people and there must be Chinese members too...
Abdul (Dubai inspires me)
Mangrove Real Estate


Abdul. I'm a Brit not an American. As a Brit I reserve the right to take the piss out of everyone equally including ourselves! wink If there's phobia or racism there, it's unconscious and I apologise unreservedly.

I do think global brands, global cultural movements, global views and global involvement will come out of China. I just don't think its happened yet. Given the pace of change there, I think its going to happen sooner rather than later. In some ways the criticism is the same as we had of Japan in the 50s and 60s; that they can't innovate, only copy. We now know just how wrong that was although at the time there was an element of truth in it.

In today's global world there is nothing original anymore. How very post-modernist of you. smile There's a properly deep History of Art discussion to be had right there. Yes, of course, no art exists in a vacuum and it is always a product of its environment and so to some extent derivative. But we also recognise novelty and judge some art to be derivative and others to be ground breaking and genuinely new. And I would agree with you that way too much of what passes for art now is extremely derivative. I've also no doubt that a BBC documentary on culture in China is inevitably going to find itself interviewing an art world that mirrors its counterpart in the west. The really interesting stuff is probably happening out at the edges and right now it's probably off radar.

In today's global world there is nothing original anymore. How very post-modernist of you. :) There's a properly deep History of Art discussion to be had right there. Yes, of course, no art exists in a vacuum and it is always a product of its environment and so to some extent derivative. But we also recognise novelty and judge some art to be derivative and others to be ground breaking and genuinely new. And I would agree with you that way too much of what passes for art now is extremely derivative. I've also no doubt that a BBC documentary on culture in China is inevitably going to find itself interviewing an art world that mirrors its counterpart in the west. The really interesting stuff is probably happening out at the edges and right now it's probably off radar.


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