jameswest.net.au

Peter Goers, what a legend (there you go, Pete: you passed the blogging test). And a much better web pic than Glover's. Love that red flower.

I enjoyed walking through Tiananmen and the Forbidden City with Peter tonight, on his evening radio program in Adelaide. We went straight to the heart, right there into the centre of Beijing, Tiananmen, and had a peak around together, at the Olympic clock and the Mausoleum and the Hall of the People. It was nice chatting about the city's design and how it affects the lives of its people, rather than simply the raving, drug-taking generational stuff. Pete asked to hear a bit of Rebuilding The Rights of Statues, the punk band that's profiled in the book. Here is their MySpace site. A lot of the kids have websites now, Pete :)

Chatting to Pete reminded me of an author I reckon portrays Beijing's landscape well. Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Creation of a Political Space, by Wu Hung (University of Chicago Press, Chicago) is beautifully illustrated history of Beijing’s urban landscape, including responses to Tiananmen Square by contemporary Chinese artists. Wu Hung also recounts his personal journeys through the streets of Beijing.

I remember thinking Tiananmen lonely and impressive.

When I look at a map of Beijing, the part of me that likes stationery stores is impressed by its symmetry. I could fold it along the lines to make a paper plane. It looks clean from above, and attractive, especially the weight given to its core by the concentric streets looping around the world’s largest public plaza – Tiananmen Square – at the city’s centre... Big enough for a billion – a way to describe Tiananmen as the symbolic home for the entire story of the Chinese people – is plenty big enough to make one person feel meaningless.