New York Is Better Than Beijing
Alright, another question for all you out there.
Beijing has a population of 8 million people. That's the same as New York City. (The Beijing municipal population is 17 million, but that includes all the people living in places like Miyun and Shunyi. You can count them if you want, but I think for the question that I'm asking the urban population is more relevant. As a comparison, New York's metropolitan area has 18 million people.) With so many people, why isn't there more going on? I'm hyped about the Boat opening party, too, but how is it that City Weekend and other publications can list a summary of two weeks events in a few pages? The Village Voice (a free events paper in New York) has 82 live shows listed for Saturday, April 4th. Why does it sometimes seem like Beijing only has ten bands? What if I want to take in a good play? (And I don't just mean an English-language performance.) How many playhouses are there? Hell, even no-account towns like Jacksonville, USA have independent playhouses. There's no denying that this town we love is woefully behind in terms of varied amusement.
I have a few reasons for this:
Beijing's standard of living is still too low. Most Beijingers just don't have enough money to go out and party or to take in the fine arts. For the most part, people are content to have enough money to pay the electricity bill that keeps their TV going. Until people have more money, and more free-time, there's nothing to keep an art culture going.
Beijing is too big and transportation is just not convenient. In New York I can take the train 35 minutes into Manhattan, have great dinner, walk to the show I want to see, and then hop on the train another 15 minutes, 30 minutes max, to whatever bar it is that I want to go to. Or, even better, maybe a loft party. And this is without having to spend money on a taxi. Can you do this in Beijing? The answer is yes, but only if you live in certain parts of Chaoyang or Dongcheng. This effectively narrows the entertainment audience to a very select few.
Most Chinese people just want to have a couple (dozen) drinks with their friends in a restaurant. There isn't the same party/art culture in China that there is in the West. I think this is very much connected with reason 1, but I also think that Chinese people just have different sensibilities when it comes to fun. Most Chinese people, when asked what they would want in a bar, describe a quiet place where they and their friends can talk and drink while being waited on. On the high culture side, I don't think many Chinese people were taken off to art exhibits or performances by their parents. The people discovering art in China are very much on their own. Nobody is introducing them to it.
So, here's the question: Why isn't there more to do in Beijing? I'm a New Yorker, so we already know that I'm an asshole. You don't need to state the obvious. Instead I'd like to know why you think Beijing is the way it is.
Comments Add a public comment
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I think you simply have to go back where your come from man. I am an expat' too and the rule is: if you don't like it, just go back to your country. If you and many other people want to find exactly the same things everywhere you go on the planet, it is better to stay at home. You made some very clever comments in your article and Chinese people are like us wanting to party all the time. Just think about it and if you don't like it, you know what to do. Plane tickets to America are not hard to get :).
Bye.
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In terms of arts and music, Beijing hasn't exactly caught up with New York City yet ... It hasn't even caught up with Louisville, Kentucky. That being said, NYC is still light years behind on KTV and Chivas ... It's a different culture and people have less disposable income. I'd be disappointed to see a D-22 on every corner where there once was a hot pot house, a group of men playing chess or a pink-lit barbershop. But at the same time, I'm inspired by the locals I meet who are doing everything they can to further the local (i.e. non-foreign run) music and arts scenes.
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Yeah, NYC needs way more pink lit barbershops!
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Ok, I think you guys don't really get the point: THIS IS NOT AMERICA and I personally hope it will never look like it.
These statements are senseless.
Beijing is Beijing, let it grow as it wishes too.
How many of you speak Chinese by the way??
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I personally know the two other posters here and know that they all speak pretty good Chinese. I read it. Anyway, no one is trying to make too fine a point here. Cultures and places ought to have peculiarities, but that doesn't preclude critique and comparison. And comparison seems like it ought to be based on people's past experience, such as Michael's knowledge of New York City, or my experience living in Shanghai which is often compared to other major Asian capitals like Seoul, Singapore and Taipei. Personally, I DO hope Beijing does come to resemble America in several key ways: rule of law, local democracy and reasonable development policies.
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I just spent 20 minutes commiserating with one of the women who used sell malatang on hutong by my house. A few weeks ago the Chengguan came and shut down all the street malatang vendors. Tonight, when I wanted to sit outside and eat noodles by the lilac trees near my xiaoqu, I was told that the Chengguan wasn't allowing the noodle shop to put tables outside any more.
I don't want Beijing to become America. I think it's awful the way that Beijing is being "cleaned up." As my friend says, "中国最深刻的美就是乱。" ("China's most profound beauty is its disorder.") I don't want China to lose what makes it beautiful.
The statement I made in my post was that Beijing was lacking in terms of "varied amusement." Perhaps it's my idea of what's amusing that is the problem. I suggested as much in my third possible reason. But I also think that it's interesting that a place with so many people and such a dense population seems to just be a constant replication of the same apartment complex with the same three or four Chengdu Xiaochi's. Why is it that I can walk five kilometers and it still feels like I'm in the same neighborhood? (Lack of an immigrant population is one reason.)
Being an American, I am a strong believer in the "Love it or leave it" school of thought. And one of the things you do with something you love is you question how it could change and how it could become better. What I worry most is that Beijing will become like America and not New York, just a collection of malls and franchised restaurants.
Thank Mao we still have pink-lit barbershops.
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And, yeah, I speak fluent Chinese and don't live in Chaoyang.
I agree with Blake. I love the people I meet who are trying to make their own scene. I just wonder why there isn't more of it. (Or is that a silly question?)
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Glad you make the point guys, Beijing is what is it and has it charms. The point in me asking if any of you spoke Chinese is because we, foreigners of all origins, are mistaken for American speaking English only. Well that's an other story anyway.
Regarding China becoming like America, surely not!! God save this country to turn like that country. I actually think it is absurd to criticize China when America starts wars here and there, puts people on and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without a fair trial and I dont't even speak about the Indians and the black community thats suffered a great deal in the hands of the "white man".
But yeah, these are just examples that makes there is sometimes no differences between what China and America do in their own country.
To come back on the main subject, China WILL become a copy of the West if not America anyway. That is so sad.
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It's an old question and still relevant, but for the record I disagree that America (or, by natural extension, an American) has forsaken its right to being critical of China. Nor do I think it is absurd. Nor do I buy into "love it or leave it." Such kind of extremism sounds, ummm, too extreme. Who "loves" a place completely? People negotiate with a place, find corners and crevices and nooks and develop a personal relationship with a place. It's pure, it's not ideal, it's more complicated than that.
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Haha,
Well, that's true that no place on earth is perfect as we always find some unpleasant aspects everywhere we go. But, this does not mean a city or country would ideally look like an other one and be its pale copy.
I used to live in London and God, I love it there and I hate it too.
Ok, said enough :)
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I used to live in Zurich from 1988 to 2000. No subway. No KTV (hey, I'm into this thing!). 9 to 10 train stations, tops. Shops shut on Sunday (about 95% of them anyway).
Entertaining. Boring. Both of 'em. After 12 years, I decided to make the switch back to Beijing. (This time as a Swiss passport holder instead of a former PRC citizen.)
As a former Chinese expat in Switzerland, the present Swiss expat in Beijing prefers Beijing than his passport-native Switzerland.
Especially with 561 km of the Subway system promised for 2012...
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I'm from NJ, near NYC, so I know what it's like there. I love Beijing and I'd HATE to see it turn into a US-like city... but I don't think that was the author's point. I don't think he was saying the activities and places should be the same, but that the amount of them is not at the same level. But let's remember this is still a "developing" country. So fun & games isn't a high priority yet, for reasons above.
That said, I'd like to see more entertainment, but even small local things... it doesn't have to be expensive stuff. It can be traditional, Chinese, cheap, disorganized, and I hope it DOES involve little stools on the sidewalk outside and chuan'r sticks on the ground.
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Nice to see a balanced comment :)
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I think you simply have to go back where your come from man. I am an expat' too and the rule is: if you don't like it, just go back to your country. If you and many other people want to find exactly the same things everywhere you go on the planet, it is better to stay at home. You made some very clever comments in your article and Chinese people are like us wanting to party all the time. Just think about it and if you don't like it, you know what to do. Plane tickets to America are not hard to get :).
Bye.