Rare Earth Metals

As some readers will know, China recently successfully pressured the Japanese into returning a wayward captive sea-captain by threatening to withhold rare earth metals, which would have devastated the Japanese electronics industry.

My first point is that this seems like a scenario that I played once in Civilization IV or perhaps the subplot of a movie that also includes mega Gundams and space colonies.

My second point is that reading more broadly on the rare earth metal monopoly China's developed (nearly 97% of the global supply - link is to a Bloomberg piece), I asked myself who was in THIS meeting:

"A generation after Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made mastering neodymium and 16 other elements known as rare earths a priority, China dominates the market, with far-reaching effects ranging from global trade friction to U.S. job losses and threats to national security."

It doesn't matter what color the neodymium is, as long as it helps power your laser mouse.

The Treacherous Treis, A Treacherous Move

1. Relocated to Hong Kong, so as I hope to start posting regularly again, they'll likely be crass commentary on local exhibits, shows, and films peppered in.  文化沙漠？(A prominent Chinese scholar spat that Hong Kong was a "cultural desert" a few years ago, which has prompted countless millions of dollars being injected into "cultural" events throughout the city, special immigration schemes for artistic talent, and of course, the hype around the mega development the western parts of Kowloon.)
2. Edison Chen has bounced back from a rocking sex scandal and gone the way of James Franco, attempting to restyle himself as a pop artist. A choice work from his exhibit, "The Treacherous Treis," showing now in Singapore, Maona Lisa. I want to see him climb through the ranks and get caught in flagrante behind the curtain at some Sotheby's auction.
3. Delicious pop-up books as profiled in the New York Times. See and touch Yunnan in three dimensions, and also two dimensions, then three again.
4. Takashi Murakami X Versailles!
5. Matt Yglesias has quite a good post that ties together two recent pieces of major news in the Asian philanthropy  world (my new world) - first the seemingly enormous failure of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates' recent trip to China (where they hoped to bring a good slice of wealthy PRCers into their  donating pledge). Second is the recent set of rumors that Jet Li's ONE Foundation may pull out from operations from the Mainland, given the series of administrative and bureaucratic trip wires they've run into in their tenure.  As Yglesias points out, charity is in some senses illegal in China - only a very small percentage of organizations can formally fund-raise at all, which is often forgotten when people discuss the seemingly vibrant sector of civil society constituted by an emerging network of grassroots NGOs.

Wallpaper* Taiwan - Decoding a Menace

I went bonkers when Wallpaper* highlighted Taiwan in their last issue, with the following blurb:

"Asian hipsters have long flocked to Taiwan for its unbeatable combination of jaw-dropping scenery, culture, retail therapy and addictive food culture -- something the West has only belatedly come to appreciate. And good timing, too, as Wallpaper* recently pitched up in this gem of an island for Operation: Taiwan Revealed."

I went more bonkers when there was a link to the tourism bureau, which for years had been touting an ugly motto of "TAIWAN: TOUCH YOUR HEART." Were the heartstrings of a generation of Americans still remembering Taiwan as Cold War ally the intended audience? Or was there some other island fever brewing in the minds of tourism bureau peeps? Taiwan needed to be branded as hyper-chic, wrenching back the spot Japan has long had and Korea is now inching towards! Pop music could not be where the dreams of cultural hegemony ended!

But my question - what is this logo? What is this menacing madness all my semiotics training can't unfold? Is that a cardboard box with an umbrella stuck to it? HELP ME JESUS WHAT AM I MISSING?!

Lu Xun X Jules Verne

Here's a link to a fab. piece at the China Beat - a group of academically minded wonks blogging on China coverage in US media, and nearly always fab. - on science fiction in the Chinese imaginary! A choice tidbit:

"A young Lu Xun, later the greatest writer of 20th century China, translated Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, and wrote an unforgettable slogan in his preface, “Leading the Chinese people forward begins with science fiction!” (导中国人群以进行，必自科学小说始)."

This is a pretty great Wikipedia entry on science fiction in China to accompany your thoughts. One of the first early 20th C. pieces was a vision of settlement on the moon colony...written in 1904. Illustration from the piece above.

Green Dam Youth Escort! June 1!

• China has banned evidence obtained by torture. Zhao Zuohai had spent 11 years in prison for a murder extracted by beatings, until the alleged victim of said murder showed up to pick up a welfare check.
• China has unblocked pornography?
• Dawning Nebulae strikes! China makes a the second fastest supercomputer, clocking in at1.27 petaflops. [BBC]
• New blogs I'm reading include Sinopop, RedBox Review and ArtHub China. Much more in the gallery/art scene
• Exhausted Diligence in the ECONOMIST YO! The room. Not this blog. ["Sleeping Beauty:Reviving a Chinese imperial treasure means reversing 80 years of neglect." More than a name we have in common I see.]
• Above - David Lynch X Marion Cotillard X Dior X Shanghai X Novalis. Dior's patent leather purse is a blue flower, AKA the "central symbol of German Romanticism." And such magic is contained in the Pearl Tower.
• East vs. West. vs. Kant's 3rd Antimony. That's right.