Category Archives: China

Archeology as projection or We usually find what we look for

China, Evolution, Politics, Science, Travel

Psychological projection…is the unconscious act of denial of a person's own
attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the
outside world, such as to the weather, the government, a tool, or to
other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that
others have those feelings. Wikipedia

Machu Picchu

In 1988, I had the opportunity to see Machu Picchu with a native guide who was an archaeologist. When I say native, I mean an Inca. Or a decedent of one of the other tribes subjugated by the Incas. Every once in a while, I read a sort of rhetorical question along the lines of what ever happened the Incas. – or Mayas? or, for that matter, the Romans?

The answer is nothing, they are still there but, because they are the indigenous people, they are usually ignored. Anyway, this anthropologist was one of the first indigenous people, in Peru, to get a degree in Anthropology. And he immediately set out to prove that the European anthropologists were full of shit.

Hiram Bingham, who is given credit for discovering Machu Picchu thought it was the estate of an Inca emperor or high priest, and he had all sorts of theories on what the various structures were. Usually the theories revolved around some sort of bloody sacrifice. Our guide thought it was just an run of the mill small town, like an Inca Healdsburg, and the only reason it was noteworthy is because it wasn't sacked by the Christian explorers like everything else.

He also showed us, what the Europeans thought were several "sacrificial altars" that even had little channels that "carried the blood away". Except that he showed us that the channels were lines that lined up with the sun or moon's location at
the Winter and Summer equinox. They were really solar and lunar observatories. One channel was even lined up with the true North-South axis.

He went from altar to altar, site to site, saying Look, look at this, they don't even ask what it is for. They don't even speak good Spanish and they don't speak any Quechua. They don't talk to the locals. Why not, they are Incas. I am glad to say that now pretty much everybody agrees with our guide. 

I bring all this up because, yesterday, I read an article in the NYT that there is going to be a show in California of mummies and artifacts found on the Silk Road in China. It looks like it will be a great show. The Chinese have found, or re-found, an old cemetery in a desert region of western China. And in this cemetery are mummies that turn out to have European features and DNA from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia, but not China.

Small River Cemetery

According to the NYT,

As the Chinese archaeologists dug through the five layers of burials, they came across almost 200 poles, each 13 feet
tall. Many had flat blades, painted black and red, like the oars from
some great galley that had foundered beneath the waves of sand.

So what do they think these 13 foot tall poles are? phallic symbols,
signaling an intense
interest in the pleasures or utility of procreation. The whole of the cemetery was blanketed with blatant sexual symbolism.

Maybe they are right, but, in reality, they have no idea. Just like Hiram Bingham had no idea so he projected the bloody rituals on the Incas, the Chinese anthropologists project their idea of sex-crazed Europeans on these 4,000 year old mummies.But it still should be a very interesting show.


The Last Day

China

Like a lot of trips, on the last day, we are ready to come home and it seems like we have just scratched the surface and would like to stay for another month. We spent the day doing some standard tourist things like going to the Shanghai Museum. Everybody says that the Shanghai Museum is one of the must sees and I am sure it is and I am glad we went but, after a while (a very short while for me), one stone seal looks like the next stone seal.

For lunch, we went back to a dumpling shop that Michele had found that  specializes in a Shanghai dumpling called Xiaolong Bao, or XLBs to the cognoscente. The place (the first one listed under XLB's here) is really a hole in the wall, but the constant line (with Michele in it) in front is a give away.
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I was sort of hoping that the XLBs would be no better than the Bay Area, but even I had to admit they were fabulous – especially the crab.

That same article had mentioned another sort of dumpling (Shengjian), and we saw the long line across the street at a place that serverd those, we we decided we needed to try those as well. We were so glad we did, and when we got back to our room, we discovered that the New York Times agreed that this was a particularly good spot as well.

After wandering around for a while, including the French Concession area, we ended the day looking at the view from the SWFC Observatory . This is touted as the tallest building in the world and the viewing area is on top of the open spot (that Michele observed looks like a bottle opener) and has a glass floor on the sides and in a glass strip down the middle. It really is physically difficult to walk to the windows over the glass. The attendants who guide the visitors to and from the elevators are wearing semi Startrek uniforms and the whole  experience is very other worldly. And the view is great – even through the Shanghai smog.

It is going to take a while to digest this trip but a few quick observations:

    China is a place of contrasts – with the gain turned way up. In the cab ride from our hotel to People's Square, we drive by miles of incredibly shabby 20 story apartments mixed with new, clean, apartments.  

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    There are beggars, but very few. Much less than in San Francisco. By and large, the people look prosperous – we did not see any grinding poverty but almost everything is shabby. For a big percentage of people, life is lived in public – on the street. Stores stay open for long hours, and, when we walk by at dinner time and look in, we can see the whole family eating – squatted on the floor – in the back.

    The pollution is oppressive. I have had a sore throat since we left Hong Kong. At first I thought I was coming down with a cold, then I realized it is just the air. I lived in LA in the late 50's and it was nothing compared to this.

    Ridley Scott had it down pat in Blade Runner.    (Except the umbrella handles don't light up and there are still no flying cars).

  

The Barnacle Theory

China

A theory that is not mine but seems to fit reality – or, at least, my picture of reality – very well. Imagine government as a ship. In a democracy, the ship is controlled by the people: in a dictatorship, by the autocrats. But, over time, special interests develop. These special interests are like barnacles. As they attach themselves to the hull of the ship, they make the ship more sluggish, less responsive.What is best for the people in general, is held hostage by the special interests.

So, in the United States, we have the NRA dictating gun policy. We have the delay of the repair of the Bay Bridge for over ten years even though everybody knows the bridge is not safe. We have every special interest known to man, from the Sierra Club to General Motors, holding up the construction of a high speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. We have no highway through San Francisco. But in Shanghai, where there has not been much time, under the present government, to have the barnacles build up; there is a great subway system and a great road system. It is easy to get around the entire city. There are high speed trains to other parts of China, a hyper-high speed train to the airport, and, count them, two ring roads (an inner and outer) around the city. 

Shanghai Auto Show redux

Cars, China, Travel

We went back to the Auto Show on Sunday. To save time, we took a taxi which are very cheap here, and, as we got close, the crowds got bigger and bigger. Just to get tickets, we had to wait in line for about an half hour. To get in the first time, we went through metal detectors and put our cameras and day packs through a x-ray tunnel. This time the system was overwhelmed. The crowd just walked through the metal detectors, each detector dutiful beeping as each person walked through – but nobody stopped and nobody was actually checked.

This show is huge. The building is V-shaped with five halls in one wing and six in the other wing. Each hall is so big, it is hard to show it's actual size. And each hall is so crowded, it is hard to move around. Most of the time, the crowds are fun – people jumping up and down trying to see the cars or jamming forward to see a show or model with a car -  sometimes, the crowds are annoying – bumping and pushing  into us while we are trying to take a picture or are just standing looking at something – once the crowd got scary – when it got so packed nobody could move, somewhere between the Bentley and Subaru areas (the police and fire department in full gear had to come in to get break up the jam). This pic, taken by Michele by holding her camera over her head, sort of shows it.
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Of the eleven halls, nine are filled with cars, plus there is a large area between the legs of the V for parts vendors a couple who we saw as we walked from the West Halls to the East Halls.

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In short, anybody who expects to be in the car business on the world stage, has to be be here – in force.

The big players even put on various types of shows to drawn attention to their displays (in this case, Chery successfully drew a large part of the crowd from the new 4 door Porsche across the hall):

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and everybody has impossibly beautiful, tall, presenters. 

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The overwhelming, overall, impression we walked away with is that China is a serious player on this stage. China is in it for the long run and is looking towards the future. If you like cars, this is one show you should see at least once in your life.

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