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Notes from the field: The love affair between Vuitton and Mao. Artventure, beijing, China, Gao Gao, Louis Vuitton, Mao, notes from the field, the village

Hullo Adventurers.

This is Gao Gao reporting from Beijing, China.

Travel back to Asia is always overwhelming. The contrast in technology, pace and pitch is overwhelming. Those that can boast previous travels to city have no idea. The cityscape undulates in construction – the Beijing I see today is yet again a different Beijing from the one I left a few months before.

Beijingers have incurred an astonishing increase in disposable income – especially those of the ‘ba ling hou’ generation. The growing middle class are materialising their presence in designer goods, a growing consumption of the arts and hospitality sector.

With the opening of the economy in 1978, capitalist practices have proliferated exponentially. That is not to say that the government is not present – the exchange of goods is still heavily monitored – but the days of state branded goods has headily been replaced by McDonalds, Chanel and American Apparel. The Red Flags are being switched for Hondas. My father has everything Apple has ever released. In both colour models.

China, however, is not fully capitalist. Not in the sense where private ownership is directly related to democratic agency. It’s not fully Communist either. Perhaps in culture- not necessarily in power. Take the Cult of Mao, for example. Where Mao’s image had previously been used to symbolise an ideological movement from the feudal imperialism of the dynastic era and the capitalism of the western industrial era. Now, however, his image is used quite subversively. He appears on mousepads in kitsch design stores, embossed with LV in the background. Red stars adorn the hats on sock puppets and iphone covers. Communist propoganda is now sold as post-it-note-pads.

The Communist propaganda images from 50 years ago still appear – except this time, the chinese people (and foreigners) are paying money to consume it. A wry inside joke, if you will.

The country, as a whole, still has a long way to go Adventurers, but Beijing is the place to be right now. In the block my mother was born in, there are apothocaries dedicated to capturing the scent of swimming pools and thunderstorms. A cinema called Megabox. Milk massages. 3 quai beers. Orange art galleries.

In short? See for yourself adventurers. Flights are only approx $1200 for the month of August, and I will be your personal tour guide and translator. Things I can promise: You will slide down from the top of the Great Wall on a helter skelter. You eat three things you can’t pronounce, and two things that you wish you couldn’t. I will introduce you to the Lychee Martini. I will cycle you around in a tut tut.

Until next time Adventurers.

GG

p.s. Mongolia has been postponed to this Friday – this adventurer misjudged the quality of a lamb doener.

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