All this week, Ophelia Chong will be touring China, all the while recording her observations, thoughts, and insights right here for you. To view more of her online diary entries, click here.
Day 4 / Beijing, China
I rode through a small village on the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. The entrance to the village is marked by a sign "Pomegranate Cafe. Beer. Coffee.Here"
The village is on the other side of a small creek, the smells from the creek aren't of wild grasses, but of human excrement and trash. I peddled my bike down the dusty road into the main drag, passing a massage parlor and small noodle cafe filled with men watching a television while the chef cooks outside, cutting noodles into a boiling pot fueled by a propane tank.
I dodge a few dogs, and what caught my eye was that they weren't mutts but purebred dogs. A Dachshund was digging through a pile of garbage, a Lhasa Apso scooted across the road chasing a small beagle. They were all filthy and with no collars. They might be homeless or they could have homes where they rest at night in the village, it was hard to tell.
I was riding a bike through a village of feral lap dogs.
A few years back, when China's middle class rose up in prosperity, the item to have was a small dog. They were expensive and a badge of "I am now wealthy enough to have a pet". But the thrill of lugging around a pet faded, and the dogs were let go, dropped off by the side of the road. The ones who were smart enough survived through the bitter winters by finding warm spots to sleep and marked out their favorite spots where the trash was plentiful. This village was paradise to those lost dogs.
The Forgotten Ones
There is a parallel with the feral lap dogs and China's ADHD. The architecture has gone from loud glitz to high end glamour (the architects of the new Beijing, Rem Koolhas et al). What was once the epitome of elegance is now the Bourgeoise's best forgotten shame, like the first crush we had in grade school that has come back to haunt us. China is growing up fast and discarding old loves even faster. What was once hot is now colder than a Gobi Desert winter gust rushing down Tianammen Square.
Do you like me now?
China is like your wallflower friend who has come into her own, discarding the plain brown smock and now sauntering down the avenue in Chanel. She has power and an iron will that will not be told that she cannot do what she wants when she wants. But she leaves in her wake a trail of refuse and waste. The scent she leaves is not sweet but sour.
The Next Chapter
The feral dogs like the discarded will survive and mutate into stronger mutts that will one day form a pack, and that pack will rule the land.
Images: Ophelia Chong/ Beijing 10.2009
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Whoa Ophelia!
Remember the China of today is just an adolescence, born from the ashes of the "Cultural Revolution". Look more to places like Hong Kong to see where China could be if given a few decades of democratic rule.
It's not "greed" and "keeping up with the Jones" society that is corrupting China, it's the lack of intellectual and economic freedom that has hindered the maturation of this nation.
Hi Ada!
i remember China when the door opened and what we found behind that door was the land of the forgotten. The speed of physical change has hampered the intellectual. I see changes, but they are minute. Corruption is rampant and nepotism is the ladder to success. The race to being No. 1 has made so many gray areas that you cannot tell on which side of the fence you should fall, both sides have more cons than pros. I am only seeing the cities, the country side has not changed, the schools are dismal and health care barely exists.
There is a building near the center, it was built less than a year, it's immense. When I look at it, I wonder how many shortcuts were taken and when will it crumble? It epitomizes what China is.
thanks for visiting and commenting! Ophelia :O)