How I spent the 2008 Beijing Olympics
91,000 “carefully” screened spectators watched the $300 million dollar opening Olympics ceremony in Beijing. I myself watched the event on the modest TV of a Naxi family home in Yunnan, China along with the other estimated 4 billion global home viewers. The Naxi are one of the 54 distinct ethnic minorities in China with more than half of the minorities living in Yunnan Province. Yuanan is located in southwest China on the border of Tibet. Ethnic minorities have their own language and often times writing system.
As a westerner who always loves a good spectacle I was disappointed that I wasn’t at the big event in Beijing, especially since I was already in China. The incredible display of light and choreography of the masses was extremely reminiscent of the films of Leni Riefenstahl. But as I sat on the couch with Grandma and Grandpa La smoking Hongtashan cigarettes while their two rambunctious grandsons messed with the remote control I realized these moments of idyllic rural life in China should be savored.
The La’s and their neighbors have been in the village called Hannan surrounding Lashi Lake for generations. Their simple and sustainable farming lifestyle is starting to feel the effects of China’s mass modernization as it moves westward. Lijiang, 20 minutes by car, is a Unesco World Heritage Site and now a major tourist destination in the Beijing-Shanghai (and now Lhasa, Tibet) tourist circuit. The idyllic village valley of amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties is quickly being redeveloped to accommodate tourism and factory farming. Over the past few years, 2 and 4 lane paved roads cut into farmland while pesticide wrappers and plastic baskets slowly litter the fields. Traditional ways of life are inherently shifting.
More about the region will be featured in upcoming postings via my stay with the artist collective Katalog who are developing a project called World Heritage Beer Garden Picnic. The project involves a speculative landscape intervention exploring energy conservation and bioremediation in rural China.
