Reading 24 Hours in Sim City an article on ChongQing (pronounced Chongching) by Asad Yawar (AlexYawar) on OhmyNews led me to watching Jonathan Watt’s short film Megalopolis, to which Yawar kindly put a link (available for free download from The Guardian - click here to view (mp4, 25.5MB)).

The background to the movie is this: Chongqing, a city in Western China that most people in the Western world have never heard of, is now the world’s biggest municipality, with over 31 million residents — more than the populations of Iraq, Peru, or Malaysia. The heart of the Chinese administration’s “Go West” policy to develop impoverished western China, Chongqing expands by 137,000 sq meters of new floor space every day. The city’s per capita income has shot up by 66 percent in the past five years to £731 (US$1,280) per year.

In my (relatively) clean office, surrounded by beautiful tall trees with yellow-green leaves, eating wasabi peas, I learned about the sad, disturbing urbanisation process of this gigantic city of China, where environmental and social problems have already outgrown the size of the city itself. Inter-mingled with the new fast-food generation and rich kids dancing to the likes of techno and french hiphop in this chaotic place are the bangbang men, or the door-to-door distributors. Most of these men came into the city from the countryside in the hope of making enough money to support their families and send their children to school. While they try to balance the weight of the goods hanging on the ends of their bamboo pole, often heavier than their own weight, their dreams seem to become heavier and heavier as the class divisions seem to grow wider every second. A table to rest your danced-up body at one of those flashy dance clubs would cost a month’s worth of an average bangbang man’s work. The young female police officers on rollerblades may be doing their best to clean up the city in different ways, but the social residues that are evident in every corner of the city appear to have become monuments never to fall down, or be taken down.

My good friend Lucy has once mentioned that having a fancy mobile phone in China is a big deal. People put in their utmost effort into acquiring the latest mobile phone represent the owner’s social status in China. Back in the old days, the Big Three Acquisitions, or da san jian, were a watch, a bicycle, and a sewing machine, which evolved to the “New Three Acquisitions” of a washing machine, a refrigerator, and a colour television. Now the “Super Three Acquisitions,” apparently, are a house, a private car, and a computer, which seem to be pretty much in line with the consumption aspirations of developed countries. As an outsider living in Australia, the image of the bang bang man seems very surreal. Illusionary.
It makes me wonder just how much longer their currently opaque existence can last before it becomes completely transparent in Chongqing, the West Pure(ly troubled) Land of China. And I wonder, in China so full of people, where are the people? Where is the mind?

I’m only starting now to learn more about China, but I highly doubt if I could ever find the answers to these questions.

Recently South Korea’s has unveiled its plan to become the leader of the global mobile industry.

As an integral part of the Mobile Number One (M-1) Project, The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) plans to build the Mobile Special District (MSD). It’s going to be a ”mobile paradise” where, according to Ho-ick Suk, MIC Assistant Minister,  ”all existing and burgeoning mobile technologies in this planet will be used” to create a a free technology zone that will create a new mobile environment. It will play the role of test-bed for up-and-coming wireless platforms” (See Korea Plans to Build `Mobile Paradise’). Different technologies will be fully integrated in MSD in the following order:

2007: GSM
2008: DVB-H
2009: TD-SCDMA
2010: 4G

MIC’s got a budget of 460 million Won (apx. AUS$66,247,000) for this project, which of course means that the actual cost will be a lot more than that. Still suffering from the Asian Crisis (whether the government wants to admit it or not), this is not an insignificant amount of money for Korea; but MIC claims that this investment will secure 50% of global mobile terminal core-parts market, 30% of terminal market, and 15% of 3G system market. I don’t know how ambitious this sounds to others, but I think this is a highly feasible plan, considering the enormous technological developments Korea has achieved in recent years.

Who would’ve thought that this tiny largely unnoticed place sandwiched between two giant powerhouses - namely China and Japan - could achieve the highest broadband penetration rate in the world? I remember back in my high school days, our teacher asked us which country Sony was from. Everyone knew the answer of course. Japan. But when it came to Hyundai, people went silent until someone yelled out “Japan,” to which a few responded with nods in agreement. But now companies like Samsung and LG are changing the scene. Korean mobile phones are recognised and popular for their functional quality and design. One evidence would be the film “Elizabethtown,” in which Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst are seen with a Samsung Anycall and LG Cyon respectively; that wasn’t a product placement (the actors try hard to cover the logos with their fingers etc, but it doesn’t work all the time ;) ).

Korea was the first country in the world to launch DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) services. Korea is also the birth place of WiBro (Wireless Broadband), which is expected to be commercially available within a few months in Korea. These kinds of radical technological developments is one of the main factors that make Korea such an interesting research subject in so many different realms including media, communications, psychology, and sociology. A lot of people are still baffled and stunned as to why and how the Korean Wave came about and remains persistently strong. But when you think about it, the answer is simple: its techno-social development. The virtual reality is no longer a separate imagined reality in Korea; it’s intrinsically inter-related to the reality itself, and the distinction between what is virtual and physical is becoming more and more blurry every moment. People are constantly exposed to media, and virtually become the media itself. When that happens, the cultural productivity and developmental rate naturally increases. Yes, it is a global phenomenon. But in Korea, this socio-cultural shift is a lot more acutely manifest and experienced. It’s unbelievable.

My PhD thesis will be a triangulation study of Japan, Korea, and China. I plan to focus on the role of mobile media and technologies in shaping (youth) culture within each nation and the East Asian region. I’m really excited about what I’m doing and am going to do, but I do feel that I need to have a broader network where I could share information and get help from people who know a lot more than I do. Sometimes it so scary to think how little I know. Just how much can you learn within a three years (and a bit)? I know that I will always be a curious person, so will always be searching and researching. And I hope what I do will somehow benefit the world. Brad Haseman, an associate professor at QUT whom I like and respect very much, always says that PhD is only the starting point - when you need to train and prepare yourself for greater and amazing research that you’re going to do in the future. I do agree but sometimes it does feel pretty scary and ridiculous to be here in Brisbane, so far away from all these unprecedented radical transformations happening everywhere but here.

Anyway, back to the point. MSD. Very exciting. Korea. Very exciting.

My research? Very exciting. Definitely for me. Hopefully for you, too.

recently got a hold of beth orton’s latest album “comfort of strangers.”

i enjoy listening to music a lot, be it classical, jazz, triphop, rock, or unclassifiable.

oh, talking about genres reminds me of what one of my students said last semester when we were talking about genres of writing. half expecting some funny and not-so-polite responses, i asked, “so, what genre does avril lavigne’s music fall into?” one of the students immediately yelled out “shame.” ok. now i’ve written it here, it doesn’t sound too funny, but when it happened, it was very funny. i’ve got nothing against avril lavigne personally.

there are two songs that i really enjoy in “comfort of strangers.” here are the lyrics:

Worms

Worms don’t dance they haven’t got the balls
No matter how do you do
It’s just you do that’s all
You got what it takes to knock at my door
You wanna get all excited
Never been here before

And now I’m your apple eating heathen
The original sin
Well you ain’t got my faith
So best keep your belief
I had waited forever to love someone
I swear I heard you thank your god that time
For having me come along

Chickens don’t fly but they have got the wings
No matter how hard they try
They bump into things
They’re all running around
Knock their heads on the ground
They got a wish bone where their backbone should’ve grown

And now I’m your apple eating heathen
Any old rib stealing eve
Well you don’t have my faith
So best keep your belief
I had waited forever to love someone
I swear I heard you thank your god that time
For having me come along

Intimacy reduced to cruelty
Had you believe like this was meant to be
And I look for the magic
But you got away with it
That’s all

Comfort of Strangers

I know the stars that shine on me
Are brighter than you and I may ever be
I know there’s an answer to your question
But I don’t know that I could word it right

Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
I’m not sure, should I just say it out loud?
Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Alright this time I’m gonna keep that in mind

One love is better than not enough
I’d rather have no love
Than messing with the wrong stuff
It’s just the comfort of strangers
Always the comfort of strangers…

I know the sun that shines on me
On better terms than you and I may ever be
I know there’s an answer to the question
But I’m not sure that I should word it right

Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Everytime you’re gonna set me free
Say what you mean don’t tell it like it could be
Alright this time let’s take it right home to see

One love is better than not enough
I’d rather have no love
Than messing with the wrong stuff
It’s just the comfort of strangers
Always the comfort of strangers

Well some of those are like best friends
Best friends…
Ones that keep you coming round again

I usually don’t listen to country music at all. I avoid the genre as much as I can. Although some of the songs in this album do go beyond the “folk boundaries” (well, the boundaries are set according to my highly personal classification rules anyway) sound too country-ish for my liking. But I really do enjoy listening to this album, and I particulary enjoy the lyrics. They’re fantastic. If you have a chance, do listen to it :)

While listening to this album and other great music, I’m patiently waiting for the release of Ego-Wrappin’s new album On the Rocks!.

Very excited. Very.

went to Corey Doctorow’s session at the Ideas Festival.

thoroughly enjoyed his interesting, stimulating talk.

it’s pretty scary how people, including myself, don’t seem to pay enough attention to issues that will, undoubtedly affect, or are already affecting, us all on a global level.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) or Digital “Restrictions” Management is already shaping our techno-social environments. what’s obvious to us now - things like the dvd region code telling the rightful owner off, and sony’s ridiculous attempt to covertly install spyware on their own customers’ (yes, those honest people who would buy copies of celine dion’s latest cd, for example -_-;) computers - are actually a tip of the iceberg. soon enough, we will have to face and reluctantly accept various definitions and technological restrictions enforced by giant corporations like Sony and BBC, which will in turn alter multiple facets of our daily life. one of the examples given by Doctorow was how a particular media content can be licensed to a single “family unit.” now, the problem is rather obvious here. how would you define a family unit? what if your child goes away for education? what if you get divorced, in which cases may involve children frequently moving between the parents’ residences? and what if you’re in a same-sex relationship in a country where the same-sex marriage has not yet been legalised (or will it ever in every country)? regardless of our wishes, those companies will make those definitions - political, economic, social, technological, and cultural.

we’re living in a wired world. we cannot escape it.
like in the animation “Serial Experiements Lain,” everyone’s connected.

if we remain unaware of what’s going on with DRM, technology will no longer be some gadgety tools working for our convenience; it will be the most powerful tool that will conveniently serve the needs of the oppressors who will at every opportunity instantly snatch away our rights not only as technology consumers, but as human beings. we need to make sure that we understand the significance of DRM, and actively participate in developing fair and practical ways to protect the freedom and creativity of humanity from being - so publically yet disturbingly privately - legally molestered.

for more information and/or inspirations, check:

electronic frontier foundation: http://www.eff.org/
electronic frontiers australia: http://www.efa.org.au/
creative commons: http://creativecommons.org/