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OCD: Day 3 of the Locusts

By Ophelia Chong
October 24, 2009
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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.

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Homer Simpson: "Oh, Lord, forgive me for harboring such unworthy thoughts, but sometimes I wish I could tear it all down! " - Day of the Locusts by Nathanael West, 1939

I took a 5k walk around Houhaiyesterday, a small lake in the 2nd circle of Beijing. I even saw a few hardy swimmers in the lake.

Trans Pacific Fat

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Walking through the Hutongs (small enclosed neighborhoods of traditional chinese houses, one story multi-family compounds) I got a glimpse of daily life, the smell of charcoal burning to cook their meals, roaming dogs, vendors selling local leek pancakes and snake liquor to one really chubby kid. So far he's the biggest person I've seen here. Everyone has been of normal weight, hard considering KFC is their favorite fast food, most likely their income prescribes their trans fat intake.

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The Drum Tower

I bought a 20RMB ticket and climbed up the Drum Tower, the same tower that a crazed migrant worker stabbed Todd Bachman, the CEO of a 123-year-old Minnesota-based home and garden center, father of an US Olympic volleyball player last year. They are still cautious, I had to walk through a scanner and have my bags x-rayed. The view from the tower was minimized by the charcoal smoke and the burning of waste by the locals.
And they installed a fence on the balcony, you can no longer see the city from the original landing, but from a fence 8 feet away. The murderer jumped to his death. I imagined his tortured climb up the steep stairs to the top of the tower, each step 14 inches high at an angle of 20Ë?, a climb that mirrored his life.

The Counter Weight

Later that day I was at China World Hotel and took a photo of the CCTV building designed by Rem Koolhas. Next to it was the burned out hulk of the hotel that was set on fire by an errant firework (who gave the okay to have fireworks at a construction site is up for debate). The fire took place during Chinese New Years, February 2009.

They say it is an indictment of the overwhelming grip that CCTV has on media control in the country, it's black heart is there to see everyday. The hotel serves as a counter weight to the CCTV building and cannot be torn down, they just have to figure a way to re-engineer the building.

The two events, seemingly dissimilar, yet tied together. The Drum Tower announced the time of day during the Imperial reign, CCTV beats the drum of the controlled media of the present government, both suffering a tragedy that is symbolic of the underlying emotions of the people listening to that drumbeat.

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Silent Moments

Yet there is joy in small moments throughout China, like the calligraphy, you have to be still and discover the subtly of water colored dioramas.

"Yet, despite his appearance, he was really a very complicated young man with a whole set of personalities, one inside the other like a nest of Chinese boxes." - about the main character Tod. The Day of the Locust

Images: Ophelia Chong / Beijing 2009

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