A Beijing Olympics Primer: Place, Performance, and Performative Space

A symposium that assesses China's historical moment in Beijing from three perspectives: the rapidly evolving cityscape, environmental dynamics, and, in the context of a changing society, traditional attitudes and values relating to self, body, and performance.

Thursday, May 1, 2008
1:30 PM to 6:00 PM

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On the eve of the Olympics, Berkeley faculty, guest scholars, and contributors to a California magazine special issue on China assess this historical moment in Beijing from three perspectives: the rapidly evolving cityscape, environmental dynamics, and, in the context of a changing society, traditional attitudes and values relating to self, body, and performance.

A keynote address by History Professor Wen-hsin Yeh entitled "A History of Misunderstanding" will take place the evening prior in 150 University Hall as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute's "Emerging Narratives of China." (URL: https://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/2008.04.30.html)

See also California Magazine website, http://www.alumni.berkeley.edu/California/200805/Olympics/main.asp.
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WELCOME

Wen-hsin Yeh
Director, Institute of East Asian Studies

Kerry Tremain
Editor, California Magazine

Susan Hoffman
Executive Director, Osher Lifelong Learning Center

PLACE: CHINA'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
Chair: Thomas Gold (Director, Berkeley China Initiative, and Associate Professor, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley)

Panelists:

Robert Collier (Visiting Scholar, Center for Environmental Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley): The Case for Centralized Environmental Regulation

Understanding why China has become the world's #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions is not only a crucial policy challenge for all nations, but is the key to understanding why climate change is accelerating so fast. China's anarchic, uber-capitalist economic explosion has become so uncontrollable, so far beyond the grasp of the Communist government, that the international community's primary task in setting an agenda for fighting global warming may simply be to help central government officials in Beijing regain control of the nation's economy.

Chi-Yuen Wang (Earth & Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley): Water scarcity and the South-North Water Transfer Project

With the unprecedented pace and scale of socioeconomic growth in China, adjustment problems to water scarcity on the Northern China Plain are greatly exacerbated. The South-to-North Water Transfer Project aims at alleviating some of these problems and, if completed, will deliver 40~50 cubic kilometers of water from the Yangtze drainage basin to the highly water-stressed North China plain. Construction of the central route was kicked off in 2005 and is scheduled to begin flowing to Beijing this summer before the upcoming Olympic Games. The western route, on the other hand, is still under debate. In this talk I will discuss, from a geologic and environmental point of view, some problems with the construction of this route.

Nan Zhou (China Energy Group, LBNL): Strategies for low-carbon development

Between 1980 and 2000 energy use/GDP declined in China due to strong energy efficiency policies; however, during China's transition to a market-based economy in the 1990s, many of the country's energy efficiency programs were dismantled and between 2002 and 2005 China's energy use increased significantly, growing faster than GDP. Continuation of this trend in increased energy consumption relative to GDP growth - given China's stated goal of again quadrupling GDP between 2000 and 2020 - will lead to significant demand for energy, most of which is coal-based. In 2005, realizing the significance of this situation, the Chinese government announced an ambitious goal of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% between 2005 and 2010. One of the key initiatives for realizing this goal is the Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises program. This presentation intends to review the historic trend and current status of energy consumption in China, describe the Top-1000 program in detail, and provide analysis on whether China can achieve its goal.

Kristen McDonald (Director, China Rivers Project): Beyond the Three Gorges: China's River Conservation Challenges

China has the most number of dams of any country in the world, and many of its rivers are polluted to the point of being unsafe for human contact.  2008 summer Olympics host Beijing relies on ground water supplies that subside by meters every year. What are the governance challenges to effective freshwater management in China? Dr. McDonald presents finding from field research in Yunnan Province, and the work of China Rivers Project, an organization she founded to promote river conservation for people and wildlife in China.

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SPACE: NEW DIRECTIONS IN CHINA'S BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Chair: Harrison Fraker (Dean, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley)

Panelists:

Harrison Fraker (Dean, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley): Neighborhood models for sustainable development

The Qingdao Sustainable Neighborhood Project (QSNP) is an alternative to the problems faced by China’s typical “gated super block” development model. The Qingdao EcoBlock uses an integrated whole-systems approach to generate all its energy from on-site renewables, to recycle all of its water and to recycle over 80% of its waste for on-site uses. In addition, the EcoBlock is designed to provide convenient pedestrian and bike access to a new bus rapid transit system located on a major adjoining arterial. The EcoBlock’s whole-systems approach is flexible and adaptable to multiple local conditions and climates and is widely replicable throughout China.  If the Qingdao EcoBlock’s whole-systems approach works as well as the pre- feasibility study indicates, it will be the first (almost) self- sustaining neighborhood in the world and could help lead China to a more sustainable future.

Reagan Louie (artist/photographer): Building the New Beijing, 1980-2007

Louie will show photos of Beijing made over a 27-year period, a chronicle of its transformation from a northern capitol to a global center. The pictures will show not only the city?ïs physical changes but also the effects of those changes on its citizens.

Lanchih Po (Visiting Professor, International and Area Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of California, Berkeley): Spatial Structure, "Green" Development, and the "New" Courtyard House

The construction on a massive scale of Olympics facilities has had a significant impact on Beijing's spatial structure. As infrastructure and amenities continue to be concentrated on the north side of the city, more and more real estate development has led to the city to sprawl further north, on the one hand, and widened the pre-existing disparity between the north and south of the city, on the other. In addition, huge new man-made green spaces surrounding the Olympics facilities have rendered open space a luxury commodity in the city's concrete jungle, and helped to promote the consumption of "green" ideology. The spaces at the core of Beijing's tradition ­ courtyard houses along historicc hutongs, however, are being gutted and rebuilt as gated homes in traditional guise custom-made for China's millionaires.  

Renee Chow (Architecture, University of California, Berkeley): Progress and Practice
 
In the re-making of Chinese cities and countryside, officials, developers, planners and architects envision progress for a country that has led to unprecedented physical change. International design practices have been invited to propel China from third world status to leading the 21st century. These global practices are learned in one setting and patched into others without translation, without regard for each city’s uniqueness, coherence or cultural practices. Instead, this substitutional method finds its value in how explicitly each piece can separate itself from its context, expressing its own content. In Beijing, as in cities throughout the world, the result is a fragmenting urbanism. This talk describes alternative paradigms for practice and progress in China. 

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PERFORMANCE: CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF THE BODY IN CHINA
Chair: Wen-hsin Yeh (Professor, History, University of California, Berkeley)

Panelists:

David Johnson (Professor, History, University of California, Berkeley): No losers or winners: public spectacle in premodern China in light of the Beijing Olympics

There were virtually no athletic competitions in traditional China, but there were public spectacles in the form of (among other things) temple festivals, with their processions and operas.  Nor was there nationalism until the nations of European with their ethos of competition, symbolized in classical times by the Olympic games and gladitorial entertainments, forced on China the concept of the nation, and its dark shadow, nationalism.

Andrew Lam (writer and journalist): The new cultural revolution: sex and shame

Ancestral worship is on the wane as many now flock to the temple of the body. The We of tradition defined by proper behavior and relationships is ceding to the Me of the new generation, one defined by sex.

Margaret Jenkins (choreographer and artistic director): Other Suns: a collaborative Chinese investigation of balance and imbalance

In 2004 I spent three weeks in China: Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and Beijing. During this time I taught classes in technique and gave workshops in the creative process to three very distinct modern dance companies. I had the opportunity to see choreography and to interact with the dancers. This experience not only launched my next project: Other Suns, a collaboration between my Company and the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, but provoked many thoughts about the nature of the training of the body in China as well as the growing creative endeavors of those new to giving voice to individual interpretations.