Color of the city

Have you ever think of how's the color of Beijing is changing? Every change of the color represents a kind of change (or contamination) in the culture of Beijing. Just half year, before and after Beijing Olympics, I found the color of Beijing has changed a lot.

The color of the newspapers and magazines stall: black and white --> chromatic
Actually, the color of newspapers stall has already changed for a long time. As imported or local newly launched magazines occupied the stall. Magazines with different subjects, such as fashion, technology, hip culture, gossip, etc, possess covers in different colors which creates a chromatic scene.

The banner on top stated: Big sale for renovation of the whole mall.

Color of shopping malls: brick red --> reflective grey
The 1st picture shown the entrance of an old shopping mall in Xidan district, a well-known shopping area in Beijing, and the 2nd one is the facade of the newest shopping center besides. There are almost 10 mega shopping centers in Xidan district and most of centers are already under renovation. The new shopping mall will be all with similar facade as the mall shown in the 2nd picture (using relfective mirror as exterior). Sooner, I may get lost in the grey forrest.

Dafen Hutong

The pictures are not taken in DaFen, they are taken in a Hutong in Beijing. This is one of the famous market for selling antique, calligraphy and Chinese paintings before. Now, some of the some stores and hawkers started selling contemporary artists' counterfeits. The painter or the owner of the stall shown in above picture even sign his own name on all counterfeit paintings. He told me no picture on his stall when he saw I was taking picutre on his signature. That is ridiculous that he introduces "his paintings" to the lady showing interest to buy them! The art becomes completely meaningless commodities here! Poor the painter and the art!

The real "KungFu"

It is a special lunch in Guangzhou. How special it is? I haven't feel its attribution until i saw the following poster.

It stated that, they inherited the 5000 years culture of "steam" in Chinese cuisine. All the food they provide are steamed. They believed steam is the most balance method to cook because it use fire and water together which act against each other in the concept of 5 elements (of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), therefore, the nutrition in the food could be kept in the best condition.

The cooking concept is not the only thing interested me, but the ambiance of the restaurant also worth studying. You may recognized the interior design and the graphic used for the menu of the restaurant look like those used by McDonald or KFC. It is clever that they "borrowed" some famous fast food restaurant's ambiance to sell the traditional Chinese style of food. Customers, especially children and teenagers, will not too resist to take food there. However, some may say fast food culture even sway the representation of the traditional food. Globalization, consumerism and more US culture multiplied rapidly in China already!