Conceived in the late ’90s, Wonderland, located just outside of Beijing, was supposed to be the biggest theme park in all of Asia. Today, all that is left of the project are the skeletons of structures that were left abandoned and incomplete once funding was cut. For her series Wonderland, UK-based photographer Catherine Hyland ventured through empty cornfields to explore the unrealized tourist attraction, which, in a twist of irony, has become an unlikely hangout for the area’s residents. “At first glance you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking you had walked into some post-apocalyptic scene straight out of Cormac Mccarthy’s The Road,” she explained in a recent interview. “There is a strange allure to what the locals are doing here, that creeps up on you in the most unsuspecting manner.” Click through to check out some the stunning images that Hyland captured, along with a rather haunting video that documents the entire experience. Read More »
Don Hong-Oai, whose work we spotted over at How to Be a Retronaut, takes beautiful photographs in the style of traditional Chinese paintings from the late Song and Yuan dynasties. Though born in China, Don left at the age of 7 to live in a Chinese community in Vietnam, and was eventually apprenticed at a photography studio. After a decade of apprenticeship, he managed to save the equivalent of $48 to buy his first camera. Eventually, he studied under the tutelage of Long Chin-San in Taiwan, who taught him the principles of traditional painting and photography, the most important of which being “that of spiritual resonance, the ability of the artist to feel the true nature of what is being painted…the humanness of humans, the treeness of trees, the waterness of water.” Click through to see some of Don’s amazing work, and let us know if you think he achieves the principle of spiritual resonance in the comments.
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1. Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and The Backstreet Boys are among the many pop artists whose songs have recently been banned by China’s Ministry of Culture for containing “vulgar content.” The offending tracks must be removed from Chinese websites by September 15, or their owners will face prosecution. [via Guardian]
2. Here is your first look at Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatbsy in Australia.
3. We’re excited to see that Bravo has announced the 14 contestants who will be competing in the upcoming season of Work of Art; Simon de Pury, China Chow, and the rest of the gang will return to our lives on October 12 at 9pm. [via THR]
4. The lovely Charlotte Gainsbourg will release a new double album called Stage Whisper on November 7 that will be made up of live and unreleased studio material, and includes collaborations with Beck, Noah And The Whale, Conor O’Brien of Villagers, and Connan Mockasin. [via NME]
5. We know that people love sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll, but we can’t help but be surprised by the news that Keith Richards’s memoir Life has sold over 1 million copies since coming out last fall. [via USA Today]
Bonus Buzz: Then And Now: The Worst Frontmen In Alternative Rock
Many thanks to Jason Kottke for directing us to this fascinating post by a blogger living in Kunming, China — a small city which is home to what might just be the world’s first fake Apple store. “RP and I went inside and poked around,” BirdAbroad writes of her discovery. “They looked like Apple products. It looked like an Apple store. It had the classic Apple store winding staircase and weird upstairs sitting area. The employees were even wearing those blue t-shirts with the chunky Apple name tags around their necks.” You can probably guess where this is going, but here’s what we find the most interesting/heartbreaking part of all: In a Truman Show-style twist, the salespeople all really think that they’re actually working for Apple. Click through to check out some images from the fake store, and let us know in the comments how you think how this copy compares with the real thing.
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The dwellers of the Shek Kip Mei Estate public housing project in Hong Kong occupy just ten feet by ten feet of living space. The humble rooms that originally served as relocation units for fire victims in the 1950s are furnished with bunk beds. The crowded units balloon with dozens of plastic bags for all-purpose storage and are decorated with a varying amount of patriotic paraphernalia. Like his Real Fake Art project, photographer Michael Wolf’s series 100 X 100 is a compelling look at an individual facet of contemporary Chinese society. Meet the mostly smiling residents in our gallery.
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Here at Flavorpill, we have what some might call a morbid fascination with abandoned and decaying buildings: movie theaters, hospitals, the ruins of Detroit. For the most part, our obsession has focused on the detritus of America’s prosperity — but BoingBoing points us to a video that reminds us that we’re not the only country that can’t keep pace with our own progress. This 15-minute Australian documentary investigates China’s real estate bubble, which is creating ghost malls, highrises, and entire cities bought up by speculators but completely beyond the price range of the average Chinese families. The visuals are arresting, but it’s well worth spending part of your lunch break watching the whole video, which provides frightening economic context for the strange images.
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Yesterday morning, 53-year-old Ai Weiwei — one of China’s best-known contemporary artists and an outspoken critic of its government — was detained at Beijing Capital International Airport. He has not been heard from since. Last night, police confiscated dozens of items from his studio (including over 30 computers), and questioned his wife, Lu Qing, about “[his] work and the articles he posted online.” They did not inform her where he is being held. Britain, France, and Germany (where he is in the process of building a studio in Berlin) are calling for his release. Meanwhile, the organizer of a large-scale public art project by Ai that is set to open in New York this May has said that the show will go on, with or without him.
The incident comes in the wake of a government crackdown in response to the call for a “Jasmine revolution” that has resulted in a dozen missing activists, including five human rights lawyers. Not that the controversial artist has ever checked himself out of fear of such things; rather, he almost seems to thrive off of the conflict with authorities. As he told the Guardian in an interview last year, “People have said, if you leave, you may never come back. Or they may not even let you leave. So this is always a cost you may have to pay. But I don’t want to restrict myself: when it happens, it happens. I have to deal with it, but not to prepare for it, because it is a kind of stupidity. If you prepare for it too much, you become a part of it.” Click through to check out a selection of some his most famous works.
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Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit! Yesterday, thousands of onlookers gathered in Chinatown to celebrate the 12th annual Lunar New Year parade. The festivities included floats, costumes, musicians, dancers, and plenty of good ol’ Chinese-American times. If you couldn’t attend the event because you were too busy preparing your infamous nacho dip or applying your decorative face paint for last night’s Super Bowl, take a look at what you missed.
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1. City planners in China want to combine the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta into a 42-million-person megacity that’s the size of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire combined. [via Gawker]
2. Patti Smith is currently “about 68 percent done” writing a detective novel that opens in the churchyard of St Giles-in-the-Fields in London. [via NME]
3. Keanu Reeves says that he met with the Wachowskis and that they are working on a “script treatment” for a fourth and fifth Matrix movie that would feature him as Neo. [via Kottke]
4. According to TVline’s Michael Ausiello, McG — who helmed the Charlie’s Angels movies and is an executive producer on Nikita, Human Target, Supernatural, and Chuck — has emerged as the odds-on favorite to direct the pilot for NBC’s much-hyped Wonder Woman remake.
5. While their reps aren’t confirming anything yet, there are reports that Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are celebrating the birth of their first child, a baby boy. [via NYP]
Bonus link: Watch James Franco’s Run-In With a Daily Show Mini-Fridge
In his “Manufactured Totems” series, which we spotted thanks to Trend Land, Paris-based photographer Alain Delorme presents individual portraits of migrant workers who transport unbelievable piles of products across the city, driving everyday life in Shanghai. Both humorous and a tad depressing, these colorful “Made in China” sculptures echo the towering construction that dominates the ever-changing landscape. Click through to view more photos from the series.
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