The Chinese Burner
March 27, 2019 10:10 PM Subscribe
It's a shame that the people who created this event and create a lot of the content for it are all loosing their art spaces and being priced out so that these sort of people can be "enlightened".
posted by boilermonster at 12:21 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by boilermonster at 12:21 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
Urgh, feels like they've taken the worst aspects of tech bro silicon valley "culture" as inspiration. Burning man is apparently clamping down on plug n play camps so hopefully that'll reduce the amount of entitled rich people buying their way in but probably hard to resist the money at play.
posted by JonB at 2:29 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by JonB at 2:29 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
What an incredible list of values:
radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy
And such an intense story of paradise lost! Honestly, part of me is kind of curious about Burning Man now, though the hundreds of dollars entrance fee sounds steep. I guess this flew over my head, that the point of the experience is it's free - communal, the food, the water, the performances, everything. Burning Man has almost become such a "tee hee its a sell out" joke, but wow. It sounds like a really great experience in theory!
And my god - the corporate interests... that people bought cancer treatments off the internet and died...
posted by karmachameleon at 3:37 AM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy
And such an intense story of paradise lost! Honestly, part of me is kind of curious about Burning Man now, though the hundreds of dollars entrance fee sounds steep. I guess this flew over my head, that the point of the experience is it's free - communal, the food, the water, the performances, everything. Burning Man has almost become such a "tee hee its a sell out" joke, but wow. It sounds like a really great experience in theory!
And my god - the corporate interests... that people bought cancer treatments off the internet and died...
posted by karmachameleon at 3:37 AM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you're interested in the original ideals of Burning Man but don't feel like spending a fortune and two weeks on the self-contradictory beast the big burn has become, I'd consider looking for a regional burn. They tend to be shorter, cheaper, and weirder. I've really enjoyed Flipside, outside of Austin.
posted by phooky at 4:35 AM on March 28, 2019 [10 favorites]
posted by phooky at 4:35 AM on March 28, 2019 [10 favorites]
Kind of delighted by the same “M_____” constructions that you’d see in old Victorian socialite gossip rags to wink-and-nod their way around libel laws, though I guess that’s a lot less idly humorous when we’re talking about Chinese journalism.
posted by mhoye at 4:52 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 4:52 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
If you're interested in the original ideals of Burning Man but don't feel like spending a fortune and two weeks on the self-contradictory beast the big burn has become, I'd consider looking for a regional burn. They tend to be shorter, cheaper, and weirder. I've really enjoyed Flipside, outside of Austin.
For people in Europe, there's apparently a good one in Spain.
posted by acb at 7:16 AM on March 28, 2019
For people in Europe, there's apparently a good one in Spain.
posted by acb at 7:16 AM on March 28, 2019
weirdly difficult to find out *who* the Chinese science fiction writer is! I was hoping Cixin Liu. On that note, I just bought Ken Liu's second anthology and can't wait to read it, and when I looked up this author Chen Qiufan, guess who translated their first novel? Our good friend Ken!
posted by emirenic at 7:32 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by emirenic at 7:32 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]
probably hard to resist the money at play.The Burning Man organization doesn't benefit financially from the plug-n-play camps, at least not directly. They do have a list of approved vendors that service camps; it is possible Burning Man is able to strike a better deal with them for their own infrastructure needs or (who knows?) get a kickback, but frankly that would surprise me.
The more salient problem is that since Burning Man became a nonprofit a few years ago, they've been actively courting donations from monied interests, which creates the moral hazard of looking the other way at bad behavior by rich people who have donated/might donate money.
posted by adamrice at 8:10 AM on March 28, 2019 [6 favorites]
What strikes me most about this essay is the sense of outsiderness from the author. That being Chinese and in the Chinese camp in Burning Man identifies you as other. I mean of course it does, how could it be otherwise at an American event. But it mirrors the larger thing going on in world culture where China is very much a rising creative and economic force and yet still considered "outsider" on the world stage. China responds in two ways. By forcefully making a place for itself at the table and by also developing itself remarkably creatively entirely internally.
Anyway I'm looking forward to the idea his fellow Chinese burners had for next year, to "create art installations and campsites that would authentically represent Chinese culture so that all burners interested in China could partake and interact."
posted by Nelson at 8:31 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
Anyway I'm looking forward to the idea his fellow Chinese burners had for next year, to "create art installations and campsites that would authentically represent Chinese culture so that all burners interested in China could partake and interact."
posted by Nelson at 8:31 AM on March 28, 2019 [9 favorites]
(This might be slightly off topic, but if anyone who has experience with Burning Man wants to tell me about safety (or lack thereof) at Burning Man, please PM me; I have questions.
Off to RTFA now, which looks amazing)
posted by schadenfrau at 5:55 PM on March 28, 2019
Off to RTFA now, which looks amazing)
posted by schadenfrau at 5:55 PM on March 28, 2019
I'll just leave this here...
I was going to mention the Rainbow Family Gatherings. I went to several national gatherings back in the late 90s early 2000s and they are burning man without all the technology. And without the steep ticket price (free to attend, but please contribute to Magic Hat. If we all give a little, we can all have a lot).
I can't explain how much attending those events changed me. They opened mental doors I didn't even know I had let along knew they were closed. The whole experience is surreal and wonderful and is actually going on a campout with about 10K strangers which has logistical issues that have to be worked out low-tech and by the people attending. Helping to dig a trench toilet and chopping a lot of wood is a great way to contribute. But other things like water sources and creating the pathways for the gathering and then destroying them again on the way out... It's a monumental undertaking that has several weeks of set-up and again tear-down afterward which are handled by kind, gracious, love-filled hard-working volunteers who do this whole thing because they want the world to experience their version of reality. There's no money in this. There's only determination and individual wallets putting out for supplies.
If you're interested in Burning Man but would like something less expensive, less arid, a bit closer to the earth and organic... Well, like evilDoug, I'll just leave this here.
posted by hippybear at 7:11 PM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
I was going to mention the Rainbow Family Gatherings. I went to several national gatherings back in the late 90s early 2000s and they are burning man without all the technology. And without the steep ticket price (free to attend, but please contribute to Magic Hat. If we all give a little, we can all have a lot).
I can't explain how much attending those events changed me. They opened mental doors I didn't even know I had let along knew they were closed. The whole experience is surreal and wonderful and is actually going on a campout with about 10K strangers which has logistical issues that have to be worked out low-tech and by the people attending. Helping to dig a trench toilet and chopping a lot of wood is a great way to contribute. But other things like water sources and creating the pathways for the gathering and then destroying them again on the way out... It's a monumental undertaking that has several weeks of set-up and again tear-down afterward which are handled by kind, gracious, love-filled hard-working volunteers who do this whole thing because they want the world to experience their version of reality. There's no money in this. There's only determination and individual wallets putting out for supplies.
If you're interested in Burning Man but would like something less expensive, less arid, a bit closer to the earth and organic... Well, like evilDoug, I'll just leave this here.
posted by hippybear at 7:11 PM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
Truly the most Burner thing in the world is to complain that other people are doing Burning Man wrong. The kinds of plug-n-play camps like the author talks about tend to be way in the back, and I went all Burn without noticing any of them and then, while looking around for a friend's camp, somehow wandered into a nightclub full of beautiful and shockingly clean people. Anyway, I think it's wonderful that people in the author's camp were able to attend and get so much out of the experience! They could use it more than us Bay Area folks. Also, TIL China has a regional Burn (Dragon Burn), although their online presence is all in English and the photos of it have a lot more white people in them than I expected -- according to their website, about 1/3rd of participants are Chinese.
posted by phoenixy at 10:31 PM on March 28, 2019
posted by phoenixy at 10:31 PM on March 28, 2019
China is very much a rising creative and economic force and yet still considered "outsider" on the world stage.
And from the perspective of the Chinese, they are the insiders. It is a really strange place, culturally, in the sense that China is China, Chinese are Chinese, and that is that.
If you are not born Chinese, then you are not Chinese. This is of a very different thing than the US or UK, or Western Europe more widely, even accounting for recent trends towards xenophobia and racism. There are plenty of German Turks, Muslim Brits of ME or SAsian heritage, etc. etc.
It does not work like that in China. You can learn Chinese, you can gain an appreciation for their art, culture, history, you can come and live here. You can become a respected and famous foreigner among them.
You can never become Chinese, it is a non-sequitur.
I find it interesting to think about how it will work when such a nation is preeminent and calling the shots globally.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:32 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
And from the perspective of the Chinese, they are the insiders. It is a really strange place, culturally, in the sense that China is China, Chinese are Chinese, and that is that.
If you are not born Chinese, then you are not Chinese. This is of a very different thing than the US or UK, or Western Europe more widely, even accounting for recent trends towards xenophobia and racism. There are plenty of German Turks, Muslim Brits of ME or SAsian heritage, etc. etc.
It does not work like that in China. You can learn Chinese, you can gain an appreciation for their art, culture, history, you can come and live here. You can become a respected and famous foreigner among them.
You can never become Chinese, it is a non-sequitur.
I find it interesting to think about how it will work when such a nation is preeminent and calling the shots globally.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:32 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
The whole Italy thing most recently, and the broader EU courtship, is particularly interesting.
posted by hippybear at 10:47 PM on March 29, 2019
posted by hippybear at 10:47 PM on March 29, 2019
Along with how they're building harbors not always at the best shipping ports but more militarily strategic ports.
I mean, this is a global ambition, and they may only announce Five Year Plans, but you know they have Fifty Year Plans.
posted by hippybear at 10:48 PM on March 29, 2019
I mean, this is a global ambition, and they may only announce Five Year Plans, but you know they have Fifty Year Plans.
posted by hippybear at 10:48 PM on March 29, 2019
The US, meanwhile, doesn't even have an 18 month plan. They're all "free and open markets will make it all balance out in the right way" which is not only bullshit but is going to be trounced upon by the Chinese new Silk Road plan (what's it called, Belt And Road?) having invested heavily in building infrastructure that they alone control and which lie along strategic shipping lanes and which service countries and economies which our current administration dismisses as shitholes...
We're watching in real time as we're being beaten at our own game by a country with a centrally managed economy which is playing capitalism like it's a really easy pinball machine. And there's nothing we're doing that is countering it because of our free market value system. I'd like to blame our current protectionist market position with tariffs and whatever but no... that's only just shoveling coal onto the fire.
posted by hippybear at 10:54 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
We're watching in real time as we're being beaten at our own game by a country with a centrally managed economy which is playing capitalism like it's a really easy pinball machine. And there's nothing we're doing that is countering it because of our free market value system. I'd like to blame our current protectionist market position with tariffs and whatever but no... that's only just shoveling coal onto the fire.
posted by hippybear at 10:54 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:45 PM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]