Shenzhen
Here, the big man looking down on us from the park is Deng Xiaoping. One of the good guys? He outwitted Mao, then, as leader, went on to be the inspiration for this astounding commercial revolution. "I don't care what colour the cat is, as long as it catches mice". A new form of socialism is born. And Shenzhen. This is Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Think big – square it – you've got China. Think big – cube it – you've got Shenzhen. This was a fishing village in 1977 when we looked over from the Hong Kong border. Now it's a giant money farm. Mile after mile of housing slabs, stacked close like at a container depot. Words fail me, it's brain battering, my adjectives crumble like a biscuit on the pavement. This place is a money mono-culture. And still, a slap up hotel meal costs £3. A lot less round the corner, if you don't mind the rats on your feet! (Could do with one of Deng's cats.) The biggest concert hall complex we've seen yet. Our bit of the complex includes a concert hall (visually and acoustically equal to the Berlin Filharmonie), a theatre, recording studio and lavish peripheral facilities, all in a huge world class elegant new building. This whole structure has a mirror copy, the mirror side containing the biggest public library that I have ever seen. Around the spacious piazzas are huge book shops, record shops, electronics shops...... Have you got the message yet? A lot of us are asking, "Why are we here?" We wouldn't be unless we've got something they want, and that 'want' will have money in the mix somewhere, even though there is no profit for anyone in our particular little venture. Is it just that they want us to see their big one, and tell you about it? Do they want to be seen chumming around with the ´óÏó´«Ã½? Our new ´óÏó´«Ã½ job descriptions say stuff about our ambassadorial duties. Actually, I'm for that.
China has built a physical infrastructure for the arts like nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined. Have they built the infrastructure for education and management that will fill these buildings? No. Not yet, anyway. Is that part of what they want from us? If they pump in money in the way they have with the building projects........look out, World. Maybe. Can you buy a cultured public – off the peg, complete with a tradition of concert going? How long might it take to create a concert going society – for any genre of music – people who play instruments, know about music and have the income to buy tickets? The world-wide tidal wave of technological toys and distractions has inundated Chinese towns even more than in the UK. How will the 'high arts' compete? We, with all our wisdom and experience, are gasping for the answer to that question; it's a sword of Damocles hanging over us all. Those arts that need patience, a bit of education and training, and free time. Does society, do communities, need 'high art'? Here there is a post-Tiananmen Square generation (19 years last Wednesday), only briefly here in this city for the feeding frenzy. This is a 'Special Economic Zone', a protected zone. Allan will tell you about that protection: he had four machine guns stuck in his ribs, and a turret machine gun behind those, to show just how well protected it is. After a sleepless night in a flea ridden dump of a hotel his nuclear smile malfunctioned. His £1m cargo, tenderly transported in a clonking rust bucket, will bring them Mendelssohn. Will Mendelssohn do it for them? My answer to that comes in four letter words. But I'll tell you what did do it for them: Alistair Savage and Ian Crawford (fiddle and bass) doing Scots stuff at our childrens' concert last night. Nicola also. Here Auld Lang Syne is well known as the Friendship Song. Alistair and Ian played a hauntingly beautiful version, dedicated to the earthquake victims. That did it for them. There's been a massive wave of goodwill and nationalism following the quake, a focussing on the immediate task, cutting red tape, naming and shaming where there's corrupt use of charity money. We have a 'proper' concert tonight, with Elgar, Sibelius and the full Mendelssohn symphony experience. I'll let you know how we get on. That's if we get to the hall through the monsoon deluge.
Anthony
