PRD™ AS A GLOBAL BRAND
This is a tale.
The end of the tale is Hong Kong and the entire region of southern China fading into the Pearl River Delta (PRD). The PRD has become a global brand, just like Hong Kong in its early years of development.
Without question people will miss the days of illegal border crossings. At least there was a mystic new world to look for.
The tale starts with drifting away. Cantonese immigrants crossed the vast ocean and built enclosed “Chinatowns” in cities such as New York, Paris, London, and Vancouver. The people in these Chinatowns kept the lifestyles of their “old world”. At the same time, an earth-shaking change was happening in the “old world”. The myth of “Made in China” had been created by san lai yi bu. The establishment of a special economic zone allowed more and more immigrant to rush into the PRD. For China, this special economic zone was its sole ”new world”.
The fascinating part of the tale is that there have been few conflicts between fantasy and reality. Even the linguistic differences between Cantonese and Mandarin have avoided a cultural clash. During the era of the Open Economic Zone (OEZ), Guangdong became a synonym for the “new world”. The desire to change the “old world” had been so strong that many Chinese were infected by the enthusiasm and gradually forgot their past.
The tale then takes a new turn. In the late 1990s, a “new world” in the Changjiang River Delta rose up abruptly. Distinct from Guangdong, this “new world” has provided large areas of land to welcome giant international corporations. It is newer than all the other “new worlds”.
Guangdong’s new world can draw a lesson from its painful experience.The final expectation is to consolidate the whole area into a flexible space that can accept multinational corporations at any time.Guangdong will fade away. The multinational corporations are going face a PRD/Fan-PRD. The reformed PRD will once again become the focal point of global investment.
So far the word art has not appeared yet in this tale. It is the place to end the tale though. The art of the PRD is parasitic on the body of this developing utopian “new world” and pierces it with pain. Art is creating a space with no demand of space, a space without space, a space confronting the above mentioned power space, and a space that has no brand.
It is time to rambling?
Yishu, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Vancourver, March 2004, pp.5-6; Reprinted in Re(-)viewing the city- 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, 2005, pp.356 -357 |
