VOLUME 4, ISSUE 2, APR–JUN 2019 UNDER CONSTRUCTION Visions of Chinese Infrastructure The Made in China Journal is a quarterly on Chinese labour, civil society, and rights. This project has been produced with the financial assistance of the Australian Centre on China in the World (CIW), The Australian National University, and the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University. The views expressed are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of CIW, Lund University, or the institutions to which the authors are affiliated. We shall sing the great masses shaken with work, pleasure, or rebellion: we shall sing the multicolored and polyphonic tidal waves of revolution in the modern metropolis; shall sing the vibrating nocturnal fervor of factories and shipyards burning under violent electrical moons; bloated railroad stations that devour smoking serpents; factories hanging from the sky by the twisting threads of spiraling smoke; bridges like gigantic gymnasts who span rivers, flashing at the sun with the gleam of a knife; adventurous steamships that scent the horizon, locomotives with their swollen chest, pawing the tracks like massive steel horses bridled with pipes, and the oscillating flight of airplanes, whose propeller flaps at the wind like a flag and seems to applaud like a delirious crowd. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Manifesto of Futurism (1909, translated by R.W. Flint) TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL (P. 6) BRIEFS (P. 8) OP-EDS (P. 13) THE LEGACY OF MAY FOURTH IN CHINA, A CENTURY LATER (P. 14) Fabio LANZA VOLUME 4, ISSUE #2 APR–JUN 2019 XI JINPING’S SUCCESSION: WHAT DID THE ISSN 2206-9119 WEST GET WRONG? (P. 21) Ling LI CHIEF EDITORS Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere A GLOBAL PATH THROUGH THE HONG KONG DILEMMA: TOWARDS A NEW GUEST EDITORS INTERNATIONALISM (P. 27) Tim Oakes, Alessandro Rippa Jake WERNER EDITORIAL BOARD PAINTING IN GREY AND PERMEATING GAPS: Yige Dong, Nuala Gathercole Lam, Kevin Lin, CHANGING THE SPACE FOR CHINESE NGOS Andrea Enrico Pia, Christian Sorace (P. 35) Holly SNAPE ISSUE CONTRIBUTORS Jonathan Bach, Zandie Brockett, David CHINA COLUMNS (P. 42) Brophy, Antonella Ceccagno, David Graeber, Andrew Grant, Tong Lam, Fabio Lanza, Ling GOOD AND BAD MUSLIMS IN XINJIANG (P. 44) Li, Li Xiaotian, Loretta Lou, Erik Mobrand, David BROPHY Tim Oakes, Alessandro Rippa, Alessandro Rolandi, Holly Snape, Hallam Stevens, THE 996.ICU MOVEMENT IN CHINA: Dorothy Tang, Jasmine Wang, Jake Werner, CHANGING EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AND Ying Liang, Zeng Jinyan, Amy Zhang LABOUR AGENCY IN THE TECH INDUSTRY (P. 54) COPY-EDITING LI Xiaotian Sharon Strange POOR ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE POOR: EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS CONCEPTIONS OF POVERTY AMONG THE Nan Liu, Tessie Sun RICH AND POWERFUL IN CHINA (P. 60) Jasmine WANG ART DIRECTION Tommaso Facchin FOCUS (P. 64) COVER ARTWORK CHINA MADE: INFRASTRUCTURAL Marc Verdugo THINKING IN A CHINESE REGISTER (P. 66) Tim OAKES WHAT KIND OF MODEL? THINKING ABOUT AUTOBIOGRAPHY, EXILE, AND GENDER: THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE AND THE A CONVERSATION WITH YING LIANG (P. 129) SOCIALISTY CITY (P. 72) ZENG Jinyan Jonathan BACH CONVERSATIONS (P. 138) FUTURES AND RUINS: THE POLITICS, AESTHETICS, AND TEMPORALITY OF BULLSHIT JOBS: A CONVERSATION WITH INFRASTRUCTURE (P. 78) DAVID GRAEBER (P. 138) Tong LAM Loretta LOU DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CHINESE CITY MAKING AND GLOBAL LABOUR REGISTER (P. 84) REGIMES: A CONVERSATION WITH Hallam STEVENS ANTONELLA CECCAGNO (P. 144) Ivan FRANCESCHINI BETWEEN POETICS AND UTILITY: LANDSCAPE INFRASTRUCTURE IN CHINA CONTRIBUTOR BIOS (P. 149) (P. 90) Dorothy TANG BIBLIOGRAPHY (P. 153) INVISIBLE LABOURING BODIES: WASTE WORK AS INFRASTRUCTURE IN CHINA (P. 98) Amy ZHANG INFRASTRUCTURE OF DESIRE: RUBBLE, DEVELOPMENT, AND SALVAGE CAPITALISM IN RURAL CHINA (P. 103) Alessandro RIPPA COSMIC INFRASTRUCTURE (P. 108) Andrew GRANT WINDOW ON ASIA (P. 114) SOUTH KOREA’S PROGRESSIVE TURN (P. 116) Erik MOBRAND WORK OF ARTS (P. 120) AN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AUTOPOIESIS: ON BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE PLATFORM FOR PROCESS-DRIVEN ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND PRACTICE (P. 121) Zandie BROCKETT Alessandro ROLANDI EDITORIAL enterprises and special economic zones of the Under 1980s, factories have sprung up everywhere in Construction China, boosting a new industrial revolution that has carried the country’s economic miracle Visions of Chinese well into this century. This was before the Infrastructure Party-state decided that it was time to launch a new green tidal wave of revolution in the now- postmodern metropolis, in an attempt to sever the pillars of spiralling smoke that used to link We shall sing the great masses shaken these plants to the sky (but in so doing, also with work, pleasure, or rebellion: we shall forcing an entire working class to set their eyes sing the multicolored and polyphonic to the ground). New highways and high-speed tidal waves of revolution in the modern railways now crisscross the country, enabling metropolis; shall sing the vibrating the great masses shaken with work, pleasure, nocturnal fervor of factories and shipyards and (little) rebellion to travel with an ease and burning under violent electrical moons; a speed never experienced before. Bridges of bloated railroad stations that devour unprecedented length span rivers and seas, smoking serpents; factories hanging bringing together places and people that do not from the sky by the twisting threads of always desire to be connected. If there is a place spiraling smoke; bridges like gigantic where the futurist utopia of the early twentieh gymnasts who span rivers, flashing century has come to fruition, it is China. at the sun with the gleam of a knife; It is to this infrastructural fever that we adventurous steamships that scent the dedicate this issue of the Made in China horizon, locomotives with their swollen Journal. In the special section, guest edited by chest, pawing the tracks like massive Tim Oakes and Alessandro Rippa, Jonathan steel horses bridled with pipes, and the Bach focuses on the special economic zones oscillating flight of airplanes, whose that have played such an important role propeller flaps at the wind like a flag and in China’s development trajectory, asking seems to applaud like a delirious crowd. whether they reflect the morphology of the socialist city. On a similar note, Tong Lam Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, looks into the so-called special zones or areas The Manifesto of Futurism that were designated for war preparation and (1909, translated by R.W. Flint) economic/technological development in the socialist and post-socialist eras respectively, lthough the smoking serpents of pondering the promises of the future that they erstwhile have been replaced by the once represented and the implications of the Asinuous lines of aseptic high-speed trail of ruins and foreclosed possibilities that trains, and steamships have long disappeared they left behind. Hallam Stevens considers from the horizon, these words penned by an ‘digital infrastructure’, illuminating ways in Italian poet at the beginning of the twentieth which physical and digital infrastructures in century are a surprisingly apt description of China are tightly interwoven, and highlighting the infrastructural frenzy that has overcome the importance of examining the relationships China in recent history. Rushing to catch up between digital infrastructure, human bodies, after the political turmoil of the twentieth and labour. Dorothy Tang reflects on the century, over the past four decades the Chinese conceptual history of landscape, mired as it authorities have been remoulding the urban is between the dualities of poetics and utility, and rural landscapes in the service of economic paying particular attention to the ‘Sponge growth. Starting from the township and village City’ practice as an innovative technology in 6 MADE IN CHINA / 2, 2019 EDITORIAL contemporary Chinese landscape architecture. interests. The cultural section includes two Amy Zhang examines recent investment in articles. In the first, Zandie Brockett and municipal waste infrastructure and argues Alessandro Rolandi outline the principles and that, absent citizen participation, recycling practices of the Social Sensibility Research & programmes and waste collection are Development Department at Bernard Controls, nevertheless achieved by workers who mobilise which aims to use process-based art-making their labour, constituting a mundane, low-tech and research to reimagine how art can serve infrastructure to recuperate and circulate as a vehicle for the social imagination in the waste. Alessandro Rippa recounts how in setting of a Chinese factory. In the second, Tengchong—at the China-Myanmar border— Zeng Jinyan converses with movie director as large parts of the old town are destroyed to Ying Liang about how his life in exile has make space for new buildings, groups of people shaped his latest work. dig through the rubble looking for precious We wrap up the issue with two conversations, jade, a phenomenon that illuminates the ‘desire’ one between Loretta Lou and David Graeber that lies at the core of China’s infrastructural about Bullshit Jobs, David’s latest book about development. Finally, Andrew Grant takes the the proliferation of useless (if not outright example of Xining city to examine the ways harmful) jobs in this late stage of capitalism, in which contemporary urban infrastructure and the other between Ivan Franceschini and uneasily coexists with traditional Chinese and Antonella Ceccagno, about City Making and Tibetan cosmic infrastructures. Global Labour