China = US in the 50ies, I think…
This long article in National Geographic talks about China’s industrial revolution. I got this one off Boingboing. It’s quite interesting and I would like to supplement it with some more stuff I have read about China lately. But first NG:
On the first floor, we were joined by a contractor and his assistant. There was no architect, no draftsman; nobody had brought a ruler or a plumb line. Instead, Boss Gao began by handing out 555-brand cigarettes. He was 33 years old, with a sharp crewcut and a nervous air that intensified whenever his uncle was around. After everybody lit up, the young man reached into his shoulder bag for a pen and a scrap of paper.
First, he sketched the room’s exterior walls. Then he started designing; every pen stroke represented a wall to be installed, and the factory began to take shape before our eyes. He drew two lines in the southwest corner: a future machine room. Next to that, a chemist’s laboratory, followed by a storeroom and a secondary machine room. Boss Wang, the uncle, studied the page and said, “We don’t need this room.”
They conferred and then scratched it out. In 27 minutes, they had finished designing the ground floor, and we went upstairs. More cigarettes. Boss Gao flipped over the paper.
Notice how everyone is alway smoking? If this isn’t the 50ies. Somewhere else I read about the chinese fascination with cars and driving long distances in a wide open country…
Instant cities, you can just imagine the problems they will run in over there in just a few short years. Considering at least 750.00 people die each year of pollution. Which is something the chinese government tried to suppress:
The excised information included statistical models estimating that as many as 750,000 people a year die prematurely in China, because of air and water pollution.
That is not taking into account the demographics problem they are running into.
According to the country’s latest census, an average of 120 male infants are born for every 100 female infants, the largest difference in the world, CBS reports.
Somebody once said, “when China arises, the earth will shake.” That may be true, but the question is wheather China will be walking straight or staggering…
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