Art Factories

You may not be checking Jim Fallows' low-quantity/high-quality blog all that regularly, so don't miss this post on "art factories" in China -- and especially the accompanying photos.

This leads me to a probably crazy thought. The phenomenon of artsy types moving to somewhat sketchy neighborhoods in search of affordable rent is well-known. But do you know what's a lot cheaper than Brooklyn? China. Then we could start reading breathless reports from the US-China Commission about China's menacing efforts to corner the world's hipster reserves.

Comments

You seemed stoned today, and I mean that as praise.

Posted by David Mizner | December 19, 2007 4:38 PM

"You may not be checking Jim Fallows' low-quantity/high-quality blog all that regularly"

I don't.

But I do check in semi-regularly enough that I can always read the entirety of what he's written since I last checked in.

And given that his stuff is mostly non-timely, it works.

His blog reads like a magazine, not a blog.

Posted by Petey | December 19, 2007 4:41 PM

All of the hipsters moving to China is really an inspiring thought. Maybe New York wouldn't be so fucking lame.

And another thing, lets not confuse hipsters with artists.

Posted by laborlibert | December 19, 2007 4:42 PM

"You seemed stoned today, and I mean that as praise."

Yup. I'd rank Matt's output today as his sixth best blogging day of 2007.

Posted by Petey | December 19, 2007 4:44 PM

All of the hipsters moving to China is really an inspiring thought. Maybe New York wouldn't be so fucking lame.
And another thing, lets not confuse hipsters with artists.

Yes. That comment brings to mind an almost-forgotten meme of the mid-1990s: the wave of young Americans with creative talent and ambition moving to, of all places, Prague. It was supposed to be the next happening city.

Really.

Posted by James Gary | December 19, 2007 4:48 PM

"All of the hipsters moving to China is really an inspiring thought. Maybe New York wouldn't be so fucking lame."

I'm sure they'd complain that you can't get good Chinese food there - or bagels, but the bagels part isn't funny.

Posted by Njorl | December 19, 2007 4:48 PM

Probably safer, too.

Posted by bob | December 19, 2007 4:52 PM

Some great posts.

BTW, for details on how Somali refugees are faring in increasingly-xenophobic Minnesota, see (the facetiously titled):

'Minnesota's Own Version of "Verjudung," or How Somali Refugees Threaten Christmas In The Upper Midwest'

Michael Blaine, "Rudely Stamped"
www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com

Posted by Michael Blaine | December 19, 2007 4:53 PM

Brooklyn has its share of trendy hipster 'hoods, crowded cheek-to-jowl with writers, artists and designers, as well as immigrant 'hoods, where you can walk blocks and blocks and never hear a word of English spoken. I've lived in both. It's what I love about Brooklyn.

Posted by BryklynLibrul | December 19, 2007 5:18 PM

Actually, the cost of trendy Western-style living in the Chinese megalopoles (Beijing, Shanghai) is fast approaching that of US equivalents. Places like Wuhan, on the other hand...

Posted by Minivet | December 19, 2007 5:23 PM

Ah, Conservation of Hipness: There are a fixed number of hipsters and They Know Who They Are.

Posted by MattF | December 19, 2007 5:30 PM

there is at least a small trend in the direction Matt mentions. In Shanghai in October, I met and overheard conversations from a number of Americans and/or Europeans who were living in China long-term because it was the cool place to live, the living was cheap, and (from what I gathered), the strange mix of authoritarianism and laissez faire allowed people to get away with doing things with little over sight. Some seemed to have gone there for business but stayed on after leaving the big multinational; some seemed to be the hipster Matt envisions, who went there for the art.

To be honest, it is appealing: as the US economy looks increasingly shaky, one way to weather the storm is to move somewhere really cheap and live off your savings. China has its problems (and getting a Visa is up there), but it is vibrant and forward-looking.

Posted by foo | December 19, 2007 5:58 PM

No joke. One of my oldest and best friends lived in Beijing for four years. He was teaching english a few hours a week, which made enough to support his (not so commercially viable) art-and-music projects.

Hipsters are already in China.

Posted by Scott E. | December 19, 2007 6:14 PM

How much do they pay servers and baristas in China?

Posted by Anonymous | December 19, 2007 6:26 PM

My nephew lived in Guangzhou for a few years teaching English, before relocating with his new bride to the wholesale paridise of cheap crap: Yiuw. Acting as a broker for Latin American buyers turned out to be a tad bit more lucrative than instructing unmotivated students. Lived very well on their combined US$24k income.

On the other hand, there's nothing in the way art or hipsters in Yiuw, and being the only english-speaking person he knew got to be a drag. So, after six years, he's back State-side.

Posted by cmholm | December 19, 2007 6:34 PM

This hipster thing has gone too far.

It's like Ugg boots, but in the opposite direction.

Posted by Daniel Shays | December 19, 2007 6:55 PM

I like this idea.

The U.S. definitely has a comparative advantage when it comes to producing obnoxious hipsters; exporting them to China will help offset the trade imbalance.

Posted by blah | December 19, 2007 9:06 PM

"Hipsters are already in China."

And yet we are still plagued with them here. The key is to cut them off at the source. All of Williamsburg needs to go.

Posted by RM | December 19, 2007 9:25 PM

Hello from the corner of Hengshan Road and Gaoan Road - one of Shanghai's genuine hipster ghettos.

Fun post, and fact is, there's a small population of American hipsters in China - but it's not exactly an easy lifestyle choice. Among the reasons: foreign hipsters tend to get labeled as "the foreigners who don't have any money." Also, the Chinese don't do irony. It's not part of the lexicon, it doesn't turn up in even their edgiest films. As a result, when an American hipster shows up wearing thrift store clothes, the reaction of the average Chinese - including the always well-dressed Chinese hipsters - is literal: you are so poor that you must buy used clothes. Nobody here has the time or a care for whatever irony was intended. Because, really, what's so funny about wearing a twenty-year-old t-shirt advertising a band that nobody recalls? Do that here, you're not only poor and probably unsanitary - you're also hopelessly out-of-date.

All things considered, Williamsburg is a softer, more accepting environment.

Posted by Adam | December 20, 2007 1:13 AM

The overuse of the word hipster is more annoying than "hipsters" themselves.

Posted by DRR | December 20, 2007 9:49 AM

ummm, real hipsters in the US tend to wear cheap clothes for the reason the chinese assume -- they're generally poorish. so hipsters try to make it their strength (i.e., i don't have money to compete on grooming/clothes, etc., so i'll outdishevel you).

admittedly, there are faux hipster with wads of cash who buy thrift-store-like stuff. but they don't go to the salvation army, they spend lots for upscale stuff that looks downscalish.

Posted by dj superflat | December 20, 2007 10:27 AM

Alas, I don't read Fallows's blog as often as I should, but that is because to do so requires me to drag my cursor across the link for Megan McCardle, and I am so afraid of accidentally giving that atrocious blog any hits that I deprive myself of Fallows to avoid the possibility.

Posted by Sebastian Dangerfield | December 20, 2007 3:07 PM

Fallows doesn't have comments, so I'll pass along this tid-bit riffing off his post:

There have been quite a few breakthrough dinosaur finds in China in the last decade. But one paleontologist swore to me on tape that they were being fabricated in an artisans' shop in China as a plot to bilk rich Western fossil collectors.

Posted by jlw | December 20, 2007 10:10 PM