Shanghai Futurism

[dailynietzsche]

“We psychologists of the future have little patience with introspection. We are instruments of knowledge and would like to possess all the naiveté and precision of an instrument.”

—F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power, §426 (edited excerpt).

[grahamedwardjoncas-deactivated2]

Because the Chinese language does not mark differences between subject and predicate expressions through changes in suffix or in other ways, it lacks a clear distinction between subjects and predicates. […] Since the subject is not distinguished in the Chinese language, the Chinese do not have the concept of a subject; because the subject is not distinguished, the predicate is not distinguished either (Zhang, 1946a, p. 160). Also, the Chinese language often omits the subject of a sentence, unlike Western languages in which the omission of the subject of a sentence is an exception. This feature of Chinese gives the impression that the subject is dispensable (Zhang, 1946a, p. 180). Another difference is that Chinese lacks the equivalent of the expression “it.” “Zhe” [这] and “ci” [此] in Chinese are equivalent to “this,” but not of “it.” “It” is an indefinite pronoun, but “this” is not. Chinese lacks sentences of the form “It is.” “It is” expresses only the existence of something and not its attributes, and this separation of existence from attributes is a basic condition for forming the concept of substance (Zhang, 1946a, p. 180). Most important is the lack in Chinese of an equivalent of the expression “to be” in Western languages. “To be” implies “to exist” and being is existence. “Shi” [是] (“is”) in spoken Chinese does not imply “to exist.” Ancient Chinese had the expressions “you” [有] (“to have”) and “cheng” [成] (“to become”) but not the equivalent of “to be” (Zhang, 1946a, p. 180). Since Chinese lacks an expression for “to be,” it has difficulty in forming the subject–predicate propositions of standard logic. For all of these reasons, Chinese thought did not develop the concepts of subject and substance. The philosophical concept of substance is derived from the logical subject (Zhang, 1946a, p. 161). The subject–predicate form implies that there is a substance that has attributes (Zhang, 1946a, p. 179). Western philosophy seeks substance because there must be a subject in Western logic, and the importance of the subject in Western logic is derived from the structure of Western languages (Zhang, 1946a, p. 162). Because the structure of the Chinese language does not emphasize the subject and does not have sentences of the subject–predicate form, Chinese thought cannot derive substance from the subject and lacks the fundamental metaphysical concept of being as being.

Cheng & Bunnin (Eds.) - Contemporary Chinese Philosophy (2002), p. 72-3

The above is a summary of the philosophy of Zhang Dongsun [张东荪], who argued that “Chinese philosophy has no concept of substance and therefore no ontology” (p. 71); instead, “Chinese philosophy is concerned with possible changes and relations rather than with ultimate essences or substances.” While evocative, his view is controversial, even among his contemporaries, e.g. Xiong Shili [熊十力]. Still, he was the first to propose correlative thinking and analogical reasoning as the defining characteristics of Chinese philosophy, which has been immensely influential.

(via writingcapital)

[grahamedwardjoncas-deactivated2]

Xiong Shili 熊十力 uses an old category in Chinese philosophy to construct the “Meridian Line (jīng xiàn 经线)” of his philosophical system, emphasizing the “neither similar nor different (bù yī bù yì 不一不异)” relationship between noumenon and phenomenon, substance and function.“ According to Xiong, to emphasize strongly the principle of "oneness of substance and function” will highlight the basic characteristics of Confucianism, with its strength and advantages. Also, by strongly advocating this principle of “oneness of substance and function,” Xiong wants to show that it is significantly different from both Western philosophy and Buddhism. In relation to Western philosophy, Xiong emphasizes that, as soon as substance is talked about, the function is already there (jí tǐ ér yán yòng zài tǐ 即体而言用在体); in relation to Buddhism, Xiong emphasizes that, as soon as function is talked about, the substance is already there (jí yòng ér yán tǐ zài yòng 即用而言体在用). (Zheng 1992: 36-37)

Zheng Jiadong, quoted in Liu & Qin - “Contemporary Chinese studies of Xiong Shili 熊十力” (2005), p. 165

p. 163: Xiong’s most important achievement is his integration of cosmology and ontology, reestablishing an ontological cosmology, one of the important characteristics of Chinese philosophy.

(via writingcapital)

[shihlun]

CHEN Chin 陳進, 北港朝天宮 Beigang Chaotian Temple, 1966.

[mashatupitsyn]

“Certainly there is a sonic reality to objects that is more dramatic than their visual reality. If it’s possible to replace an image by one or more sounds, you should do it without hesitation. In essence: aim for the audience’s ear more than for its eye. The ear is far more creative than the eye…Film will progress primarily through its use of sound. There will be progress in sensitivity—ours and the audience’s—to sounds, human voices, the cries of animals, other noises.“ -Bresson, 1968

[cinechina]

YES re animals in a Touch of Sin and it's use of sound in general

[perfictionism]

Parasite Architecture, Hong Kong

[mini-girlz]

A lady polo player astride a galloping horse, 

Tang dynasty

35cm long and 29cm high.

> ollisandoostermeijer.com

[wendou]

Reverse No.3

2014

Zhou Wendou

[amare-habeo]

Zhang Jianjun (Chinese, born 1971) Chinese Cuisine: After dinner, 2009

Oil on canvas, 80 x 100.1 cm

[archatlas]

Moments of Life Captured on the Bus

Zhang Jia Wu captures his images almost exclusively on the bus as people let their minds and expressions wander. What makes Zhang’s photos so compelling is that each seems to show a moment rife with emotion. It’s not a snapshot, not a frame, and not an exposure… it’s a moment.

Images and adapted text via

[mpdrolet]

People Drink Tea by the River, 2013

Zhang Kechun

[cinechina]

Resources

Visit the post for more.

Lots of resources on class struggle in China

[exhaustedscreen-deactivated2019]

Apichatpong Weerasethakul and duration

‘…the sensory intensity of space in these three features [Blissfully Yours, Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century] … is activated in a series of shots with extended duration that exceed narrative economy. This dilation of time allows viewers to become engrossed in the spatial properties of the individual shots and consciously aware of screen time… The spatial manifestation of duration as such in Apichatpong’s filmic corpus, I suggest, is akin to a “cinematic” tendency of recent video art with which he has continually engaged. […] Video is associated with excessive duration in a way that film is not. Apichatpong carries this technical affinity of video into the visionary and tactile long-takes of his feature films accompanying the ambient sounds of diegetic surroundings.’

Jihoon Kim, ‘Between Auditorium and Gallery: Perception in Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Films and Installations’, in Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover, eds., Global Art Cinema: New Theories and Histories, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. p.128, p.131.

[cinechina]

Perfect re. general thesis around video art/cinema and the will 2 slowness, interpreted here predictably as a mode of defamiliarisation re Time.

[dailymarx]

The only connection which still links individuals with the productive forces and with their own existence — labour — has lost all semblance of self-activity and only sustains their life by stunting it.

Marx - The German Ideology 1845 (via dailymarx)

Useful ref for subjectivity and labor (basically the whole endnotes understanindg and use of value theory - obvs via Grundrisse alwo) - as the mode that simultaneously generates the subject but a subjectivity sustained with incredible impoverishment.

[zzzze]

Edward Burtynsky Feng Jie #5 Yangtze River, China, 2002

[cinechina]

Link up  2 discussion of 3 gorges dam project irt Still Life. Here the fetish of poverty is much clearer, the central focus etc (wheres the punctum? the donkey? Au Hazard a Chinese Balthazar??? the fire possibly, because here we link 2 controlled disaster as the logic of construction, not some dumb equivocation abt destruction and creation (as rel as this may be), but a more material understanding of explosion as the mode of refashioning landscapes and then we can get more speculative as to how fire and storytelling and myths about transformation work here.)

[strahlungen-deactivated20160918]

Edward Burtynsky – Manufacturing #11, Youngor Textiles, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, 2005

[hitodama]

Edward Burtynsky

from Three Gorges Dam Project (Yangtze River, 2005)

[cinechina]

File Under: Construction-Core or is the current fetish for imgs of production and its attendant decor just a variation on the old theme of Nat Geo photographs (which is in turn a variation on the classic skyscraper building shots that stink up doctors waiting rooms), but with an iphone camera rather then a dsl and a focus on the errata surrounding construction - its props: fluorescent orange flags, temporary fencing, cones, whatever. The old Marxian adage that production processes are concealed in the commodity doesnt aply 2 architecture. Instead the city is in aconstant state of repair, buildings seems 2 be constantly leaking and getting refurbishments done, facades continually redeveloping, and large-scale work seemingly ever present. I dont know a time in my lifetime when there wasnt roadworks on the main road connecting my suburb 2 the cbd. and the cbd itself is a patchwork of detours and closed roads. Cranes are as crucial 2 the skyline as the buildings themselves. Maybe more so.