It's telling--to me, at least--that there seems to be this broader cultural exhaustion with fame, glamor, and spectacle, both in the US and in China. And yet we still feel compelled to spend LOTS of money on public, visibly-online status games.
This is tangential to your point, but the fact that there's now a city called Shangri-La is fascinating — a (theoretically Communist) Chinese government renaming a city after an Orientalist English novel! '90s 'cultural theorists' would have a field day!
Hahah very good point! One of the earliest 文旅 projects for sure. The renaming was done purely to boost tourism - I actually remember how it only got visibility after the new name and it was in the papers a lot in the early 2000s.
that june 7 look is fire tho
😂😂😂agreeeed
It's telling--to me, at least--that there seems to be this broader cultural exhaustion with fame, glamor, and spectacle, both in the US and in China. And yet we still feel compelled to spend LOTS of money on public, visibly-online status games.
idk call it a recession indicator I guess?
Exactly this! Such a jarring paradox of glam-exhaustion towards others vs. glam-maximisation for the self. Definitely an indicator of something...
This is tangential to your point, but the fact that there's now a city called Shangri-La is fascinating — a (theoretically Communist) Chinese government renaming a city after an Orientalist English novel! '90s 'cultural theorists' would have a field day!
Hahah very good point! One of the earliest 文旅 projects for sure. The renaming was done purely to boost tourism - I actually remember how it only got visibility after the new name and it was in the papers a lot in the early 2000s.