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China’s Huaxi “Tower.” Rife With Meaning?

Posted in Recommended Reading

Every once in a while I see an article that is so potentially rife with deep meaning and symbolism, I find myself not up to the difficult task of interpreting it. This China Dialogue post, entitled, “Village that towers above China,” is that sort of article. It is on the famously wealthy town of Huaxi.

My only comment is that even the name of the article’s author, Jonathan Watts, seemed somehow appropriate as the tower he is writing about has some similarities, I think, to the Watts Towers

What are your thoughts?

 

  • WLE

    I agree with you that the article has a lot of symbolism, but I think you miss it when you link the Huaxi tower to the Watts Towers. The Huaxi tower is a symbol of out of control excess whereas the Watts Towers are a symbol of independent artistic thought. I say this now, but I realize I might be proven wrong in fifty years, but I doubt the Huaxi tower will even remain standing that long, if it is built to typical Chinese standards.

  • CMS

    Just a high profile example of the rich taking advantage of the poor.

  • MHB

    The comments section of the original article on The Guardian’s website is full of Shelley quotations, complaints that the money could have been better spent on healthcare/education, accusations of ugliness, distaste for the Chinese obsession with numbers that sound like other words, and disgust for socialism.
    I don’t know what to think of this – was Lai Changxing a hero or villain? Is Huaxi a sign of development or decadence?
    JK Galbraith observed in The Affluent Society that the rich (in the West) had learnt not to flash their wealth – it was to be enjoyed in private, ideally in sprawling mansions away from the city and other people. Inequality is worldwide, but it looks different in China.

  • http://seeingredinchina.com Tom

    I had the chance to travel to Huaxi not too long ago with a co-worker and her husband whose relative is a village leader there (post about that trip, w/pics http://seeingredinchina.com/2011/05/02/the-first-village-of-china-a-trip-to-huaxi/). It is quite the place. I’m hoping to have the chance to stay in the new hotel sometime soon, and will definitely write a post about that. It reminds me of the Eye of Sauron.

  • Bob Walsh

    The money is at the end of the piece:
    “Nobody would invest so much money in something that wasn’t sure to be a success, right?”