Shanghai Scrap

Earlier this week, Shanghai Scrap told you all about the torturous path that Shanghai’s 19th century Carmelite convent has taken, from after-thought on the Shanghai Film Studio lot, to (apparently) a renovated museum at the redeveloped Shanghai Film Centre . The full account can be found here.

Foolish, foolish me.

This afternoon I happened to have lunch with somebody who has knowledge of this project, and this person chuckled when I mentioned how wonderful it was that somebody in Shanghai’s bureaucracy cares enough about the city’s history to save one of its oldest (1874!) buildings. Why the chuckle? “No, no, Adam, they are knocking it down and rebuilding it on the old foundation. It will be a new version of the old convent. It’s much cheaper this way. Restoring it would take too much time and money.” That is to say, the museum/convent shown on the blueprints for the Film Centre is a new building, built to resemble an 1874 building. It is not a renovation or preservation. Below, a photo taken at 5:00 PM, today, of the current state of this “preservation effort.” Note how the roof is disappearing (and yes, that’s scrap from the ongoing demolition/”restoration”).

Sadly, this shouldn’t surprise anyone – especially, me – who’s spent any time watching  Shanghainese preservation efforts. Indeed, some of the city’s most celebrated “historic” sites, including the Jing’an Temple and Xintiandi, are poor facsimiles of historic properties demolished to make way for commercial development. That is to say, the original structures have been torn down and replaced with new ones (in the case of the Jing’an Temple, a new temple atop a shopping mall complete with a pirate dvd shop) that the developers, and the city, then market as historical. (more…)

The February 2009 issue of the New York-based design magazine, Print, is a theme issue focued on the relationship between design and community … and includes “A New Light,” my (latest) essay on the design of Chinese-style windows for Shanghai’s St. Ignatius Cathedral (for blogging on this subject, see here, here, and here). The accompanying photos were taken by friend and favorite colleague, Ariana Lindquist, and include a spectacular 20 image montage showing the specialized process for creating some of the windows installed just last month. Alas, the article and photos are not available online. But – and this is going to sound very old media – Print is one of the world’s most beautifully designed periodicals, and you’re cheating yourself if you read it in anything other than, well, print! So, if you’re in the US, stop down to your local bookstore and enjoy it there. The February TOC is here.

I’ve spent more of my life than I should admit devoted to the Chinese recycling trade and its odd and amazing offshoots. Radioactive X-ray machine processing? Seen it! Diaper recycling? Heard of it! The Big Dumb Recycling Machine? Documented it! But before Monday night, and a last minute search for an ATM, I’d never seen one of these:

A more literal translation would read “Funds Deposit-Withdrawal Integrated Machine.” A more pleasing one might read “Deposit-Withdrawal Automated Teller.” Or, heck, “Deposit-Withdrawal ATM.” Generally, I’m not big on Chinglish-related blog posts, but I offer this one because the owner of this machine, and the mis-translated sign, is ICBC [Industrial & Commercial Bank of China], the world’s most valuable bank by market capitalization. Surely, they can afford a (better?) translator [Fallows has much more to say on the subject of Chinese organizations and their unwillingness to seek decent translation]? And if that’s not good enough justification for the post, well: most of this blog’s readers in the global recycling industry (and believe me, there’s a whole bunch) haven’t yet had a chance to enjoy these signs.

I should note: Kenneth Tan of Shanghaiist posted an image of a cash recycling machine in his neighborhood back in November, and quickly received several grumpy comments suggesting that these machines, and translations, had been standard for years, now (please, don’t). Not sure how I missed them (and Kenneth’s November post), but there you go: years worth of bad translations from the world’s largest financial institutions.

[Addendum: For an alternative view on cash recycling, see here.]

[UPDATE 1/08: Additional, corrected information on this redevelopment can be found here.]

[Cross-file under: Poor Powers of Observation, Bloggers and Journalists]

Below, a December 27 image of a wrecking ball demolishing the north end of the convent building once occupied by the Shanghai members of the Sisters of Carmel. Built in 1874, it was (and, as of yesterday, part of it still stands so, is) one of the oldest buildings of any type (Western or Chinese) in Shanghai.

When I arrived at the scene, not long after the wrecking ball left (for lunch?), with most of the building still to be demolished, I found a young man with a camera who looked at me, identified the building as “the sisters of Carmel” and added: “The government! What can we do?” Indeed. So, having recently fashioned myself as a blogging journalist, I decided to get to the bottom of this matter. Questions to be answered: What cretin would knock down one of Shanghai’s oldest buildings? And for what purpose? Could this be yet another example of Shanghai bulldozing its history to make way for man-bag carrying real estate developers?

To answer, we’ll need some background on the history of the Carmel sisters, and their convent, in Shanghai. (more…)

As long-time readers know, Shanghai Scrap has been, a) offline for almost a month, and b) a rant-free zone for most of its life (ie, a reported blog). But once in a while, really, I can’t help myself. Especially when the topic is Northwest Airlines.

So let’s get right to it.

On December 29, the AP reported the following:

The subsidiary of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. said in a filing earlier this month with the Department of Transportation that it was seeking to delay proposed daily Seattle-Beijing service by a year from March 2009 to March 2010 and delay startup of Detroit-Shanghai nonstop service by more than two months from March 25, 2009, to June 3, 2009.

Now, this might sound eminently reasonable in light of the current economic crisis. After all, the US airlines – including Northwest – have been cutting back on domestic US routes for months. Why wouldn’t they cut back on Asia routes, too?

But sharp observers might notice something wrong with this picture. As it happens, US airlines don’t need DOT permission to cut back on domestic US routes. So why on Earth should they have to ask for permission to cut back on US-China routes? (more…)