Daniel Gauss: New Yorker in Shenzhen

RootsHouse is the coolest and swankiest place in Shenzhen.  It hosts many jazz bands from around China. In fact, they try to bring in the best acts they can find in any number of genres of music.  Cocktails are reasonably priced. Here is an article I wrote about the place:  https://www.meer.com/en/62330-an-interview-with-moss                                                         {click to enlarge images} A Brief History of Shenzhen   They started building Shenzhen, a tier-one Chinese megacity, 41 years ago, over a fishing village across from Hong Kong. In Wu Xiaobo’s history of China’s economic development over the past 40 years,  China Emerging , Wu points out that Shenzhen’s creation as a Special Economic Zone coincided with Deng Xiao Ping’s decision to open the country up to foreign investment.  Deng followed ...

                                                        {click on images to enlarge} In the past, there used to be bands from Hong Kong and Shenzhen which used to play here. Some were excellent, like bands you might see at the Empty Bottle in Chicago or Arlene's Grocery in Manhattan. Mysteriously, the bands stopped appearing, and nobody seems to know why. If you go there on a Friday or Saturday night, you'll find a bar with many choices of inexpensive cocktails and maybe a guy with a guitar and drum machine on stage who will gladly play just about anything while you sing along. (WTF?) I say, go one night for the atmosphere. You can get the address on your Didi app. Brown Sugar Jar.

Here is an article I wrote on some sculpture I saw at OCAT at OCT Loft. OCT Loft has some art, not much, and a lot of coffee houses and three or four music venues (including B-10) https://www.meer.com/en/71783-sculptures-of-mercy-and-change                                                          {click on images to enlarge them} We might be tempted to think that the woman in Xiang Jing’s sculpture  The End  turns her face to the wall and hides it with her hands as a response to the mirror next to her. We might assume the mirror forces her to compare herself with, and she is turning away from, the social expectations of personal beauty which she cannot meet. Yet, it could be that the presence of the mirror is coincidental to her turning to the wall.  It, thus, replicates the image of a grieving woman, reminding us that everything...