China: Aesthetics of Power · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Chong translates a cultural critics Zhu Dake's comments on Zhang Yimou's film (director of the Curse of the Golden Flower) and the aesthetics of power that colours Chinese modernity:
It is a problem of Chinese culture. We have a passion for sickness and aesthetics of power rather than ordinary people's aesthetics. In Sichuan province, a small township government even built a Tiananmen Square. People there are poor and starving but the local government spent so much money in it. Some local governments even built squares bigger than Tiananmen Square. They only want to show off their power to occupy space or to build a high building…