Doing sit-ups this
morning I burst out laughing. Sweet,
transcendent laughter. Even the blues
has to give way, for a moment or two. The
first song, side two of ‘Axis Bold as Love’, (from when there was such a thing
as a ‘side two.’) Hendrix released this,
his second album right at the end of 1967, when I was all of one. The track that came sailing in to the random
play list with wispy backward lead before the indomitable, assertive groove
locks in was “You Got Me Floating.”
There is nothing particularly funny about the tune. Jimi makes it clear to some young lady that
he’s into her and he’s going to have her.
There is a lovely, disarming line in which he says “there’s only one
thing I need, to really get me there, is to hear you laugh without a care.” Perhaps something subliminal was playing
out. But twenty-four years or so ago, I
riffed off the line with a friend and substituted “I found a wallet” for the
title.
Repeated hundreds of times, over the years, to invoke the
laughter of that moment. Surprise. Gold on concrete and it’s yours. Repeated as
with so many other Hendrix affectations, “er-um-uh”
real and imagined, so as to summon his fearless majesty among a small, enduring
group of intimates. If memory serves the comedic absurdity was heightened by juxtaposition
with a Commodores album “Caught in the Act” that we had recently secured. Lionel and the fellas are all staring, rather
unconvincingly dumbstruck at some discarded loot, enlarged there in the foreground. The gentleman to the right of Lionel Richie,
William King, the trumpet player, is stoned. You, the subject, are caught. 做贼心虚[1]
There is however, no crime, in simply finding a wallet.
An article in yesterday’s New York Times could not but catch
my subject’s eye, as it concerns Starbucks, (of ‘Seven Deadly’ fame) and its
relationship to the state media.
Foreign brands-of-note episodically come under attack in China it and now
appears that CCTV has been instructed to train its focus on to Starbucks, once again. The critique is that prices are demonstrably
higher in China, than say Chicago, but that profits for the region (rather than
the country) are proportionally higher, as well. The upshot was that consumers could care
less. As one latte sipper noted: if
Starbucks want to charge RMB 1000 for cup of coffee, that’s their
business. The fact that it’s seen as a
luxury brand, in this, now the world’s largest luxury market, probably did more
good than harm. The state media is
however not really concerned about whether Chinese consumers pay too much for
coffee, but rather the intrusion of U.S. soft power into Chinese popular
culture.
State directives to hate fall flat. New York Times readers, chuckle. Urban Chinese increasingly cultivate their
own hateful refinements, all by themselves, just like New Yorkers. The CCP is
nothing though if not a learning organization. (See Anne-Marie Brady’s
provocative “Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in
Contemporary China”). http://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Dictatorship-Propaganda-Contemporary-Perspectives/dp/0742540588/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382341308&sr=8-1&keywords=%22marketing+dictatorship%22
And routines that fall flat will be studied and improved upon because the
objective remains and the target is properly trained.
Yesterday we considered an ‘early marker’ of change in
Japan, having done the same for China. We shifted the gaze from sixty-something
Chinese Red Guards and their revolutionary reflections over to their sclerotic
peers in Japan who are a majority and vote and are determined to legislate the
status quo committing rendez vous
with the washed out bridge just around the bend. Might their heroism be
summoned to do something selfless for the future of Japan?
Simply waiting for dynamic change from retired Japanese may
prove an interminable sequester. Perhaps
they will react creatively to a sudden challenge, and there are many other
places to look for early markers in that country, but looking to Japanese of
any generation to independently initiate significant change is not a high
probability bet. Gears are only ever
shifted with the utmost reluctance. Japanese
abilities are rightly renowned, for incomparable orchestration, once the gears
have finally been shifted. It is, almost
as if they are waiting for someone to give the village orders. Armed with samurai sharp ‘hateful
refinements’, cynicism and disdain, no one is worthy to issue them.
Significant change in North Asian relations is pending,
regardless. China’s emergence cannot be
contained in the current framework. The
requisite refitting will necessarily be inflammable without reconciliation and
accommodation. And China is too overwhelmed by the enormity of the domestic
upheaval under way to take risks in its immediate foreign policy. Japanese, old and young, know they need
change but appear incapable of willing any sustained transformation.
That leaves the Koreas in the middle of the East Asian Sea,
with their remarkable, divergent powers of attraction, and reluctant expertise
in things Japanese and of things Chinese.
A deeper expertise by far than either China or Japan has for each other. It is most assuredly in their interest for
the two giants to resolve their differences peacefully. Leaving aside the question of how the Korea’s
settle their own schism they each have a unique opportunity to force change,
and resolution in the region. A higher probability bet then, is that one of the
two will instigate something brave or craven that will force the discussion
between China and Japan. Korean soft power
will continue to surprise.
Why the Koreas? We
can pick it up, like gold off the concrete, first thing tomorrow. See you then.
And be sure to keep that “I found a wallet” look on your face. Dig.
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