Mid-Autumn Festival, Vanishing Act, China’s Bureaucracy Commentary from the Web, Week 36, 2022

5 things you need to know about the Mid-Autumn Festival | CGTN America

On the 15th day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival. It's a traditional festival admiring the full moon, celebrating family reunion and expressing a spirit of gratitude in China and in other Asian countries. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on September 10. 

 

Vanishing act – The China Project

In the fall of 2005, Suojiacun—Beijing’s art village—was ordered to be demolished by the local government. The residents were furious, including artist Liú Bólín 刘勃麟, who considered the village home. Despite the outcry, the village was quickly reduced to piles of brick and concrete. Liu, unlike other residents, decided against voicing his frustration, at least in a verbal sense. He instead covered himself in paint, camouflaging with the rubbles he once called home. His disappearance speaks to the idea that, by razing his home, the person who he once was also erased.

This performative piece was a creative turning point for Liu, who previously worked as a sculptor’s assistant. From that point forth, this vanishing act would become the sole focus of his artistic endeavors, which has now culminated in a decade-spanning series that meditates on the relationship between individuals and the world at large titled Hiding in the City.

 

Is China’s bureaucracy holding steady under Xi? – The China Project

The idea of institutionalization was introduced by Professor Andrew Nathan at Columbia. And in 2003, he wrote what is now a classic piece, and it’s titled Authoritarian Resilience. …

Basically, what it means is, in his words, behavior that is constrained by formal and informal rules. And he names specific aspects of institutionalization. The first is non-bound succession. The second is meritocracy in promotion. The third is bureaucratic professionalization. And the fourth is selected spaces for political participation. The short way to understand institutionalization is political stability plus effective governance. 

 

And a notice …