Roland translates a Chinese blog post, "Is the CCTV fire an act of God?" (I would quibble here, preferring a translation: "Is the CCTV fire an act of Heaven" - original Chinese here). The post speaks to the horrible fire that engulfed one of the buildings at the CCTV site in Beijing on Monday (and thank goodness the building was empty at the time, or the human toll would have been much worse...). The blogger raises several issues, including the worries of some Chinese people that the fire is an inauspicious beginning to the new year as well as some subtle criticism of the PRC's political system:
...There are many possible explanations about any emergency disaster, each with its own reasons. For example, different people have different explanations about the CCTV fire. Some people say that it was negligence in safety management, some say that the fengshui of the place was bad, and some say that CCTV has aroused too much anger. These explanations are each reasonable in their own way, but ultimately I believe that this fire was an act of of the Heavens. Why do I think that this was not a man made error in which safety rules were broken and the advice from the Public Security Bureau was ignored? Why do I say that this is an act of the Heavens?
When a person, or a group, or a political party, or a people arrives at a stage that nobody can warn or stop them, the only thing left is for the Heavens to punish them. That would be an act of the Heavens. CCTV is such a group. For certain artificial reasons, the position of this group was elevated above others because it can help the survival of a certain political party. As a result, CCTV can have or do anything that it wants. Nobody can restrain it. Many people know this for a fact, including former CCTV employees who know what goes on inside.
The idea of punishment from Heaven is an old one in Chinese philosophy. Mo Zi (I am in a Mohist state of mind this week) is especially focused on this idea. This is from the internet encyclopedia of philosophy's entry on Mo Zi:
Within the core chapters, the Mohists consistently portray Heaven as if it possesses personal characteristics and exists separately from human beings, though intervening in their affairs. In particular, they present Heaven if it is an entity having will and desire, and concerned about the welfare of the people of the world, even a providential agent that rewards the just and punishes the wicked through its control of natural phenomena or by means of its superhuman intermediaries, the spirits (guishen). Finally, Heaven and the spirits are also portrayed as the objects of reverence, sacrificial offerings and supplication ("Heaven's Will" B).
This notion of Heaven is not the same as the Christian idea of Heaven: there need not be a singular God figure who is the ruler or orchestrator of Heaven. Rather, Heaven can be a rather more diffuse sense of fate and destiny, though in the Mohist view a more specific will of Heaven (something more concrete or particular than the "Mandate of Heaven"?) is certainly in play.
The blogger, then, is giving modern expression to an ancient Chinese sensibility of Heaven as a regulator or legitimizing director of the human world. And he (or she?) goes further by incorporating a yin-yang notion of balance, something that I associate most closely with the I Ching but which is infused throughout just about all pre-Qin thinking:
A sign from the Heavens or an act of the Heavens conveys a message. The message may not be understood unless one is respectful and humble. Although I don't fully understand it, I have figured out that one of the aspects is "balance." This is the minimum demand by the Heavens for humans: balance. This may sound profound, but it is actually very easy to explain.
The existence of everything is premised upon a certain balance that exists from the smallest atoms to the microbes to the solar system to the galaxy to the universe. In humans, the balance is for the yin-yang, the bones, the muscles, the brains and the limbs. In a society, the balance is for equality of wealth and political fairness. In economics, the balance is between income and expenses and also asset structures. There is no need to say more about the balance in nature.
CCTV, and the CCP that stands behind it, has gone too far in amassing and controlling power. The political system is out of balance, and the fire is a act of Heaven that is pointing to that imbalance. Interestingly, my friend Allan all but anticipated something like this in a post from February 7th, "Ominous Signs from Heaven?".
It seems that Heaven is trying to tell us something. It may be something more than China and CCTV and the CCP. It might be a message to all of us, everywhere, to think about how we might be out of balance with one another and with the environment that surrounds us. I think it may be time to consult the I Ching...
My post on another blog on the Fire and CCTV buildings, if it is not suitable to be here, please delete it.
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Elaine:
I am sending your post on the building fire to my friends in China and has got some responses.
Look at the first picture, the Chinese people who are looking at the fire are actually laughing and I am checking out more pictures on the fire sence, then I found more Chinese people watching the burning are laughing… the question is WHY …
The answer is ( maybe ) that the general public in China has been against these ugly, silly and nasty buildings from the very beginning, but the elites ( the same group who pushed for WTO, the same nasty group who are pushing for building more U.S. T-bills) , who are controlling the allocation of the resources, pushed these building in Beijing and Shanghai, Canton to be built.
Actually, ever since the design of the building of CCTV towels went public, many Chinese designers, professors have been adamentally against it… here is one link from a professor’s protest in Nanjing: His reason is that the building has three Antis:
反科学、反经济、反文化 1. Anti Science, Anti Economy and Anti Chinese Culture…
Yes, these crazy buildings all over the world, especially the ones built by these crazy, stupid, fat and lazy Arabia princes in the middle of desert, they are against all the human decency and commmonsense for the preservation of the humanity.
We are in this fight against these EVIL, PURE EVIL together…
Isha
“魂兮归来哀中华”:央视新大楼—屈膝跪者的象征
” Come Back, the parting Soul of China, Wiping for the Chinese nation”
http://www.landscapecn.com/News/html/news/detail.asp?ID=22260
中国建筑的未来:难道还要流行欧陆风北美风?
“The future of Chinese Architecture: Why should we still imitate the modish fashions from Europe and North America?”
http://www.landscapecn.com/News/html/news/detail.asp?id=22261
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Quote from Elaine
THE MADNESS OF THE BUILDERS: CHINA TOWER BURNS
http://emsnews.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/the-madness-of-the-builders-china-tower-burns/#comment-8550
Every easy credit cycle sees some of the worst buildings built in the worst places and the worst possible way. For example, the crowning achievement of the 60’s boom was the decision to build a huge double tower complex in lower Manhattan. Rockerfeller controlled the State of NY and used government funds to build the WTC complex. I watched in total disgust, as this monster thing was built. I could see it had precious little internal support. Rather than being like a honeycomb, it was a pile of pancakes supported by slender steel exterior sheathes. It collapsed. Well, this cycle, even more unstable, ill-designed monstrosities are going up and just as fast, vanishing, the latest one is in China.
But it is not Chinese, it was designed by crazy European and American architects. These ‘master builders’ have gone totally insane and have been building increasingly bizarre, stupid and nearly impossible to repair structures of every possible sort, all of which are basically unstable, unsound or fire traps. The arrogance of the builders is painfully at odds with the power of Mother Nature, random terrorists or simple Time passing and things degrading from new to old.
...
In the present case, the stupid architects made the interior a chimney. They even thoughtfully left a ‘void’ at the top to be the exit area for any fire that needs more oxygen. The bottom of this huge fireplace is the front doors. Open them up and the air sucks into the atrium/chimney and roars through the void and into the sky! Bingo!
I advise the Chinese to punish whoever decided to OK this incredibly stupid design and of course, extradite the architects and if anyone died in this fire, charge them with murder. Somehow, we have to stop this madness. Building things that kill is evil. Below is another tower designed by these demonic idiotic architects:
...
What is this? A sly way of killing off all the Chinese people? Why are the Chinese falling for this? Death wishes? This tower makes the WTC look like stable architecture. This thing is beyond doomed, it screams to be kicked over. And if humans don’t do it, Mother Nature will.
...
Speechless Isha
Posted by: isha | February 13, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Elaine:
I hope the Chinese leaders still read this bog! Someone ought to tell them, they should not only sue Mr. Ram Kolas but punish him, too. He. Send him to China for some Chinese discipline. Maybe, just maybe, this will put the Fear of God or rather, The Dragon, into the heads of the crazy architects.
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Isha:
Yes, the calls for the hanging of the Designer were in China as early as 2003!!!
My fear for China is that these ” Master Builders” are bribing their way to the power structure in China, as they has been doing here for quite a while … but, you know what, Chinese “Change” can be quick, after all, the first book in China has always been ” the BOOK OF CHANGE” ( I-Ching ) and it is not a champignon slogan.
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Elaine:
I advise the Chinese to punish whoever decided to OK this incredibly stupid design and of course, extradite the architects and if anyone died in this fire, charge them with murder. Somehow, we have to stop this madness. Building things that kill is evil. Below is another tower designed by these demonic idiotic architects:
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Isha:
Thanks, Elaine, for the advice. The most appropriate sentence for the designer and ” whoever oked the design” is death by stoning, as it is written in the first human law ( somewhere in the ancient Middle East ). I will keep my ears on the ground for the coming punishment in China and keep the bloggers here posted….
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Not only is the building unstable, it is ugly as hell.
Comment by endogamy — February 10, 2009 #
…
You are right, not only they are ugly, expensive to build and maintain, they are designed to make a statement, to make a insult, I am just proving to you, contrary to Elaine’s constant assertion of sly 50 years’ plan ..), that how stupid these Chinese decision makers can be: spending hard earned money to insult their own people, their own culture …
http://bdwm.net/bbs/bbstcon.php?board=Triangle&threadid=1974210&num=15866
Beijing Univ. BBS …
If ever, if ever, this very expensive fire could wake Chinese people up on our own stupidity and prevent more grand stupidity from happening in the future, well, it worth the money (tuition to be paid) and the Year of Ox could still be bullish for China …
Isha
Posted by: isha | February 13, 2009 at 12:56 PM