Shanghai, Beijing, Guiyang
Shanghai, Beijing, Guiyang
Shanghai, Beijing, Guiyang
WE DON’T INHERIT THE WORLD FROM OUR ANCESTORS, WE BORROW IT FROM OUR CHILDREN
In July 2011 Zoe Svendsen and Simon Daw visited China to meet with artists, climate specialists, journalists and art producers to discuss how the issues explored in 3rd Ring Out relate to contemporary Chinese climate change questions, art and performance. We did a presentation at Xindanwei in Shanghai, to artists, cultural producers and media people all concerned by climate change. This was followed by an open space discussion, where the topics ranged from questions of the relationship between art and education, to the decisive split between city and rural areas in terms of climate impacts (for those living in the resource-hungry cities, climate decimation feels remote, even when encroaching, as is the case with the desertification outside Beijing).
In Beijing, we held two round-table discussions at the British Council, using 3rd Ring Out as a catalyst to explore climate change issues. The first was with climate journalists from a variety of organisations, including CCTV, Global Times, the China Information Centre, 21st century Business Herald and China Dialogue. The second was with climate scientists, teachers and British Council climate champions.
In Guiyang, Zoe gave a presentation at the annual international Ecoforum, participating in the education panel.
Inspiration
This project was conceived of and produced by Rachel Parslew, inspired by 3rd Ring Out.
It was supported by a British Council Connections through Culture grant and the Sino-British Fellowship Trust.
Many thanks to aaajiao, Zhou Liping, Xindanwei, Rebecca Nadin and the arts and climate change teams at British Council China for making the trip possible.
Articles on Climate Change in China
The diversity of climate-related problems facing China is breathtaking.
Here are some issues of interest:
A greener city, house by house
Green Anhui and the grass-roots way
Full circle for bikes in Beijing?
Young China’s long green march
Reuse your chopsticks! Deforestation and the Greenpeace campaign
Images showing river drought in China (April 2012)
Announcement by the Chinese Government on energy cooperation with Europe (Chinese here)
China’s challenges: political change, pollution and protest
Measuring China’s pollution from space
China’s largest freshwater lake dries up
Thank you to Wang Kai, Lin Lilian, Zhou Wei, Rachel Parslew and others for links and research.