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Arriving for breakfast on a recent morning in Beijing, Wen Ma looks as self-assured as the glittering new buildings rising around her. Her eyes convey a kind of benign 1)ferocity, a flicker of 2)knowingness that’s 3)jarring in a 33-year-old. But then again, for all her youth, Ma is carrying an unlikely burden: the aspirations of 1.3 billion people.
A Beijing-born, New York-seasoned artist, Ma is part of the seven-member creative team 4)masterminding China’s great coming out party—the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Leading her group is acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou. But, younger than her colleagues by a generation or so—and with an artist’s résumé that includes a video work—Ma is 5)emblematic of a newer, 6)edgier China. The opening ceremony will no doubt be a 7)G-rated affair, but when the Olympic torch finally arrives in Beijing, Ma wants to 8)smoke out your clichéd ideas about her country—and those of your 4 billion fellow viewers—right along with it. “We’re going to try to keep the ribbon dancing to a minimum,” she says. “Whatever we end up doing, the bottom line is to showcase the innovation of the Chinese people. Everyone wants to 9)project a very modern image—one that will stun the world.”
China is not content to serve as factory to the globe. Call it economic foresight, or cultural pride, but despite the 10)stratospheric growth of its eco-nomy—10.7% in 2006—China knows that cheap labor alone can’t sustain the boom. While 11)a flurry of activity (and, yes, a government five-year plan) has stressed scientific and technological innovation, look a little closer and you’ll see that creativity in art and industry—in design, fashion, media, and the like—is fast becoming a driving national mission. You can sense it in the trendy restaurants and 12)slick 13)boutiques popping up in major cities—and in the 14)gritty ex-warehouse and factory districts where imagination-driven companies are joining the cafés and art galleries that first settled in. Newsstands are 15)brimming with 16)glossies such as [1]Vision, [2]Urban, and [3]Modern Weekly that, joined by online counterparts like [4]Coldtea, 17)feature international trends alongside promising local talents. China’s answers to [5]YouTube ([6]Tudou and [7]Yoqoo) and social-networking sites ([8]Douban)—along with an estimated 34 million blogs—are bringing in digital reinforcements on a national scale.
Combine all of that with a counter 18)diaspora and reverse 19)brain drain of talent, and the overall result is a kind of 20)primordial soup thick with the building blocks of creative enterprise. Emerging from it is an army—small, but growing—that’s working to reinvent how China thinks and works. But does China have what it takes to become a creative superpower? At first glance, even the Chinese seem unsure. “We asked a thousand 15- to 35-year-olds in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to rank the 20 or 25 words that best describe China,” says P.T. Black, an American-born partner of Jigsaw International, a Shanghai-based trend-forecasting firm that counts major multinationals as clients. And “‘creative’ placed close to last.”
China’s overall population may be aging faster than almost any on earth, but its younger ge-nerations benefit from one creative 21)staple long denied their elders: a sense of possibility. “These are people who have seen nothing but growth,” Black says, “nothing but China getting the Olympics, Yao Ming going to the NBA, nothing but optimism.” And, for some, nothing but the 22)tantalizing proximity of a vast new affluence: By one count, the average age of China’s 400 richest people stands at 46.5, versus 65.7 in the United States—bringing a 25-year-old in China a full generation closer to the average 23)gazillionaire. “There’s a sense that creativity is where you make money,” Black continues. “People are getting rewarded for it, and that’s only going to inspire more.”
If anyone could be called Great Leader in this new 24)countercultural revolution, it’s Ou Ning. Originally from the southern province of Guangdong
but now based in Beijing, Ou, 37, is typical of the kind of 25)frenetic multitasker you’re liable to run into here these days: A writer, filmmaker, music promoter, and graphic designer, he has founded several 26)alternative magazines to boot. His latest project is Get It Louder, a 27)roving biennial exhibition of young creatives that’s 28)billed as the first of its kind in China—a road show for the country’s 29)grooviest generation that, this spring and summer, is having its second run in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. “In Chinese society, it’s always the old people who have power,” says Ou, who’s dressed in a pair of pea-green Nikes to complement his 30)austere eyewear and uniform of black. “We want to create a platform for young people to speak their own voice.” At the
31)inaugural Get It Louder, the German 32)faucet maker 33)Grohe was so impressed by Shanghai architect Chen Xudong’s “Water Corridor” installation that the company asked him to come up with some new product concepts.
The massive influx of foreign multinationals, and the growth of their Chinese competitors, has given local talents new chances to stretch and prove themselves at home. More significant, those talents are starting to find demand overseas. Last November, the People’s Daily proudly announced that China had become the world’s third-largest exporter of creative services and products. Granted, how creativity was defined—and how much of the country’s $969.1 billion in 2006 exports was “creative”—seems a bit unclear. Still, “the last 20 years have been about the West moving East,” says Philip Dodd, a consultant and BBC radio host whose London-based firm, Made in China, is helping Chinese cities develop their creative industries. “But the next 20 years will be about the East moving West.”
“The young generation in China is unbelievably strong,” says Stefano Boeri, who, as editor of the Italian design bible [9]Domus, oversaw the launch of the magazine’s Chinese edition last year. Boeri is referring to China’s emerging architects, but his words 34)resonate more broadly: “They still need to 35)metabolize,” he continues, “but in a few years, they’ll produce something new. Of this I’m absolutely sure.”
That’s it: time. China just needs time. Yet in a country where everything is happening at 36)warp speed, waiting around isn’t an option. And so, from the grassroots to the very top, young Chinese are ramping up. Just think of Wen Ma, as she spends her days and nights contemplating how to project an 37)ascendant China at the Olympics in 2008. “It’s a heavy burden—not only to show the world a new side of China, but the Chinese people are expecting a lot too,” she says. “Everyone, it seems, is ready for a renaissance of creativity.” They won’t have long to wait.
不久前的一天早晨在北京，如约来吃早餐的马文看上去很自信，就像那些正在她周围拔地而起的闪闪发光的新建筑一样。她的双眼流露出一种温和的霸气，略有一丝与她33年人生历练不吻合的卖弄。这也难怪，马文年纪轻轻便肩负着一个极少落在同龄人身上的重任：展现13亿人的抱负。
作为一个在北京出生，在纽约学习受训过的艺术家，马文是由7名成员组成的负责2008北京奥运会开幕式策划的创意团队中的一员，这个开幕式被视为一场举世瞩目的盛会。带领她这个团队的是久富盛名的电影导演张艺谋。虽然马文的年龄比同事们小了差不多一代，曾制作过录像作品的她象征着一个较新颖、较有创意的中国。开幕式无疑将是一场老少咸宜的节目，然而当奥运火炬最终抵达北京时，马文希望借助它驱散你们乃至40亿外国观众脑子里关于她国家的陈旧观念。“我们会尽可能把彩带舞之类的老套节目减到最少。”她说道，“不管我们最后完成的情况怎样，最起码会向世界展示中国人民的创新精神。每个人都希望对外展示一个将震惊世界的极为现代的形象。”
中国不满足于以一个世界工厂的身份参与到全球化中。尽管中国2006年经济达到了10.7%的极高增长速度，但中国知道单靠其廉价劳动力不能使经济持续繁荣——这种想法既可能是由于经济上的远见，又或是出于对民族文化的自尊心。一方面政府紧急出台一系列措施（当然，还有政府的五年计划）着力于科学技术上的革新，另一方面，如果你再看得更深入一些，就会发现艺术产业（如设计、时尚、媒体等）中的创新正迅速成为一项颇具推动力的民族使命。无论是从大城市里骤然兴起的潮流餐馆、雅致的服饰店，又或是从最早被咖啡屋和艺廊进驻继而吸引创意公司加盟的曾经沙砾遍地的旧仓库和工厂区里，你都可以感受到这一点。报摊摆满的诸如《VISION青年视觉》、Urban和《周末画报》等大众杂志，连同网上《凉茶》之类的创意杂志，在介绍国际潮流之余也会宣传本土有发展前途的人才。中国人对于YouTube网（以及土豆网、优酷网）、社交网络站点如豆瓣网，以及大约3400万的博客的热烈反应，以全民的规模给创意产业带来了数字化增援。
综合以上提到的一切，以及移民回流、人才回归的趋势，得出来的结论是：中国就像一锅地球生命诞生时的“原始汤”，充满了发展创意产业所需的建筑材料，从中浮现的是一支规模虽小却不断壮大着的队伍，他们努力要彻底改造中国人的思维方式和做法。但是中国已具备成为创意超级大国的各种条件了吗？乍一看，就连中国人自己似乎都不太肯定。“我们采访了1000名年龄介于15到35岁居住在北京、上海和广州的居民，让他们给20或25个最能描述中国的词语排序，‘创意’这个词的排名接近末尾。”P·T·布莱克说道。他在美国出生，是专事市场走势预测的上海杰搜国际公司的合伙人，该公司的客户包括世界上主要的跨国企业。
中国总人口的衰老速度也许比地球上其他任何地方都要快，但其年轻一代具备一种他们的长辈所缺少的东西，即“一切皆有可能”的信念，这是产生创意的必要条件之一。“有些人眼里只看到增长。”布莱克说道，“他们只看到中国要办奥运了，姚明进NBA了，一切都是乐观的。”另外还有一些人，他们只看到中国富裕阶层财富激增的诱人近景：以单一指标算，中国400位最富有的人的平均年龄是46.5岁，相较于美国的65.7岁，这使得一个年仅25岁的中国人距离超级富豪的平均年龄比美国人少了整整一代。“有些人认为，只要你有创意你就能赚大钱。”布莱克继续说道，“人们正从中获得回报，这只会激发更多人凭创意赚钱的欲望。”
如果谁有资格在这轮逆传统的文化革新中被称为伟大导师，那么这人非欧宁莫属。37岁的欧宁起初在中国南部的广东省工作，现在北京发展，是个你在这个时代很容易会碰上的身兼数职的工作狂：作家、电影制作人、音乐推广人、平面设计师，除此之外他还创办了几本另类杂志。他最近开展的“大声展”项目是为国内年轻一代中具有创意的设计者举办的创意作品巡回双年展，被标榜为中国首个。这是为国内最优秀的一代举办的巡回展，今年春夏两季将第二次进驻北京、上海和广州。“在中国的社会里，权力总在老一辈人的手中。”穿一双淡绿色耐克鞋来搭配他那风格简朴的眼镜及一身黑衣的欧宁说道。“我们希望给年轻人创造一个平台表达自我。”在“大声展”的开幕式上，德国水龙头制造集团高仪对上海建筑师陈旭东设计的“水廊”装置印象深刻，于是请他为其新产品作构思。
大量涌进中国的外资跨国公司及其不断发展的中国竞争对手们，给了本土人才新的机会，可以在本国发挥并证明自己的实力。更具意义的是，这些有能力的人开始拿到海外定单。去年11月，《人民日报》自豪地宣布，中国已成为世界第三大创意服务和创意产品出口国。当然，这要看如何定义“创意”，以及2006年全国出口产品和服务总额9691亿美元中有多少属于“创意”的份额，这些都似乎有点不太明了。纵然如此，菲利普·多德还是说：“过去20年一直是西风东渐，但接下来20年的趋势将是东风西渐。”菲利普的职业是顾问及BBC电台主持，在伦敦经营一个名为“中国制造”的公司，旨在帮助中国的城市发展其创意产业。
“中国的年轻一代强大地让人难以相信。”斯蒂芬诺·波埃利说道，他是意大利设计类权威杂志Domus的编辑，去年向市场投放了杂志的中文版。波埃利谈的是中国的新晋建筑师，但他的话也适用于更广泛的领域。“他们仍需经历推陈出新。”他继续说道，“但在未来的几年里，我很肯定他们会创作出一些新东西。”
需要的正是：时间。中国只是需要时间。然而在一个一切超速发生的国家里，根本没有等待这回事。于是，从草根到上层，中国年轻人都在猛冲。只需想想马文，她日日夜夜在想着如何在2008年奥运会上把中国的进步展示出来。“这是个很艰巨的任务——不仅要向世界展示中国新的一面，中国人民也对此期望很高。”她说道，“仿佛每个人都拭目等待着创造力的复兴。”他们不需要等很久。
A Beijing-born, New York-seasoned artist, Ma is part of the seven-member creative team 4)masterminding China’s great coming out party—the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Leading her group is acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou. But, younger than her colleagues by a generation or so—and with an artist’s résumé that includes a video work—Ma is 5)emblematic of a newer, 6)edgier China. The opening ceremony will no doubt be a 7)G-rated affair, but when the Olympic torch finally arrives in Beijing, Ma wants to 8)smoke out your clichéd ideas about her country—and those of your 4 billion fellow viewers—right along with it. “We’re going to try to keep the ribbon dancing to a minimum,” she says. “Whatever we end up doing, the bottom line is to showcase the innovation of the Chinese people. Everyone wants to 9)project a very modern image—one that will stun the world.”
China is not content to serve as factory to the globe. Call it economic foresight, or cultural pride, but despite the 10)stratospheric growth of its eco-nomy—10.7% in 2006—China knows that cheap labor alone can’t sustain the boom. While 11)a flurry of activity (and, yes, a government five-year plan) has stressed scientific and technological innovation, look a little closer and you’ll see that creativity in art and industry—in design, fashion, media, and the like—is fast becoming a driving national mission. You can sense it in the trendy restaurants and 12)slick 13)boutiques popping up in major cities—and in the 14)gritty ex-warehouse and factory districts where imagination-driven companies are joining the cafés and art galleries that first settled in. Newsstands are 15)brimming with 16)glossies such as [1]Vision, [2]Urban, and [3]Modern Weekly that, joined by online counterparts like [4]Coldtea, 17)feature international trends alongside promising local talents. China’s answers to [5]YouTube ([6]Tudou and [7]Yoqoo) and social-networking sites ([8]Douban)—along with an estimated 34 million blogs—are bringing in digital reinforcements on a national scale.
Combine all of that with a counter 18)diaspora and reverse 19)brain drain of talent, and the overall result is a kind of 20)primordial soup thick with the building blocks of creative enterprise. Emerging from it is an army—small, but growing—that’s working to reinvent how China thinks and works. But does China have what it takes to become a creative superpower? At first glance, even the Chinese seem unsure. “We asked a thousand 15- to 35-year-olds in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to rank the 20 or 25 words that best describe China,” says P.T. Black, an American-born partner of Jigsaw International, a Shanghai-based trend-forecasting firm that counts major multinationals as clients. And “‘creative’ placed close to last.”
China’s overall population may be aging faster than almost any on earth, but its younger ge-nerations benefit from one creative 21)staple long denied their elders: a sense of possibility. “These are people who have seen nothing but growth,” Black says, “nothing but China getting the Olympics, Yao Ming going to the NBA, nothing but optimism.” And, for some, nothing but the 22)tantalizing proximity of a vast new affluence: By one count, the average age of China’s 400 richest people stands at 46.5, versus 65.7 in the United States—bringing a 25-year-old in China a full generation closer to the average 23)gazillionaire. “There’s a sense that creativity is where you make money,” Black continues. “People are getting rewarded for it, and that’s only going to inspire more.”
If anyone could be called Great Leader in this new 24)countercultural revolution, it’s Ou Ning. Originally from the southern province of Guangdong
but now based in Beijing, Ou, 37, is typical of the kind of 25)frenetic multitasker you’re liable to run into here these days: A writer, filmmaker, music promoter, and graphic designer, he has founded several 26)alternative magazines to boot. His latest project is Get It Louder, a 27)roving biennial exhibition of young creatives that’s 28)billed as the first of its kind in China—a road show for the country’s 29)grooviest generation that, this spring and summer, is having its second run in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. “In Chinese society, it’s always the old people who have power,” says Ou, who’s dressed in a pair of pea-green Nikes to complement his 30)austere eyewear and uniform of black. “We want to create a platform for young people to speak their own voice.” At the
31)inaugural Get It Louder, the German 32)faucet maker 33)Grohe was so impressed by Shanghai architect Chen Xudong’s “Water Corridor” installation that the company asked him to come up with some new product concepts.
The massive influx of foreign multinationals, and the growth of their Chinese competitors, has given local talents new chances to stretch and prove themselves at home. More significant, those talents are starting to find demand overseas. Last November, the People’s Daily proudly announced that China had become the world’s third-largest exporter of creative services and products. Granted, how creativity was defined—and how much of the country’s $969.1 billion in 2006 exports was “creative”—seems a bit unclear. Still, “the last 20 years have been about the West moving East,” says Philip Dodd, a consultant and BBC radio host whose London-based firm, Made in China, is helping Chinese cities develop their creative industries. “But the next 20 years will be about the East moving West.”
“The young generation in China is unbelievably strong,” says Stefano Boeri, who, as editor of the Italian design bible [9]Domus, oversaw the launch of the magazine’s Chinese edition last year. Boeri is referring to China’s emerging architects, but his words 34)resonate more broadly: “They still need to 35)metabolize,” he continues, “but in a few years, they’ll produce something new. Of this I’m absolutely sure.”
That’s it: time. China just needs time. Yet in a country where everything is happening at 36)warp speed, waiting around isn’t an option. And so, from the grassroots to the very top, young Chinese are ramping up. Just think of Wen Ma, as she spends her days and nights contemplating how to project an 37)ascendant China at the Olympics in 2008. “It’s a heavy burden—not only to show the world a new side of China, but the Chinese people are expecting a lot too,” she says. “Everyone, it seems, is ready for a renaissance of creativity.” They won’t have long to wait.
不久前的一天早晨在北京，如约来吃早餐的马文看上去很自信，就像那些正在她周围拔地而起的闪闪发光的新建筑一样。她的双眼流露出一种温和的霸气，略有一丝与她33年人生历练不吻合的卖弄。这也难怪，马文年纪轻轻便肩负着一个极少落在同龄人身上的重任：展现13亿人的抱负。
作为一个在北京出生，在纽约学习受训过的艺术家，马文是由7名成员组成的负责2008北京奥运会开幕式策划的创意团队中的一员，这个开幕式被视为一场举世瞩目的盛会。带领她这个团队的是久富盛名的电影导演张艺谋。虽然马文的年龄比同事们小了差不多一代，曾制作过录像作品的她象征着一个较新颖、较有创意的中国。开幕式无疑将是一场老少咸宜的节目，然而当奥运火炬最终抵达北京时，马文希望借助它驱散你们乃至40亿外国观众脑子里关于她国家的陈旧观念。“我们会尽可能把彩带舞之类的老套节目减到最少。”她说道，“不管我们最后完成的情况怎样，最起码会向世界展示中国人民的创新精神。每个人都希望对外展示一个将震惊世界的极为现代的形象。”
中国不满足于以一个世界工厂的身份参与到全球化中。尽管中国2006年经济达到了10.7%的极高增长速度，但中国知道单靠其廉价劳动力不能使经济持续繁荣——这种想法既可能是由于经济上的远见，又或是出于对民族文化的自尊心。一方面政府紧急出台一系列措施（当然，还有政府的五年计划）着力于科学技术上的革新，另一方面，如果你再看得更深入一些，就会发现艺术产业（如设计、时尚、媒体等）中的创新正迅速成为一项颇具推动力的民族使命。无论是从大城市里骤然兴起的潮流餐馆、雅致的服饰店，又或是从最早被咖啡屋和艺廊进驻继而吸引创意公司加盟的曾经沙砾遍地的旧仓库和工厂区里，你都可以感受到这一点。报摊摆满的诸如《VISION青年视觉》、Urban和《周末画报》等大众杂志，连同网上《凉茶》之类的创意杂志，在介绍国际潮流之余也会宣传本土有发展前途的人才。中国人对于YouTube网（以及土豆网、优酷网）、社交网络站点如豆瓣网，以及大约3400万的博客的热烈反应，以全民的规模给创意产业带来了数字化增援。
综合以上提到的一切，以及移民回流、人才回归的趋势，得出来的结论是：中国就像一锅地球生命诞生时的“原始汤”，充满了发展创意产业所需的建筑材料，从中浮现的是一支规模虽小却不断壮大着的队伍，他们努力要彻底改造中国人的思维方式和做法。但是中国已具备成为创意超级大国的各种条件了吗？乍一看，就连中国人自己似乎都不太肯定。“我们采访了1000名年龄介于15到35岁居住在北京、上海和广州的居民，让他们给20或25个最能描述中国的词语排序，‘创意’这个词的排名接近末尾。”P·T·布莱克说道。他在美国出生，是专事市场走势预测的上海杰搜国际公司的合伙人，该公司的客户包括世界上主要的跨国企业。
中国总人口的衰老速度也许比地球上其他任何地方都要快，但其年轻一代具备一种他们的长辈所缺少的东西，即“一切皆有可能”的信念，这是产生创意的必要条件之一。“有些人眼里只看到增长。”布莱克说道，“他们只看到中国要办奥运了，姚明进NBA了，一切都是乐观的。”另外还有一些人，他们只看到中国富裕阶层财富激增的诱人近景：以单一指标算，中国400位最富有的人的平均年龄是46.5岁，相较于美国的65.7岁，这使得一个年仅25岁的中国人距离超级富豪的平均年龄比美国人少了整整一代。“有些人认为，只要你有创意你就能赚大钱。”布莱克继续说道，“人们正从中获得回报，这只会激发更多人凭创意赚钱的欲望。”
如果谁有资格在这轮逆传统的文化革新中被称为伟大导师，那么这人非欧宁莫属。37岁的欧宁起初在中国南部的广东省工作，现在北京发展，是个你在这个时代很容易会碰上的身兼数职的工作狂：作家、电影制作人、音乐推广人、平面设计师，除此之外他还创办了几本另类杂志。他最近开展的“大声展”项目是为国内年轻一代中具有创意的设计者举办的创意作品巡回双年展，被标榜为中国首个。这是为国内最优秀的一代举办的巡回展，今年春夏两季将第二次进驻北京、上海和广州。“在中国的社会里，权力总在老一辈人的手中。”穿一双淡绿色耐克鞋来搭配他那风格简朴的眼镜及一身黑衣的欧宁说道。“我们希望给年轻人创造一个平台表达自我。”在“大声展”的开幕式上，德国水龙头制造集团高仪对上海建筑师陈旭东设计的“水廊”装置印象深刻，于是请他为其新产品作构思。
大量涌进中国的外资跨国公司及其不断发展的中国竞争对手们，给了本土人才新的机会，可以在本国发挥并证明自己的实力。更具意义的是，这些有能力的人开始拿到海外定单。去年11月，《人民日报》自豪地宣布，中国已成为世界第三大创意服务和创意产品出口国。当然，这要看如何定义“创意”，以及2006年全国出口产品和服务总额9691亿美元中有多少属于“创意”的份额，这些都似乎有点不太明了。纵然如此，菲利普·多德还是说：“过去20年一直是西风东渐，但接下来20年的趋势将是东风西渐。”菲利普的职业是顾问及BBC电台主持，在伦敦经营一个名为“中国制造”的公司，旨在帮助中国的城市发展其创意产业。
“中国的年轻一代强大地让人难以相信。”斯蒂芬诺·波埃利说道，他是意大利设计类权威杂志Domus的编辑，去年向市场投放了杂志的中文版。波埃利谈的是中国的新晋建筑师，但他的话也适用于更广泛的领域。“他们仍需经历推陈出新。”他继续说道，“但在未来的几年里，我很肯定他们会创作出一些新东西。”
需要的正是：时间。中国只是需要时间。然而在一个一切超速发生的国家里，根本没有等待这回事。于是，从草根到上层，中国年轻人都在猛冲。只需想想马文，她日日夜夜在想着如何在2008年奥运会上把中国的进步展示出来。“这是个很艰巨的任务——不仅要向世界展示中国新的一面，中国人民也对此期望很高。”她说道，“仿佛每个人都拭目等待着创造力的复兴。”他们不需要等很久。