Ten days later and it feels like a month has passed. Less than 3 months I’ve been gone but Yiwu has changed aggressively, it feels like years. The roads have grown crowded, no longer with old bicycle carts and tiny trucks. The streets are clogged with luxury sedans and SUVs, still pushing and jockeying (no lines heeded) at every intersection regardless of whose turn it may be to drive.

An Yiwu street-sweeper minds the intersection.

Traffic here is like… well… sand moving through an hourglass, each car a grain of sand trying to make it through a small opening while pushing against every other grain. Taxis no longer dominate the city. The middle class has arrived in Yiwu, their spoiled mindless children still kicking at puppies for sale and never being without their cellular comfort blanket. Even in the USA (where I’ve seen people not speak for minutes in a room together while typing on their phones) things aren’t as dire as they can be here.

A man checks his cell phone in an Yiwu intersection.

The de-humanization combined with with the lack of alternative activities to shopping are molding these kind and good people into into an apathetic, power-hungry bunch with no regard for the life around them (sound familiar USA?). These people want nothing more (they HAVE nothing more to do)… than to succeed, to advance beyond their peers in whatever way they can (still sounding familiar) no matter how rude, heartless or greedy it makes them become. It would behoove any system not to be controlled by a select few who don’t mind sacrificing the rest of their peers for their own survival. A recipe for change, or disaster, or both… who knows. All of the worst aspects of Western vanity, exclusivity and commercialism have found a fresh and powerful host in the pulsing Chinese economy. No hobbies, few social interactions that aren’t strictly for business… no diversions! No distractions! No getting together for dinner over a bottle of wine with friends just to pass the time. No gatherings of more than 20 people unless it’s for a sale or a meeting, save once or twice a year for the family reunion. Compartmentalization out the wazoo. Still, life in it’s brilliance shines through the cracks of this society’s utterly utilitarian edifice: an illegal card game (gambling) on the sidewalk or on the back of a cab between shifts… people having fun walking their dogs in the park… A group of teens escaping the city to an unsupervised dam to go swimming… but still for the most part it can be pretty depressing.

A little gambling on the back of a cab. We were always shoo-ed away quickly if a camera appeared, otherwise they didn’t seem to mind if we watched them play cards.

A young man relaxes after swimming at a dam outside of Yiwu. This was a popular spot for a while.

A new luxury hotel across the lake from the dam (a popular swimming spot) outside of Yiwu.

There’s no spot created by the culture for the things that make us human. Risk. Sex. Travel. Indulgence. Strangers. Questions. Hell, this whole rant and I’ve only been back for ten days. What’s happened since then, the last time I was here… just a few months ago?

The remainder of my weekend and first days back in China pass quietly, save for Sunday night and a glass of wine with R___ and his friend Abdullah that resulted in me returning to C______’s early the following morning. Planned and took several casting appointments for the film including our Detective and at least one of his Agents. Met an interesting wash of folks from around the world including: two Boeing 747 pilots for KLM with hilarious magic tricks, a model from Uganda who doesn’t trust strangers, two Hungarian women and an Austrian actress whose beauty was stunning but unfortunately couldn’t act out cracking an egg on a skillet if you asked her. Things were quiet in Yiwu this week, with so many residents off to the Canton Fair and the temperature dropping rapidly people are staying indoors. Despite this I’ve managed to to have several crazy nights, one undoubtedly ending in an argument with an Italian woman. The rest has been great. Seeing old friends, having a great day exploring the city with Batman (A___), playing football, night photography in the park. It’s all good. Finished a schedule, found some more good people, but there’s a long way yet to go.

Another card game, with money on the line of course.

PRODUCTION ENTRY 02 - Director Brendan Merrill's Personal Journal