China

What is up with the NYT this week? Have the Olympics totally made their reporters forget the problems that China is dealing with?

I mean, I understand this an architecture review and not a political story, but puleeze.

"Nonetheless, amid the endless debate over the ethics of building in China, Herzog and de Meuron’s achievement is undeniable. Rather than offering us a reflection of China’s contemporary zeitgeist, they set out to create a sphere of resistance, and to gently redirect society’s course.

The National Stadium reaffirms architecture’s civilizing role in a nation that, despite its outward confidence, is struggling to forge a new identity out of a maelstrom of inner conflict."

I have read more pro-China pieces in the last week than I can stomach. Just because the Olympics is there, we should not be lauding their government for things it's not really doing. Forging a new identity indeed.