Thursday, August 28, 2008

Oracle - Chapters 8 and 9

Chapter 8 is a short retelling of Polat's immigration experience to America. Let it suffice to say that obtaining forged documents in China is apparently very easy.

Chapter 9 centers around Old Mr. Zhao, a resident of one of Beijing's historic courtyard houses that is in danger of being torn down for the benefit of modernization. This section is really about struggle between China's past and future. Under the rule of Mao, Beijing was encouraged to be an industrial center and historic sites were routinely replaced by more economic real estate development.

This struggle comes to a head with the battle between local government and Old Mr. Zhao. Eventually the inevitable takes place, as Zhao is forcibly evicted from his house.

An interesting aside was the "chai" tag that was placed on houses destined to be torn down. Meaning demolition, the chai tag eventually morphed into a cultural symbol and was used ironically in art. "Chai nar" is a pun that plays off the how "China" sounds, but really means "Demolish where?".

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