Vice TV guide to China: ghost towns

[count_zero]

A new Vice guide to China's ghost cities is out.

http://eztv.it/ep/44769/vice-s01e06-hdtv-x264-evolve/

Pretty crazy stuff.

Their previous China effort was on matchmaking in a gender-unbalanced nation, which wasn't too great.

[count_zero]

Well, that went down a storm!

Anyways, the same site is also hosting "A Bite of China" with English subtitles.

[roddy]

You didn't really explain what it was, and nobody's going to download however many hundreds of MB's because it's 'pretty crazy stuff'. Plus I don't know about anybody else, but I've never heard of Vice TV.

As a general rule, shorter posts = less interest. A bit more info and a Youtube link would have helped.

[tooironic]

Vice TV are actually relatively well-known. You can check out all their docos on YouTube. They did two excellent films about North Korea - one getting into the country through China, the other about tracking North Korean logging camps in Siberia. I found both absolutely stimulating. I also enjoyed the one about the Japanese man who became a celebrity after eating a woman in France, as well as the one about the photographer who did a series of interviews with Saudi women. What I like about them is they're not afraid to touch upon subjects that get very little traction in the mainstream media, yet despite the often bizarre aspect of their subjects they don't sensationalise the content either. I haven't see that one about Chinese ghost towns yet, but I'll be sure to check it out later.

[roddy]

Exactly, that kind of info.

[count_zero]

I'd assumed everybody had heard of Vice. It's one of the most famous new media organisations in the world.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/mar/23/shane-smith-vice-interview?INTCMP=SRCH

Also, the Chinese version recently launched.

http://e.weibo.com/vicechina?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fhuati.weibo.com%2Fk%2Fvice%2B%25E6%25BC%25AB%25E7%2594%25BB%3Ffrom%3D501%26order%3Dtime

Hang on, I'll find some introductory information for "A Bite of China" for the people who don't know what that is.

[icebear]

I think "one of the most famous new media organisations in the world" is a stretch.

It's popular among the youth because it tackles counter-culture issues. I'm a big fan of their Epicly Later'd series. In general what they offer is very interesting, but a lot of it hardly qualifies as news. In most cases its closer to subjective-documentary - which is fine, it just isn't "news".

They had some interesting bits on Chinese prostitution a year or two ago. I'll pass on the ghost cities stuff, as its a meme that has already been played out for awhile (although is interesting the first time through).

[count_zero]

"new" not "news".

Here's an intro for Roddy. It shows all the stuff they're doing in China.

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/45X1T2m4RaE/

> I'll pass on the ghost cities stuff, as its a meme that has already been played out for awhile (although is interesting the first time through).

I'd heard about ghost cities before but the scale shown in the documentary is extraordinary. Also, I find the post-apocalyptic vibe attractive - like wandering around Beijing on the first day the Spring Festival .

[roddy]

Normally I'd point out that will take an age to load from overseas and I'll have to sit through adverts, but the link didn't work anyway.

I'm not actually interested personally - like the man upstairs said, I don't need to look at pictures of a story I read about years back. But if think something's interesting enough to post and you want so share it, you need more than "this is interesting." People are busy.

[count_zero]

> Normally I'd point out that will take an age to load from overseas and I'll have to sit through adverts, but the link didn't work anyway.

That’s a rather bizarre example of apophasis. Every time somebody posts a link to an online video you take the time to point out there will be adverts? Seems like you’re not as busy as you think you are.

> I'm not actually interested personally - like the man upstairs said, I don't need to look at pictures of a story I read about years back.

I love this hubristic notion that a brand new documentary couldn’t possibly contain any information you didn’t read about years ago. No wonder you hadn’t heard of Vice – documentaries are of no use to you, you know it all already!

[roddy]

My point was meant to be that links to online video aren't always the best way to get information across - there are barriers such as loading time (not trivial when you user base is all over the place), blocks, etc. You seemed surprised nobody was interested in your post, I was trying to explain why that might have been the case.

I might watch a documentary if I know there's going to be something new and interesting in it. If you'd said that ecological refugees and migrant workers are moving into the ghost cities and setting up alternative societies, I've have watched it. But I'm not going to watch all links posted on the off-chance.

The more information people give, even if it's not entirely necessary or relevant, the more interest their post generates.

[count_zero]

> You seemed surprised nobody was interested in your post

Not really.

Anyway, the main thing is what's right and what is not. I'd assumed everyone would know what Vice TV was and I was wrong. So to make up for that I posted a link to a long feature article, Vice's Weibo account and a video introduction on Tudou. You then blamed me for posting video links because you don't live in China and don't like adverts. I don't accept those criticisms as holding any water - especially as you yourself said "a Youtube link would have helped" - so will continue to post links to online videos.

[icebear]

In the future I'd suggest posting answers, rather than links to essays and videos. I answered in 3 sentences what someone would have needed 3 links from you to figure out. It's the OPs responsibility to make a post interesting/approachable enough to warrant discussion - why should anyone else do your research/summary for you?

[Kobo-Daishi]

Count_zero wrote:

Hang on, I'll find some introductory information for "A Bite of China" for the people who don't know what that is.

No need.

There's already a thread discussing the program.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37697-a-bite-of-china-%e8%88%8c%e5%b0%96%e4%b8%8a%e7%9a%84%e4%b8%ad%e5%9b%bd/

I even downloaded the Cantonese version of the series.

It and several other programs re-ignited my passion for cooking.