The Trojan Dragon: Supersudaca in Costa Rica

Arthub Asia is invited to take part in a workshop in Costa Rica organized by Supersudaca and the University of Costa Rica, from the 15th to 24th of February, 2011. The participation by Arthub Asia will be via a conference call (Skype).

Max Zowlker and Felix Mandrazo were in Shanghai for a residency at Arthub Asia a year ago and the encounter with China spun off a series of thoughts about the current situation in Central and South America in relationship to this new superpower.

Here below are some of their reflections after their Chinese experience:
Text written by Max Zowlker and Felix Mandrazo

After our local-local experience (local in our place – local in the place of research) the idea of a reverse research came out.

The interesting thing to look at wasn’t the fabulous, ever expanding, technologic, super producing China, but the other one, the outer China (local for us) that already fills in all corners of the world. So we came back home to continue searching.

Through the super production of all goods and objects allowing access to things to most of the world population, China has shaped international capitalism. Along with its new roll at WTO, its direct economical-political relation with countries from Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, we can see that this is if not a total power shift at least a new balance.

This new Chinese power is not visible as an intrusion in our daily life. It works perfectly, symbiotically, without friction. Everything is Chinese; China is part of every moment in our lives. Maybe we are Chinese, and we didn’t even realize. Like a Trojan Horse.

It’s not only goods, but people and portions of cities that are spread all over the world.

May be we didn’t realize because as a difference with former empires (USA, Great Britain, Spain, Rome, etc.) it seems there is no international propaganda. No cultural colonization has occurred, not even military occupation. Just sheer size.

That’s why the Trojan Horse intends to discover how China operates abroad. Which are the colonization/occupation mechanisms that bring China to the rest of the world and make the world become a larger scale China.

For more information please click here.