Nov. 11, 2004
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Strange
vehicles in China: Part 1
by LINDA MITCHELL
JUST GOT BACK FROM CHINA, WHICH
PROBABLY MAKES ME SOUND LIKE QUITE THE madcap adventuress, when,
in fact, just the opposite is true. I'm happiest when I'm home
in my nest, a typical Cancer, and traveling is something I tolerate
rather than yearn for. My husband, Bill, is always planning the
next trip before the current one is even over. This explains
how I've reluctantly become a "world traveler" in the
14 years we've been together, as well as why I went to China
in the first place, a country approximately 6,000 miles outside
my comfort zone.
Several months ago, Micki Flatmo,
one of my favorite local artists as well as a good friend, invited
Bill and me to tag along with 11 other people from Humboldt to
attend the Dezhou City First International Strange Vehicles Games
in late October. Not surprisingly, Bill was instantly all for
it, but it took me longer to warm up to the idea. Over the course
of a few weeks, Micki worked on changing my mind, insisting the
event was a big deal, on a global scale.
[Team
"Ramshackle" -- featuring Ken Beidleman, June Moxon
and Stock Schlueter. Photo by Linda Mitchell]
Micki told me that Beijing,
the closest major city to Dezhou, is changing rapidly in anticipation
of the 2008 Summer Olympics, growing and modernizing at an unprecedented
rate. The country is also positioning itself to become the world's
leading economic superpower, and is opening up to Western investors
and tourists like never before. An example of this new spirit
of cultural exchange is the Strange Vehicle Games, which was
sponsored by Dezhou City itself as well as a major textile manufacturer,
the Silverdragon Textile Group. We were told that a "purpose-built
arena" capable of seating 20,000 spectators had been built
for the games, and 16 countries from around the world would participate,
including two teams from the United States, both out of Arcata's
Kinetic Lab.
Not that the games had anything
to do with the Kinetic Sculpture Race. In fact, the Strange Vehicles
were supposed to be more like monster trucks -- diesel-powered,
four-wheel-drive macho rigs capable of leaping tall buildings
in a single bound -- not exactly what you'd describe as being
right up the alley of your typical kinetic artist. And yet the
Kinetic Race was fundamentally what had drawn the attention of
the games' sponsors in the first place.
[Team "Rabid
Transit" -- featuring Duane Flatmo,
Scott Cocking and Jerry Kunkel. Photo by Linda Mitchel.]
In 1999, Duane Flatmo, June
Moxon and Ken Beidleman were invited to participate in Junkyard
Wars, a Discovery Channel spin-off of the wildly popular
British television program Scrapyard Challenge, produced
by RDF Media. The trio was invited because producers of the program
had seen them in a film called It'll Have Blinking Eyes &
A Moving Mouth, an award-winning documentary by New York
filmmakers Jeb Bergh and Steve Fox about our Kinetic Sculpture
Race.
While filming Junkyard Wars
in London, our local kinetic artists became friendly with Richard
Curtis, a technical consultant for the program. It was Curtis
who e-mailed Duane in May and invited the local artists to put
together two teams to participate in the games. Curtis was lining
up the contestants for the primary organizer of the games, Zhongqi
Sun.
Sun, a Dezhou City businessman,
an engineer and former contestant on Full Metal Challenge
(another RDF production) was hoping to develop a Chinese version
of the show in an attempt to promote tourism in his home town.
Duane, Ken and June were invited to participate because, as Micki
put it, "The Chinese people love artists," and Sun
wanted vehicles designed to dazzle the crowds. Each team would
receive $2,000 to build their trucks, as well as airfare and
accommodations in China. The artists jumped at the chance.
Two teams were formed at the
Kinetic Lab: Team "Rabid Transit" -- Duane Flatmo,
Scott Cocking (a local graphic designer) and Jerry Kunkel, an
engineer from Oregon -- used their money to buy and modify a
1984 Ford 250 diesel 4 x 4. Team "Ramshackle" -- Ken
Beidleman, June Moxon and Stock Schlueter -- modified a 1987
B2600 Mazda 4 x 4 pickup. Both rigs displayed that typical Kinetic
Lab creative wackiness, but there were serious mechanical problems
with the Mazda right from the beginning.
At any rate, even with all the
information Micki gave us regarding the historical and local
significance of the Chinese event, I wasn't convinced a trip
to China was within our limited budget or even something I especially
wanted to do. Attending what seemed to be a monster truck rally
wasn't even something I'd be keen on doing at home, let alone
halfway around the world in a country where you were advised
to bring your own toilet paper.
I researched Dezhou City on
the Internet and learned from the city's official site that it
was a telecommunications center with a beautiful port and 5.4
million residents. It was known as "the city leading to
everywhere." The "three treasures of Dezhou" are
watermelons, dates and chickens. Well, that didn't sound so bad,
I thought. Still -- the People's Republic of China? I'd never
been to a Communist country. Micki assured me that as long as
no one in our group screamed "Free Tibet!" in Tiananmen
Square, we weren't likely to go to jail.
Bill reminded me of the fun
group of people we'd be traveling with, nearly all of them artists.
He pointed out the potential inspiration. "Think of the
stories," he said. "Imagine all the paintings you'll
get." I recalled the towering mountain ranges, drooping
willows and jaunty magpies in my favorite paintings by Chinese
artists, and finally gave in. We got our visas, inoculations
at the health department -- where we were cautioned not to drink
unboiled water or eat any uncooked fruits or vegetables -- and
left for China.
Our group arrived in Beijing
following a direct, 13-hour flight from San Francisco, unkempt
and exhausted, yet brimming with excitement. "China,"
we whispered to each other, not quite believing it. We picked
up our luggage and went to meet our sponsors. "They'll be
holding a sign with the SVG rings on it," Duane assured
the group, but when we left baggage claim and surveyed the people
waiting to pick up passengers, there was no one holding anything
that looked like rings. It didn't appear to be an auspicious
beginning.
(To be continued next week.)
"Vehicles that can climb
any slope, ford any river and maintain grip on any surface will
come together for the ultimate test of man and machine!"
- www.strangevehiclesgames.com
Linda Mitchell can be reached
via
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