Urban China: Work in Progress Book Launch and Talk with Jiang Jun and Brendan McGetrick

Date: Sunday, November 15, 2009
Time: 16:30-17:30
Venue: Timezone 8 (798), No 4 Jiu Xian Qiao Rd

Timezone 8 is pleased to announce the book launch ofUrban China Work in Progress. This members only event will take place at Timezone 8 (798) 4:30-5:30pm, Sunday November 15. Speaking at the launch will be the books Editors Brendan McGetrick and Jiang Jun. Canapes and refreshements will be served prior to the talk.

Published by Timezone 8, Urban China: Work in Progresswill be available for sale and signing on the night.

Urban China: Work In Progress is a groundbreaking publication that brings together many of China's most influential contemporary writers, photographers, and critics. Drawn from the pages of "Urban China," a monthly magazine that combines politics, sociology, mass media, architecture, art, and literature, the book provides an intimate view to a century of radical modernization in China. Organized around three basic themes - society, family, and education - the book fans out to cover an expansive range of topics, offering personal perspectives on a culture that is influential, often discussed, but little understood. Presented here for the first time in English, the essays, photos, maps, diagrams, and illustrations that comprise "Work In Progress" establish a new paradigm for the study of Chinese cultural construction.

“An excellent magazine... Every month Urban China attempts the seemingly impossible - to construct a coherent narrative about a landscape that is changing by the minute.” - Rem Koolhaas

“I have been a fan of Urban China for a long, long time. It is a great example of how a magazine can be a laboratory and also a time capsule.” - Hans Ulrich Obrist

“Urban China has done a great job to become a really unique magazine on urban issues.” - Hou Hanru

About the Editors/Speakers:

Brendan McGetrick is an independent writer, editor, and designer. His work has appeared in publications in over twenty countries, including Wired, Art Review, Domus, and casa BRUTUS.His recent projects include the books Becoming (Ivory Press and Timezone 8, 2008)and MAD Dinner (Actar, 2008), as well as 桌志I Eat Up, a magazine about consumption formatted as a table cloth. From 2002-2006, he served as head writer at the research studio AMO.

Jiang Jun is a designer, editor and critic, who has been working on urban research and experimental study, exploring the interrelationship between design phenomena and urban dynamics. He founded Underline Office in late 2003 and has served as the editor-in-chief of Urban China magazine since the end of 2004, and in the meantime has been working on the book Hi-China.