Although I might not be the biggest fan of electronic dance music, the INTRO 2010 Electronic Music Festival help in D-Park was an amazing visual fest that could not be resisted. Brought to Beijing by the infamous Acupuncture Records, it is the largest outdoor electronic music festival in China. Kids were running wild. Next year I plan on doing a more in-depth review.

I got prime access to a Lenovo manufacturing factory for a Washington Post article on China’s efforts to create name-brand innovation and recognition globally. Although not as big as other assembly centers in Shanghai and Shenzhen, it still pumped out thousands of desktop computers on a daily basis.

Two of my favorite rocker outfits are now working out of Shanghai. Duck Fight Goose, led by Miniless Records founder Han Han, and Booji are playing amazing concerts of their self-styled Death Ray Rock. Let it be known: Duck Fight Goose and Booji are officially killing it. Check out Dan Shapiro’s post on CNNGo for more information and other interesting facts.

Easily the most heavily guarded border in the world, the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with the Military Demarcation Line at its center marks the last line of engagement between North and South Korea when an armistice agreement ended open fighting in 1953. Since then the DMZ remains an open sore on the Korean peninsula and a constant reminder of the tenuous relationship between the ethnically bound but politically split countries. Although numerous incidents have taken the lives of military personal in the DMZ over the years, South Korea now heavily promotes the DMZ as a tourist destination within easy reach of Seoul. Domestic and international sightseers spend the day in the Joint Security Area within plain sight of North Korean guards before hitting up gift shops, the DMZ Pavilion, unearthed North Korean incursion tunnels and other noteworthy sites. Tours then end in Dorasan Station, a modern but unused train station built near the DMZ as a gesture by South Korea to express their wish for peaceful reunification. Such hopes continue to be set back, however, as South Korea is now blaming North Korea for the sinking of a naval ship in March that took the lives of 46 South Korean sailors.

What could be naively described as a hipster transformation is taking place in Beijing. Although some may only dress the part, others are the first in China to truly embrace alternative lifestyles that fly in the face of social conformity so desperately imposed by the Chinese state. Whether shopping at second-hand clothing stores, scouring the Internet for fringe media, pursuing careers in the arts and generally rejecting the popular molds of their communist past, these youth are seeking to stand out from the masses. This increasing tendency toward individualism coupled with newfound online forums for self-expression is one the cornerstones of China’s emerging civil society and often comes with a social stigma that is hard to imagine outside of China. Many don’t wish to participate in a largely vacuous and unsustainable consumer culture taking hold of the country. While they might not brazenly attack the government, their embracement of such a lifestyle is a powerful statement in and of itself. The biggest congregations now occur at major music festivals sprouting up all over the country. All of these portraits were taken at the 2010 MIDI Music Festival.

I put together a video slideshow for my recently published monograph, Sound Kapital: Beijing’s Music Underground. It features the song Hard Heart from my favorite electrosurfer band in Beijing, Queen Sea Big Shark, which is also included in the compilation CD packaged with the book. The slideshow was also presented at the New York Photo Festival as part of a warm up for Lou Reed’s Hidden Books, Hidden Stories presentation.