Of all the possible American influences to see in China....

Not exactly a pleasant representation of American free speech, but there are a few things that are worth noting here. First, we covered up a few letters, because we still like to pretend from time to time that this is a clean blog. Stop snickering. Every once in a while, it is clean.

The second thing to notice is that these photos were taken near one of the new-ish diplomatic sections of town - not far from where the new U.S. Embassy is being built, in fact. In short, a lot of old neighborhoods in this area - to include the one directly opposite this wall (behind the camera) - are being destroyed to make room for the new, up-scale development that is coming. Gentrification in Beijing usually begins with a sledgehammer and a non-negotiable notice for residents to clear out before the roof comes down on them.

The third point is that the commentary is not accompanied by any Chinese characters. Perhaps the thugs in question ("gangsta" and "thug" are synonyms, right?) thinks the barbed nature of the grafitti will escape notice by Chinese police due to the language barrier, but we think this unlikely. The f-bomb is one of the most globally-recognized English words. More likely, perhaps, is that the Yumeng Gangstas identify with American gangsta rappers, and those guys rarely use Chinese when verbally abusing authority figures.

The fourth point is (for Michael, anyway) the most interesting: when searching for a way to express anger at authority, these wallpainters decided to draw upon American culture to do so. More to the point, they drew upon angry Black American youth as their cultural inspiration. We'd be curious to know your thoughts on the issue.