Preludes to XML 2008 – Suzhou

When I was discussing doing a Lab on animation in China with Sun Li Jun, the Dean of Animation at the Beijing Film Academy, he told me that best place to do such a Lab would not be Beijing, but rather Suzhou.

In my ignorance, I had never heard of Suzhou then but now I know much better why Professor Sun so wisely pointed me in that direction.

Located about 80 kms north-east of Shanghai, Suzhou is both an ancient cultural capital of China, and a shining example of the ‘New China’ with rapid development of a world-class infrastructure, a building mania, and a commitment to developing creative industries and a knowledge-based economy.

Getting from Shanghai to Suzhou is easy. The amazingly efficient train system gets you platform-to-platform on a brand-new bullet train in less than 30 minutes.

As soon as you arrive the first thing you will notice is construction, and lots of it. Along the wide-open boulevards – which seem eerily and pleasantly empty in comparison to China’s mega-cities (Suzhou is a mere 6 million population) – it seems there are thousands of major new buildings under construction: 5-star hotels, high-rises, university campuses, office blocks, warehouses, and luxury malls springing up everywhere. Planning permission has been given for a skyscraper and luxury hotel equivalent in height to the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, currently China’s tallest building (but soon to be overtaken by the awesome Shanghai World Financial Centre).

In the space of the past twelve months alone each of the following hotels will have opened brand new 5-star facilities in Suzhou: the Sofitel, Shilla, Kempinski, Shangri-La, Garden Hotel, Grand Metropark, Howard Johnson, the Regalia Resort, and Crowne Plaza.

Many of these new buildings have digital skins and laser lights which make night time in Suzhou a very colorful experience. New signature buildings include the new Suzhou Museum designed by the legendary I.M. Pei, and the extraordinary new Suzhou Science, Technology, Cultural and Art Centre, designed by Paul Andreu, whose continually changing solid plastics lightshow at night is mesmerizing and beautiful.

But Suzhou is not just hi-tech sophistication. It boasts 8 UNESCO-listed gardens including the “masterpiece of the genre”, the Humble Administrators Garden; the 1,700 year-old North Temple Pagoda (76 m.); and the ancient canals and waterways.

Our partner in staging the Suzhou Lab is the Suzhou Industrial Park. SIP is a vast sprawling industrial park full of high-tech, IT, and digital media companies. Locals boast that SIP is bigger than Singapore – which is not strictly true, but you get the idea.

Among many other ambitious plans, SIP is making investments to place Suzhou as the national Animation centre of excellence. They are building huge technology infrastructure clusters around the entire Dongsha Lake precinct intending to turn the area into a vast Animation industry incubator. The facilities include a 40,000 sq.m. National Animation Museum which will open in October.

It’s fascinating to me that so many of our China friends that we have taken to Suzhou in preparation for the Lab find a great relief to be there: the wide open spaces; greenery and lakes; fresh air; and a village feeling – combined with a pride in both Suzhou’s historical and cultural standing, and it’s excellently managed acceleration into the hi-tech and digital futures.

It’s a great honor to have XML included in these plans, and, equally so, that SIP is actively inviting XML delegates onto Advisory Boards and Consulting positions towards helping Suzhou shape their thinking and achieve their grand plans.

It’s really gratifying to see the basic ideas behind XML’s orientations, geographies, and partnerships beginning to have such important, long-term consequences.