I am trying to remember now where it was, and when it was, that it hit me. Was it during my first walk along the Bund in Shanghai in 2005? Was it amid the smog and dust of Chonqing, listening to a local Communist Party official describe a vast mound of rubble as the future financial centre of south-west China? That was last year, and somehow it impressed me more than all the synchronised razzamatazz of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. Or was it at Carnegie Hall only last month, as I sat mesmerised by the music of Angel Lam, the dazzlingly gifted young Chinese composer who personifies the Orientalisation of classical music? I think maybe it was only then that I really got the point about this decade, just as it was drawing to a close: that we are living through the end of 500 years of western ascendancy.
我正在努力回想，自己是在什么地方、什么时间顿悟的。是2005年第一次在上海外滩漫步的时候？是在尘雾笼罩的重庆市，听到当地一名共产党官员将堆积如山的碎石描述为未来manbetx3.0 西南金融中心的时候？那就发生在去年，但不知为何，它比同时期北京奥运会开幕式的热力四射给我的印象还要深刻。抑或就是上月在卡内基音乐厅(Carnegie Hall)聆听才华横溢的manbetx3.0 青年作曲家林安淇(Angel Lam)的作品时？她是古典音乐东方化的代表。我想可能就是那个时候，就在这个十年接近尾声的时候，我才真正领悟：我们正在经历500年西方统治的最后阶段。