In the workout room of the condo where I am currently staying in the affluent LA neighbourhood of Santa Monica, an executive and his personal trainer ignored the anguished television reports blaring above their heads on Friday evening.
With a blend of documentary and fiction, Ying roots the action firmly in a depressing cultural context: the ubiquitous official loudspeakers blaring police announcements and the television droning patriotic propaganda belie the economic and moral corruption that pervades the system and infects private life.
"Right now the future is looking kind of cloudy, " said a sales representative at a San Francisco Bay Area Circuit City when asked about the HD DVD format on President's Day, despite a pitch for the format blaring from a big-screen television on the other side of the store.