{"id":18745,"date":"2008-03-28T18:16:02","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T01:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/"},"modified":"2008-03-28T18:16:02","modified_gmt":"2008-03-29T01:16:02","slug":"motorcycle-nostalgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorcycle Nostalgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/070507a37s.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[pics18745]\" title=\"070507a37s.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/070507a37s.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"070507a37s.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"158\" width=\"237\" \/><\/a>The Black Bats have hit the roads around Shanghai, banding together around an unlikely cultural symbol: the Changjiang 750.<\/p>\n<p>The sidecar is a near-replica of the 1938 BMW R71, passed down from the Soviet copycat Ural M72 and produced in China by the PLA since the mid-1950s. But for enthusiasts like the Bats, the bike is a more than just a collector&#8217;s item, writes Mara Hvistendahl  for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walrusmagazine.com\/articles\/2008.04-field-note-motorcycles-in-china-mara-changjiang-750-hvistendahl\/1\/2\/\">The Walrus:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p> In the 1990s, the <span class=\"smallcaps\">PLA<\/span> began phasing out the Changjiang, and expatriates in Beijing and Shanghai \u2014 \u201cany Western male within shooting distance of a midlife crisis,\u201d one convert wrote in the <a href=\"http:\/\/query.nytimes.com\/gst\/fullpage.html?res=950CEFD6163BF936A25752C1A9669C8B63\"><em>New York Times<\/em><\/a> \u2014 happily acquired them. By the next decade, Chinese men, whose mushrooming bank accounts and increasing free time made them susceptible, had caught up. The Changjiang\u2019s rugged individualism appealed to a culture that had begun to prize Mongolian folk song ring tones, hiking boots on workdays, and, after decades of force-fed socialism, an originality captured in the borrowed term \u201c<span class=\"smallcaps\">diy<\/span>\u201d \u2014 do it yourself rather than follow the masses. The Nanchang factory still accepted small custom orders, so aspiring rebels could order their bikes new.<\/p>\n<p>Over lattes, Liu and Frank expound on their obsession. \u201cThe sidecar is a way of life for us,\u201d Liu begins. By studying foreign motorcycle sites and imported copies of <em>Iron Horse<\/em> and <em>Motorcyclist<\/em> magazines, he has determined that the Changjiang is \u201cour Harley . . . Germany makes bikes, Italy makes bikes, but only the Harley has a history.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/p1010046-1.JPG\" rel=\"lightbox[pics18745]\" title=\"p1010046-1.JPG\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/p1010046-1.thumbnail.JPG\" alt=\"p1010046-1.JPG\" align=\"left\" height=\"167\" width=\"217\" \/><\/a> Though their sidecars are more often used for gear than for passengers, the Bats are about human connections, Frank says. Last year, they delivered books to impoverished children in <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2007\/01\/as-china-booms-millions-of-children-are-left-behind-wsj\/\">Anhui Province<\/a>. At November\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/shanghaiist.com\/2007\/11\/26\/2007_toray_cup.php\">Shanghai marathon<\/a>, they rescued runners with leg cramps, shuttling them to medical stations in their sidecars. The month before, they toured <a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s=xinjiang+\">Xinjiang<\/a> for ten days, befriending Muslim noodle chefs and riding shirtless across the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Taklamakan_Desert\">Taklamakan Desert<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/dsc03664.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[pics18745]\" title=\"dsc03664.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/dsc03664.thumbnail.jpg\" alt=\"dsc03664.jpg\" align=\"right\" height=\"163\" width=\"217\" \/><\/a> Club excursions allow the aging nostalgists, alienated by the fast pace of post-socialist life, to summon up a measure of the country\u2019s comradely past. Changjiangs represent an era when soldiers rode around in friendly pairs; when, as Frank remembers, \u201ceveryone left their doors open. You could play in the street with your friends every day. It was the Cultural Revolution, so no one had to go to school.\u201d He gestures to the cold brick buildings outside. \u201cNow everyone closes their doors. Is anyone even happy?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Photos: Liu Zhidong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Black Bats have hit the roads around Shanghai, banding together around an unlikely cultural symbol: the Changjiang 750. The sidecar is a near-replica of the 1938 BMW R71, passed down from the Soviet copycat Ural M72 and produced in China by the PLA since the mid-1950s. But for enthusiasts like the Bats, the bike [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-18745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-society","tag-shanghai","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Motorcycle Nostalgia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Motorcycle Nostalgia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Black Bats have hit the roads around Shanghai, banding together around an unlikely cultural symbol: the Changjiang 750. The sidecar is a near-replica of the 1938 BMW R71, passed down from the Soviet copycat Ural M72 and produced in China by the PLA since the mid-1950s. But for enthusiasts like the Bats, the bike [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-29T01:16:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/070507a37s.thumbnail.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rhyen Coombs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rhyen Coombs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rhyen Coombs\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/9e40188ff59097852c220b26151e1023\"},\"headline\":\"Motorcycle Nostalgia\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-03-29T01:16:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-03-29T01:16:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/\"},\"wordCount\":403,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2008\/03\/motorcycle-nostalgia\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/03\/070507a37s.thumbnail.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Shanghai\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture &amp; 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