鬼佬镇

 It's All About Water, Mr. Gittes

As Life imitates Art even when we are asleep, I arose this AM and read:

Doubts as giant China project's water reaches capital
by Staff Writers
Danjiangkou, China (AFP) Dec 27, 2014
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Doubts_as_giant_China_projects_water_reaches_capital_999.html

A towering dam in central China holds back a vast expanse of water destined to travel over 1,000 kilometres north to Beijing, but critics say it will only temporarily quench the city's thirst.

China's capital on Saturday received its first flows from the South-North Water Diversion Project, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in Chinese history.

After decades of planning and at least $33 billion of investment, over a billion cubic metres of water is projected to flow to the capital every year, through more than 1,200 kilometres of channels and pipes -- the distance from London to Madrid.

"Beijing is now formally receiving water" from the project, the city's government said in a text message...

And as in the inevitable course of events, when a film comes to be made about the diversion of China's water to the capital in the desert north, what will that movie be called?

Drawing a parallel between the Chinese experience in The American West, particularly Los Angeles and the possible near-future of the American experience in Asia, I suggest:

鬼佬镇

which is "ghost people town" or possibly "foreign devils town", but the nickname captures some of the old nuance in John Huston's Chinatown (and serves it right back to us foreign devils).

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