Abstract

As a critical term, greenwashing refers derogatorily to the “perfect” images of green and lush scenery presented by corporate-led publicity campaigns to promote their environment-friendly postures while they continue their toxic and harmful business operations. This critique of greenwashing compares the terms greening and greenwashing, followed by a critique of “simulated green” and Yi-fu Tuan's 段義孚 (1930–2022) approach to simulated habitats. It explores the ambiguous role of technological determinism in China's modernization drive and seeks to dissect the nature of the “telescopic hegemony” of sight and vision in the Western model of technoscience and its questionable impact on China's effort to modernize by virtue of technological triumphalism. In examining the cultural ethos and modalities toward the color green to promote ecological awareness, the author focuses mainly on the human cognitive affect for conceiving green as a vital venue to rebuild corporeal ties with our biophysical settings, to guard against the misuse of green to “fix” landscapes by turning them into habitats desirable only to some humans. To that end, the article revisits Yi-fu Tuan's key notions of synesthesia, belongingness, and lived reciprocity and attempts to implement them in critiquing the uprooted and displaced nature of simulated landscapes (including simulated green).

You do not currently have access to this content.