This post talks about some "art-related" stuff and accompanying thoughts and experiences.
Yuxi is still relatively small and undeveloped. That is changing fast, as the nearby farmers (peasants?) migrate to cities like they have already in many parts of China, and did in the west until 3/4 of a century ago. That means the cityscape is changing fast. A lot of it is not overly visually appealing, though I will point out that some of the ugliest architecture I have ever seen, if not *the* ugliest, can be found in the "cités" of Paris. Something particularly nasty should have been done to the architects in the 60s and 70s, and those that designed much of Paris deserved medieval style punishment! And Paris is still considered by many to be the most beautiful city in the world. So things will no doubt change.
China has always had amazing parks and the local government here certainly wants Yuxi to have some fine ones. I've posted some photos of them already. One of the main central parks is currently undergoing a major design and seems to be completely closed off at the moment. I did explore the park just behind the uni a little more though, and came across some interesting statues.
I must also confess that the uni does have a little museum just behind the Foreign Languages School that I haven't been inside yet. I'm sure it will merit a post of its own, so that is going to be my excuse for not going in yet :-). Outside, however, there are some very cool sculptures of fish.
There are also a couple of drain covers that have been requisitioned for various nefarious expressive purposes around the large pond a stone's throw from my dorm building.
And that brings me to one of the main topics of today's post...
Different cultures and sub-cultures have different relationships with possessions. I was recently reminded of this regarding China when I was told about a new drone delivery service that is up and running in some places here. I was chatting with a guy over lunch in Bordeaux before leaving who had recently been here to see Huawei about servers and see whether there was any new tech ideas he could steal and bring back to the "old world" (sorry, couldn't resist...). The drones somehow deliver to distribution boxes (maybe helped by a human?) and then people bowl on up, open the distribution box and take their package. Apparently, the distribution boxes aren't very "secure" - basically, if you have a package then you can open any of the boxes and take whatever you want. "How do you stop people from stealing other boxes?", the guy asked the local showing him the setup. "Only a European would ask that question", was his reply. (Sure, there are cameras, but nothing a little disguise wouldn't fool).
Anyway, around two weeks ago now, a class of art students set up around the nearby pond to paint it. When I first arrived it had struck me that this would be a great place to paint impressionist paintings of a pond with lilies and fish. I don't know whether they made it specifically for this purpose but one of the art teachers certainly had the same idea :-).
On my way back from dinner that day (Ok, so it is really a late, second lunch - how can you eat the evening meal at 17h00 for God's sake?!?!?!?), I noticed that everyone had just left their stuff there "mid-paysage" and had gone off. I said to myself - this wouldn't happen in Europe. Or New Zealand. Or America. As interesting as that might be, that is not what I found particularly noteworthy. Because when I passed by the next morning, the easels were all still set up with half-finished paintings from the night before, paint palates out to the ready with the colours they were using, stools and paint boxes waiting patiently for their budding artists.
I have noticed various other things being left around the place - wet umbrellas outside classrooms and the canteen, clothes on communal clothes lines or hedges, and for some inexplicable reason, many students' books and notebooks lining the top of a low hedge in front of one of the dorms. I'm pretty sure a good portion of those also caught a downpour...
Anyway, on to other matters "art". Last week I was invited to see the Foreign Language School "Graduation Performance" in one of the campus theatres by a visiting Thai language teacher. We are neighbours so left together and obviously had to arrive on time, as she was one of the guests of honour. As luck would have it, the monumental downpour I talked about above started about 2 minutes before we had to leave. Even though there was no wind and we all had large umbrellas, when the road you are walking on turns into a river and every obstacle provides a handy surface for the rain to ricochet off, you get wet! It was warm so I actually thought it was quite fun, though I suspect I was the only one of our group who did :-).
So what was this "It's Lucky To Know You Graduation Performance"? I was in several language plays in my days back at Vic(toria University) so thought it might be something like this. I had enquired what kind of performance would be put on and was simply told "many things". All 15 or so of the different graduating classes of the Foreign Language School had a number they put on (though obviously not everyone performed, or wanted to...). And it was indeed "many things" - a variety show. Short comedy skits, to singing, to choreographed pop song dancing (think Britney...), to traditional Khmer dancing, to Burmese flutes. Oh, and some freestyle rapping (in Chinese) too! All very competently MC'ed by 5 exquisitely dressed graduating students. So a little bit like back at Vic but not really :-). Apparently there are several such performances throughout the year, and I am very keen to get involved in some way. It will likely be in a stage-managing role, though who knows. The Kiwi English language teacher here, Dan, also has some thespianic tendencies and I did write (and direct) a play for my students back when I was teaching in Fuzhou 20 years ago...
As a final comment about arty stuff, I'll briefly mention my utter ineptitude at it, or at least of the "drawing" variety. I am learning Chinese, and am focusing quite heavily at the start on characters. The "Digital" is now a very important of my existence and I very much want to immerse myself in China's exploding digital world. Unfortunately (or probably fortunately!!!), everything is in Chinese, so I really don't understand anything yet and that world is still completely closed to me. And will be until I have a couple of thousand characters, so I'm hitting the books hard. One of the interesting things about writing is that many studies (sorry, no refs...) have shown that writing is a very important part of learning to read well, particularly if you want to do it quickly. Writing on a keyboard just ain't the same - you need a pen(cil) and paper. I have been writing lots of characters both in and out of class, and my characters are UGLY! Like not just "not beautiful" but often bordering on incomprehensible to my teachers. And you also get very similar characters, where the length of a particular line will mean it means one thing or another. Or at least other people do, mine could be either! Another gotcha for me is that a huge number of characters have a left part and a right part that are characters in their own right - so if you do the left part and right part too large with too big a space between them, it looks like you have written two characters not one. They have simplified many of the characters significantly but I still find myself either writing huge characters, or turning many of the more detailed characters into a kind of visual porridge. I have tracing exercises in my books but they aren't helping much. Apparently many of the students my teachers get don't want to bother with characters so they are generally very positive that I am focusing on them and want to learn them well. One of my teachers even keeps trying to tell me that it she doesn't think it's important that foreigners get the stroke order right (because you have to write every stroke in a particular order...), to which I reply "I want to write them like a Chinese person writes them". Or at least in the right order :-).
Yuxi is still relatively small and undeveloped. That is changing fast, as the nearby farmers (peasants?) migrate to cities like they have already in many parts of China, and did in the west until 3/4 of a century ago. That means the cityscape is changing fast. A lot of it is not overly visually appealing, though I will point out that some of the ugliest architecture I have ever seen, if not *the* ugliest, can be found in the "cités" of Paris. Something particularly nasty should have been done to the architects in the 60s and 70s, and those that designed much of Paris deserved medieval style punishment! And Paris is still considered by many to be the most beautiful city in the world. So things will no doubt change.
"Just say no"
Much better - A quirky city-centre micro-park
China has always had amazing parks and the local government here certainly wants Yuxi to have some fine ones. I've posted some photos of them already. One of the main central parks is currently undergoing a major design and seems to be completely closed off at the moment. I did explore the park just behind the uni a little more though, and came across some interesting statues.
The Red Spaceship from the other side of the park
A map of the park
There are dozens of these statues of famous politicians, writers, painters, etc. from around the world.
And many stylised sculpture/statues of various different world cultures
And now a word from our sponsor...
I must also confess that the uni does have a little museum just behind the Foreign Languages School that I haven't been inside yet. I'm sure it will merit a post of its own, so that is going to be my excuse for not going in yet :-). Outside, however, there are some very cool sculptures of fish.
On the wall of the museum
There are also a couple of drain covers that have been requisitioned for various nefarious expressive purposes around the large pond a stone's throw from my dorm building.
And that brings me to one of the main topics of today's post...
Different cultures and sub-cultures have different relationships with possessions. I was recently reminded of this regarding China when I was told about a new drone delivery service that is up and running in some places here. I was chatting with a guy over lunch in Bordeaux before leaving who had recently been here to see Huawei about servers and see whether there was any new tech ideas he could steal and bring back to the "old world" (sorry, couldn't resist...). The drones somehow deliver to distribution boxes (maybe helped by a human?) and then people bowl on up, open the distribution box and take their package. Apparently, the distribution boxes aren't very "secure" - basically, if you have a package then you can open any of the boxes and take whatever you want. "How do you stop people from stealing other boxes?", the guy asked the local showing him the setup. "Only a European would ask that question", was his reply. (Sure, there are cameras, but nothing a little disguise wouldn't fool).
Anyway, around two weeks ago now, a class of art students set up around the nearby pond to paint it. When I first arrived it had struck me that this would be a great place to paint impressionist paintings of a pond with lilies and fish. I don't know whether they made it specifically for this purpose but one of the art teachers certainly had the same idea :-).
Students hard at work
On my way back from dinner that day (Ok, so it is really a late, second lunch - how can you eat the evening meal at 17h00 for God's sake?!?!?!?), I noticed that everyone had just left their stuff there "mid-paysage" and had gone off. I said to myself - this wouldn't happen in Europe. Or New Zealand. Or America. As interesting as that might be, that is not what I found particularly noteworthy. Because when I passed by the next morning, the easels were all still set up with half-finished paintings from the night before, paint palates out to the ready with the colours they were using, stools and paint boxes waiting patiently for their budding artists.
Away fishing
As they were that evening. And the following day, and the following day... Now I have briefly talked about the weather here and it has become a little more seasonal since I last talked about it. Some fine spells interspersed with rain - torrential rain. Sure, I guess they were all using oil paint but... really? The canvases were at least on wooden frames, and some of the downpours have been pretty impressive - like water coming through my new umbrella it was hosing down so hard! The students simply set up when their "outdoor painting" unit starts, and pack up when it finishes - everything stays where it is for the entire intervening period, rain or shine!
And the heavens opened... (notice the surface of the pond, it rained even more heavily at other times)
I have noticed various other things being left around the place - wet umbrellas outside classrooms and the canteen, clothes on communal clothes lines or hedges, and for some inexplicable reason, many students' books and notebooks lining the top of a low hedge in front of one of the dorms. I'm pretty sure a good portion of those also caught a downpour...
Anyway, on to other matters "art". Last week I was invited to see the Foreign Language School "Graduation Performance" in one of the campus theatres by a visiting Thai language teacher. We are neighbours so left together and obviously had to arrive on time, as she was one of the guests of honour. As luck would have it, the monumental downpour I talked about above started about 2 minutes before we had to leave. Even though there was no wind and we all had large umbrellas, when the road you are walking on turns into a river and every obstacle provides a handy surface for the rain to ricochet off, you get wet! It was warm so I actually thought it was quite fun, though I suspect I was the only one of our group who did :-).
So what was this "It's Lucky To Know You Graduation Performance"? I was in several language plays in my days back at Vic(toria University) so thought it might be something like this. I had enquired what kind of performance would be put on and was simply told "many things". All 15 or so of the different graduating classes of the Foreign Language School had a number they put on (though obviously not everyone performed, or wanted to...). And it was indeed "many things" - a variety show. Short comedy skits, to singing, to choreographed pop song dancing (think Britney...), to traditional Khmer dancing, to Burmese flutes. Oh, and some freestyle rapping (in Chinese) too! All very competently MC'ed by 5 exquisitely dressed graduating students. So a little bit like back at Vic but not really :-). Apparently there are several such performances throughout the year, and I am very keen to get involved in some way. It will likely be in a stage-managing role, though who knows. The Kiwi English language teacher here, Dan, also has some thespianic tendencies and I did write (and direct) a play for my students back when I was teaching in Fuzhou 20 years ago...
The MCs
Performances
The adoring crowd
The night's performers
As a final comment about arty stuff, I'll briefly mention my utter ineptitude at it, or at least of the "drawing" variety. I am learning Chinese, and am focusing quite heavily at the start on characters. The "Digital" is now a very important of my existence and I very much want to immerse myself in China's exploding digital world. Unfortunately (or probably fortunately!!!), everything is in Chinese, so I really don't understand anything yet and that world is still completely closed to me. And will be until I have a couple of thousand characters, so I'm hitting the books hard. One of the interesting things about writing is that many studies (sorry, no refs...) have shown that writing is a very important part of learning to read well, particularly if you want to do it quickly. Writing on a keyboard just ain't the same - you need a pen(cil) and paper. I have been writing lots of characters both in and out of class, and my characters are UGLY! Like not just "not beautiful" but often bordering on incomprehensible to my teachers. And you also get very similar characters, where the length of a particular line will mean it means one thing or another. Or at least other people do, mine could be either! Another gotcha for me is that a huge number of characters have a left part and a right part that are characters in their own right - so if you do the left part and right part too large with too big a space between them, it looks like you have written two characters not one. They have simplified many of the characters significantly but I still find myself either writing huge characters, or turning many of the more detailed characters into a kind of visual porridge. I have tracing exercises in my books but they aren't helping much. Apparently many of the students my teachers get don't want to bother with characters so they are generally very positive that I am focusing on them and want to learn them well. One of my teachers even keeps trying to tell me that it she doesn't think it's important that foreigners get the stroke order right (because you have to write every stroke in a particular order...), to which I reply "I want to write them like a Chinese person writes them". Or at least in the right order :-).
My homework - two friends go to the bank to change some money.
Thanks for the post. Nice one. We're in Amsterdam .
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