jvd213inBeijing2008

“I do not believe in communism any more than you do, but there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country. Several of the best friends I have got are Communists.”
– Franklin Delanor Roosevelt

“Art is the most intense mode of invidualism that the world has known.”
- Oscar Wilde

January 25, 2008: 5:53 pm

Chinese phrase of the day:
Women xiang qu kan meishuguan. – We would like to see an art museum.

Another inspiring day in The Republic, and now I finally have something a bit touristy to blab about! I convinced a few of the gals to tag along with me to the Art District today, and we spent the afternoon exploring a multitude of galleries and checking out all the surprisingly modern and individualistic work along the section of the city called “7-9-8”. The entire district mainly consists of huge redbrick warehouses that were once used as factories to construct and distribute weaponry to the entire national army. Now, they are home to the city’s finest art galleries and museums, much like the Lower East Side, Chelsea, and SoHo, in New York. It’s been a pretty frigid day out, so we walked around, dipping in and out of all the galleries, and stopping to take lots of photos with the sculptures dotting the sidewalks and hutongs.

I arrived about a half-an-hour before the gals, so I spent a while checking out one of the more popular galleries first, a three-story warehouse called “Beijing Art Space,” and I was immediately taken aback by the content and nature of the work. Many of the works in this first gallery were painted with oil on canvas, and the subject matters ranged from fighting dogs to bizarre landscapes, with a lot of sexually-charged pieces in between. My ignorance was proven even further when we went into a grand print gallery, with some incredible screen prints and linoleum cuts that sent shivers down my spine. I was interested to read some of the literature posted on the walls, and learned that printing was actually invented in the East, and its existence [here] predates anything in the Western countries by more than 500 years. Some of the intricate details, combined with lush and vibrant colors, actually gave me gooseflesh as I wandered around admiring the work, and, as always, feeling ever so jealous about the talent that these classically trained artists possess.

I quickly realized that it would be my job to teach a bit of “gallery etiquette” to the girls when one of my trances was broken, after overhearing a giggling conversation about something that they “didn’t like”. I’m pretty sure they felt I was being a little pretentious when I scolded them for using the flash on their cameras, but since we weren’t supposed to be taking any photos in the first place, I simply explained that the flash could possibly damage the work, and that it would be a bad idea to get busted taking pictures of artwork that ranged from 5,000-500,000 RMB.

After getting some of the really good stuff out of the way, I relaxed a lot once we started taking goofy pictures of some of the work that was on display outdoors, and the photos you’ll see here are a good example of how a few pretty girls can turn an uptight artist into a cheerful observer fairly quickly. Since the cold was starting to take its toll around lunchtime, we popped into an artsy little café, and had some coffee and sandwiches to hold us over until this evening. All-in-all, it was an absolutely terrific day, and hopefully I’ll be able to post a lot of my pics before the weekend is out, so that everyone can appreciate the similar style that these contemporary artists have to those that are highly regarded in the States.

Now, let me turn back the clock a few days… On Tuesday I finally went to get my haircut, and since my pocket-sized Mandarin phrasebook had a section on “Going to the Barber”, I was able to communicate on a very simple basis with the folks at the salon. It was an interesting experience to get a full head massage by a tiny, smiley Chinese girl, before sitting down in the chair with the male barber, who started in cutting without me telling him what I was trying to do. I imagine he saw the faux-hawk and knew right away what I wanted, but I had him pause while I looked up the phrases for “A trim, please,” and “Not too short”. He did a pretty damn good job with the cut, and the girl who had washed my hair and given the massage took over when it was time to goop and style me up. I was very proud of myself for being in and out in less than an hour, and took my confidence into the evening when I started to use some Chinese phrases with my cab driver, and again later, when a small crew of five or six approached me at the bar.

I had a great week of teaching, and am starting to get more and more comfortable working with larger classes, and I had a terrific elective class with a group of advanced learners when teaching a subject I know about all too well – debt – when I finished up on Wednesday. Thursday was, of course, supposed to be my day off, but I had to go out to the SOHO campus bright and early for an interview with a corporate client at 10:30 am. I had skipped out on the previous night’s “Chwar” so that I could be rested and on top of my game for the interview, and stayed home to watch a really, really terrific German film titled “Anti Bodies”, which was sort of like a foreign version of “Silence of the Lambs” (I highly recommend if you can ever snag a copy). Anywhoo, I took another cab all by my lonesome up to SOHO, and upon my arrival, was quite perturbed to find out that the client had called and cancelled about an hour prior, and no one had called to let me know. I spent an hour-or-so over at the Starbucks by the campus, working on the screenplay and doing some reading through a Clive Barker book I just started, “The Inhuman Condition,” a collection of five novellas, and then cabbed it back to Wang Jing so that I could put in my reimbursement forms for the taxis and catch the shuttle bus back to Bao Xing. It made me feel a lot better that the DOS (Director of Studies), stopped in to apologize and thank me for going out of my way on my day off.

Later in the evening, we went over to a Western-style sports bar called “Frank’s”, and had some delicious burgers and fries and a few pints of Carlsburg to give a big send off for one of the Aussie teachers, who was celebrating his last night in the country. Since I knew I wanted today to be a big one, I dipped out around 1:00 am, while everyone else was still pounding the booze, and I actually managed to guide my cab driver back to my apartment, since he didn’t know where it was.

Tonight, a bunch of folks are going out to some bar/club for “80’s night”, which I am interested to see what’s like in China. It’s a good thing I brought along my hot pink 80’s polo, and I only wish I had brought along my Chuck Taylor’s as well. The only question is, what do I do with this head of hair to make it anything remotely resembling an 80’s style. Maybe a goofy part down the middle would be funny!

Enough is enough, for now, and I will attempt to post as many of the photos of the Art District as I’m able to fit in my Flickr account. Thank God today is payday, because I have completely spent myself out over the last three weeks! Keep those emails coming, and please forgive me if I don’t respond to all of them right away. It seems as though many of them are taking longer than normal to come through, so I try to reply as soon as they end up in my inbox. I’ve got a few little presents to send back to a few of you, and as soon as I see some freakin’ postcards, I’ll get out the slew of them that I promised as well. In the meantime, take care, and let me know if there’s anything I can do for you from this great distance. Until next time, Seacrest out!

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