Shaowu - Mountain town or cultural mecca?
Trip Start
Jun 10, 2008
1
21
Trip End
Jan 25, 2009
Shaowu,
China
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Last week I started my calligraphy classes and I've had 3 so far. I was also introduced to the art department. Considerring art education in the states, I was a little blown away. Their "office," where I now go in between classes for tea and cigarettes, is more of a studio bigger than the space given to art professors at St. Mary's. And for good reason. Somehow, this school has attracted some of the most popular artists for government comissions in the province, and surely the biggest names in this several-million person county. They have one teacher who does huge turn of the century-style romantic oil paintings. And, of particular note, the calligrapher who's now my calligraphy teacher is phenomenal. The first class he gave me a large scroll with 学无止境 (an idiom for endless study) on it. My classes are a lot of fun, and I'm improving a lot. Getting a better feel for the brush and starting to understand the aesthetics of calligraphy. Each class he gives me 4 more characters which I practice for 1-3 hours a day, depending on how much time I have. I think I'll be all right by the time I come home. He's also an extremely interesting guy, very good to talk to and a very good resource for my research here. We have plans to go to a 1000-year-old, still-active temple an hour away together when I get back. Looking forward to that quite a bit.
Also, I've met and hung out with a group of 5 high-schoolers I'll be tutoring 2 hours a week (for $60 a week) when I get back. They're a cool group of people. And, despite them only being at most 6 years younger than other Chinese friends I've been making while here, they're teaching me a lot about the younger generation. Whatever they say about high school life, my assisstant teachers (about 25) always just say "I'm so old." Apparently things change even quicker thn I realized. For their first class I asked what they wanted to read/ talk about, what they're interested in. The most popular answer was singers. So, for their first class we're going to listen to and talk about some American and British pop and rock stars from the last few decades. Given the flamoyance of the Korean stars that are all the rage with young Chinese (think glam-rock, without the rock part), I think the more dramatic musicians will be the primary focus. One of the guy's Chinese name literally translates as Prince and they keep trying to get good translations for the Chinese word for "lady-boy" (like the Thai kind), or someone who always "plays the girl," so I figured Prince would be a good starting place (including watching a bit from the chapelle show on Youtube. Other popular contenders are Madonna, David Bowie, Bob Dylan (or The Band since I have a concert video of them on my computer), a punk act like The Clash, a rapper like Jay-Z, Mos Def, Outkast or maybe Nas, maybe the Stones, Beatles, Elton John, Paul Simon, Paul Simon, Bob Marley or Toots, etc. Any suggestions, send me a email.
Anyway, this weekend, they took me to their grandparents' house (they're all cousins), which is basically a little day retreat for city folks looking to relax in the countryside. I won a game of Chinese chess, got embarassed once, and played all right but lost another time. We also played some tennis and pool (both of which I won!) I also went with one of the assisstant teachers. It was a good weekend. Getting to know people better and my language is adjusting to the area, so I'm understood more often when I speak. As I get to know the city better I'm finding more and more places to entertain myself. Still haven't stayed out past 10:45 though... Also, I found out they'll be getting a 3rd foreign teacher finally, so I can drop thee extra 4 classes (grades 1 & 2) they stuck me with last week. Which I'm rather happy with. Especially, grade 1, they're cute but just too wild and know too little English for me to really do anything with. I really like teaching grades 3 and 4, but the little ones are just too much for me. I think I'm just going to have a friend who teaches Kindergarten in Suzhou to send me some lesson plans so I can survive the rest of the week.
So maybe Shaowu's a bit of both, a little bit of big city and a little sleepy country. Bottomline though, I'm really starting to be particularly GLAD I ended up here.
I did get some worse news this week - my artist friend Etu from the Gambia just got back to Gambia this weekend from the Beijing, where he had been for 5 weeks doing an exhibition... I sent him an email a few weeks ago and got no response, which I thought was a little odd. Now I know he didn't respond because he was in the same damn city as me, but without email, for at least 3 damn weeks. I would have loved to see him and his exhibition. I even saw the posters for a big African art exhibition in Beijing while I was there, but it never occured to me to get in touch with him. O well, hopefully I'll see him again.
O and Thailand... I'll be heading out for a whole week vacation next week to see SMCM friends Hannah, Nick, Peter and Danny who are studying abroad in Chiang Mai (don't worry, not the place with huge protests and lots of troops). I'm really looking forward to see some St. Mary's folk, a litte slice of home, the beauties of Thailand, and be as unprofessional as I've had to be for the last several months. Should be a lot of fun, they're having a great time. Also, if I find a way to get back from there early in the day on the 5th, I'll be able to cross two more countries off my list since they're going to the Golden Triangle (the interesection of Burma, Cambodia and Thailand) that weekend. If not, I'll be heading back via Hangzhou (huge city an hour from Shanghai) and meeting up with some of the other Buckland teachers and maybe seeing Hanshan (Cold Mountain) on the 5th. It should be a very fun (if not the most restful) of breaks. Also, since I'm flying discount airlines (total trip price should be around $400-$450) I have to fly out of Shenzhen - the booming free economic zone on the coast opposite of Hong Kong. I'll have about 18 hours there, which will be my first glimpse of a truly modern Chinese city. Should at least be interesting. Buckland dropped the ball on my visa, forgetting to get me the extra entry entry I paid 100 bucks for, but Owen says in Thailand I can get a toursit visa back into China and then will update my visa AGAIN (will be the 5th time) once I get back to Shaowu, all on his dime. Assuming everything works out like he said, it'll actually save me some money. If not, I'll get some extra time in Thailand and it'll be his fault. Either way, expect a post from me recounting my Thai adventures in a week and a half or so.
But like I was saying, too much time in Thailand and I may actually get to missing this place. Anyway, enjoy the "Beautiful County" and god bless.
