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Published: June 27th 2013
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Please don't think that I only see and write about bad things - I don't. I've lived in this city for about 2 years in all over a period of 5 years and know it very well.
I don't write about regular things like the shops or Jade, or dresses or Chinese umbrellas or any other things to buy or eat or do because I don't see those things as important and actually, I hardly see those things at all because I'm used to them. I write about the things that make me stop and feel.
Here are some real things of beauty.
In a small room at the ‘Innovation Center for disabled persons of Suzhou’, facing Ping Jiang Lu, the child has come for her one hour calligraphy lesson. She is seven years old and conscientious. She eyes me up but says nothing. When she begins, she leans forward to move the wood block to hold the brown gridded practice-paper whilst she writes. I watch to try to understand - I mean - I really watch.
The master writes the characters on the practice paper in the first of the three columns and she
copies. She isn’t copying the characters because, of course, she already knows these. What she’s learning is how to write the perfect length, width and weight of each stroke to make up the characters – which, I begin to understand, are contained in poise, fluidity, breathing, the amount of ink on the brush, how much is wiped on the ink stone and how the brush is held. I am not told this. I pick this information up from watching this lesson and then the one with a young boy after. The master is a gentle, patient teacher explaining every sweep of each stroke, he corrects posture, reminds the student of breathing, points out errors and I think that even after my own five years of training in Art schools, I cannot do this because it is not copying - each stroke comes from generations of strokes.
The next day, I return. This student is ten and very, very good. He’s shy. There is just one character on the first paper. It’s complex. He copies it without fault 11 times. The next sheet is free. I cannot read Hanzi – only a few characters, so, he reads them to me.
It is a 12 word poem by Bai Lu. I listen to the conversation between student and master and pick up phrases made up of words I know but in the correct order. My learning curve is sharp both visually and aurally. I decide to ask for lessons starting 28
th. Today is the 26
th.
Later, when I walk by the little studio, the master shouts ‘ Deng yi xia’ – wait a minute – so I follow him and he presents me with an open fan. It is beautifully decorated with four characters and his name and his stamp.
The four characters are Qing Feng Shu Lai which loosely translate as Fine Wind Comfortably Come. He has made the act of using a fan into a visual poem with four words. It’s a gift. I feel I am taking something too precious but cannot give it back because it is rude but don’t know how to thank him because it is too kind.
I tell him it’s my birthday - I've told no one else except Jie Jie and Shu Shu so, the fan becomes a birthday present.
This is not a job or
a trade or a skill - it's a life time of dedication to an art form. I cannot learn this in a week or a month or a year but I will ask him if he will teach me.
This thing of beauty isn't really the fan - though there is no denying that it is beautiful - for me it is watching this man, who is a master, teaching young people a dying art-form when everyone all around the world uses technical gadgets now. I have only been with this person for about 3 hours and I sit is silence watching and listening. It's a thing of real beauty.
The Classical gardens of Suzhou, before they are open to the public at 7.30am, are great things of beauty. I have found that there are now huge queues at all of the classical gardens in Suzhou. and the sad thing is that the Chinese tourists use 'guides' who have microphones and some kind of loud speaker and they tell the group what to look at and when to look. there are groups jostling. I can't think. But on the lane that I live is Ou Yuan
and I can nip in the emergency exit at 6.45am and sit quietly or talk to the workers before it is open and before anyone notices I shouldn't really be there. It's Beautiful. but any sound from a microphone and I'm off.
This morning, I couldn't cross Lindun Lu for love nor money. I waited on the designated crossing but really it's just a pattern on the road which crosses 4 lanes of traffic with a bike lane on either side. No one stops. I waited and waited for a space when slowly, a Chinese lady older than me, slipped her arm in mine, i looked at her, grinned and eventually, we crossed together and parted with a smile - neither of us knowing who helped who. It is a small moment of beauty that frequently happens here.
Summer afternoon storms. They are so beautiful and extreme.
Friends - Family - without them here, Lao Wai would not get on, unless they stick together. I hang out in the hutongs hardly going where Lao Wai go. without my Chinese friends and family, it would be harder.
Things not
so good. The Wu Gui doesn't move or eat or drink. It is lumpen on the wet soil at Jie Jie's. If I gently touch it, it closes its eye from bottom up. But I am sad because I cannot sort this one and I think about it most of the time. I have pestered Jie Jie and she has explained it is ok. it is frightened, it will be ok. And tonight, I found a website with enough information on to make me feel more settled. They do not starve if they don't eat for days. They can be dorment for a while. Mine is still terrified in this new environment. I will wait patiently. It is surround by shrimps, lettuce and meat. I don't know. In my ignorance it doesn't look good. Jie Jie thinks differently.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
The emperors of China made a big deal of the art of calligraphy...
When visiting the Forbidden City in March I came across in a quiet corner where the nephew of the Last Emperor was performing this art...which was for sale with proceeds going to the school.