Lao She Musuem, 798 Art Galleries, National Water Musuem

---

On this Saturday, the environmental studies class and the Chinese culture and society took a field trip to multiple places around Beijing. Though, I am not taking either of these classes I decided the trip was a good opportunity to get off campus and further explore the city. We visited three locations in particular and stopped at a very nice restaurant for lunch.

The first location was Lao She's Museum. Our visit was very short---I think I spent about ten minutes in the courtyard chatting with a new Chinese friend from Tsinghua and then we were off again. Because I'm am not taking the Chinese culture and society class, I was a bit unfamiliar with Lao She and his significance in Chinese history. Throughout the museum, my new Chinese friend 刘若请 explained to me some of the history and translated some of the Lao She's literature for me. What I learned was that Lao She is one of the most influential and important writers in 20th century Chinese literature. He became very saddened about the treatment of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution and as a result committed suicide because he could not bear to feel and see the suffering.

After the Lao She Museum, we drove quite a ways to visit the 798 Art Galleries. The galleries are named after the number of the warehouse structure---though really the actual 798 structure is only a part of a larger group of buildings. For the first time, I felt like I was not in the political center of China. Art has just a magical effect on people. There was so much creativity in the air that for a moment I was just at peace. There were various art galleries featuring contemporary and traditional art. One of my favorite exhibitions is one called "Still/Moving" by Pierre Siedel. I loved the description of the exhibit:

"In his series "Still/Moving," Pierre Sidel stares at the passerby, these transparent people we come across in the long corridors of Beijing subway stations. In these anonymous tunnels, new arterial paths of our modern cities, the transitional and fleeting journey is made with a quick and automatic pace. Between cinema and photography, Pierre's large format camera puts a stop to time. Among a moving and faceless crowd, he captures stray and abandoned individuals, bringing them to life. Detached from this indistinctive mass, their story is a story of waiting, expectations, boredom, and oblivion. In our new urban structure, Pierre Siedel outlines the human stories which define our characters: our individuality and our solitude."

If you are interested you can it out at: www. parisbeijingphotogallery.com

I definitely will make a trip back to the 798 Art District and spend some more time exploring the other galleries. For some reason, this district really dispelled my notion of Chinese as narrow, closed society when it comes to art and creativity. Though Beijing is such a large city, I did not even think that there could be places like this in this city. It was just eye-opening.

As soon as we finished looking at the art galleries, we boarded the bus and headed to a restaurant across town. Afterwards, the Environmental Studies students went to visit the National Water Museum. I have always been interested in the issue of water so I thought it would be interesting to learn about China's history with water resources. The Museum was located in this narrow street and seemed very out of place. As we walked through the entrance, there was lots of grassland and water structures scattered throughout. It was phenomenal to see an entire area devoted to preserving China's water history. Our tour guide gave us a very in-depth tour of the site, while the environmental studies professor translated for us into English. The Chinese are very proud of their historical technological accomplishments-----and they very much have a right to be. The pictures and models of China's technological water transition showcased the strategy involved in building structures to supply water. Overall, I really enjoyed this educational site visit.

This Saturday was definitely a fulfilling day and made me realize that there is so much left to see of Beijing!

Enjoy the pictures, cheers!

---

Comments

[anonymous]

The lion-like statue is Qilin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin Just like Chinese dragon, it does not exist.