An hour or so ago (our Tuesday around 11am)a message came up in my neighborhood group chat. We have been locked into our neighborhood. One person in a batch Covid testing came up positive – who lives in our complex. We are all locked in while they test this person. Hopefully they will be negative otherwise who knows how long we’ll all be locked in. There are around 430 houses and one small apartment complex in our community – so that’s a lot of people locked in.
Dan and the kids’ school – and many others in the area- were shut down as of Monday. Yesterday was prep/pick up books/computers/supplies day and today online classes have begun.
Our large local market has been shut down for a number of days due to a close contact person having shopped their. Yesterday I needed to pick up some food so I went shopping in the mini supermarket/bodega like store in our complex. It was a bit of a grab what I need and what I might need and not worry so much about the cost – that brought me somewhat back to early Covid in Brooklyn – with the panic buying. So depressing! In the last few weeks more and more people are being required to stay home as someone they had contact with might have had contact with someone who has Covid. And schools are closing. And so are restaurants and stores and services – as there aren’t enough people to run them and as people are having to quarantine at home – or in Covid government facilities. So discouraging to be back in these circumstances.
To catch up on what we’ve been up to since I last wrote:
HanBin and I having tea in artist Li Jiangfeng’s studio
My friend HanBin took me out to Song Village – about 45 minutes away – to visit a couple artists in their studios. It was discouraging to hear how stifled the art Beijing art world has become in the last five years, but it was lovely to meet some artists and see what they are working on. Unfortunately they don’t speak English and my Mandarin is still pretty minimal.
Artist Xioa Hong with his painting in his garden with HanBin and me
Li JiangFeng invited us back for a barbeque at her studio the following weekend. The weather was lovely and the food delicious. It was really special.
After this lavish lunch, I ran home to get ready for a dinner party we were hosting. I decided to have everyone break up in groups and have a short time to find commonalities and then act them out. It was a super fun way to quickly get people to know one another.
Acting out commonalities. Send me your guesses!
Our complex used to have a large American population and although the number of Americans is dwindling there is still a strong tradition of celebrating Halloween. Our complex moved the holiday to the 29th (the Saturday before). I thought this was great ( so much easier than a school night) but there were some purists who held out and insisted on doing their own trick-or-treating on the 31st. We enjoyed answering the door for kids who came by – it was funny that we had very few American kids knock on our door on what I think of as such an American holiday.
The following weekend a parent I’ve gotten to know invited us to her twin daughter’s horse back riding competition. One of her daughters is hoping to make the Olympics. We made a nice day of it. We biked to a local market and had a fantastic Chinese snack lunch. I had buns with vegetables in them – so yummy! They sell everything at the market. Celia loved the fish!
Then we biked over to the horse back riding club. It was super impressive – with lots of indoor and outdoor areas to train and compete. And so scary the horses jumping so high! One of our friends daughter was on one of her sister’s horse who was really worked up. It ran up to a hurdle and stopped – refusing to jump. The daughter riding the horse went flying – hitting the bars of the obstacle on the way down! It was frightening – but she was okay – other than being very disappointed.
The weekend before Morton’s birthday, he spent camping with the Boy Scouts.
Saturday night Dan and I met some friends in Beijing’s 798 art district. We saw a New York Art in the 80’s exhibit. I hesitated going as I just moved from NYC but friends suggested going together. It ended up being a really interesting show and a lovely evening – going out to what felt like a typical American Italian restaurant afterwards. (Funny how small the world is.)This piece (below) from the show was really interesting to me. Reminding me of Roberto Lugo’s current work but this was done in the 80s as a collaboration between Basquiat, Haring and a few other artists.
On Morton’s actual birthday we made our traditional birthday signs (my Dad’s tradition) and went out for sushi – Morton’s favorite.
At a local Japanese restaurantBirthday boots from Grandma!
I recently decided I should start the process of getting a Chinese driver’s license. The first step is to go out to a local hospital and get a physical exam. I biked out to the hospital – went to a few wrong buildings until I figure out where to go. They had me look at one picture which had two numbers written in pale colors. I had to read the number – I assume to make sure I am not color blind. Then I was sent to another office to pay – again I got lost a few times – then come back to get my official papers to sign up for the test. Pretty funny. On the way home I biked by these ladies just performing for whoever happened to be in the park.
The Sunday after Morton’s birthday was “Morton Day”. We did things he wanted to do. I asked around about bagels and was directed to Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe. Our driver drove us to the pin on the map and dropped us off. We then proceeded to walk around for 45 minutes trying to find it – Dan attempting to follow where Apple Map was directing us. After about 40 minutes, Dan and Morton left Celia and I where we started and said to wait -they’d continue to look. As they set off, Celia and I decided to try asking someone working at a meat cart nearby. Celia showed the name of the restaurant to him and he pointed to what looked like a locked barracaded fence across the street. We walked over and were confused. I then asked someone else nearby. He pointed to the same spot. We decided to push on the gate. It opened and inside was a lovely courtyard and restaurant. We called Dan and Morton and explained where to go. Later the owner of the restaurant explained they were forbidden to have a sign in English (I have no idea why they didn’t have a sign in Chinese). It ended up that Dan knows the owners of the restaurant. They also own an organic farm and were trying to get the school to buy the farm for educational purposes. The restaurant was like a taste of home. We all ordered bagels – three of us with lox. It was lovely! Unfortunately the restaurant is closing next month. The property is being taken over by the government – a frequent occurance here as the government owns all land. And all businesses here are very slow due to Covid, so they won’t open another store at the moment. Such a shame!
Afterwards we went to a record store and bought some very expensive records to play on our new record player, and then we walked around 798 – going to a bag store Morton wanted to go to – getting his school bag fixed and buying a new small bag for his new camera.
Streets near us
Just an interesting (to me) note. Along many of the streets near our home there are these beautiful willow trees. Recently I noticed they are chopping them all back. I guess this makes them grow better (?) – I’ve never seen this before.
All the tree branches have been cut off.
This past week the kids only had school on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were Parent Teacher conferences “Jia Zheng Hui”. Thursday was professional development for the teachers. The day ended with a party for faculty and staff. People were asked to sign up to bring food from their country/culture. We thought we’d support the lovely Shanen’s Green Cow Kafe restaurant and ordered an insane amount of bagels, lox and cream cheese from them ( unfortunately not pre assembled). I showed up a little early to start making the sandwiches. I wish I had taken a picture. The school printed large banners to go at each station. Ours said, “New York Bagels” and had a picture of bagels. As I walked in a bunch of teachers were outside playing beach volleyball, Dan was in the pool playing inner tube water polo. Another teacher told me they just took a yoga class. Pretty great professional development. I assume they did work earlier. Next to our booth was a teacher also from the U.S. He was making fried Orios. Nasty – but so delicious! Canadians to the right – they were serving a drink that was some kind of version of a Bloody Mary – but they insisted it wasn’t. Super spicy!
Friday we drove up to the wall. We met a few other families and rented a little house there and spent the weekend hiking, eating, drinking, and just hanging out. It was really nice.
Walking along the wallAt places the Wall is crazy steep!Our group, walking on The WallSign at our obligatory Saturday morning Covid test Barbecue dinner in house courtyardDancing horse show at Saturday night restaurant
What else? Without thinking I plugged my beautiful Cuisinart food processor into an outlet – right next to a transformer – and it went POP! I assume it needs to be opened and put a new fuse in it – but finding someone who can do that or who has the right size fuzes isn’t easy – maybe impossible. So sad! I love that Cuisinart – and you can’t buy them -even online -here.
Also, somewhere in here, we bought what “wei gua ren” (foreigners like us) call a tuktuk. A friend is moving away from Beijing and was selling hers. It’s an electric vehicle which drives like a motor bike and feels like you’re in a tin can. Going over any bump you are sure the thing will break – and the other day driving it the back door did fly open and, we didn’t realize until later, the back closing mechanism fell out from the car so now the back door won’t stay closed. I stopped at a store and had Morton buy a candy bar to get a plastic bag to help hold the door closed as we drove home.
I was very skeptical we’d use the tuktuk but it was quite inexpensive so Dan thought we should try it out.
Me driving the Tuktuk
Ends up it has really come in handy! We’ve use it when we have to haul stuff from not far that is too much to carry on the bikes.
Since I started this blog entry, everyone in the neighborhood had to go to the central area and get tested.
Morton in long line to get tested. Morton checking in before being swabbedGuy spraying around us (killing germs we may have left on street??!!)While I was heading out to get tested my friend dropped by this incredible cabbage she picked! Ate a bit of it for dinner last night – YUM!
A quick addendum: now is the next day from when I started writing. We were released last night! We are free to go anywhere that’s open (which school sadly is not).
Now I am planning Thanksgiving. I’m hosting on Saturday. I dragged my feet about it. Hard to imagine celebrating without all of you – not to mention kids told me the holiday’s only good aspect is being with family and friends – otherwise it’s just about the massacre of the Indigenous Peoples. I’m going ahead anyway. Now I’m searching for where I can get ingredients. Not always the easiest to fine what we’re used to.
I hope you all have lovely Thanksgiving. We’ll be missing you all!
Updates:
Soon after my last update we had “Back to School Night”. The middle school one started with the middle school orchestra playing. They were amazing. By far the best middle school orchestra I’ve ever heard – and they were just two weeks into school – so very few practices.
A couple days later a parent named Melody invited me to join in a group she organized to go to the Forbidden City. Melody and her business partner, Claire, had started a company that provides the ever increasing number of extremely affluent Beijingers with activities to entertain then and fill their time. We were going to an art exhibit in the Forbidden City and Melody and Claire had organized an amazing array of experts to lead the tour: there was the leading Forbidden City expert on their antiquities, there was the lead curator for the biggest art fair in Beijing, there was an artist who had one of a few contemporary piece that were included in the show … of course they all spoke in Mandarin – well above my one year old level of Mandarin. But Melody either translated or had Rose, a lovely woman who works for her, walk around with me and give me the gist of what was being discussed. The old paintings were stunning and it was interesting to learn that every person who has owned these works would add their personal stamp and often add a few lines of a story to the scroll. I had never noticed before but some of the scrolls had tons of stamps – some owners had stamped the pieces right in the middle! Kind of cool to have this history of where the piece has been right on it – but the idea of past owners of a Michaelangelo, stamping their name in the middle of his piece is pretty crazy from a Western perspective.
After the art tour I started talking to Claire. She was explaining how Chinese parents only want to send their kids to really famous schools they have heard of: Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and she has been holding meetings introducing parents to fantastic small liberal arts colleges in the U.S. – as she went to one. Ends up she went to Carleton College – my Alma mater. Such a small world! As we laughed about this crazy small world meeting, we strolled over to The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where, on the roof, our group had drinks and an amazing multi course dinner – where the chef came out and discussed his inspiration for each course. Quite a night!
A gorgeous and delicious desertFantastic wine – and what a label!
The walls in our house are all cement – so hanging artwork is a major challenge. I want to have some flexibility in hanging artwork, so I decided to get picture hanging trim. That arrived two Fridays ago – so I am starting to get work on the walls. I am still figuring out the proper hooks to use so the artwork hands flat on the wall – but I’m excited to be reunited with some artwork I haven’t seen in over a year! When the hanging is a worked out a little better I’ll post some pictures – but it was nice to get some work up on the walls before we had a school leadership party to kick off the Chinese October Holiday.
My kids had off the weekend – Wednesday this week for the holiday. We can’t leave Beijing without risking getting stuck out of the city -if where ever one visits has one case – your return to Beijing will be delayed – possibly for a long time. But we had lots of little adventures.
We went out to dinner – and this was a tofu dish we were served! Sprinkles on fried, eggy tofu. So strange! (but funny)
I heard there was a driving range behind our local supermarket. I couldn’t believe it- but Dan and Morton checked it out and had a great time.
Another day we wandered around a traditional Chinese neighborhood with small wandering streets, called a Hutong- most of these neighborhoods have been replaced in the last twenty years with big green wide streets and large apartment buildings. We found a vegan restaurant for lunch. They had this tofu duck on the menu. So crazy!
And then Celia found some candied tiny crab apples to eat along the route. The weather was ideal -and we had a lovely time.
Last day off from school, Morton and I were invited to join a family volleyball game. It was a fun way to get to know some new families.
Morton’s in the middle with the orange shorts.
Since the kids have been back in school – and over this past weekend, I went to the big Beijing Picasso show – which was a bit odd with some copies – but there were some lovely pieces and I enjoyed getting to know a couple women I went with.
I also played some tennisOur new table in the shop
And went shopping at a furniture store that I wanted to buy everything – there were so many beautiful things and for similar prices as IKEA. I wish I had a bigger home in New York – I’d buy everything!
Great Weekend
We had a great weekend – so want to get it down before I forget all that happened.
Us with Acrobatic troup, Mr Li, director of school in white, Chris, from ISB in light blue, small older woman in polkadots I believe is director
Starting Friday:
When we first arrived, Celia was super excited to be reunited with her bass guitar. She quickly plugged it into our amp, then plugged the amp into the wall – no converter. 220 V into an amp set for 110 V. Fried. She didn’t realize and plugged our second amp into the wall. Same result.
Apparently our large amp was a big hit for karaoke at school parties at the house last year. We are hosting a staff party at the house this coming Friday – so people thought our lack of a functioning amp was a major crisis.
Dan told me someone from the school was coming to fix the amp. Mid day Friday five men showed up to fix our amp – two department heads and three other men. After changing the fuse and messing with it a bit, they took the amp back to the school with them. Promising we’d have a functioning amp for the party.
Saturday:
Celia and I went food shopping. She hadn’t yet been to a local,what the foreigners call, wet market – so I wanted to bring her to one I’d been to a couple times. They are apparently called “Wet Market” because of the fish tanks there – where fish splash water onto the floor. I haven’t noticed much splashed water, but they do sell fish in tanks – both for eating and for pets – along with everything else possible : from produce stalls, to fresh baked Chinese delicacies, to toilet bowls, plants, antiques, …. And the only foreigners I’ve seen there were the one time I went with a few others. I really wanted to do some tasting, and figured Celia would indulge with me.
Celia driving me on her scooter
In the past I have biked or gotten a ride to the market. This time Celia offered to take me on the back of her scooter. I have to admit I was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t too scary. She did a pretty good job of driving safely. We bought a lot of produce and some barley, and some snacks. Having to do all our communicating in Mandarin and not recognizing everything we see, made it more of a fun adventure than a chore. Plus we had a couple super yummy Chinese fried dough filled with some greens! I wish I had a picture of it!
Sunday morning:
Celia and I did some frantic cooking for Rosh Hashanah dinner. Then we got ready to go to see some acrobats. We weren’t sure exactly what we were going to. Dan had told me someone had invited us to see some acrobats. Other than that he didn’t have anymore information. Dan had put it on our calendar at 10 am – I didn’t realize that was just a place holder. Wednesday I received a message from his assistant that the show was in the afternoon and the director invited us to join him for dinner. I was in a bit of a panic. I had no idea who had invited us, what they exactly invited us for and I didn’t want to insult anyone or be ungrateful but it was also Rosh Hashanah and I didn’t want to cancel our evening holiday plans of services and dinner at Roberta and Ted’s. I explained all this to Dan’s assistant – who also didn’t know anything about the acrobat plans. She got back to me saying it would be okay to go to the show and have dinner another time.
We headed out in the car around 2:15. Dan quickly noticed we were going in the opposite direction from Roberta’s – not the direction he had expected – so our already tight schedule suddenly seemed impossible. The driver told us it would take an hour to get to the acrobatic school (which is apparently where we were going). We were supposed to be there in about half an hour. Not only were we not staying for dinner – we were also now running half hour late. WeChat messages were quickly sent and then we tried not to stress about it too much as there was nothing more we could do.
The director of the school, Mr Li, and Chris, a man who works at ISB, Dan’s school, who was the intermediary for this invitation, met us at the school gate. They walked us through, telling us a little about the school. It’s a boarding school for kids who are training to be acrobats. They enter at age 10 and live and train and do their schooling there. Professional acrobats also train at the school. We then got to a large building and as we entered, the crowd inside stood up and applauded our entrance. It was overwhelming – and I felt like a complete jerk that we were half an hour late, weren’t staying for dinner, and they were applauding our entrance. – not to mention – who the heck are we that they are applauding us? They had set up chairs on the stage – just for us. All the performers circled around the performance space. A group of female performers were spinning plates on multiple poles in their hands.
We then watched one of the most amazing acrobatic performances I’ve ever seen on the floor below the stage. The young men performing were already professional acrobats. After they performed for half hour or so, they had us get up and they moved our chairs to the floor in front of the stage and the show continued on the stage. The girls who had been spinning the plates when we arrived were still spinning the plates. Their arms must be burning! They were students. They performed for next half hour or so. Also mind bogglingly amazing – walking up and over one another while still spinning the plates. At one point they were dancing on their toes without toe shoes – in shoes similar to ballet slippers. Celia wondered what it does to ones face – smiling all that time. When it was done, the performers came around us and the director said a few words in Mandarin, which Chris was translating to Dan, about how it’s such an honor to have us here, how Dan is the head of this very important school… And then he asked Dan to say a few words to his students. Luckily Dan is good at making speeches off the cuff. We then asked the performers some questions – which the director and a woman I assume was the choreographer – answered. Then they walked us back to our car.
Driving to Roberta and Ted’s was faster than expected, so we made it with a few minutes to spare before the service started. In all communication about the Rosh Hashanah plans, the location was obscured, no one would say where it was. We were confused for a while and then realized they didn’t want authorities to crack down on the gathering of so many people – despite there are currently ZERO cases of Covid here in Beijing. It’s a different world here.
Roberta led a lovely service in her side yard and then we carried our chairs inside for dinner. Roberta makes incredible challah and Ted made a fantastic vegetarian matzah ball soup. Food and company are always lovely there.
This morning, Tuesday, there was a breakfast for parents of juniors and seniors. It was lovely but one thing that I struggle with at these things – and Celia says it is the same at school- is how not to have events segregated. I walk into the small restaurant and there is a buffet set out for us. All but four of the parents appear to be Chinese. The few Westerners are seated together. I don’t want to insult anyone but decide to sit with some Chinese mothers I don’t know. They are lovely and we chat a while but their level of English is varied and my Chinese is certainly not enough to hold a meaningful conversation. Eventually they start talking on their own in Mandarin and I turn to a Western father to my left and chat with him. I try to reengage with some other Chinese parents, but it’s hard to enter when they are engrossed in conversation in Mandarin. I then go talk with a couple Western mothers I know a bit. At one point I look up from my conversation to notice I am talking with the only other person woman in the room. We are here to experience China but integration is hard.
Random Reporting
Crazy visa required medical tests
To change our visas from a short stay visa to a long term visa I had to go get an official medical exam. I had to go downtown to the official medical facility. ChangYang, who works at ISB, and I waited for the place to open and then hurried in, to get ahead of the line. We ran in, she registered me on the computer and then we waited my turn. After being called, I signing in, appropriate green codes were checked, paperwork completed, questions answered, and I payed the fee. Then I was sent upstairs to the medical maze. I was sent from area to area – a rat scurrying through – to get the appropriate stickings and scanings. One spot they took blood, another – a chest x-ray, another they put circular stickers all over my body with wires that connected to a monitor (any doctors out there know what this was for?), yet another they took my blood pressure … It was all very officiant and felt quite crazy! With that completed, a few days later the kids and I went to the Chinese visa office, had our official pictures taken, met individually (I couldn’t be near desk during kids meeting and vice-versa) with the visa agent. They took our passports and said they’d return them when the process was over. That was a bit unnerving but a week and a half later or so our passports were returned with our new year long visas. We need to reapply every year – though I believe without the medical experiments.
On a completely different subject, a couple Fridays ago we went to Roberta and Ted’s for Shabbat. Roberta had just come back from going to a more remote area of China to have many women (I forget the number but it was impressively high) get tested for the HPV virus. She told an incredible story of how they got so many women tested. Normally we get undressed, go onto the table, put our feet in the stirrups, and a doctor gives us a papsmear. Using this method would take too long to get so many women through the process. To be more efficient, they had a large number of women come into a room and get into a circle around a table. Then, through some laughter and group encouragement, they would get the women to drop their pants and under garments, squat and take their own samples. So amazing, crazy, and brilliant. Why don’t we do that?! – though not sure about the group aspect. All the more incredible as I have learned that tampons are not part of this culture – they are very difficult to find here. … . .…. OTHER RANDOM EVENTS:
MY NEW LOOK
I went to the hair salon. They insisted on blow drying my hair. They promised they were drying it curly. This is me with ”curly blown dried hair”! The kids couldn’t even look at me. I took some silly pictures then quickly washed it out.
New Family Member
Celia finally got a cat! Celia picked it up from it’s foster home one evening. We had guests over and they knew the cat. It had been rescued not far from our home and had been through two foster homes. It came with the name Toto – which Celia instantly switched. Dan wanted to call it Chairman Mao ze Dong. I suggested Chairman Miao. Celia calls the cat Milo. The cat doesn’t answer to any of these things. It spent the first few days hidden inside a tiny bathroom drawer. We couldn’t find him for about 24 hours – when Celia opened her bathroom drawer and yelled with surprise. Now Milo comes out to pester Celia at night, but spends most of his days hidden in bedside tables or the back of closets and he’s very skittish. On a regular basis we are doing something like putting our clothes in our bureau and the cat comes bounding out in a fearful panic from the tiny crack below the dresser. Hopefully he’ll adjust to us. But Celia is thrilled to have him.
First Day of School
Two weeks down of new school. Kids are overwhelmed with how nice the school is. I have never seen a school with such nice facilities! I am enjoying the beautiful indoor tennis courts and swimming pool. Kids are enjoying the fantastic school food – breakfast, lunch, and endless snacks – and being able to go hang out and eat free snacks in Dan’s beautiful glass cube office. Celia can’t believe how light the schedule is: four classes a day with a couple study halls and no PE, vs. the eight classes a day she had in Brooklyn. Of course the real school work hasn’t really started yet – school eases kids back for first two weeks – so we’ll see if her tune changes once the real school work kicks in. Celia is also enjoying that her classmates are, across the board more academically engaged, than in Brooklyn. Morton has signed up for a plethora of at school after-school activities: volleyball – indoor and out, table tennis, golf … They kick in next week. And he’s trying to get a biking club set up.
At Forbidden City
A couple Friday nights ago we invited a few families over for dinner and to watch The Last Emperor. I hadn’t seen it since it’s release in late 80s. We projected it on the wall of our playroom and took breaks for dinner and dessert (it’s a long movie). It was a great prelude to our Sunday morning trip with the Rubin family to the Forbidden City.
Celia in an Olafur Eliasson art installationAnd who doesn’t love a cat video?
After going to the Red Brick Museum, and getting a wonderful tour from a curator there, I returned to show Celia the place and the show. There was a beautiful Olafur Eliasson installation and then a really interesting video show. And then we walked through the small garden and ate in the restaurant there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more beautiful, well thought out garden. Ever step we took there is another magical surprise – every viewpoint has been considered.
Last Thursday I went to an art show of an adult class where they copy traditional Chinese silk paintings. The care with the brush strokes were unbelievable – like Indian miniatures. It was so interesting to see. And everyone was very warm and inviting to me. It was lovely. The gallery space is in a mall and the manager ran after me as I was leaving to offer me a tour of the building. There are many fancy restaurants in the building, a small art gallery, a Japanese food market, and an entire area of fish tanks where fish wait to be ordered by customers at the restaurants upstairs. The building was finishing being built when Covid happened, so a lot of the building that looked like it would be a fun farmers type market and another area that should have been a beer garden, sat empty. It was a shame. The next night I did bring Dan back to have dinner at one of the restaurants. We had these amazing croquettes.
This past weekend was Zhongqiujie – Mid Autumn Festival. Everyone eats moon cakes – which are usually individually sized cakes that come in many flavors. Many people gave them to us. It was so nice – though Celia and Morton may have eaten a few dozen too many! Sunday the Wang Family, the dad is on the school board and one daughter is a school graduate and the other is an eighth grader, invited us to a fabulous 10 course vegetarian meal. Most of the dishes I couldn’t recognize, but were so beautiful and delicious. Morton opted out of this meal. Sitting at a meal for three and a half hours didn’t sound bearable to him.
This week I took Morton to have his eyes checked. Maybe they do this in the States, but I’ve never seen it. They figured out his new prescription then had him wear the new lenses in these funky glasses for ten minutes or so before we could go to make sure they didn’t give him a headache. I thought they were super fun science time travel type glasses!
While most people in the U.S. hardly remember there is (was?) a pandemic going on (we checked the online front page of NYT yesterday – nothing about Covid was even mentioned that day) – here it a major part of life. Apparently there currently are 15 cases in Beijing (in a city more populated than NYC) – so all schools had to put up plexiglass between students in the lunch room. Feels horrible but I just have to remind myself – as long as they don’t make school go remote – I should/will be happy.
Lastly for now, Yesterday a friend, Hanbin, took me to another local art museum – the Song Art Museum. The grounds were also beautiful. The museum was showing an exhibit of very young contemporary Chinese artists. Hanbin knew one of the artists’ fathers, so the artist, Zhang Ji, agreed to meet us near his work to discuss it. His work was really engaging – more emotionally driven than much of the work I’ve seen here so far – which I appreciate. Ends up he studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, as I did, and under at least one of the same people. His concepts about his art and insights into the current Chinese art world were really interesting to hear about. He had some large scale paintings, with amazingly varied and yummy textures, and he had some more quick whimsical drawings. Below are some drawings he did on tiles that he then baked onto the tiles. I love that idea of the quick gesture becoming a solid permanent object.
