Home again, home again jiggety jog . . .

   I don’t know where this silly line comes from, but my father would say it sometimes when he would come home.  It expresses how I feel now with Taiyuan a long way from home.  It feels good to come home and have the furniture adjust itself for my comfort like Harry Potter’s furniture that knew just how he liked it.  That’s the way everyone’s bed feels when we come home.  I am far gone enough after a long trip to think that my cats as well as Buck, Billy and Molly (resident ducks in the stream next to the house) all offer a smile and a deep sense of relief when we return.  

     The show in Taiyuan was a resounding success.  Now we wait for the unsold items to return.  We begin to think of planting some more eggplant and onions in the garden.   My gardener offered to plant the new fan palms in the front, so at least I am relieved of the duty of digging holes for them.  All I am saying I suppose is that coming home makes the mundane extraordingary.

    I talked to Ed Hardy yesterday and began the process of preparing to have a show of his work.  We had a show for him several years ago, before he became the international celebrity that he is now.  Of course he is the pope of Tattoo now.  The man who by dint of his sophistication, elevated the corny heart with an arrow through it to the level of pop ART.   Of course Duchamp did this clever elevation of conceptual art when he signed his name R Mutt on a porcelain toilet.  Ed’s work is founded on a profound understanding of Asian Art.  He is able to joke, visually, with the scholar’s taste of China and Japan.  I think it is based on the simple reverence for the art of another artist.  His Tatoos are, in a sense, tattoos for tattoo artists.   The clothing line that features his designs  has spread around the world and has given him the freedom to take common tattoo forms and find new messages for new people.  When we have his show in November we’ll have several paintings of tigers, this being the year of the tiger.  We’ll also be showing his newest work, contemporary porcelains with his glazed paintings. He is also letting me put one of his tigers on my old Porsche.  My son Tusha immediately asked, “How old are you?”

    The correct answer is that, in Shakespeare’s terms, “the ages of men are seven”; so I am free at last, free at last.  Being in the seventh age means that you are free to be as you wish yourself to be.

Arrivederci Taiyuan

  In one of Woody Allen’s movies he said “The only sin in his family was buying retail” This is the mantra of the whole of China.   I have just finished four days of ferocious, taojia-huanjia (offer and counteroffer).   After five years of doing business in China I am very familiar, but still find the process exhausting and inefficient.  It starts with what seems like a simple question, “What is your best price”.  If you give the real bottom price that is where the negotiations begin.  Remember this is not a sadistic customer tactic, it’s the way  the game is played.  After a further round of offer and counteroffer, there begins the pleading for a further discount to prove if you are a true friend, and the information that the item in question is meant as a gift to a dear family member.  At the conclusion of the bargaining, the customer may be presumptuous enough to ask for a gift for doing business with you.  This same process must be done for every sale.  If you think you can make some firm finalizing statement to halt this infernal cycle you are wrong.  You must learn to find soft ways to maneuver.  I am not gifted in this process but I get by.

     So, we are done here and will leave for home tomorrow.  I went for a nice walk today around the city.  I went to what would be called Central Park Taiyuan.  There is a beautiful lake in the center, lined at the edges with Willow trees.  It reminded me of Westlake in Hangzhou.  Since this is an ancient homeland of civilization they have properly made a few areas with monumental sized bronze Dings like the kings of the Zhou Dynasty used in ceremonies and proof of their mandate from heaven.    The most outstanding Ding is about two stories high (an original Ding of this type wouldn’t usually be more than about 20 inches high.  Walking in the open after being inside for four days was itself a treat.

          I saw a man catch a fish along the side of the lake.   It was a nice mullet of about two pounds.   There were several people fishing and relaxing.  Several men could be seen squatting down around a Chinese chess board, or a makeshift tabletop with playing cards being thrown down.  Then I walked on through an area at the end of the park, into several blocks of empty apartment buildings that were obviously scheduled for demolition.  I came on what will be someday be a huge boulevard.  For now it was a series of trenches and holes being fitted for water and sewage lines, and perhaps electricity.  On both sides of this future boulevard there were empty highrise buildings and empty businesses that still wore their signs advertising restaurants, hotels and equipment stores.  It was a dusty walk.

     I came on a vast vegetable and fruit market where you could buy plenty of the small yellow mellons that are grown here in Shanxi.   By the side of the street there were large  pictures on billboards of Wanda Plaza.  Wanda Plaza is going to be a vast shopping mall and new high apartment complex.  In short, this city known by Chinese as being poor and ugly, is renewing itself.  Perhaps this is where the money in the Chinese stimulus has been going.

Taiyuan City – Way Out West

   Taiyuan City, Shanxi is really out west in China. Not as far as Sichuan or Xinjiang toward the Silk Road, but far enough to know that it is not Beijing or Shanghai with their style and power.  This is coal town, coal province, is old in the culture and history of China.  About 1 ½ inch of rain per year, they grow corn like the Midwest US and thereby quench the thirst in the big city for the exotic corn juice served as an appetizer at the beginning of a great Chinese dinner.

   The International Antiques & Arts Expo Taiyuan is a very professional event, vetted by Chinese experts.  No fakes here, thank you.  Being the only American dealer here is quite satisfying to the ego.  There are a few Brits, a Frenchman, several Hong Kong dealers, Taiwanese dealers and of course the professional dealers from Beijing.  The items being sold are expensive, because they are fine works of jade, porcelain, scholar’s table items and of course some items from the imperial household.  Our dear friends, Mohan from Nepal and Wai Wai from Hong Kong, offer exquisite items from Tibet and the Himalayas.  The crowd for the last two days have been other Chinese dealers who have of come to buy items being offered here because of the success of the first of this show in Taiyuan last year.  Many of the local people have come to see this incredible array of Chinese art that is unavailable anywhere in China.

    Just had a fantastic dinner with friends after the show closed.  The show closed late because the Governor of the Province decide to visit late.   The governor and retinue represent the new Empire.  How do you organize a new society?  Well, you use a model that you understand.  The comrades at the top are people that are intelligent and educated and can organize.   But, the enduring model of the ancient empire of China is simply too strong to ignore.  As Orwell said, everyone is equal but there are some that are more equal.  Of course this is true in all countries.  The elite always rule.  It is just a little strange to experience the deference that is shown to certain people who are supposed to be embodiment of the “common man” treated in such a regal style. 

      Fellow Capitalist Roadies (derogatory put down for people suspected of business ability in the Mao era), I’m tired from the work today in improving the trade deficit between China and America, so, I will say good night and sweet dreams to all!

The Forbidden City and San Lun Che (Tricycle)

 

      Yesterday we got a ride in one of the motorized tricycles that are everywhere in Beijing.  We had been at the Gu Gong (The Forbidden City) where it had been drizzling all day and it was time to get back to the hotel.  Everyone had the same idea at the same time and there were simply no taxis to be had.  It’s also useless for Western people to stand in what passes for a line in Asia; the pushing, shoving, and moving all against each other will eventually get you to your destination, but it’s real work and takes forever.  So, we went along the street and found our ride in the tricycle.  It was just fine and we felt like we were pretty smart in finding a ride out of the rain.

   The tricycles are everywhere in the world of course, in one way or another. We used to have tricycle pedicabs in Honolulu.   Here they are an important part of moving many things. Some are peddle driven, some are moped fitted, and others are almost silent electric motor driven.   I saw a family of five in the back of one of the tricycles fitted with the box that makes it a little pick up truck.  In the Russian neighborhoods  they are dressed with red tops and gold fringes with Cyrillic script on the back.  The Hutongs always have several workhorse tricycles sitting around, dusty and appearing to be the same age as the buildings.  These are the vehicles that carry huge piles of construction materials from place to place.  Some are delivery cars for large water bottles. 

 The other day while I was having my normal Xing ba ke (Starbucks Coffee) morning coffee across from my hotel, a huge tricycle came along fitted with a huge stainless steel tank on the back.  Every so often one of two men in the team would take a hose from the tank and spray the landscaping with what must have been pesticide.  The tricycles are of course no big deal but they are emblems of the mix of ancient pragmatism and resourcefulness with the massive building complexes and wealth that shows itself everywhere here.

Pan Jia Yuan Market & neighborhood

     My advice, don’t buy any antiques in China unless you are an expert or have the counsel of one.  Even then you will undoubtedly find at sometime that you have bought a new antique.  We went to the Pan Jia Yuan antique market here in Beijing the other day.  There are two very large buildings with several floors with lots of small antique shops.  There are genuine antiques here and some very good ones.  However, most of the shops carry brand new forgeries.  We saw a few things that we liked, but nothing of importance.

    There is an outside square with a cloth roof to protect sellers and buyers.  The sellers sit on some kind of fabric covering with their goods displayed on the fabric.  My fasination with this flea market was to see the variety of the kind of antique pieces that were offered.  There were jade, porcelain, silver, jewelry, sculpture, paintings and prints.  I saw one album of paintings with a cover that seemed to have very nicely carved dark wood covers.  The paintings were watercolors of decorative quality.  The whole package was well done enough that a person with no experience of Asian art might think that he had found a treasure.  The covers were actually fabricated from plastic and plywood!

      I’m trying to become a little better at speaking Mandarin by taking special one on one classes in Mandarin.  Tomorrow is my last day of this class.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the classes and may be a little less confusing to people as a consequence.

     While I’m studying Mandarin, Judy has been taking classes in Chinese cooking.  I’m looking forward to her new cuisine.  They are held in the home of a Chinese woman who speaks English.  She lives and teaches in one of the several Hutong in Beijing. 

     The Hutong are long buildings with winding passages and rooms that are impossible to fathom the configurations from the outside.  Originally they had a courtyard in the center.  That courtyard has disappeared as the tenants expanded their living quarters.   These Hutong are a place of residence for people usually involved in manual work of some kind.  There are 300 of them here that are protected from the development of new highrises and new construction.  They simply represent a style of life that has been around for hundreds of years.

       Down the street from my hotel their are two very large Hutong in back and beside very luxurious malls, businesses and restaurants.  Last night we decided to enjoy the Beijing Duck in Beijing at one of the top restaurants here.  It’s called Da Dong after the name of a famous chef.  There are a few of these restaurants.  They are as luxurious as anything in New York, Paris or London.  The duck was great and the price by ordinary Chinese standards was hideously expensive, but reasonable by Western standards. 

     Several years ago I saw a display at Rockerfeller Center in New York of a famous designer’s antique car collection.  It really astounded me, such fabulously expressive designs.  Las night on the walk to Da Dong I was amazed to see one of the most beautiful designs.  It was a Bugatti that had an elegant and powerful style.  China is a nation whose people live on about a hundred dollars a month per person. This magnificent luxury would cost the equivalent of what thousands of people would earn in a lifetime.  The Hutong and the Bugatti are on the same street.  For now I think everyone here is willing to accept the current state of affairs in China so they and their children have a chance at the great life, whatever that may be. There are many example of those that have succeeded.

From Shanghai to Beijing

       I’m sitting here in my very nice hotel room feeling very good after a good draught of Guiness.  After being sick from something in Shanghai and jet lag I woke up feeling good this morning.  So, I thought I would tell you a little about what I have seen so far.  First I am in no sense in a state of privation, the hotel is very nice and turns out to be in one of the best places to stay in Beijing.  After a walk across the driveway to the Starbucks, I had an excellent non-exotic breakfast just the way I like it.  I thought a nice walk would be a good start.  So, after starting across the street two young good-looking xiaojie (young ladies) came up to ask me all about myself they were so interested.  After a block or so it became clear that they were attaching themselves to me, it became clear that it wasn’t my natural attractiveness that had brought them along, they wanted to take me to an art exhibition and so on.  It was precisely the pattern of the Turkish helpful stranger who would be happy after a while to sell me a carpet.  With a few discouraging words I got rid of them. On and on the walk.  The sky here is like a huge blanket, all white, no clouds, no definition, just white above the buildings. It looks like smoke, not like LA.  I think someone crossbred Chicago and Texas to come up with Beijing.  It’s flat, it’s just endless space - buildings that are huge with very wide avenues.  The buildings have none of the elan and innovation of Shanghai.  Once in Chicago it was very warm but I saw a dark menace in the sky that actually raced along toward me, and suddenly it was really cold and it rained like hell.  I’m sure that must happen here.  The Texas part is just how big everything is.  It expresses nothing but pound-the-table power and deep wealth of the new dynasty.  There is  a hotel a block from my hotel that looks exactly like the architecture of Paris.  The same turned back roof line in dark material against the buff color of the building with all of its European decorative elements. It’s called Legendale.  But of course I had to see the inside.  It was fitted out with chairs that any televangelist would die for.  Louis the this and that everywhere.  Sweeping stairways, gobs of chandeliers.  Of course the first floor street level has a Benz dealership with the most opulent models.  Good for me they had the good taste to install a very nice Molly Malone pub, Molly would not have understood this interior but I found the luxury to be very acceptable especially as the glass of Guinness got lighter.  I couldn’t help notice the Ferrari and Rolls dealership across the street when I left. 

Now contrast this with the evening before when I arrived.  I wanted a noodle place or local food for dinner not the overpriced mediocre hotel food.  So, the bellman told me to go to walk along behind the hotel.  It was a dusty street with old delivery tricycles, a few well-worn local people hanging out.  I turned down a road that went on and on and on. On either side there were single story grey brick buildings with tile roof that ran along the side of the street.  There were few windows into the buildings.  It was one of the Beijing Hutongs.  They are called in some cases alleyway houses.  They are residences with small spaces where people have lived for many many generations.  The complex is enormous,I walked around it, and I was tired.  I saw a little laundry as big as my clothes closet that needed a lot of dusting.  There from time to time the eternal old housewives talking and stealing looks at the impertinent laowai.  Several men hunkered down at the side of the street playing Chinese chess with their cronies looking down on them.  I was back in the 18th century.

     I went on with my walk this morning to Wangfujin Avenue.  It is populated with the ordinary boutiques such as Celine, Gucci, Armani.  There were many small places to sit and drink and eat a snack. I went to a bookstore and saw a lot of books that I really want.  But, I already had to pay for extra baggage from Shanghai because I bought books there.  But, the highlight of that place was coming onto Gourmet Street.  This is a basement food court that is two floors down from street level.  At first it was confusing, although there were places to sit in the middle of the building and there were about 70 small eateries offering every kind of appetizing food I couldn’t figure how to pay.   But, by accident I read the sign in English that explained that you must pay at least 30 yuan on a card, with that you can buy at any stall, they will subtract the charge.  The food was good and the 500 hundred comrades were cheery company as they inspected everything I did.  I suppose I should close because the old school boy has his first class in the morning.  Zai jian,  Robyn