Happy New Year
As it has been Chinese New Year I have been away for the past five days visiting Yan Yans family and friends whom have been very hospitable. It has been strange though arriving and working for a week and then being away, although what a wonderful experience to be in China at this time of the year. I have eaten some amazing food, the chicken is very good here and I have tried new foods such as pig’s lip and ear, which is like chewy bacon. In most of the restaurants we have visited in the different places we have been there is usually a big pot simmering away in the middle of the table with lots of stock and spices with a choice of meat and fish. After we have eaten the meat you then add vegetables and along the way drink the soup, which is really tasty. My favourite drink here has been a nutty milk, sometimes peanut last night it was walnut and is normally warmed up and is sweet if a hotpot is too spicy the milk can calm the chilli down in your mouth. In Long Quan Yi I stayed at Yan Yans sisters flat which was really nice and funny as we both couldn’t speak each other’s languages so there was a lot of body language and laughter. With not being able to speak Mandarin when we have visited different people sometimes I have felt a bit like a tourist attraction, which can be looked at and not spoken too. At the dinner table if there are more than 4 people I loose track of what is being said and on occasion have felt like I am not there. However all this aside everyone has made me feel very welcome and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about my experiences so far.
When we were away I did get to meet and interview Zhou Bin a Live Artist who lives in Chengdu. We visited his studio and when we arrived he set off a belt of firecrackers, which were so loud. We then had tea, which his wife made, and I was fascinated with the process of how she was making it, I can really appreciate the process as art. Yan Yan helped translate for me and I interviewed Zhou about his time in Manchester for the Vital event in 2007 and I got a chance to talk to him about my work. We could see similarities and distinct differences in our work for example durational performance is very popular in Chinese Live Art and using irony and humour are more English traits.
We go back to Chongqing today and I am looking forward to picking up my sound blocking headphones and planning ahead for this performance. During my stay here the Shanghai Expo is being heavily advertised with the strap line, ‘Better Life, Better People’ this also reminds me of the Beijing Olympics slogan ‘One World, One Dream, I find these messages very ‘utopian’. Expo has a green theme which I find very contradictory for example what about the pollution which will be created by the traveling participants and visitors, and then what will happen to the site when Expo is finished? I am thinking about incorporating some of these cheesy strap lines into my performance, I could use them in a banner of some sort, maybe on some ribbon. I have found China to be very Chinese lots of places I have been to are very westernized, although China retains a strong identity. There can be no ‘One World, One Dream’ as we are so different which is a good thing, who wants to live in a world of sameness? It would be a pretty boring place.
