Water Calligraphy
Met a young woman called Xie Chun Mei in Tuanjiehu Park. She was eager to practice her English which she had a pretty good grasp of I thought. I learnt some numbers and a few taxi directions – but the pronunciation is so difficult to get right.
On the way out of the park the water calligraphers were back practising. I think they start around 430pm each day for a few hours. It seems to be only men who do this. They walk backwards as they write, in the traditional top to bottom format of Chinese writing. One man uses two brushes and can write different characters at the same time. There are generally quite a number of appreciative bystanders watching. They seemed pleased I was interested and happy for me to take photos. Angela Zito who was in this flat before me was researching this practice for her project here.
A bright clear hot day very like days during the southern Australian summer – but thankfully much more humid, which suits me even with all the sweating! I am still teaching during my residency – I teach online p/t at Swinburne University in Melbourne – and this makes things extremely flexible. I am actually enjoying having this commitment and structure as it can be daunting at times to be in a new place/culture without any of the familiar supports.
I have noticed the labourers working on the myriad building sites around the city live in tents on the pavement outside – hardly full of home comforts. The other night I was walking along Sanlitun Lu, a rather touristy street full of noisy bars on one side and darkened tents on the other with labourers presumably trying to get some sleep before an early start. Work starts early and finishes late for these workers. There are few safety harnesses, either, for those clambering up high along the bamboo scaffolding.
I have managed to get in touch with Professor Ai-Ping Liang at the Institute of Zoology who can identify my insect recordings for me on Friday, which is great.
There has been discussion afoot with Laurens, Yam, Christophe, Ise and I working collaboratively on a project after the laptop night on Sunday. It is hard to know how to approach it as Yam leaves on Friday, Ise leaves on Sunday, and Christophe is based in Tianjin anyway. Laurens has suggested a response to the Dong Yue Temple as a first step, which is where we all met for the first time,
Guoguo’er
Kelly came to help me search out scientists for identification of the insects in my recordings. It seems that most people are away as this is the summer vacation here in China. May have to wait till early Sept. She tells me ‘guoguo’ means cricket, and I have since found out that it is probably referring to Gampsocleis gratiosa. In Pinyin [Romanised Chinese] this is listed as guoguo’er and I have found references to it in English as a katydid or long horn grasshopper or even a bushcricket. This is the one commonly sold in Northern China and they are kept as pets for their singing. It is carnivorous and will eat prey larger than itself.
I have also now noticed the singing of a cricket outside the front of these flats. The singing is certainly coming from a window and not outdoors, so I will keep an eye/ear out.
Refs
*http://www.bolingo.org/cricket/crickets_nametable.htm
*http://www.cyberbee.net/~huang/pub/insect.html
*http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/miscel/gratiosa.htm
*http://www.yellowbridge.com/language/wordsearch.php?searchMode=C&word=???&select=whole&search=Search
798 Dashanzi Art District
Went to 798 again with Julie and Yam yesterday and some openings were on. Saw the Long March space plus Platform China’s 798 branch. We are all starting to talk about group shows/collaborations and the viability of applying for shows here. Apparently 798 has become an ‘established’ art scene now, and the cutting edge stuff is further out NW towards Bei Gao.
Tony Trembath was at the Japanese meal in the evening – just arrived. The meal was a Red Gate farewell for Isaac [Parker] who returns to Hawaii on Mon. Tonight a group of us are having a laptop show-and-tell at some bar in Sanlitun the name of which I have now forgotten.
North West of the Forbidden City
Having checked out the Gulou or Drum Tower from the 15th century Ming period [though not the original building] north of the Forbidden City [the original time keeping device], I wandered around the hutong on the hunt for some cricket culture. Not much luck – some say it is too warm at the moment. I did hear two crickets in one house that were certainly pets, which were singing together. I made a recording of them. Interesting to record in a public thoroughfare. Most people were mildly curious and even quite interested when I gestured to the sounds and showed images of crickets. One man told me the crickets are known as ‘guo guo’ – a local name maybe, couldn’t find it in the dictionary. Hope to find insect markets at some point. I have found out about a cricket fighting association which I will look into but am really interested in the singing not the fighting.
Came across a lot more of the hutong destruction on this walk [and completely lost my sense of direction]. Some hutong are still inhabited amongst all the rubble, with radios playing and sounds of cooking indoors. Twice I was told not to take photos.
