So I am back in the Du and it feels all right. As soon as I get here and start meshing with my real people again i realize that my work in China will never ever be done. There is so much to write, create, document and promote … I am tied to here forever. But as I decided a long time ago — I can do these things best from afar, bring that which i know to people who aren’t in the know.
anyway. I spent two days in Qingdao ostensibly to attend the showing of a collection of Qingdao and Chengdu paintings. The art was pretty amazing.
There was one piece in particular.
a gray city scape of your average Chinese town: rickety stone staircase leading down down down through stacks of shamble houses with aluminum garage doors on either side. An old man is squatting on the left hand, just a few concrete blocks above a prostitute all in red, smoking a cigarette as she stares at nothing. further down is a man in shorts, looking down and rubbing the back of his head as he stares at the oven that makes him his living. He is skinny enough to have his ribs stick out, but hardy enough to look stacked not thin. the wires that bring them their daily opium from the TV coil down the staircase into the shadows below, tangled impossibly until they reach a node, where they are attached expertly, then tangle again as they head down pell mell to the next node.
I thought of the city of Hanyuan immediately. Hanyuan is where my gong fu brothers live, The place was hit by the earthquake in May and is a den of gangsterism, corruption and random ass beatings. Here is a video of the local cats doing their thang amidst the rubble .. peace to my man Faryao …
