Plans change as often as they are made here. In fact, plans are like sticks thrown in the water and wherever they go is the plan. For nearly a week we had a “date” and “time” for a meeting at the Dragon Hotel gallery to talk about the possibility of an exhibition there of Rob’s work. We thought we would take the bus into town and walk around the West Lake area, ending up with this afternoon meeting at the gallery. What actually happened was a shape shifting thing that began with an extraordinary tea tasting episode with one sound design faculty member, and then driving half an hour to a small hole in the wall “family kitchen” not far from art studios of faculty we were then to visit. We saw work in the studios of two professors at the Academy, in an extraordinary setting of tea fields on mountainous slopes. The afternoon sun was unimaginably wonderful after the first week of cold and rain. Then off to the Dragon Hotel and a meeting to clear up misunderstandings and reformulate our concepts of what modern art is here. As Rob put it, “It is lobby art no matter how much you charge for it.” There was no context in that place for the work he is currently making.
All the while we were drinking tea. Tea on campus with the tea collector who brews black tea from his home region, that grows on a tall mountain, each tea brewed quickly 5-8 times depending upon the tea itself. Each brew, we smell the lid of the tea pot and slurp the tea through the teeth to aerate it for the fullest flavor. Think 8 times for each of 4 teas. We went from floral orchid fragrances to dark mossy overtones, to outright smokiness and then finished with a tea that was “suitable for afternoon tea time in Britain with honey or milk.” Of course when we visited studios in the midst of tea fields, we drank local fresh green tea. At the Dragon Hotel we are served white tea, and then two other teas in succession, each in a continuous pour so that if you drink from your cup, it refills immediately.
We met our host’s wife and small child and went for another dinner feast with the gallery owner, her friend who spoke English, and her studio assistant who also spoke some English. There was a most amazing broad bean dish, a home made spicy tofu dish, beautiful fresh greens they called watermugwort in the translation program, and okra – the surprise dish here. Of course beef and fish as well, and bits of meat in some of the dishes, yet also a moochi roll dish, even cornbread (but more like a sweet cake with finely ground corn meal). After dinner we are invited to go out to West Lake for tea! By this time Rob and I have already maxed out, but we go along for what turns into an hour of driving around the West Lake in the tourist traffic. So we get our first view of “the most beautiful city in China” at night, with lights on the water (think colored light show). In some ways we are glad there is no parking and the choice is made to drop the plan and head “home.” Two of our company hop out and catch a cab, and we return to the campus to a sense of sanctuary and quiet.
