After class on friday we took a trip to a culture/traditional crafts exhibition. Why? I don't know. Well at the time it made sense, but in retrospect it wasn't very informative. All the language kids took a charter bus all the way across town, fighting midday traffic the whole time. I'm not sure if this building was always used for these sorts of events or what but it looked like a really old wealthy chinese mansion. We saw a huge line for tickets, which I was very impressed with. As I've probably mentioned before, my biggest beef with China is the Chinese refusal to line up. I haven't really ever seen a line. They're more like formations. Formations toward a common goal. I've been reading Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost. It's amazing how much it has mirrored my experience in China. Maybe I'll blog about that book. I highly recommend that book. Go get it. He too has a similar disdain for the Chinese line forming abilities. As I think i mentioned in the Harbin post, they don't really do lines in traffic either. Driving at high speeds on highways is no problem in China. When you get to stop and go traffic you run into problems. Luckily you're never moving at high speed and the taxi drivers have an extra appendage know as their car. I rarely feel scared for my own safety in Chinese taxis. In traffic there is never a gap between cars. As soon as a gap is made it is immediately filled with a taxi, bus, bike, pedestrian or some combination of those four. I was wondering the other day if this is a more efficient way to move through traffic. I mean, there is absolutely no gaps in traffic so how could you be moving any faster. But then I realized that there's so much traffic because vehicles are constantly changing lanes. This really slows stuff down. Drivers seem to think even if there's a gap in a clearly slower lane, it's better to jump in that gap. Oh well. I think this video adequately represents China.
Ok. So where were we. Oh yes, the huge line. It was about 200m long but moving very quickly. It was a slow walking pace. Ironically, halfway through the line we, IES students, got to cut the line and walk right in.
There were so many people in this tiny museum. You would have thought we were at a outdoor market. We were supposed to have a tour guide, but I along with everyone else got split up and proceeded to wander around understanding nothing for an hour and a half. We walked past little booths of men and women doing their particular ancient art craft. There were painters, sculptors, instrument makers, umbrella makers, goldsmiths, silversmiths, tea connoisseurs, furniture builders and everything in between. Every sign was in Chinese so I didn't really learn anything beyond what I could see. Our teachers told us that there would be a few questions on the next test about what we learned at this museum. The only question I see myself answering correctly would be How many people were at this museum? - An uncountable amount.
Every stall was unbelievably crowded with Chinese people pushing to get a glimpse of each craft. The first time I saw a crowded stall, I too tried to push past and see what everyone was trying to see. It was just a guy painting some characters on some paper. Why was everybody pushing to see this? Indeed why do they always rush to get everywhere. China has a real knack for doing the complete opposite of the West. This is rarely a bad thing in my opinion. It's just different, and it's something you have to get used to. Times when a westerner would rush, the Chinese like to be very slow. Conversely times when we would be calm and slow, the Chinese shout and rush about. No one ever seems to be in a hurry when riding their bike. Most people rarely ride faster than a brisk walk. Waiters and waitresses hurry you and shove a menu in your face before you've taken off your coat, but as soon as you've ordered you don't see service again until you shout FUWUYUAN!!! across the restaurant. I've never understood people's hurry to board airplanes as soon as their flight is announced. The last thing I want to do before a cross country flight is spend an extra five minutes in the plane. If you thought some westerners hurry on board, come to China. Unless you've been to Pamplona I doubt you've seen people move with such fervor.
Yes. Quite a museum experience. I saw how a loom worked. I've never really understood them until I saw someone working one. Somethings you just have to see.
I've discovered a much better/faster/bigger way to imbed photos.
What else has happened.
Wow. Last night we went to a club and saw Paul Van Dyk. I've never really been a trance kinda guy. But this was super fun. We had dinner at our little xiaochi. I think the women know me by now, I think i have at least one meal there everyday. We've begun to talk more. I think I've begun to break the ice with regard to talking to strangers in Chinese. In the gym changing room two other guys were talking about me in Chinese. I startled them by saying I can understand a little, and confirmed their assumption that I was American. On the bus to GT Banana (Paul van Dyk show) I started up a conversation with a man I later found out was from Harbin. It's much easier talking about stuff you know - like Harbin.
As I said the show was awesome .We had our own booth. The dance floor was on some sort of hydraulics. I couldn't tell if it was just moving in response to everyone jumping, or it actually moved independently. Either way it was a weird/really cool feeling. Naturally half way through the set a caged woman descended from the ceiling. A bar/club just doesn't feel right in China if there isn't some sort of half naked elevated dancing woman somewhere. It was the most crowded place I've ever been. Everyone was so sweaty from dancing. If i had tried to traverse the dancefloor with dry clothes on I would have exited wet. It was disgusting, but at the same time so much fun. Sporadically they would spray cold white air, either to cool us down or just because it looked cool. I think it was compressed CO2. It was kinda hard to breathe when that hit.
Yeah. It has been a fun weekend. Next week we depart for Yunnan. I'll post about that laterrr.
Happy Trace?
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