Pot, Rape, and Change

We are back from our trip to Jingdezhen and Wuyuan. To be honest, it
was a little too much time on the road for such a short trip, and I
left Jingdezhen with some disappointment that I did not get more time
for pot shopping. However, without knowing what I was looking for it
was a bit overwhelming. I think China can be like that because in some
ways, there are just so many choices. We only looked in one area for
pottery, but as we were leaving, we happened to come across what
looked like another huge section of pottery, and we also stumbled upon
another place selling it in the city. The thing about the pottery in
Jingdezhen is that there does not really seem to be any work that is
artistic. Everything is mass produced by a number of people and it is
not just one person making a single artwork. I am not sure what to
make of this kind of pottery. In Japan, when I was looking at
different pottery places, all of the stores selling the pottery
featured different things, or at least there seemed to be more variety
because there were not endless shops in large market settings.
However, I felt, in Japan, the pottery had more of a creative feel to
it. Not every single piece was the same. Although in Jingdezhen, the
people there assured me that it was handmade, it was also all the
same, so it lacked some of that feeling of being totally handmade. To
me, there is a big difference between handmade and being made my hand.
I never thought of that distinction until this last visit to
Jingdezhen. In China, there is so much that is just created by hand.
Appropriately, while on the road, I read Peter Hessler's new book
called Country Driving, and he mentioned visiting a factory town where
they created an art district as a sort of green business to promote
the arts. However, the kind of painting that was done there was more
of just copying landscapes for overseas markets and not a sort of
place that fostered creativity. In so many ways, there is this lack of
appreciation for creating something new and artistic. It seems art
here is just recreated for the masses. In addition, the people
mentioned in his book did not have a love of doing the arts. To them,
it was just a job. Much like someone would be an accountant or
possibly a factory worker at an assembly plant. The work is just
something to do to get a paycheck, and as the work requires a certain
skill, there is perhaps, more money to be made. To me, art is
something people should enjoy doing and the process of making the art
is to express something that cannot be put into words. In China, it
does not seem that definition applies.
After having our fill of pot, we moved on to look at the rape in the
fields. Hudson was delighted to be walking through the fields of rape,
in fact, I dare say he loved it. I truly felt like he would fit in so
well if we lived in the country side. He was running through the
fields as if he had lived there all his life. He spread his arms as he
was running and for a bit I wondered if he might just fly. A few
times, Meng and I wondered what the kid had been smoking or if there
was something in looking at all that pot after all. Though, I guess
the kid just loved rape.
The place were were visiting was supposed to be the most beautiful
countryside in China; however, I think it was overrated. In fact, the
rice terraces in Yunnan were far more stunning and amazing that
looking at fields of rape. I suppose my expectation was a bit too
high.
This morning we left for Shanghai, and I went directly to work. At the
train station, I noticed that they had Van Taxis with the expo logo on
them. This was a new thing to see, and as I arrived at work I noticed
even more taxis with expo labels on them. It really feels like the
expo is coming soon, and that wasn't the only change I noticed. The
other big change was that some of the busses and bus stops actually
had English on the signs. It was possible to read the side of the bus
and know where it went and some of the bus stops told you were you
were. This may not seem like a big deal, but for a foreigner who
cannot read Chinese, taking a bus is incredibly difficult. When we
first arrived, I discovered how to take busses by paying attention to
the busses near where I lived and looking for those numbers in other
places. Later, I got were I could read a few important places to see
if the bus was heading in my direction or not. I felt incredibly
pleased with my self around last October, when I used a map to figure
out what bus to take to a place I had not been before. Another change
I saw was that it looks like Line 11 is getting ready to open.
In someways it seems strange to have gone to see a form of art which
can be preserved for centuries, to fields full of rape and a way of
life that has not changed drastically for hundreds of years, to go to
Shanghai were things change so quickly that you wonder how it is even
possible.... that's China for yah.