Baby New Year

January 3rd...Giant Baby New Year wishes visitors to the plaza at Sanlitun success in the new year. After we left 798, Bill joined us for some fun at The Saddle Cantina followed by a stop at Franks.

Dozens of smaller Baby New Years line the perimeter of the plaza, each offering a different wish for success, prosperity, good fortune, etc., in the coming year.

Even the trolls were there. Perhaps they knew a few Scandinavians would be passing their way.

798 Art Zone

Saturday, January 3
Only 2 more days before we would head back to school, so we wanted find something to do Saturday. On the Beijing City Weekend website we found two exhibits at the Paris Beijing Photo Gallery at 798 Art Zone. It was a relatively warm day (relative to Minnesota that is), so we put on our leggings (in Dave's case that's longjohns), bundled up well, and started walking. Dave asked me to predict how long it would take to get there. I said half and hour, forgetting that was how long it took me to walk from 798 to Lido which is nearly a half hour walk from here. It took almost an hour. That was one very interesting hour as the streets were filled with people celebrating the New Year weekend too and enjoying the time off. I took this picture of the Chinese warrior with his red flag just as we were about to catch a cab to come back home.
Picture taken through store window. There were between 30-40 of these clay scultures seated in the window. I was able to avoid catching any reflections by stepping to the side and waiting for all the people to leave the scene. I think they are wonderful the way each child has his/her own personality. Last year I was able to photograph the Comrades' Choir at the same shop...probably not its name, but that's what I call it.

This is the 798 Cafe. I don't know anything about the food here, but I have eaten 3 times at the cafe next to it, and the food at that place is the best we've had in Beijing (that is if you don't count the dim sum at the Grand Hyatt Royale Court).

Paris Beijing Photo Gallery

Edward Butynsky

The Vegetable Museum

Liberty Leading the Legumes after Delacroix
Saturday, January 3, 2008 We walked to 798 Art Zone to see the exhibits at Paris Beijing Photo Gallery where we saw The Vegetable Museum, work by Lu Duoqi. I found it fascinating. Here is some of what she says about her work:
In the summer of ’06, I bought several kilograms of peas, and sat there quietly for two days peeling them, before stringing them on a wire and turning them into a skirt, a top, a headdress and a magic wand. I used a remote control to take a photo of myself in them, and named it Pea Beauty Pageant. That was my first work of vegetable art.
In the two years that followed, I often dressed up as a housewife, leisurely strolling to the market in a serious search for fun. I would often pace in front of the vegetable stalls, picking things up, thinking and putting them back, trying to figure out which positions made them more interesting. The different types, shapes and colors of the vegetables, with a bit of rearranging, can make for a rich source of imagery. Fresh, withered, rotting, dried, pickled, boiled, fried, they all come out different. I no longer needed a model, as they all became actors and even props. As a director, I directed them to restage La Liberté Guidant le Peuple, and called it La Liberté Guidant les Légumes. As a Chinese woman in this internet age, what I present to people is this kind of world famous painting. Against that fiery fried-egg backdrop, this woman who emanates onion smells from her breast and carries a spring onion spear in her left hand and a wood ear flag in her right, draped in a tofu skin robe, leads the vegetable people forward. The yam soldiers, with their bewildering little round eyes raise a cabbage banner. Having figured out what moving forward means, have they lost their momentum? Each of the potato-head soldiers has a different expression, not sure of their bearing, perhaps surprised, but that is definitely a completely unadorned potato. You wouldn’t know them any better if they were chopped into French fries and covered in ketchup, but when placed in the picture, they all appear unfamiliar and rich in facial expression. On the ground lies the body of a winter melon soldier, with rotting ketchup flowing out of his body like blood. The battleground is strewn with rotting vegetable leaves. This great story of history, this world-famous painting, here becomes completely absurd. How do you approach this famous painting, do you really know its historical background? Do you know what meaning the painter wished to convey? I believe that the world is the world as I understand it, and none other.
Napoleon on Potatoes
I am happy that I have found a way of life for women who love the home. I have found an environmental way of bringing work and life together. From imagination to reconstruction and postproduction, it burns through tons of boring hours. A housewife, who doesn’t have to get up in the morning, wakes up at two a.m. to fry up the carrot that just served as Napoleon’s head. As a medium that decodes time, photography is my favorite. Everything has a spirit, each vegetable, each person, and each second, under careful observation, has extraordinary meaning. What makes me happy is that when I see Napoleon on his Potato, I can think back to when I fried him up and ate him at two in the morning in the summer of ’08. Through photographs, memory becomes sentiment. I never leave the house, and when I do I rarely travel more than 15 kilometers. In a studio, with a knife, a box of toothpicks and some vegetables, I can make small sculptures and slap together big scenes, using a woman’s most effortless and thrifty method of fantasizing about the larger world.
The Birthday of the Eggplants after Marc Chagall
The Third of May2008 after Goya
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Pickled Cabbage after Rembrandt
http://parisbeijingphotogallery.com/main/juduoqiworks.asp
Ju Duoqi
The Vegetable Museum

Best Friends Band

Odds and Ends

When we were at the Saddle Cantina with Bill last weekend, a little old man came in and made the rounds from table to table. He had several dozen of these ornaments hanging from a stick. Most were very traditional Chinese style. I bought these two from him. Bill tried to teach me to say, "Buy 2, get one free." but it didn't work on him. Afterwards, I wished that I had bought more.

This is a jiaozi roller, that is, a dumpling roller. I used one when we made jiaozi at the Li's house (see This is the Way We Bao Jiazi). I am planning to make a lemon meringue pie, so I went to the kwai store today to buy a rolling pin. I was sure I had seen them there in the past, but after looking for several minutes I hadn't found one, so I went up to the young man who was minding the store and asked if he spoke any English. He gave me a blank stare and indicated that he didn't. So I said, "Wo yao jiaozi zhuan" and made rolling actions with my hands to show that I wanted to roll jiaozis (only it was really pie crust I wanted to roll). "Aha." he said and made a bee line for a small box in the back corner. There they were! I asked him what they are really called, and he said something like "gong de gong". I thanked him. I walked out of the store looking like the cat who had swallowed the cream. Another small victory in world of communicating in Mandarin.

Juzi...mandarin oranges. These little oranges are absolutely the most delicious oranges ever....in my opinion. These days I can buy a kilo at the little outdoor market by the kwai store for 10 rmb...about a $1.50. For the most part, they have no seeds, peel cleanly and easily and taste great...did I say that before? I took the picture to show that they are freshly picked as evidenced by the leaves. This plate sits on my washing machine which I use for a kitchen counter. That's tub through the transparent plastic lid.

Cathy's toaster oven she loaned me over Christmas vacation. On top is the apple crisp I made...the best I can remember. Also made brownies, bars, and chocolate chip cookies and heated up the quiche from Comptoirs de France...a toaster oven is perfect for that job.
When I first moved in 4.5 months ago I didn't have a waste basket so I improvised with this Comptoirs de France bag (no, not the one the quiche came in). I keep it under the sink and it has held up so far, so I guess I'll keep using it.

On the left, my "fancy" waste basket. I bought it at a flower shop at Pinnacle Plaza on sale for $3. I think maybe it's true purpose is to hold magazines or dried flower arrangements. It's painted wood.

Dry air...the winter air in Beijing is extremely dry. Humidifiers are expensive. But Dave has solved the problem. He washes clothes often while I'm at work. The moisture from the clothes combined with pleasant fragrance of Tide detergent go a long way toward improving the air quality in the apartment . It's a bit of a mixed blessing though, since I don't think the clothes are a particularly pretty sight and sometime prove to be an obstacle course. Still...I vote for the clothes.

Phrik Thai

Holiday break is coming to an end too fast. We decided to try the Thai restaurant, Phrik Thai. The ambience was good. The service was excellent. The price of wine was astronomical. The food was passable.

The hostess took our picture. Dave looks thrilled to be here, doesn't he? Actually, she took two pictures. You should see how thrilled he looks on the other one.

Did I mention ambience? The dinnerware is beautiful cobalt blue and gold. That is a pure silver cup from which I drank ice water...bing shui. Usually, when I ask for ice water all I get is cold water. Drinking ice water from a pure silver cup is an sensational experience.

More ambience...although you can't see it...we are seated on cushioned benches in pits. Dave was quite concerned that he wouldn't be able to climb out. He ordered chicken and rice in a carved out pineapple. The chicken was difficult to find, but it tasted good.

Bowling on New Year's Day

What to do New Year's Day in Beijing? First, we splept in. That was good. Then we just puttered around and enjoyed doing whatever. Finally, we bundled up and walked over to the Lido bowling alley....SMJ Bowling Club. We were a bit surprised at what we found...there were 20 lanes and the place was full. Best of all...there was no smoke! We hadn't intended to bowl, just look, but the bowling bug has a way of taking effect, so after about 20 minutes of watching we asked if there was an open lane. It turned out that one had just opened up, and within a few minutes we were out there with around 100 Chinese and a dozen other foreigners. We ended up having a really fun time. I couldn't find a light enough ball, but after we finished I found several really good ones so would like to try again with one of those.

Le Cool Skating Rink

China World

Beijing World Art Museum

Market