Having DSL, Exploring Beijing music scene, Initiating my new rice cooker

The DSL saga ended rather suddenly when I was passed off a couple of times from the friend of my landlord, to his friend to his friend\'s handyman, who brought to the China telecom office and dropped me there, to face the Chinese technical vocabulary of telephony all by my lonesome. But to my surprise, a passport #, a few checks on a Chinese form where it said in english \"DSL\" and the obligatory 4 to 5 Chinese \'official\' red stamps later, and I surprisingly had my DSL. Whaaat? I could I have done that from day one? So much for following all of the sage advice I received on having the landlord deal with setting up the DSL.

On other subjects, there\'s been a lot of little things developing over the past week or so, from connecting with a circle of Xinjiang musicians in Beijing to finding out about the Experimental Music scene in Beijing and Shanghai to buying a ricecooker. Not my first rice cooker, but my first in China, and I think there is a difference because I feel like I am starting to do things more like the locals. And no matter what I buy and bring back to my place, it\'s always a big topic of conversation with the elevator operators in my building and anyone happening to be riding up when I am there. All of the elevator women are very sweet. I have spoken with one in particular for quite some time, talking about general things. But when a couple of friends came for dinner (who were Western), they were grilled on my marital status (always a hot topic among Chinese), my plans for obtaining a marital status, and why I don\'t have a marital status. But for some reason, this one elevator operator who I talked often with, got it in her mind from talking with my friends, that I wasn\'t that good at speaking Chinese, even though she spoke with me often. So from that day onwards, she speaks to me very, very slowly, like a pre-schooler and is careful to point out and say in English, \'15\', when we have arrived at the 15th floor, even though the numbers are not in Chinse, but actually say \'15\'. She is sweet and I enjoy joking and talking with her.

On the other hand, there is a guy I often have no idea what he is saying. It\'s some strange accent, not Beijing accent, something I\'ve never heard before and he doesn\'t talk to me, but at me, and makes observations on what I buy, or asks random questions. Like last week, nothing was said for most of the week, and then when I came back from shopping one evening, he blurts out, \"why do you always buy so much?\", I have do idea what to say, because I don\'t really buy that much. I just reply, I don\'t buy that much... he says something I don\'t understand, think he was asking me again, so just to make things more smooth with small talk, I say, \"because I\'m a big guy?\" with question-like response. He stops and considers it, and then nods as if to say, Ok, I can accept that answer, which I have no idea why he accepts it. . . but I just go with the flow. . . his latest question yesterday was a random, \"eat dinner yet?\", which I replied \"yes, I did\", and he again nods with nothing else said for the entire ride down to the first floor. . .

But the elevator drama aside, I\'ve been able to begin developing some friendships with local musicians that will teach me a lot and maybe help me access different folk music when I travel to southern and western China. Last week I met Fikar, a guy from Xinjiang who plays in a Xinjiang band in beijing with other Xinjiang musicians. Their bar music has some elements of Xinjiang folk music but is pop based and sometimes strangely sounds like the Gypsy Kings. I heard this a couple of summers ago with another Xinjiang band. But all of the musicians show up to the gig with their traditional instruments (they play acoustic guitars and western drums in the bar band). So after talking with Fiker for a bit, he offers to let me borrow a DVD of some Xinjiang pop music more centered on the traditional Uygur instruments. I\'ll eventually go to a jam session where the guys in his band break out the traditional instruments. There\'s also a few folk musicians from Yunnan who are part of the circle and I\'ve been promised an introduction to them. Hopefully I\'ll have a chance to learn to play on their stringed instruments (there is a plucked and a bowed instrument that sound amazing), maybe get some suggestions or intrductions to other musicians they know in villages in Xinjiang when I go in the spring. . .

I also had a nice conversation with an American, Ken, who teaches multimedia and electronic music at Central Conservatory and Beida. He is more plugged into the sound art/experimental music scene and gave me a good overview of some of the things that are happening here. I spent an hour or so, along with Hong Kong composer friend Peishan, chatting with him. One question that always comes up in China, is how long have they been doing this thing here and does it have Chinese traits or is it more of an import? With the Experimental Music scene, it is in general a more international phenomena apparently, because, with the development of technology and blogging (and recent ways to bypass the GREAT (chinese)(fire) WALL, as it is called) and with a lot of experimental music technology based, the Experimental Community is connected world-wide, perhaps moreso than other artistic fields. So what happens in Beijing and Shanghai may be known in Berlin or New York or vice versa. But that being said, there are artist communities that are being more formally setup and supported now in Beijing than before. For example, last weekend there was a concert by the Beijing New Music Ensemble (started by a couple of former Fulbrighters in music) of chamber works by Chinese-American composer Zhou Long (who was in attendence for the concert.) The concert happened outside of the center of Beijing (on the way to the airport) in a somewhat remote section where artists have been working in factory/studios for some time. The concert was at a newly constructed warehouse-like building, built espeically for cross-discipline, international collaborations in art. The concert was the first event the new center hosted. And the people who were there, both Chinese and Western, were definitely more of a stylish, (fashion trend-setting) international crowd. Not like you might see at concerts in the city. The women hosting the event, I believe the benefactor of this new art facility, all decked out in runway-type fashion, seemed to be a Peggy Guggenheim type person. It\'s well known here and internationally that the art scene in China is a very hot thing right now and some articles in the NY Times have talked about this and the dillema some people see at Chinese artist adjusting their product to \'sell\' on the international market. . . this also seems to be a trend in other arts too, including music. . .

So that\'s it for now. A long entry, to make up for a lack of others earlier. More stories about my rice cooker and other interesting events in China to follow.

The bad news I received on my NEW dsl was that the Patriots lost to Indy. . . well, Indy still hasn\'t done it when it counts, like the Pats have, three times. . .

Guqin, DSL (less), and the great dance of the Wa-mar Chicken

Well, delays in getting some things done here are part of the daily fabric here and my DSL connection is no exception. The saga continues with my landlord and her ‘helper’, although he’s turning out to be helpless. So my posts these days depend on getting to an internet café and having the time to write. A long time since my last post. . . .

. . . so I’ll write a bit about my experiences with guqin here so far. . .

Guqin lessons have been going on for about 5 weeks now and Professor Li is happy with how I am progressing. Up until this point, I’ve been working on guqin pieces called
‘qinge’ which are ‘guqin songs’ – pieces that you both sing and play. Expression on the guqin is closely tied to singing and to learn how to phrase, especially with left-hand techniques, is guided by singing the same melodies. But the past lesson he started me on some of the larger ‘core repertoire’ pieces for guqin. I’ll eventually learn to play most of these over the next 10 months. I have started performing the piece ping sha luo yan, or ‘Geese Descending on Flat Sand’. It’s a very stark and beautifully expressive piece – I’ve wanted to learn to play it for some time. There was also a conference on guqin at the Central Conservatory and I was able to listen to some lectures (some of which I understood well, other parts not so much) and hear a very great variety of guqin performance style. It was interesting because some of what we might in the West refer to as a ‘weak’ technique and sound is very much an important expressive performance style on guqin. I feel I am only beginning to understand the variety of performance styles and the influences from different lineages of different guqin ‘schools’ of performance. Most everything was new and positive at the conference, maybe with the exception of a couple of guqin ‘concerti that were performed. Guqin is historically a solo instrument, and not until the 20th century performed in large concert halls or with an ensemble. It’s sound and aesthetics have a special sound-world. Pairing it off with an orchestra has many issues that involve balancing and integrating the large sound of the orchestra with the intimate, personal sound of the guqin. Unfortunately the two works I heard missed this completely. Additionally, the works used a Western music language to frame the guqin solos, and in this context the essence of the guqin sound and meaning was mostly lost. The balancing of music influences from different cultures in the same musical work is a major issue to contend with and one of the great challenges for me in my work, not just with an East-West dynamic but with music from all over the world. It is a very interesting condition of our time.

I have crossed paths a couple times with a former student of Li Xiangting: Wuna. Her work is more interesting partly because it involves collaborations with other musicians outside of Chinese traditional music. Perhaps the most interesting was a video that was shown at the conference of a performance for guqin voice and dance, all of which followed some sort of theme but seemed for the most part improvised. I hope to have more contact with her in the future. . .

. . . as for other music activities here, I’ve heard some decent and not so decent jazz here and have had a couple invites to come and play at a couple different jazz clubs. There seems to be a small but dynamic jazz scene in Beijing, nothing too out or experimental but worth exploring some more. Just bought a guitar near my apt. on a street called xinjiekou, full of instrument shops. By no means a great guitar, I bargained down to 800 kuai ($100USD), but doable for a guitar just to practice on. I’ll try to get out in play in the clubs over the next couple of weeks and get myself into the scene a little bit. . .

. . . Xinjiang music is another type of music I’m getting more interested in here. Xinjiang is a provience in far Western China and has a large Uyguer (Muslim) population. Their music uses the western-style guitar. I have heard a little bit of ‘pure’ Uyguer folk music but mostly, by the time Uyguer musicians make to Beijing with their bands, it adopts more of a folk-pop feel, sometimes sounding not so far from a band like Gypsy Kings. A trip that I plan to take, maybe in the spring, will be to Tibet, and hopefully some time to visit different parts of Xinjiang. . . perhaps interact with some local musicians and learn some of their guitar styles. . .
Well, that’s it for now, so much more to tell about daily life and adventures (like my friends Iris & John’s now famous video of the ‘chicken dance’ outside of Wa-mar (Walmart) and their ‘crazy-pants’ neighbor who likes slamming his door multiple times at 2 am. . . but that’s for another entry, hopefully sooner rather than later, unfortunately dependant on the helpless ‘helper’. . . .

First notes from Chinese Soil

October 2

After relatively quick work in finding an apartment, getting the medical tests done and submitting my application for long-term residence in Beijing, I can finally say that I am settled into the neighborhood I'll call home for the next 10 months. The adventure over the first few weeks has been varied and adventerous. . . seems more like a month more than a coulpe weeks. Having been here before, the transition was less taxing than I had anticipated. Language was less of an issue this time and although not a fluent speaker yet, I expect I will be after a few months pass. Fluent in Beijing is not just speaking mandarin, its also Being able to decipher the mandarin that lurks below the thick Beijing accents, especially with the older generation Beijingers that make up a large part of my neighborhood. . .

As much I can, I go with the flow here, knowing that things work differently here, and rather than turn frustrated, I try to step back and enjoy the experience as it unfolds. . . there is a breaking point of frustration though, or, I might call it exasperation for not being able for the life of me to understand why things are done this way, and not in an equally possible alternative way. Like the elevator in my building. . . open 6am-midnight, shut off afterwards. Attendents sit and press the elevator button w/a stick (so they don't have to get up). They are not employed between midnight and 6 am, so they shut down. While the building next door just informs tenants they have to press the button themselves in the overnight hours! Why can't we do the same thing. Bu keneng I was told: not possible. . .

. . .so each night I'm out listening to music or having dinner with friends, I look at my watch and judge weather I am close enough to make a mad dash for via a cabride for home, making it in time to catch the last ride up. So far I've been lucky and have not faced the 15! flights of stairs to climb. . . it will eventually come to pass. . .

There was another interesting adventure in apt. searching where I visited a studio apt w/a realitor that was full of desks (I mean full, full). "Can I move the desks out?", "No, But we'll put a comfortable matress on top of them for you." , "Where is the kitchen?", "It was taken out, but you can eat in the street shops for the next 10 months, very convienent, right?", "This is an apartment for rent right. . . .?"

I also had an interesting experience of 'guanxi' (relationship) at the local police station to 'smooth things over' when a difficult situation arose. . . 5 minutes later a 'friend' arrived, shook hands, joked, laughed, and everyone was all smiles, and. . . I got my residence certificate. . . that's all I needed, I wasn't about to ask questions.

One more comment on the sign translations here before I give some details on my work here. I'm constantly amazed at the 'creativity' afforded sign makers when they translate signs of caution into English. I've seen a few doozies since I arrived but, sans camera, have not been able to capture the experience in its full glory. So for now, you've got the opening picture. . . this is a classic one (Chinese means, 'caution - fall - river' meaning 'make sure you don't fall into the river' , right up there with the one in Chinese informing of a dangerous area to swim in the lake, the English translation read below as: 'have fun!' Oh yeah, there was the packaged cake called "complicated cake". . . who knows. . .

I can't wait to get back! From the friends in Beijing, to the music, the history, this amazing country, and the conversations on the trains. . . even the color of bad translations (that caution sign next to a cliff translated as "don't jump!). . .it all awaits. In less two weeks, the adventure begins. . .

And how do I pack for a year? So much advice, what to pack or not to pack, the only constant seems to be "more underwear, less of everything else." Not sure about that one, but this greenhorn will learn soon enough. And how much immunization and prevention can a person take? Apparently there is always room for 'improvement.' Malaria pills, I guess, are not enough, one doctor suggested walking around Lijiang with a mosquito net draped over my head. Well, it’s humorous anyway, if well intentioned, so. . .

I’ll post from time to time what goes on in my life in Beijing, from my feeble attempts at the Chinese art of negotiating to my studies at the Central Conservatory and all my other adventures around my new city. And also the travels I look forward to taking: Dali/Lijiang, Dunhuang and Hohot, not to mention Shanghai, Guangdong, Hong Kong and any other place that appears on my radar. And oh, I still want to make it to that hanging Temple in Datong (thwarted last time by a rescheduled train ride that mysteriously changed from 6 hours long to 18!) It’ll all be here with hopefully some good pics and folk music recordings as well. So stay tuned. . .