Monthly Archives: April 2015

Got invited to a mysterious party 2

(Former story is here)

So, on the day the party was held, I took a subway and a taxi to get there. The gallery was in the 798 art district, which is a bit far from the center of the city and there was a traffic jam, so it took about an hour to get there.

I arrived at 798 and went to a cafe near the gallery to wait for my friend. When I was reading my French text book, groups of French people, who were obviously going to the party, came to the cafe one by one to kill time before the party. I got surrounded by so many Frenchies! I heard no Chinese at all. “Is it Paris here?” I thought.

 

I felt it was funny and couldn’t really concentrate on my book actually.

 

Eventually my friend arrived at the cafe and we went to the party together.

There were many guests already.

party3blog

 

On the day the party was held, I took a subway and a taxi to get there. The gallery was in the 798 art district, which is a bit far from the center of the city and there was a traffic jam, so it took about an hour to get there.

I arrived at 798 and went to a cafe near the gallery to wait for my friend. When I was reading my French text book, groups of French people, who were obviously going to the party, came to the cafe one by one to kill time before the party. I got surrounded by so many Frenchies! I heard no Chinese at all. “Is it Paris here?” I thought.

 

I felt it was funny and couldn’t really concentrate on my book actually.

 

Eventually my friend arrived at the cafe and we went to the party together.

There were many guests already.

http://www.chinaculture.org/2015-04/08/content_610604.htm
(This movie is cool.)
http://www.chinaculture.org/2015-04/09/content_610724.htm

 

The gallery owner has been active for this kind of stuff. I got it.

Mom, they didn’t push me to buy expensive art. Good!

party_2blog

 

~ Art collages portraits combining traditional French paintings and Chinese-opera face painting jumped into my eyes first when we entered to their garden. They look a bit scary in the dark night.
Champagne and snacks tasted good and the band’s music makes me dance forever…
I don’t want to go home!

But, well, my friend had to get up early the next morning, so we left the party early.

During the party, I saw the owner came late, but couldn’t find him again because of the crowd. I should tell him thank you when I see him at the Starbucks again.

So, from these things, maybe that ‘French Culture Center’ is calling me?
Or, France is calling me???

Started learning French / Got invited to a mysterious party 1

Hello.
I’ve just started learning French this month, because my husband and I may go to France later in this year. (Even though my progress learning Chinese is slow …)

o0354046413038829103-1                                     Paris was awesome when we visited last summer…

Actually my husband is the one who really wants to learn French!
But we thought it would be fun to learn together.

He already got a brochure from the French Culture Center which is nearby.
It looks good, but mm.. if they teach French in Chinese, I’m sure I would be confused… (He has the ability to understand the class, but I maybe don’t…)

So, I started reading a French textbook written for Japanese at a Starbucks one day. That was my first day to learn French!

After a while, a Chinese man sat at the same big table. He was wearing a nice suit and pocket handkerchief with a dots print. Oh it looks a bit too fashionable for here… But never mind.

While he was reading some newspapers, his phone rang and he answered it.

‘Oh~, bonjour! %*$#@+/>…’

Omg! He is speaking French very fluently…

When he finish talking on his phone, I couldn’t help talking to him (in English).
“Excuse me, but you can speak French so fluently! It’s amazing!” or something…

He also could speak good English.

He told me he is an owner of a gallery and works in Beijing and France.
Wow.

I told him I’ve just started leaning French there and I also do my painting.

“There is a party in my gallery in this weekend. Why don’t you come over if you have time?”

Omg! I’d love to go!

My husband would be interested in going too, but unfortunately, he is gone for his work trip now. Ok, I found a friend to go to the party with me.

When I talked to my mom in Japan over the phone about the party, she said
“What kind of the party is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t they push you buy expensive art or something?”
“Oh well, yea, they could.”
“Mom, you are smart.”
“Of course! Is it at night? Be careful…”

My husband said
“Are you really all right going there?”

Oh come on! Don’t scare me guys. Anyway, I’ll go!

~ to be continued ~  (next story)

Watching cherry blossoms at Yuyuantan Park 2 ~ Chinese girls take cheesy pose. / a punk dressed couple

Hello. I’ll add some more impressions I got, when my husband and I visited Yuyuantan Park to see cherry blossoms. (Here is the previous page.)

First, Japanese people like to take photos, but I feel Chinese people do even more. They really enjoy taking their own photos and showing them to others.

cherryblossom_blog

Women (including old women) take cheesy pose photos, like models. Japanese people are too shy to do that.

Now many Chinese people are visiting Japan (and buying high-tech toilet seats or rice cookers) because Japanese yen is cheap now, so maybe Japanese people see Chinese tourists taking lots of photos in Japan.

Second, there were so many people in the park. (I mentioned it last time.)

Plus, I just liked that I saw a couple who wore crazy style clothing.

couple_blog

My husband said ‘Wow it’s punk!’ I like that they wear whatever they like. (It doesn’t matter whether their taste is good or bad.)

Chinese people have many choices now for clothing. They have an economy to let them buy all kinds of fashion. Isn’t it great?

I have a friend who visited China 10 or 15 years ago for a business trip. She said she felt depressed because everybody was wearing simple clothes in black, gray or dark blue. It was before China started to open a free market economy. If she saw how Beijing is now, she would be surprised. I asked her to visit Beijing to see me, but she doesn’t sound like she would…

Many girls were wearing crowns made of colorful fake plastic flowers, which I don’t see in Japan. They want to be a princess!

There were some people who pulled the cherry tree branches to their face to take good photos, but it could harm the trees.

I saw a boy maybe in middle school, who was climbing on a tree. I thought it’s a bit funny because I would see the same thing in Japan too. It’s also not good for trees though.

Anyway, it’s maybe universal that people feel happy when they see pretty flowers in warm spring weather.

Watching cherry blossoms at Yuyuantan Park 1 ~ kind Chinese man and his girlfriend

In last weekend of March, my husband and I went to Yuyuantan Park (玉渊潭公园) to see cherry blossom.

You know, as a Japanese, I can’t skip watching cherry blossoms.

In Japan in the springtime, people enjoy getting together and having a party/picnic with good food and beer or sake under gorgeous cherry blossoms in full bloom.  We call it hanami (花見). For Japanese, hanami is a kind of special event to celebrate that spring has come.

Even though the air was bad because of a sand storm (also a sign of spring in Beijing…), I NEEDED to go. Come on, husband! (He is a Taiwanese American)

Luckily, in Beijing, we have Yuyuantan Park (玉渊潭公园) which has many cherry trees. Yay!

We took the subway and it took about 30 minutes. So convenient.

As we expected, there were A LOT of people in the park. Did we come here to see cherry blossoms or crowds of people?  I realized how large the population in Beijing is again. But I don’t care. I got used it.

There were some different kinds of blossoms including cherry, peach, Forsythia, and so on. I was quite satisfied. But I didn’t see many people having party, eating or drinking on blankets.

 

In the park, I saw a young Chinese couple. They both were tall and good looking.

chineseman_blog

The young woman put her leg on a rock, and the man, maybe her boyfriend, was scrubbing her shoe. I guess he was cleaning her shoe.

It looked like nobody else paid attention to what they were doing. I did though. I mean, I was impressed by how much he cared about her and was cleaning her shoe. He treated her like a princess.

I don’t think this would happen in Japan (or it rarely does). In general, Japanese men are usually too shy to do it, or they think it’s too cheesy. Japanese people care how other people think about/look at them A LOT.

But anyway, I thought the way the couple acted was cute.

 

When I was painting this illustration, I recalled a young Japanese woman whom I met recently. She said she likes Chinese men’s kindness for women. I guess what she likes is just how the man treated his girlfriend. (She talked about a similar episode like this actually.)

I heard that in general in Southern China, like Shanghai or Hong Kong, men are especially kind to women. Is it true? (Of course it depends on the individual person though.)

I know a Chinese woman, her husband drives to pick her up when she finishes her work every day, and he gives her nice presents, for example a brand bag or roses for her birthday.

I also have a Chinese friend, whose mom doesn’t do cooking or cleaning rooms at all. Instead her dad does most of the house work.

They are all Southern Chinese.

Oh,  I see men helping hold their girlfriends’ purse in Beijing. It also looks cute to me. Japanese men won’t do it. (My husband does it. Good.)

I think Japanese men are kind too, but just they are shy and the way they take care of their girlfriends/wives is different.

Anyway, I enjoyed watching people and pretty flowers same time at the park.