Day Nine
I had another morning business meeting. Three of us went to lunch in the basement food court. There are approximately 20 different types of Chinese food restaurants, with a young woman in front of each hawking their wares. The business firm had a type of card which was swiped at each food station. The three of us ended up buying food and drinks from five different stations. This was the first business meal that I felt that I did not overeat. Bill Wang was very proud of his golf game. It turns out that we have the identical handicap and in many instances the identical golf clubs. He explained to me that he uses golf almost exclusively as a way of entertaining clients and business associates. I explained to him that, that is very common in the United States but I played most of the time on the weekends with Leslie. He had trouble understanding this concept since very few women in China play golf, as golf is associated with men doing business. He had spent 10 years in Japan getting his doctorate in law and practicing law. That is where he learned golf and analyzed which golf clubs were the best. He has a Taylor-Made driver, Taylor-Made three wood and five wood, Mizuno irons and three Cleveland wedges. His two golf balls of choice are Titleist Pro V1 and Callaway HX. Bill Yinzhong then talked about raising a family with a young child in Beijing. It was like listening to my children who live in Seattle and Ridgefield, Connecticut.
I then returned to the arts compound and read some more Taoist literature and was asleep within 10 minutes. It is extremely hot in Beijing and it seems that almost everyone goes to sleep after lunch. I was getting into the swing of things. I then started to work on my project cleaning up the small bronze castings as well as the smaller bronze casting of Long and Slender. I then met with Zhu Li and the contractor and she introduced me to, who I also liked, to go over his cost estimates to construct the artist’s studio that I had rented in the Artist Village. Zhu Li and Ye Dongsheng and I then went out to dinner. They drove me to an area about 3 miles from the compound where there were numerous restaurants side-by-side along the river/lake. It reminded me of an outdoor version of a Bavarian beer garden during Oktoberfest. It was a warm night and all of the tables outside were full. Everyone was talking and having a good time. We were able to get a table at the third restaurant we tried to get into.
They were both Buddhists and advised me that they did not eat fish that was freshly killed and the only meat that they would eat was mutton and pigs feet. They ordered a special dish for me; two tiny spicy lobsters. This was the ultimate finger food. You really had to work hard to get at the meat. They also ordered pigs feet, which was not bad and a delicious black noodle in the sauce that I cannot easily describe. The noodles had an oily texture and were a little spicy. We also had a lamb dish. They have lots of questions about my family and my life in New York. Anticipating this I brought my digital camera and let them scroll through the pictures of Leslie, my grandson Caleb, Leslie’s daughter and son-in-law and Leslie’s twin granddaughters. They have no children and wondered what it was like to have both children and grandchildren. We discussed the similarities and differences between Beijing and New York City. It was a good evening.
I returned home and did some light reading and work on the Internet. I again failed in my attempts to call Leslie on Skype but I did speak to her on the phone. Li Gang’s studio is not air-conditioned. Because of the way it is built, the downstairs remains much cooler than the upstairs. But I was so tired that I went to sleep so I could get up early to go to the antiques market with Li Gang and his friend Huang, who was a photographer.
Day Ten
Li Gang knocked on the studio door a half an hour early. The three of us went off to the antiques market which is a long drive from SAC, because it is on the other side of Beijing. Our first mission was to buy a number of original oil paintings depicting life in China that were reasonably priced for a dealer friend of mine in New York. Li Gang knew exactly where the artist’s stalls were in this mammoth market. The Chinese definition of original art is different than ours. A fake of a famous painting is original because the artist used original oils and physically painted the same picture on a clean canvas. My trick was to avoid copies of modern Chinese artworks that I was familiar with and before even beginning to bargain to see if the work was signed and dated by the artist that is no guarantee that it is an original art work according to our Western criteria. At the same time Li Gang would engage in a conversation with the artist to find out their name and where they went to school and other details. My instructions were to buy original oil paintings that depicted Chinese life and/or folklore at reasonable prices and would be comparable to what was in a New York City frame store. At the same time I only wanted to purchase things that have some artistic merit. It was hard work and we decided to ignore ink scrolls, guaches, and non-oil paintings. The bulk of the mission was accomplished in approximately 2 hours. It was a lot of work but the dealer in New York is a good friend.
Li Gang and I had been to this market together on a number of previous occasions. I find it is a great place to find unusual and interesting things, which makes for great presents for my grandchildren, for Spring’s recent birthday and sometimes I am able to find something very unusual for Leslie. Li Gang was looking for presents for Wendy. There is everything under the sun in his huge market. For example, I purchased an antique boys decorative dress jacket from the Hunan province for one grandson and the book of “antique” coins with an explanation in Chinese for my other grandson. For my granddaughter I was able to find some interesting pewter bracelets. Off to the side there are some more expensive shops and I went into them looking for presents for Spring and Leslie. I was successful in getting something quite unusual for each.
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