Devin's paintings

Portraits by Merlin

recent cultural activities

We periodically join Dan's students when they have cultural activities. Some of the things we've done in the last month included hearing a demonstration of guzheng music by one of CUN's students in the music department. She shared a little about the history of the guzheng as well as different styles that have evolved over the centuries. Interestingly, the pitch to which the strings are tuned, being easily changed by moving the bridge of each string, has changed over time - modern songs use a different scale altogether. Here is a link to a free, downloadable guzheng song (track 5 of the ones listed) as blogger doesn't have an easy way to upload music into a blog post.

We also learned how to carve stone seals. After sanding a piece of soapstone so it was level, we then used a maobi, or brush pen, and ink, to draw a reverse image of what we wanted our stamp to look like. Then we used a chisel to carve away the empty space around our designs.

south does not equal warmer

Ok, the title is a lie, Hangzhou IS warmer than Beijing, but there is a caveat.

When we left for the airport at five yesterday morning there was a small layer of snow alongside the road outside the city, and Devin happened to see a temperature reading of 10 degrees F (-12 C). Arriving in Hangzhou, it was a balmy 42F and we all felt it was great, unzipping our jackets and feeling quite comfortable.

What makes the south feel so cold though is that we're below the dividing line between heated and unheated houses. The Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) is the line that divides northern and southern China and in southern China houses don't come equipped with heat. People just take it for granted here, and there's some subtle pressure to just get used to it and wear more clothes rather than turn on the heater. In spite of the fact that today's temperature is hovering around freezing (lower if you consider windchill), and the windows leak, I'm reluctant to turn on the AC/heater unit in the living room. No one in the family uses one - typically we just wear a half dozen layers, tolerate cold hands, drink hot tea and generally look like overstuffed dolls, but when we're left to our own this evening I'll probably turn it on.

When we lived here, in 2002, the interior of the house received no sunlight because we were on the first floor, overshadowed by another building to our south. We spent time outside every sunny day before going back into the cold house.

We'd all gotten used to the heated house in Beijing, and the warm sunlight that pours through our south balcony. I'm going to have to prod myself to get things done - the cold makes me want to just sit under a blanket all day.

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I was surprised that exactly six months had passed since we were last here. We flew from CA on summer solstice and returned to Hangzhou on winter solstice. In the last six months I realize I've gotten used to life in Beijing (not just the heater... ok, yes, the heater!). Moving around, travelling, is not something I like all that much. Trying to settle in somewhere new is actually unsettling - our usual things that we do that make it feel like we have a home are missing, our usual life is mixed up and honestly I think I've forgotten Hangzhou dialect completely and I keep getting mixed up in communication. I recall that we felt like this in Beijing when we first arrived, comparing it to Hangzhou, findng it lacking, but here we are doing it again, reversed.

I'm an average, typical person, in spite of what it looks like with all this travel and living abroad. I like to have my regular life, some continuity, a predictable home that's set up the way I've chosen, making my own decisions about how things are ordered. Maybe it sounds like complaint, but I think it's just that I know what makes me happiest.

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On the flip side, Dan's family is great. I've always gotten along really well with them. I have a strangely privileged position, being a foreigner (and a kind of useless one at that) - I can't really cook the way everyone else can (and cooking under pressure, for a group of 12 is not my forte) so I'm not expected to make big dinners for everyone to come over and enjoy. Plus my inadequate Chinese makes it so that not much is really expected of me (it would be pointless to have me try to go pay Dan's parent's phone bill or take them to a doctor's appointment or do the grocery shopping or other such errand - all things I could easily accomplish in the US).

I'll be posting some pics from the last few weeks as soon as my fingers thaw a little. :-)

heading south for the winter

We're taking off on Sunday to go visit Dan's family in Hangzhou (back where we started in June). We'll be there until after Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival, as it's called) which is happening in early February. Dan will head out of town for some lectures and then be in Beijing for part of the time, then join us later for the holiday.

So, in the midst of packing and getting the house ready to "close down" while we're gone, I may not post again until we get settled in Hangzhou.