Russel Fouts on sat 2 dec 06
I'm going to China with Po`s tour in June next year.
Does anyone have any good reads to recommend? Any Audio or DVD`s
When I went to Japan I read stuff like "Lost Japan", "Speed Tribes" and
"The Road through Miyama".
I'm already reading Ric`s posts to clayart.
Thanks in advance.
Russel
Dave Finkelnburg on sat 2 dec 06
Russel,
Before I went to China Barbara Brown sent me a book
to read, hand delivered at the San Francisco airport
by Po! It was about porcelain smuggling...called, "A
Cup of Light." Great read, good background. Have a
wonderful trip!
Dave Finkelnburg
--- Russel Fouts wrote:
> I'm going to China with Po`s tour in June next year.
> Does anyone have any good reads to recommend? Any
> Audio or DVD`s
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Helen Bates on sat 2 dec 06
On Sat, 2 Dec 2006 10:18:35 +0100, Russel Fouts (...) wrote:
>I'm going to China with Po`s tour in June next year.
Hey Russel,
Enjoy your trip!
Here's the results from one search of the listserv archives For: "China
Trip" (without the quotation marks):
http://lsv.ceramics.org/scripts/wa.exe?S2=clayart&D=1&O=D&L=CLAYART&q=china+trip&s=&f=&a=&b=
Helen
Belleville, Ontario, Canada
See Clayarters' links at: http://amsterlaw.com/clayart/
PS: I found from this search that Jack Troy used to post to the list. He
spent some time in China in the 1990's. -hb-
karen gringhuis on sun 3 dec 06
Russel -
I lived for 3 mos in Shanghai fall '05 and went with
Po's tour in Oct. '05. He's great!!! I'd go back
in a heartbeat. (Tour guide has got to be the job from
Hell and Po is unflappable and FUN to be with. The
whole experience is high quality.)
My trip happened so fast I had little time to read and
spent more time out and about rather than reading once
I got there. But here are a few suggestions.
Non-tour books - The Chinese Potter by Margaret
Medley. More than just chronology, she discusses the
advances which made "new " work possible over the
centuries.
Po's own guide book to ceramic sites, prob avail on
his web site, will help you keep straight where you
are. It can be a bit of a blur once you get home.
Next carry light wgt notebooks and WRITE IN THEM. My
greatest regret is that I didn't write every day even
with a laptop in S'hai. (Second regret - after seeing
great ceramics in the Shanghai Museum (not to be
confused with the Shanghai Art Museum), we skipped the
ceramic displays in the Forbidden City. Maybe we were
just tired or crabby but I'm not sure we were wise.
This was OUR mistake NOT Po's.)
I depended upon a little language book "Survival
Chinese" by De Mente pub by Tuttle out of Rutland VT .
Other books are out there - I bought and never opened
"China: Its History and Culture" by Morton & Lewis as
well as "A Traveller's History of China" by Haw.
To get a feel of China today, I recommend frequent
skimming of any serious newspapers to which you have
access - The Internatl. Herald Tribune, The New York
Times, The Economist. Maybe you can go thru their
recent archives on line.
Every morning I blew thru The Shanghai Daily (great
weekend event listing incl art) & The China Daily.
When I could get it, also the daily out of Hong Kong
which had "broader" coverage than the previous two.
Yes these are politically approved newspapers but if
you read and think beyond the statistics in some
articles, these will give you a lot of information and
feel for things.
Tips for getting around little bit on your own. NOT
that I suggest leaving the tour - but sometimes some
of us would walk around in some down-time. Also
depending on the size of the group, it MAY be possible
to split up IF Po and you are sure you can get "home"
on your own. This was easy in Shanghai.
This is possible if you are sure to ALWAYS have with
you the business card from your hotel with its address
for a taxi driver (or any one else) in Chinese &
English. It may also be on your plastic rm key card.
In Shanghai and Bejing -- I lucked into a bilingual
map and carried a bilingual Oxford dictionary, the one
with Chinese characters but no transliteration. (It
had more words.) Thus I couldn't speak a word but I
could point. I could easily shop with this. (Of
course I have shopping tips!)
Depending on your inclination, I followed the maps
even in taxis so I got a sense of the city layout.
If all else failed, it didn't take me too long to find
someone on the street who spoke enough English, (often
very well) to help me.
I could go on forever but one last comment - don't
miss the children. When opportunities occur, stop and
talk. Occasionally on the street I would hear a voice
hollering at me "hello, hello." It startled me at
first but it would be teenagers wanting to practice
their English. *** Great fun!
Even younger children are intrigued by visitors. The
USA hyper-vigilance against strangers is absent in
China & this is delightful. My absolutely most
treasured memory is being surrounded by Young Pioneer
uniformed grade schoolers (7 yrs old?) in Tienamin Sq.
They raced up to me, again calling "hello, hello,"
laughing & smiling up at me, delighted with my
fractured Chinese greeting. (Tall, blonde, with big
sun glasses, I must have looked like something from
another planet to them.) In 1 minute, I had them all
shaking hands and saying "nice to meet you." Should
have stayed longer!
This in Tienamin Sq. where uniformed guards, tho not
numerous, were clearly noticeable. And that says it
all about China - a country of huge contrasts,
changing with the speed of light.
*** If I remember my stat correctly, by 2010, China is
expected to have more English speakers than the rest
of the English speaking world combined. Ric Swenson
teaching ESL is definitely where the action is.
If you have more qns, feel free to write! (I obviously
like to talk about it all.)
Karen G.
------------
I'm going to China with Po`s tour in June next year.
Does anyone have any good reads to recommend? Any
Audio or DVD`s
I'm already reading Ric`s posts to clayart.
Karen Gringhuis
KG Pottery
Box 607 Alfred NY 14802
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Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta.
http://new.mail.yahoo.com
Bonita Cohn on sat 9 dec 06
I went with Po in June of 2005. We were 2 busloads of
people - Richard Notkin's post NCECA tour.
I had an old sony walkman and I made tapes for my
personal soundtrack as the bus rolled thru china.
My favorite is Yo Yo Ma's "Silk Road Journeys:Betond
the Horizon" and the soundtrack from the film
"Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"
I also had some Chinese Lute Music -- lovely.
I had a radio function. It was nice to listen to local
broadcasts when we were in a city and hear the
language, even tho I did not know more than thank you
and hello. "shieh shieh" and "nee-how". I soon learned
how to order cold beer.
The first night in Shanghai I caught a pirate radio
station and was treated to a long slow solo by
Santana!
There's a website called : http://www.shanghaiist.com
which has the local chinese news du jour from a
youthful and progressive perspective.
It will be hot. Take lots of pictures and have extra
media cards or a way to download.
I wish I could go again....maybe in a cooler season!
Have a great trip.
Bonita in San Francisco.
Bonita Cohn
http://www.bonitacohn.com
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