Middle Kingdom (China)

Back in Wellington and reflecting on a journey to the Middle Kingdom.

It all went pretty smoothly and the preconceived ideas one has about places were pleasantly altered . China is not a country , but a concept .

It is like their food,so many different kind of dishes.

Most of the flavours were fantastic , but most of the time I didn't know what I was eating . But had a wild guess.

The same as things work in relation to one another .

China is like an Onion with so many layers .

The population already is beyond our comprehension , Xiamen is a small town with the population of New Zealand.and progress is everywhere .

It grows in front of ones eyes.

I travelled a couple of hours to the North and to the South , but that doesn't mean anything over there , also the history , one deals with thousand of years .

Likewise the ethnic groups are very varied . All this makes for hopefully in the future of China a great soup with lots of different flavours .

Because it is quite a Han culture .

But on the TV there are now more programmes about their cultural difference.

About the Arts , the dealer Galleries as we know it , are still being developed. That was in Xiamen , Beijing of course is a different matter.

Their foundation to their art works is helped by their writing , people grow up with the brush , but if it comes to expressing ones thoughts to paper that part is undergoing a large metaphor and hopefully is getting more aligned .

I saw some amazing works by some independent Artists , but most of it was still steeped in the old culture . , or copies

Mind you most of our culture is copying itself to death in lots of cases as well .

Anyhow it was an amazing trip and it will give me lots of inspiration to carry on with my own works .

I have updated the full block with photographs to give an impression of my journey .

In the next block I will update you with the progress of my painting I started in Xiamen and hope to finish in the near future .

Also , I have twelve sets of eight cards left and sell these for 20 dollars per set for those who are interested .

They show earlyer on in this blog about China.

If you want to see more works of mine go to http://www.robertfranken.co.nz/

Adios Amigos Robert