Xi'an produces more wheat than rice, so this is a wheat harvest. You can tell that the day was hot and sunny. It was quite pleasant to be out ofs the smog of the city and to be able to see the blue sky again.
These country folks were working hard, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. They worked in community, together. All the cutting, bundling and winnowing of the wheat was done by hand. Only one small tractor was used to thresh some of the wheat, with a heavy roller, as the driver drove over and over the stalks on the ground.
Much of the wheat, however, was piled up on the roads so that cars could run over it and thresh some of the wheat by crushing it under their wheels. Our driver kept complaining that the farmers were piling the wheat too high on the road, making it difficult for us to get over. It was a funny experience, but totally delightful. The Chinese are eminently practical, if a bit eccentric.
Who knows, perhaps some paintings will come from these pictures. I told you Connie was a good photographer. We often take pictures of the same objects, people or events, but somehow, hers always look better than mine. What is up with that, especially since she has a crappier camera than me? I guess good photography is more about the "eye" of the artist than the kind of equipment one possesses. Her work is surely proof of that. Connie said she was trying to capture something of the spirit of Millet's "Harvesters," as shown above. She took lots more pictures, but here are a few that I thought would be good to put into our blog.(To see the art of Daniel Rice, visit http://www.danielriceart.net)
