Connie is an excellent photographer. She catches things I don't even see. Many of her photos will be shown on this blog, and many of them are of children. It is amazing how children everywhere love her at first sight. She has that magical gift of making instant connections with children on a deep level. Kids like me just because I look funny, but they like her because they can sense her gentleness and kind spirit. This is a shot of a little boy outside our dorm room on the Shenzhen campus. He just lit up when Connie asked his dad if she could take this picture. Cool, huh?
Here, Connie is teaching about writing and "story" in one of Pat King's higher level English classes. Students were very attentive and responded well to us each day. Chinese students are very good students and have a strong desire to improve their lives on every level. The youth of today are very different than their parent's generation. They have enjoyed greater affluence and opportunities for personal enrichment their parents could only dream about. Sound familiar? I know the world will be quite surprised by the accomplishments of these young people. China is the place to watch. It makes one wonder what the future holds for this vast nation of 1.4 billion people. Someone said, as China goes, so goes the world. I don't know if that's true, but it does make one ponder the road ahead.
I had asked Pat King if she would inquire whether the president of Shenzhen University would permit me to draw a portrait of him, as a gift from visiting American friends. She did, and he agreed; what a gracious man. He did not know me from Adam, as they say, but he allowed me to trample all over his office, take pictures of him, and then interrupted his very busy schedule to sit still for me for about an hour. While I was there, an aid came in with a large framed photo of the president running with the Olympic torch. It was pretty cool. Then I noticed the torch itself standing in the corner of his office and asked if he would permit me to take a picture of him holding the torch. He agreed. How cool is that!?
That evening I went back to our apartment and drew this graphite sketch based on photos I'd taken and sketch notes I'd scribbled down while in his office. It wasn't much, but it was a way of saying "thank you," for allowing us into the university. They invited us to return to teach for a year. We'll see. Shenzhen is sub-tropical and muggy, and after nearly twenty years in Seattle, I am afraid I would not do either of those things very well. Still, it is just a stone's through from Hong Kong, and that city is very livable for a soft westerner like myself. Plus, Hong Kong doesn't block you from the internet like mainland China does.
This is a shot of the finished sketch. I wish I had had more time to do a more complete drawing, but that takes a couple days. I did this sketch in a couple hours. You will notice Chinese characters next to the face, which read, WISDOM, COURAGE, HOPE, FRIENDSHIP. I wanted to indicate important human "values" that would be good for one to strive toward. China is going through a time of rediscovering their moral compass, and it is a very tough struggle for their young people as they try to sort out the tough issues of ethics, morality and spirituality.
Apparently, as Pat King tells the story, the president was quite impressed with the whole affair and wanted to know who had done the Chinese characters. Evidently, he liked the picture, for which I'm glad. Building friendship was my goal. Looks like we might have taken a step in the right direction.
Shenzhen is in the southeast coastal area of China. Tomorrow's blog will begin to discuss our time in Xian (pronounced SHE-AHN), the central inland "old capital" of China. It is much different than Shenzhen and is also a totally amazing city of at least eleven million.
Do you remember hearing or reading about the Terracotta Warriors? Well . . . here we go. See you tomorrow.
By the way, check out the 3-D Chinese art clip from a YouTube clip in the righthand side-bar at the top of the page. It is pretty interesting!
(To see the art of Daniel Rice, visit http://www.danielriceart.net)
