Greeting

The first 12 days in Beijing - Shirley's 443rd Friendly Greeting, March 23, 2014

How are you? Have you had a good week? Are you enjoying your weekend now?

This is just a short letter to say Hello to you and to share something on my side with you. :- )

It has been 12 days since I came back Chinese National Academy of Arts. At the same time to fight with my chronic illnesses, a new cold, and a new headache, I have been working on everything that I must do.

-- On the second day I reached Beijing, I went to the headquarters of Chinese National Academy of Arts (many colleges of CNAA are not with the headquarters together. For example, Chinese Calligraphy School, Chinese Painting School, Chinese Oil School are all in a new development zones, from our locations to the headquarters there is a long distance, if we have an appointment at the headquarters, we have to go ahead for 2 hours) to register. Now, I have passed the test of the qualification, left my fingerprint and paid the examination fee. If I can pass the national English examination May 25, 2014, I will be able to enter the next step -- to write dissertation for my master's degree of fine arts under the directions of a professor since Sep, 2014.

-- As soon as I came back from the headquarters of CNAA, I bought some coach books. Even though I have been in the USA often, and I write in English every day, I am not sure whether I can pass it yet. So, every morning, I read in English for 2 hours, then go to the classroom.

Since I came back Beijing, I have attended two classes by two famous art professors.

-- Professor Gao Huiming -- a tutor of doctoral students, gave us a flower and bird painting lesson; made a demonstration for us; the biggest gain was: he commented on the paintings that I had painted in the USA face to face.

-- Professor Bai Yunxiang -- the Vice President of Chinese Artists Association and a tutor of master students, gave us a landscape lesson, and he commented all of the art works of my classmates did.

Also, I myself created a new painting to match a classical poem; corrected the music that I created in 2005; re-sang the poem songs in Chinese and in English, re-recorded them and also re-wrote an article to explain and to comment the poem.

Especially, I wrote an article to introduce the Frontier- style Poetry in Tang Dynasty.

Saturday morning, after I paid my yearly tuition (4017 USD at CNAA for one class year and 4885 USD at CNFA for one class year) and went out of the bank, so many beautiful magnolia flowers attracted my eyes, so that I could not help taking many photos and videos for it and I am thinking to paint from the nature soon… :- )

In the short 12 days, I have touched so many people and met so many things in Beijing. I was impression on the enthusiasm of Beijing People. No matter I went to a shop, a restaurant or a bank, I felt the gentle and the considerate service and the honest quality of Beijing people.

-- A owner of a supermarket knew I just came back Beijing and I do have everything for living, just I needed to buy a little bowl for my first lunch temporarily, she recommended me to buy a cheap bowl instead of the expensive one.

-- The owners of a little photo studio Mrs. Ma and Mr. Ma helped me to book the books that I needed with their own account, and it was them who drove me to the headquarters of CNAA.

-- The carriers of the express-delivery company carried my heavy boxes of books upstairs the third floor, but they did not accept any tip and kept giving back the excess money that I had paid them.

Many things have changed in the new cultural development zone since I left for Shenzhen last August: most of the roads have been built well, more traditional buildings have been completed, more trees have been planted by the streets, there are more armed policemen around... The biggest progress was: most of the restaurants and supermarkets have been able to be paid by credited cards. So that I am feeling much more safe, comfortable and convenient here in Beijing.

How about you? Do you have anything special to share?

Sincerely,


Shirley Yiping Zhang
March 23, 2014 (Beijing Time)
comments powered by Disqus