[We haven’t had internet for a few days, so I’m publishing this a few days late – a lot of these travel posts will probably come with a few days delay, just as an FYI to anyone who we might be able to meet up with along the way]
We’re now in Kunming, the first stop on our trip. We were here a few weeks ago to visit a friend for Spring Festival, so the city already feels familiar, and we went straight back to our favorite café. There are more foreigners here in Wuhan, but still nothing like Beijing/Shanghai, and the vibe here is more hipster than yuppie. And the weather here is amazing – it’s known as 春城, the city of eternal spring. If I come back to live in China in the future, it very well might be to live in Kunming.
Other than the weather, accessible size of the city, pleasant tree-lined streets, cozy cafes and overall laid-back vibe, one of the things I like the most is how much of an art scene there seems to be here. Last night we went to an exhibition opening at a gallery called TC/G Nordica, which was co-founded by a Swedish woman who lived in Kunming a few years ago, and serves as a café / gallery / performance space, with a particular focus on Scandinavian-Chinese cultural exchange. I actually read about the gallery a few weeks ago in a book about Swedish entrepreneurs in China (there aren’t many, and this woman was one of the few who seemed to have done something interesting). So it was fun to visit the gallery in person. We had a very authentic-tasting kanelbulle with our coffee, so at the very least they got that important aspect of cultural exchange right.
The exhibition was titled “四季·春天”, and featured artwork from female artists in Kunming, loosely tied around the theme “spring”. The opening was filled with people, both Chinese and foreign. And lots of people took pictures of the artwork, which in my experience doesn’t happen as much at galleries in the US/Europe (where the ritual instead generally entails standing in front of the artwork making pseudo-intellectual comments about the message the work conveys and musing over whether or not it speaks to the viewer). I thought taking pictures was a fantastic idea, so I did the same. Below are some of my favorites from the exhibition.
我发现了，在中国，每个地方的外国人都不一样。去上海的外国人一般来说是因为工作的原因去，常常是做商业还是金融的工作，喜欢在西餐饭馆吃饭，晚上去酒吧玩儿（同力，你同意不？）。在北京的外国人，有的是因为工作让他们临时住在中国所以在北京呆几年，住在北京的郊区，比方说顺义，不会说汉语。 有的是外交、记者等、还是其他比较聪明的人士，其中应该有很多intellectuals。去武汉（和类似还没有完全国际化的城市）的外国人，有的是因为（跟我一样）想理解中国和学好汉语，认为在外国人少一些的地方认识中国人的机会应该多一些。也有很多有自己的原因，有可能在北京上海找不到工作。我在武汉认识了很多在自己的国家会被认为很奇怪的外国人，不知道为什么他们都选择去武汉了。昆明的外国人呢？好像住在中国的外国人其中，昆明的是最cool的。看上去很多是先来中国旅游，然后因为特别喜欢云南决定来这里开咖啡馆还是旅舍。他们穿的衣服跟纽约和伦敦的hipsters一样（hipster是一种很cool的年轻人，一般来说穿得很时尚，受到了高等教育，很聪明，很喜欢音乐和艺术，喜欢做事做得跟主流不一样）。Hipster一般用的是贬义词，“主流人”认为hipsters太看重自己，但是我现在用这个词是褒义词，他们很cool！我在纽约住的地方（叫Williamsburg）是一个有很多hipsters的地方，一般来说我觉得有很多这种人的地方是生活很舒服和很有意思住的地方。所以可以说昆明是中国的Williamsburg。又是一个想住在昆明的原因！
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