Sichuan Art Museum and Funny Hat Day

Photographer Tianfu Square, Chengdu 090221 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Yesterday was a grey,  rainy day (yes the rains have begun) so we decided to go to Sichuan Art Museum just west of Tianfu Square here in Chengdu. Lo and behold, upon arriving at the Art Museum there was no more museum left. The building looked completely abandoned inside, all the exhibition halls were chained shut and everything was dusty and depressing. Are they between exhibitions or is this it? Nada mas, meiyou, inget mer?? Couldn't get an answer out of anyone. 

If someone can tell me what has happened to the Art Museum and if it will ever open up again please post a comment. If you at the same time can also tell me when the Sichuan Provincial Museum will open up I'd be most interested. It's been years now since they tore down the old one and the new building next to Dufu Cottage looks promising from the outside but it looks like nothing is happening on the inside. I think that a city like Chengdu, with a population of over ten million people and a provincial capital to boot, doesn't have a proper art museum and and an open and functioning provincial museum is quite pathetic. Look at the vibrant art scene and all the museums and galleries in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and even Guangzhou. Come on Chengdu, we can do better!

Around the corner from the Art Museum however was a gallery with Russian art. Very nice, well lit and interesting. After visiting this we walked over to Tianfu Square to watch the musical fountains (Emy said the pattern the water made "looks like onions"). We came across this smart photographer in his "anti-drizzle hat". I like the "camo-pattern" on the underside. Very chic!

Blessed, damned rain

Hoi'an, Vietnam ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

A Chinese poet, seated by a latticed garden window, might reflect upon the hypnotic quality the sound of raindrops makes upon the surface of a banana leaf, rhythmically transporting him to other worlds. In Laos Buddha statues have been created standing with their arms in a special position named "Calling for Rain". The Buddha's hands are held straight down, tightly pressed flat against his body with fingertips pointing to the ground, beseeching rain to come and help the people grow their food and survive another year. Thus the farmer considers rain a blessed thing, longed for and cherished. But too much of it can also be a curse - when it drowns fields and rots crops like the flooding that caused many problems in northern Vietnam this autumn. The tourist, on the other hand, seldom looks upon rain as anything but a bother. Something they definitely hadn't paid for when they booked their ticket (usually from very rainy countries) and an irritating annoyance put between them and unending leisurely hours in the sun - a precious luxury the tourist has come to expect and demand as his right when arriving at his (as portrayed in the travel catalogue) sunny destination. But where does the water come from that let's you take that wonderful freshwater shower in your hotel room?

Picture: The last days of the seasonal monsoon. November, Hoi'an, Vietnam.