ARTS+CULTURE SNAPSHOTS ART Stay up! It’s too hot to sleep and galleries and museums around town are staging White Nights. Check out the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC); Beijing Center for the Arts; the Beijing World, Today Art and CAFA Art Museums, UCCA and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre after the sun goes down. Ask at the latter for details of when and how. Meanwhile, Australia opens their Year of Culture in China with a bang: at NAMOC (see p50) and a positively Spring-Festival- Gala-like array of talent at the NCPA on June 10. But wait! No sign of Kylie! www.imagineaustralia.net CINEMA The Fourth Beijing International Movie Festival (Jun 7-30) will be presenting a dizzying spectacle of independent films and film- makers from around the globe. It’s an Olympiad of film: Knowledge is the Beginning from Israel/Palestine (Jun 7, 26), Silent Shame from Japan (Jun 10), Die Entebehrlichen from Germany (Jun 11), not to mention a series of Irish film shorts (Jun 9). On the local scene, Channel Zero will screen a documentary titled 65 Red Roses about a young woman’s struggle with cystic fibrosis (Jun 15). As far as Hollywood output, Meg Ryan and Antonio Banderas couple up in My Mom’s New Boyfriend – a pairing so bizarre it may just need to be viewed on pirated DVD. IN PRINT QIU ZHEN'S "SATAN'S WEDDING" On June 15, Deborah Fallows XXXXXXXX visits The Bookworm to promote her second book, Dreaming in Chinese. Fallows, who has a Ph.D. in linguistics, provides a charming analysis of how language study helps unlock cul- ART ATTACK tural doors. As far as June releases go, we greet the arrival of Pulitzer- CHRISTINE LASKOWSKI BELIEVES GRASS IS NOT FOR GAZING winning writer Oscar Hijuelos. Proving that it’s never too late to extend the nner Mongolia is a moonscape York City, you know exactly what I’m of others congregating on a rectangle story of a character, in Beautiful dust bowl while grass in Beijing talking about. A weekly ritual of lawn, of lawn. Surrounded by the imposing Maria of My Soul (Hyperion), Hijuelos Iparks is sacrosanct. I don’t get it. a gallon jug of Carlo Rossi wine and skyscrapers of Midtown Manhattan, revisits the protagonist of his novel, For those of us holed up in Beijing’s free films outdoors. Every Monday I when we weren’t gazing at the screen, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love. concrete kingdom, we take nature would slink out of my summer intern- we were gazing up at the stars. when we can get it (if we can get ship to stake our claim in Bryant Park We might not have stars here, but STAGE ChopSchticks returns early this it). Meaning, when I go to the park, I with my Minnie Mouse bedsheet. Beijing could do this. We have parks month to present the Chicago feel entitled to enjoying a bit of lawn Dmitri would bring the bread and and a populace that would certainly Improv All-Stars on June 5 – these with my book or my friends without hummus, Jim the wine, and Miranda embrace such an idea, not only in comedians also moonlight in the getting yelled at by some skinny, would supply the surprise (sometimes terms of attendance but the exchange, corporate realm for an innovative carbuncular guard. Grass is for a cantelope, sometimes chili). Sure, I the cross-cultural education. I can see improv business called Spark Creative (see p52). Moving along throwing a blanket on and lounging, was interested in a free screening of it now: Roman Polanski’s Knife in the gracefully to the dance scene, and during the recent Ditan Folk Ghostbusters and Who’s Afraid of Water, followed by Jiang Wen’s Devils Beijing Contemporary Dance Festival, I got a reminder of just how Virginia Woolf, but in most instances, on the Doorstep. If music festivals can Theater presents Martlet (Jun 19- fine it is to be able to fondle blades the wine buzz, close company and make it happen, then why not film 20). Choreographed by its young of grass between my toes. It was then gentle temperatures left me so festivals? It’s time that Beijing expanded. dancers, it uses a “footless” bird that it hit me – wouldn’t it be glorious cozy and drowsy, I was usually fast I’d even pay a little money so long as as a metaphor for navigating hec- tic Beijing life. For something a to have an outdoor summer film asleep before the films ended. The real organizers turned a blind eye to the six little more conventional, the NCPA series? For anyone who’s had the good appeal lay in the extraordinary sum- Yanjings in my bag and let me have my will present the classic opera L’Elisir fortune to spend a summer in New mer circumstances: you and hundreds little patch of grass in peace. d’Amore (Jun 25-28). PHOTO: COURTESY OF 798 PHOTO GALLERY JUNE 2010 49 ART FEATURE painting.” The children used patterns that they knew from spiritual ceremonies, and their motifs embodied the creation stories (or Dreamings) of their people, as well as totems that they knew from their elders. Seeing their Dreamings and totems on the wall of the school inspired the local men; they felt that if such images were to be preserved, it was their responsibility to ensure accurate portrayal and protection of the most secret aspects of their heritage. Papunya was the home of the Honey Ant Dreaming and it was this story that the men began to record, not just on the walls of the school but on any hard surface available, from car bonnets to matchboxes. In 1972, they formed the Papunya Tula collective, and although the white Australian authorities later cavalierly painted over the first murals, the Western Desert Art Movement flourished. By the late 1980s it had transformed the landscape of Australian art and was beginning its conquest of world markets. By the time of the Olympics in 2000, aboriginal paintings from the Papunya Tula movement had been enshrined as a national cultural treasure, and were celebrated in a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of , “Papunya Tula, Genesis and Genius.” IT WAS THIS STORY THAT THE MEN BEGAN TO RECORD ON ANY HARD SURFACE AVAILABLE, FROM CAR BONNETS TO MATCHBOXES

In 2006-2007 the National Museum of Australia created an exhibition of works from the earliest days of Papunya Tula. Many of these pieces by the most senior members of the collective (which had come to include women among its most important practitioners) had never been publicly exhibited before. It is this exhibition that STORM AT CAMPS ON THE RAIN DREAMING TRAIL, , 1978 is coming to the National Art Museum of China this month. To many in the art world, price is the ultimate accolade. For them, it may be worth noting that in 2007 a painting by leading Papunya artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri sold at Sotheby’s for the equivalent of USD 1.9 million. Despite his place in one of the most extra- ordinary stories in the history of contemporary AUSTRALIA DREAMING art, Bardon himself had a sad life. He suffered a nervous breakdown upon his return from ABORIGINAL LEGACY Papunya, falling into the care of the notorious by Madeleine O’Dea quack psychiatrist Dr. , whose “deep sleep therapy” was found by a subsequent Royal Commission to have caused the deaths of 24 patients. Bardon survived, but Bailey’s n 1971 an idealistic young teacher named Bardon, an art teacher, was fascinated to discover “treatment” did nothing to heal the scars inflicted Geoffrey Bardon was posted to one of the that his pupils had never created a Western-style by the early indifference and disdain of Australian remotest places on earth. Papunya was an painting; their rich artistic culture recorded its world authorities for his efforts on behalf of the Papunya Australian Aboriginal settlement whose residents in sand paintings and body decorations. He showed community. Although he received an Order of Ihad been forced from their traditional lands by his young students his acrylic paints, and turned them Australia in 1988 for his achievements, he never cattle farming, and now lived in a lonely outpost in loose on the best hard surface available, the walls of quite recovered from the official contempt that the heart of the Western Desert some 240 kilometers the local school. he first experienced when he brought the Western ARTIST THE OF COURTESY IMAGE: from . The resulting mural was the first such painting Desert art movement to the world. Bardon stayed only 18 months at Papunya’s the people of those lands had ever done, and its primary school, but the artistic movement he helped fusion of ancient motifs with modern materials was “Papunya: Aboriginal Art from Australia’s Deserts” to inspire would galvanize the art world in Australia to spark a revolution in art, leading to an artistic runs from Jun 10-Aug 20 at the National Art and around the globe. movement that came to be known popularly as “dot Museum of China.

50 JUNE 2010 REVIEWS CINEMA FEATURE ART: “EYES TALK” ZHANG JIE AND HU KE Since Yoko and John, the idea of artist couples as collaborators has tended to trigger one’s gag reflex. Fortunately, the Beijing art scene has taught me this need not always be the case. Last month, photo- grapher H.S. Liu and curator Karen Smith’s brought out their Shanghai monograph; this month, artists Zhang Jie and Hu Ke present their joint exhibition, “Eyes Talk.” Through sculpture and oil paintings, they articulate an evocative, visual dialogue between partners. Hu Ke’s sculptures embody the “closed” nature of men’s emotions, while Zhang Jie’s paintings characterize herself and her gender as more “open” emotionally and vulnerable. Christine Laskowski “Eyes Talk” runs through Jun 13 at Anni Art (8456 7783)

BOOKS: GIRL IN TRANSLATION JEAN KWOK Probably more aptly titled A Sweatshop Fairy Tale, or A Chinese Genius Grows in Brooklyn, this is a tale of the American dream, a brilliant immigrant child succeeding against all odds. The pages are taken EAST VS. directly from the life of the author, who worked her way up from a clothing factory to Harvard. A phenom- enal accomplishment, sure, but a doctorate doesn’t mean you can create believable, three-dimensional WESTERNS characters. Eleven-year-old Kimberly never seems to RAPPERS, RACISM AND RAILROADS age, maintaining a naivete that leaves her character unrealistically unblemished by her rough surroundings. by Christine Laskowski She reads more like a composite character of American Girl dolls than an actual person. And like the American Girl book series, Girl in Translation is something I y conversation with Aki ostensibly about the Old West, to tell would have really enjoyed reading – when I was nine. Christine Laskowski Aleong, the 76-year-old the story of himself and other Chinese Girl in Translation is available at all English-language bookstores. Mdirector of I Am Somebody ... American actors and directors. Sing, a No Chance in Hell, felt strikingly similar to young railroad worker (played by actor my semi-regular long-distance phone Reggie Lee), actively fights against the FILM: THE WIZARD OF NEW ZEALAND calls to grandpa. That is, if my grandpa status quo, forever altering the racial If you thought wizardry as an occupation was were a filmmaker whose agenda was attitudes of one small Western town. moribund, you should head straight for New Zealand. to expose the racism toward Asian For Aleong, that Western town was Created by Prime Minister Mike Moore specifically for Americans in Hollywood, and who Hollywood, and it was not so small, and one man, “Official Wizard” has been a position there could also tell me what it was like to in his purview, not so malleable in the since 1990. In this short documentary, director Grant direct Coolio in the role of a cowboy. possibilities it holds for Asian Americans Neville does a thoughtful job in showing just how “Ask me anything you want, my dear like himself. the Wizard, né Ian Brackenbury Channell, has cast lady,” Aleong said Watching his a little magic upon everyday life there. He heckles sweetly. “WE DO NOT HAVE ONE film, I was struck evangelicals, casts spells on visiting rugby teams, It was a trap. by the unpredict- evades the compulsory census, and has actually My question ASIAN AMERICAN ACTOR able, Herzog-like performed three drought-breaking rain dances. While about the rapper OR ACTRESS THAT CAN hubris so evi- the Wizard is no doubt a loon, the film leaves you less preoccupied by his lunacy only triggered a dent in his ap- or charlatanism and more of a proponent for the very charmed and antagonistic diatribe on what GREENLIGHT ANY MOVIE” proach. Werner role he plays in modern society. Christine Laskowski I should’ve asked. H e r z o g n e v - The Wizard of New Zealand screens Jun 7 at CAFA. Coolio would have to wait. er fit into the Hollywood mold “We have never had a lead Asian either – not because he was German, but American actor nominated for an because he was nuts and made MODERN DANCE: MARTLET Academy Award,” Aleong pointed out. fantastic, very un-Hollywood films. Anatomically speaking, there’s no debate – birds “We do not have one Asian American Aleong’s film I would rate as special, but without feet can only keep flying. And as a result, the actor or actress that can greenlight not great. Some people will love this martlet’s odd evolutionary handicap has grown to any movie.” film, but probably not for the reasons symbolize a never-ending quest for knowledge. For As Lucy Liu was the only Asian Aleong intended. this premiere by Beijing Dance Theater, the martlet American actor or actress I could think But I had to know: What was it like embodies the constant effort just to survive in Beijing. of, I agreed there was something amiss. working with Coolio? Now, if you’re rolling your eyes at what appears to be That considering the significant strides “He was a willing performer,” Aleong an exhausted theme for modern dance companies, I made by African Americans and Latinos, said frankly. “I felt that his presence don’t blame you – but hear me out. The visual banter something had to account for the would resonate in the movie. He had between dancers in Martlet as they navigate their absence of Asians in film. I suggested that rawness that was like back-in-the- way through hutongs, metro stations and romantic that it might be the low numbers of day time.” endeavors is clever and clean of clichés. Martlet’s choreography, performed by six Asian Americans in the industry – of its young dancers, captures the itinerant and isolating nature of the northern acting, writing, directing, etc. – but I Am Somebody ... No Chance in Hell capital while avoiding my greatest modern dance pet peeve – running in circles Aleong insisted it was racism, pure premieres at the Beijing International around the stage. Christine Laskowski and simple. Movie Festival on Jun 25. More info at Martlet runs from Jun 19-20 at the NCPA. Aleong uses I Am Somebody..., www.beijingfilmfest.org. PHOTOS: COURTESY OF ANNI ART, PENGUIN CHINA, BIMF, BEIJING DANCE THEATER AND AKI ALEONG JUNE 2010 51 STAGE FEATURE BOOKSHELF OFFICE COMEDY SPARK CREATIVE LIVENS UP THE CORPORATE by Christine Laskowski

t a conference back in 2008, who we pay 300 kuai a ticket to watch businessman Henry Winter harass our dates. When they’re not Achose to act like a redneck making us howl in our seats, these farmer. He adopted a southern drawl, comedians are being dispatched to and as he thumbed the straps of his boardrooms, coaching everyone from overalls, decided that he would marry accountants to CEOs. Long before his sister. their plane touches down at PEK, Not the kind of behavior one they have been debriefed as part of would expect from the president Spark Creative’s focused consultation of the Shanghai chapter of the process to know each individual Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), company’s buzzwords, competitors but then again, this was not an and specific concerns. This is where ordinary business conference. ChopSchticks co-founders Richard Through his friend Richard Robinson and Alexander Ronalds Robinson, a fellow EO member, come in – they work exclusively with Winter had hired a company called Spark Creative to address the Asian Spark Creative, a markets, helping business that has WHEN THEY’RE NOT them find clients, pioneered the use doing needs of customized MAKING US HOWL assessments and improv comedy IN OUR SEATS, so forth. training for other According to businesses. THESE COMEDIANS business owners Multinational ARE BEING DISPATCHED who have worked corporations have with Spark Crea- flocked to China, TO BOARDROOMS tive, the improv seeking to cap- training engages italize on its robust market and participants in a more efficacious EDWARD growing consumer culture; each way than your run-of-the-mill earns in its own way that multi- motivational speaker. The team- cultural work environments building and group exercises force WONG compound the challenge of people to think on their feet and NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT running a successful business. “You work together – boosting confi- have a company coming in with dence and bonding between staff of people from all over the world, try- various backgrounds. For Paul My favorite book from childhood Dust by Ma Jian. Both recount epic ing to navigate a thousands-year-old Stepanek, founder of the China travel was The Hobbit and The Lord of the journeys across China and capture culture – how do you meld that in group BOHDI Adventures, the Spark Rings trilogy. No explanation needed. the sheer adventure of being in this a positive way?” asked Al Samuels, experience was eye-opening. “I have I also have fond memories of other country. One was written by a British Spark Creative’s founder and CEO. worked years with the same people and fantasy series, like The Dark is Rising journalist who traveled across warlord- In what appears to be a league of had no idea how interesting, fun and and The Chronicles of Narnia. infested northern China in 1935; the funny men wielding MBAs, Samuels creative they were.” author is an even more entertaining (who graduated from Stanford’s A book that changed my life was The scribe than his younger brother, Ian business school) works together with To learn more, visit www.sparkcreative. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. It Fleming. Ma Jian’s book takes you deep ChopSchticks, the organization that com. Chicago Improv All-Stars presented had been assigned in a class on Ameri- into the heart of a China in transition brings those high-caliber comedians by ChopSchticks performs on Jun 5. can literature. The book transported in the mid-1980s, seen through the me from my banal suburban teen life to eyes of a vagabond Chinese artist. It’s the very cool expatriate world of Paris a world that, two decades onward, no and Spain in the 1920s. Afterwards, I longer exists. wanted to write for a living and hang out in cafes and drink absinthe. I do judge books by their covers because I love beautiful book covers. The last book I bought was American It’s one of the reasons why I haven’t Gods by Neil Gaiman. Being a big fan bought a Kindle yet. A recent favorite of his Sandman comic book series, I’ve is the Vintage paperback edition of

been looking forward to reading one My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk – a RONALDS ALEXANDER OF COURTESY AND SUI PHOTOS: of his novels for years. I bought this book that’s about illustrated manu- book on a recent trip in the US but scripts. The book turned out to be as promptly lent it to my wife Tini, so I compelling as its cover, designed by have yet to start it. Chip Kidd.

If someone was to only ever read If I could have a peek at anyone’s one book about China, I’d tell them bookshelf in Beijing, it would be to read two short books that are Ai Weiwei. Not only to get a sense of mirror images of each other: News what he reads, but also to see how his from Tartary by Peter Fleming and Red shelves are designed.

52 JUNE 2010