Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shanghai. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Jack & Bronwyn's Shanghai Adventure



[unless otherwise specified, all photos by Bronwyn Lloyd]


We arrived in Shanghai on Monday morning (11/7): a characteristically misty day. This is the view from our window in the Guoman Hotel:


front window




side window


We had a chance to do some sightseeing the next day, Tuesday, stopping first at the breathtaking Jing'an Temple:


front courtyard




main steps
[photo by Paul Hinton]




Bronwyn & Jack
[photo by Paul Hinton]




Paul Hinton & Tracey Slaughter




Buddha's hands




Buddha




Guanyin




Jack




side temple




amazing detail in the wooden carvings




complexities of perspective




mandala picture




us




Tracey & Paul




Laughing Buddha


And here we back on the top deck of the bus for the city tour:


Jack & Bronwyn




Oriental Pearl Tower




extravagant topiary




Paul & Tracey


& here we all are in the Yu Garden, hunting for bargains:


entrance




lake




dragon




rooftop


We managed a bit of sightseeing later in the week. Here we are at the Temple of the Jade Buddha (which is one statue tourists are not permitted to photograph. It is phenomenally beautiful, though:


back of the main hall




Twin Buddhas




Buddha




reclining Buddha




Monster




back door




intricate goldwork


And if you're wondering why I'm looking like this, the picture below of me sampling a Mango Lassi dessert in one of Shanghai's top restaurants might offer a few clues (the statue of the pig is outside the Jackie Chan Museum, just beside our hotel):


Jack sampling some advanced fusion cuisine




Jack & pig


Ah, beautiful Shanghai!


*

[Addendum (1/8/16)]:


&, for those of you who've expressed scepticism about whether or not we actually attended any sessions at the said conference, please check out the following:]










This latter article, from the China.org.cn website, includes the following passage:
Jack Ross, a New Zealand poet and lecturer in creative writing, said: "For years people thought we belonged to the West. However, the colonial and Maori history of New Zealand has made us neither East nor West. With increased immigration from Asian countries like China, Japan and Korea in the latter part of 20th century, the new generation of New Zealanders are eager to take on their own identities."


So there you go, smartypants! Read 'em and weep.



The picture above comes from Nuala O'Connor [Nuala Ní Chonchúir]'s literary blog "WOMEN RULE WRITER." She comments:
I really, really enjoyed the panel of New Zealand writers who were as down to earth and vibrant as one might expect. NZ author Frankie McMillan also gave an interesting paper on flash fiction which is having a renaissance in her country.


Thanks, Nuala. You're welcome in New Zealand anytime ...

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Shanghai




So Bronwyn and I are off to Shanghai next week to attend the 14th International Conference on the Short Story in English (July 13-16) at East China Normal University (ECNU). The title of this year's gathering is "Influence and Confluence in the Short Story: East and West." Pretty exciting, huh?



If you're at all curious (why would you be?) about the bewildering variety of workshops and panels we're supposed to be taking part in, you can check them out here. The short version, though, is that each of us is giving a reading, is taking part in one of the plenary panels, and is chairing a couple of sessions. I'm also giving an Academic paper on "Settler & Speculative Fiction in the NZ Short Story" (sounds fascinating, no?), and Bronwyn and I are both in a panel discussing Voice in the NZ short story, chaired by our good friend Tracey Slaughter.

The conference will be fun, I'm sure. The prospect of exploring Shanghai a bit is almost equally alluring, though. Pretty much all I know about the city comes from watching (and reading) J. G. Ballard's autobiographical Empire of the Sun, but I can't help feeling that it might have changed a bit since then.





Here's the location of the conference:



Peter Potrowl: East China Normal University (2010)


And here's our hotel:



Looks pretty lux, eh? Too good for the likes of us, you'll be thinking, and I guess you're right. We're going to try to make the best of it, though. It's going to be hot (temperatures in the 30s at this time of year, I'm told) ...