I went back to Martyr's Park - which as I noted last time is a very nice place to do nothing on a hot day, and nothing has changed. Last time I was there on a Monday and the museum was closed. This time it was a Saturday, so I got to go to the museum, of which more later.
Being a weekend there were more people here than previously, but it was still a long way from crowded. Some people playing social badminton (no net, very popular, more popular then table tennis), some people practising tai chi with swords, one solitary maniac practising his wushu/kongfu.
But the highlight for me was the guy playing/practising his erhu, the two-stringed Chinese violin (although it's played like a viol from chin to knee, but it's not fretted). Cue technology...ohhh. Anyway, the erhu is one of my favorite instruments and well played it's astonishing. There are a few beggars who play it - one pair in my district features a blind erhu player led along by a rope - but they aren't usually particularly good. This one was really good. Probably the best I've heard not on CD. Fortunately the modern mobile phone records sound - although mine only records it as part of a video - so I was able to get the last 60 seconds of his performance. I hope I didn't upset him by listening/recording & that it was just coincidence he finished when I sat down.
I'll keep trying with getting the recording uploaded. Everything else has worked eventually.
Note: recording uploaded semi-successfully. Click here => Erhu
The museum is housed in a great building, one of the sites of various Republican party meetings back in the days of Sun Yat Sen, who is understandably big in these parts. The museum itself is a little disappointing, but has its points. Useful for language lessons, anyway. Nine types of halberd, each with its own name. Now I know - or might, if my memory worked at all. Mind you, knowing would be a rather private satisfaction; not likely to get to show the knowledge off.
Modern historiography being what it is, getting the Chinese side of the Opium Wars isn't really a big deal. In fact, their treatment of the British was positively restrained compared to my history lecturer in 1976. What was interesting was some of the old maps, for a couple of reasons. One is that I found out Guangzhou was a walled city, which I half-knew, but don't recall seeing actually mentioned anywhere previously. There are place names which sound like old walled city place names - but there is absolutely nothing left of any walls, so I wondered how long ago the names were actually relevant. Well, certainly 1850 and beyond, I now know. In fact, the river side of the city had a double wall; I guess that makes sense, a kind of secure trading area doubling as a buffer in case of attack from the river.
The other interesting thing was that stuff happened at some of the places I've been to, and other places that I will go to & none of that stuff seems to be in the guidebook(s). It's good to be able to say, you know, here there was one of 9 cannon emplacements during the Taiping rebellion. (or was it the Opium wars - I will have to go again with a notebook)
Skipping though the party political history, not because it's not interesting, but because it's rather name overloaded, to the war against Japan, and there were some very nasty photographs indeed. Blunt. Brutal. Ugly. On one level, there just aren't enough war photographs on public display really. On another, I guess it angers as many people as it educates.
That's about it really. No photography allowed in the museum, and the ones I took didn't turn out very well. But I'll finish with a picture of this guy - I'm going to have to find out more about him. He seems to have a statue everywhere, and yet I've never heard of him before. He must be seriously local, and seriously well-regarded. I mean, you can be a big man in your lifetime but if everybody hates you, when the civic statuary budget comes up in committee after you die, it just always seems to be overspent.
Here he is again. Looking younger. Ye Jian Ying, for those who are interested. I've got at least one more, in bronze, if I can find it.
The museum is housed in a great building, one of the sites of various Republican party meetings back in the days of Sun Yat Sen, who is understandably big in these parts. The museum itself is a little disappointing, but has its points. Useful for language lessons, anyway. Nine types of halberd, each with its own name. Now I know - or might, if my memory worked at all. Mind you, knowing would be a rather private satisfaction; not likely to get to show the knowledge off.
Modern historiography being what it is, getting the Chinese side of the Opium Wars isn't really a big deal. In fact, their treatment of the British was positively restrained compared to my history lecturer in 1976. What was interesting was some of the old maps, for a couple of reasons. One is that I found out Guangzhou was a walled city, which I half-knew, but don't recall seeing actually mentioned anywhere previously. There are place names which sound like old walled city place names - but there is absolutely nothing left of any walls, so I wondered how long ago the names were actually relevant. Well, certainly 1850 and beyond, I now know. In fact, the river side of the city had a double wall; I guess that makes sense, a kind of secure trading area doubling as a buffer in case of attack from the river.
The other interesting thing was that stuff happened at some of the places I've been to, and other places that I will go to & none of that stuff seems to be in the guidebook(s). It's good to be able to say, you know, here there was one of 9 cannon emplacements during the Taiping rebellion. (or was it the Opium wars - I will have to go again with a notebook)
Skipping though the party political history, not because it's not interesting, but because it's rather name overloaded, to the war against Japan, and there were some very nasty photographs indeed. Blunt. Brutal. Ugly. On one level, there just aren't enough war photographs on public display really. On another, I guess it angers as many people as it educates.
That's about it really. No photography allowed in the museum, and the ones I took didn't turn out very well. But I'll finish with a picture of this guy - I'm going to have to find out more about him. He seems to have a statue everywhere, and yet I've never heard of him before. He must be seriously local, and seriously well-regarded. I mean, you can be a big man in your lifetime but if everybody hates you, when the civic statuary budget comes up in committee after you die, it just always seems to be overspent.
Here he is again. Looking younger. Ye Jian Ying, for those who are interested. I've got at least one more, in bronze, if I can find it.
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