From Mcdaniel to Wuhu- Dr. Kevin McIntyre 

1 Wuhu Tiehua Factory

 

When Dr Fang and I were finalising our part of the ASIANetwork grant proposal late last year, she contacted Dr Van Symons, professor emeritus of history at Augustana College and former long-time member of the ASIANetwork grant committee, and asked him to read over our proposal and give us some feedback.  Dr. Symons agreed and was a big help.  I decided that Dr Symons was a really swell guy, wrote him a quick thank you note. He replied and stated if we got this grant “(I was) in for a real treat because Qin’s …links within China are remarkable.”  Major understatement.

Once we really got going on tiehua research, we all realised that Dr Fang and her husband, Peter Chen, were celebrities.  Strings were pulled, red carpets were unrolled, and a bunch of students and an economics professor from a relatively obscure private college in the US were treated like royalty.

Here are some of the things Dr Fang managed to arrange for us:

  • In Beijing, got us in to see the most famous piece of tiehua in the entire country, “Welcoming-Guest Pine Trees,” in the Great Hall of the People.  Tourists just don’t get to see this.  In fact, while on our way to see this piece, a random visitor tried to tag along with our group, got caught, and was severely beaten in front of us.  OK, I just made up the whole beating thing, but we did see someone kicked out.
  • In Wuhu, we were treated to dinner by local city leaders (it was my first time meeting an actual Communist party official).  We were also interviewed for a television documentary, and had an article written about us in the local paper.  (For the record, Wuhu is a city of about 4 million people, roughly the same population as Los Angeles.)
  • The hospitality displayed by students and faculty at our Anhui Normal University, our host institution, was ridiculous.  As in “we are not that important” ridiculous. If by some chance a contingent from ANU visits us in Westminster, we are really going to have to step it up.
  • Some of the artisans we interviewed made custom tiehua pieces for us to present to the college upon our return.
  • We had a formal farewell dinner in Wuhu at the restaurant the formerly housed the British Consulate with many of the local tiehua VIPs.  We were introduced to Chinese toasting, which for me involved standing up and drinking with a guy while he made a speech in Mandarin, which sure made me feel important.
  • In Zhenjiang, the vice-president of the local business development office invited us to lunch.  This woman’s demeanour was such that I got the impression she was on her way to meet the president when she was through with us.  I was intimidated.
  • In Shanghai and on five minutes notice, Dr Fang talked the staff at the Shanghai Library into giving us a demonstration of document restoration and reproduction.
  • And Mr Chen had some heavy-duty connections as well:
  • We had a meet-and-greet with the Anhui Olympic Women’s Boxing Team, whose coach was one of Mr Chen’s high school classmates.  I’d never been so honoured to get punched in the face in my entire life.
  • Another of Mr Chen’s old classmates, Jiang Jun, is one of the most famous calligraphers in China and a real hoot.  (Carly has written a post about this, check it out.) He wrote our names for us on rice paper, which we later found out would cost several hundred dollars if we just showed up at his studio and had it done.  Master Jiang also sported some of the best facial hair I’ve ever seen, and was wearing a Darth Vader shirt the day we met him.

In addition to that, Mr Chen and Dr Fang had this incredible skill in getting at party of 10 seated in packed restaurants, procuring discounts and free stuff for us almost every day, and generally talking random people into helping us out.  Those two could sell air conditioners to Eskimos while juggling snow.

My response to all of this VIP treatment was to tease Dr Fang and Mr Chen mercilessly, but with great affection, about it in front of the group.  It usually took the form of loud announcements on the bus to the effect of “you guys are kind of a big deal.”  They got all embarrassed, it was cute.  I think (hope) they got a kick out of it because even though I was giving them a hard time, it was all true: those two are a big deal, for real.  They made a lot of phone calls and asked a lot of favours to make sure we had an enjoyable experience and felt welcome and well-cared for, and the rest of us on this trip couldn’t thank them enough.