The Silent Middle

Day 2 of the conference and it didn't get any better ("The politics of rehearsal, the essence of action and the silent middle" anyone?) so bunked off after lunch to catch up with a torrent of emails in my hotel room before heading into town to meet a music promoter who wants to bring Nithin Sawhney to China. Refreshing to actually do something practical rather than just talk about the abstract.

Meanwhile, in the Government's public sector cuts, it was announced today that the British Council's grant from the FCO will be cut from £180m to £149m by 2014 (the rest of our budget is earned thru the English and exams business. The Board thinks this is "reasonable" all things considered. Spare a thought for 19 of the DCMS's other public bodies which were either abolished (eg UK Film Council and Museum, Libraries and Archives Council) or drastically reformed (eg the Arts Council has to make administrative savings of 50%).

Conferences & Esplanades

I'm attending the 3rd European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue discussing such topics as Culture & Ecological Civilisation, Mutual Undertstanding & Cognition in Chinese & European Art Circles, and so on. Interesting up to a point, and good people there, but these kind of circular discussions always seem to focus on state-supported high arts while ignoring anything at street level, not least anything 'commercial'. The fact that we were a room full of middle-aged (or older) bureaucrats, with probably only a hazey understanding of what young people want or young artists do, only reinforced my skepticism. Hope we get to the point tomorrow.

That said, I sat next to Fang Dian, probably the most respected curator in the country and now Director of the National Art Museum of China... and it was good to meet old friends: Charles Landry (Mr Creative Cities), Markus Wernhard (whom I knew from Tokyo days), Gabriela Massaci (ex-BC Romania, now freelance cultural commentator), etc.

Nice to get out on to the Bund for the evening for a couple of exhibition openings and drinks/dinner with Markus & Caroline again. It's such a gorgeously romantic stretch of buildings, all renovated, floodlit and oozing retro glamour. Drinks at the Long Bar in the Waldorf Astoria, dinner at Jean Georges and nightcap at House of Roosevelt (sounds decadent, and it was)... while across the river Pudong's skyscrapers told another (21st Century) story.

Suzhou

Meetings in the morning then bullet train to the nearby city of Suzhou to discuss the showing of a BC exhibition with the Director of Suzhou Museum. The museum is in fact two: the former home of Christian convert Hong Xiuquan who, as leader of the Taipeng Heavenly Kingdom, fought a little-known (to the West) but very bloody civil war against the Manchu-dominated Qing Dynasty in the mid-19th Century; and a new I M Pei-designed museum where we'll show our exhibition. Suzhou is famous for its UNESCO-listed gardens - Humble Administrator's Garden, Garden to Linger In, Couple's Garden (lovely names) - but which unfortunately I didn't have time to see.

A walk through 1920s/30s Shanghai

Flew to Shanghai this morning and will be here all week for various things. Good to meet the team and options are coming together for strengthening it post-Expo. Nice lunch with Gavin (our Director here - I first met him 11 years ago when he was Our Man in Sapporo) and James Kennedy who who used to be Director Russia during the 'difficult times' a few years ago when we were bullied and all but closed down by the authorities. Bruised, he left the BC a couple of years ago to become International Director at Warwick University and looked a happy man.

Then off to Markus & Caroline's on the edge of the French Concession. We ate at a nice Thai restaurant and strolled home through lanes lined with plane trees, art deco houses and chic boutiques & cafés. It was like walking through Paris or maybe Richmond. Tranquil and beautiful - a preserved bubble of the old European world surrounded by modern China.

Tobogganing down the Wall

Finally visited the Great Wall today, the Mutianyu section 90km north-east of Beijing, with the aforementioned Alex. Car there, chair-lift up, fairly arduous but fabulous stroll along, and toboggan down. Yes, a long, snaking stainless steel slide "safely sends tourists to the foot of Great Wall... on a Nanirrigated farmland sled. Toboggan uses the theory of acceieration of gravity and makes coasters dive along the mountain path like low - latitude flying or high - speed driwing". Quite.

The 'original' wall was begun over 2,000 years ago to keep out the Mongol hordes. It's never really been a fully continuous structure: most sections have either been reduced to rubble or disappeared but there are parts near Beijing, particularly, which have been restored and are incredibly impressive. (Still in Tolkien mode, the mountains looked very Mordor). And no, you can't see it from space.

Piaooooow!

This evening I attended a dinner for the V&A Museum who'd brought some of their benefactors over on a cultural excursion. On my table was Edward Atkin, the guy who founded Avent, the baby products company. He sold it recently and now spends his time being philanthropic to the arts. Anyway, nice guy, and turned out that he also co-designed - with Dave Simmons - the Simmons drum kit, so beloved of early 80s synthband drummers. Altogether now: piaooooow!

Friends Reunited

Today I met an old schoolfriend, Alex Perkins. We were best friends in the mid 70s, sharing those formative experiences common to many young teens at that time: Lord of the Rings, Roger Dean, Yessongs, Leeds/Chelsea, first girlfrends etc, before drifting apart around the 6th year. Thirty years passed before we bumped into each in Bangkok in 2008 and since then we've kept in touch. He's here on business but this evening I took him to see Othello followed by reminiscing over a drink. He has a much more jaded view of Chi High than I do, and probably nearer the mark. Good to catch up.