A cricked neck

More meetings with the Minister: General Administration of Press & Publishing, Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, and Beijing Olympic Development Agency - the last in the shadow of the Birds Nest, and all before lunch. Then off to the airport to see him onto his economy flight home. I have to say Mr Vaizey was very easy-going, said all the right things and was actually quite fun. He'd awoken with a stiff neck, the result he said of watching China launch the first part of its space station last night, which went down well with today's officials. 

Yes Minister

So, here's a typical Ministerial visit. Breakfast meeting with the Ambassador, a speech to open an internet forum and a meeting with the Minister of the State Council Information Office, all in a hotel. Then across town to the Great Hall of the People for a meeting with the Vice Premier of the Propaganda Department followed by a stroll across Tiananmen Square to an informal lunch with some of our arts contacts. Off then to the State Administration of Radio, Film & Television, and then the Ministry of Culture. Then across to 798 for our London Guest City Party, part of Beijing Design Week, with a good crowd. It was all going so well until I got separated from my charge and he was taken on a little unscheduled tour of the preserved factories. Consequently he slipped behind schedule and, with terrible traffic thrown in for good measure, arrived late for a banquet.

Is all this typical of a Ministerial visit?  Probably, although the public sector cuts meant that he didn't bring a Private Secretary with him. So most of the onus fell on me and my faithful colleague Haining. One day down, another half-day to go.

Hysteria

The usual mad day, finishing with a design talk at CAFA Museum which was supposed to be by Paul Cocksedge (he of the big red sculpture commissioned by Beijing Design Week) but he got severe food poisoning so Louise Shannon of the V&A gamely stepped in; then a dinner for several other designers; and finally off to the airport to pick up the Honourable Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries.

While waiting in Arrivals, my boss Joanna & I sat with a coffee going through the 27th and final version of his programme and for some reason we got the giggles. I think it was tiredness or hysteria. In any case, for about ten minutes we laughed and laughed and laughed. So much that I thought I was going to be sick or choke or die or something. Tears, barely able to speak, just uncontrollable. Weird. Anyway, we finally managed to compose ourselves before the Minister arrived and the drive to his hotel was suitably serious and professional.

'Ren' & What If?

Another mad day in the office trying to keep a grip on a VIP visitor's programme later this week. One minute he's due to meet Minister X, only for it to be trumped by a request from the Chinese side to meet Vice Premer Y. Turning into an incredibly busy and incredibly tight schedule with a car plan that looks like a cross between choreography and a military manoeuvre.

Anyway, relaxed this evening at another grand opening ceremony, this one for a collection of exhibitions called Ren: Good Design at the National Museum of China. 'Ren' in traditional Chinese culture means 'showing concern and love to others' - which equates with the humanistic approach of design. The whole caboodle was split into five large units, with Brits Dunne & Raby curating an interesting and highly conceptual exhibition, What If?, which looks at how design can influence the future. Not obvious things like better-designed cars, but going into real sci-fi territory, like growing products instead of manufacturing them or re-designing teeth to encourage vegetarianism. They even brought over a classic ice-cream van, re-designed to 'make snow'. Given the commonly understood and frequently applied activity of cloudbusting in China, this may ironically be one of the easiest exhibits to understand. Pity it doesn't play Greensleeves though.   

Beijing Design Week kicks off

The start of Beijing Design Week required a big flashy opening ceremony and got it, at the Millennium Monument on the west side of town. Somewhat chaotic, it had the aura of a Hollywood red carpet event with Beijing's beautiful people and a good smattering of officials and designers, plus searchlights, a pop singer, some cute smiling children and a cast of hundreds. Millennium Monument, a strange looking edifice at the best of times, was lit up like a UFO. The only thing missing was fireworks.

Presiding over everything was the Mayor of Beijing, joined - because London is Guest City - by numerous Brits: Sir John Sorrell (Chairman of London Design Festival), Tamara Mellon (CEO of Jimmy Choo), Paul Cocksedge (who designed a big red sculpture specially for the occasion) and various others. Lord Marland of Odstock gave a speech. It's a going to be a busy week. 

Scandinavian humour

The girls have been reading some very quirky books of late involving eccentric characters & whacky adventures. But what we hadn't realised, until Liz pointed it out over breakfast, is that they're all written by Scandinavians. 

From Sweden, Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking, which is about an 8-year old girl with super-human powers. From Norway, Alf Proysen, who in the 50s & 60s published around 50 books about a Mrs Pepperpot, who shrinks to the size of a, um, pepperpot and can talk to animals. And from Finland, Tove Tansson created the Moomins who look like hippopotamuses but are apparently trolls.

All of them are huge-sellers, spawning films, TV series, plays, theme parks, even operas. And of course the Japanese have made animes out of all of them. We could of course add Roald Dahl, he of Norwegian parents, but born in Wales.  Another (fairly) interesting fact is that all the above - including Dahl - were born within nine years of each other (1907-16).

Beijing Zoo

Went to the zoo today. It's big, full of beautiful trees, lakes, sculptures (including this whopper of a lion) and, er, animals. Dates back to 1906 and went through rough times, particularly during the Sino-Japanese War, by the end of which only 13 monkeys and one old emu had survived. Now it's much like any other big zoo, a bit frayed round the edges and we felt sorry for the lions in their prison-like cells, but it was OK. And of course there were pandas. But let's face it, pandas are overrated. They don't do anything. Least of all mate. Even the girls found them dull. Our favourites were the monkeys, penguins and gambolling zebras, all of whom seemed to be having a good time.