China Part 3: Seeking the Peasant Painter

Sorry this is a bit long, but I suppose interesting stories often are. I am presupposing you will find this interesting.

As I said in the last post, one of the reason for coming to Dailan was to find a peasant painter whom I had discovered on one of my internet wanderings. I had been searching for folk art and ended up researching Chinese folk art, specifically paper cutting and painting.

Women of the Sea by Yu Tongle

Article #1 - peasant painters
Article #2 - folk art festival in Changchun
Article #3 - paper cutting

As soon as I saw the paintings in Article #1 I knew I was going to have to try and find the artist. The paintings were of a style I had not seen before. The first painting in particular, the one to the left here, really caught my eye.

From the articles I learned that Zhuanghe (pronounced "jong-hu") was a folk artist hot spot and that I was specifically looking for a man named Yu Tongle. And that was it, those were all the clues I had to finding those paintings. Thankfully we met Bing. She worked the desk at the hostel we stayed at in Dalian. She was very eager to help. I asked her if she knew how to get to Zhuanghe and if she knew anything about the peasant paintings. Bing knew how to get there, 2 hours by bus, but she knew nothing about the paintings. She did offer to search on the Chinese internet and see what she could find. An hour later Bing said she had found Yu Tongle's phone number. "What! Seriously? You are awesome Bing." She even offered to call him.

Bing: "He can pick you up at the bus station in Zhuanghe. You will need to call him 15 minutes before you get there."
Bing: "Do you speak Chinese?"
Me: "Ummm, no. Sorry"
Bing: "He doesn't speak English."
Me: "OK"
Bing: "Do you have a phone?"
Me:"Yes"
Bing:" You can call me on this number if you need me to translate for you."
Me:"Great! Thanks so much."

On the way to Zhuanghe

And there it was, all planned out. We would hop on a bus to Zhuanghe and somehow figure out when we were 15 minutes away.  In order that we could meet Mr. Yu Tongle who doesn't speak English and let him know in English, because we don't speak Chinese, that we will be there soon. We told Bing to tell him to look for three Wàiguó rén (foreigners), a guy and two girls. Once we were in his car, who knows what. I presumed we would go to his studio, but we wouldn't know until a few hours later.

Mr. Yu Tongle

So we bought our tickets, waded through the ripoff taxi drivers and boarded the bus. Two hours later we arrived and there was Yu Tongle, the painter from Article #1 waiting outside the bus.

At this point everything was very surreal. I had searched long and hard to find the person who painted these "peasant paintings" and now at this moment we had done it, thanks in large part to our awesome hostel worker Bing. Cool. Now what do I do?

The taking of many pictures. Sorry blurry photo : -/

Yu Tongle's work space. I'm glad to see other artists are messy.

We drove for awhile and ended up out side a very boring, beige building called the Zhuanghe Cultural Center. Mr. Tongle, smiled and motioned for us to come inside. He pointed to a plaque on the wall that indicated that something was inside. I was hoping his studio. We walked up several flights of steps interrupted by the frequent introductions to others in the building. It seemed to be a big deal.  Finally we reached a door and Mr. Tongle motioned for us to go in. It was a nice office but no art. He did introduce us to two women, which after a while we figured out where his daughter and wife. They had made a special trip to meet us. Many bows and taking of pictures ensued. I gave him a paper cutting I had brought with me all the way from Oz as a way to say "thank you". He then ran out the door. A few seconds later he came back in with  one very, very large paper cutting and four smaller ones. They were for us as a trade...I guess. His big one put mine to shame. It was 4 times larger. No, no I tried to say. I wanted to say "xie xie". Didn't matter I must take them.

In Mr. Tongle's Studio

Mr. Tongle then led us across the hall to another door. He unlocked it and behold...the mother load! There were paintings everywhere. Mr. Tongle ran over to the table, grabbed a stack of paintings and began to furiously lay them all over the ground. I had finally found them and they were lovely. Color everywhere. Scenes from village life. It was all very exciting.

Through Bing we were able to negotiate a price, actually he decided. Because we had come such a long way he gave us a nice discount. We bought a couple of paintings and that was that.  At some point Mr. Tongle began to put his hands to his mouth. A few seconds of staring and we figured out that he was asking us if we wanted to eat. Yes, we were starving. So we said goodbye to wife and daughter, hopped in his car and drove to a nearby restaurant.

Lunch

During the meal Mr. Tongle received a phone call. After the call ended he jumped up, motioned for us to stay and drove off.  Now, there is something I didn't mention earlier. Right before we left we slipped some extra money, all the cash we had on us, into the amount (there was a pile of yuan on his desk) we had paid for the two paintings. We were feeling bad about getting the paintings so cheap and wanted to pay a bit more. Well somehow he found out. He then drove back to the studio, grabbed another painting and brought it to the restaurant. Through Bing we were told that we had paid a certain price and the amount we had given was for three paintings not two. So Mr. Tongle had gone back and grabbed another.

Insight #4 into daily life in China - When they decide on a gift, or perhaps a low price as a gift, you can't change their minds. We had tried and failed.

I felt very guilty because now Mr. Tongle was out another painting at a very cheap price. I know how hard it is to get a fair price for any art you make. So yeah, I felt bad. But there wasn't anything we could do. He had decided and to push anymore would be ungrateful on our part.

We tried to help pay for lunch but he wouldn't hear of it. We would have had to physically wrestle with him if we had wanted to pay for the bill.

Insight #5 into daily life in China - The Chinese are a generous people.

So there we were with three paintings and some paper cuttings. We said our goodbyes and deepest "thank you's",  a "xie xie" with a slight bow and the right hand over balled up left hand. Then got on the bus back to Dalian.

And you know what? I ended up buying the one I first saw in Article #1.

I was very thankful to God that it all worked out. It was one of those little special blessings that God gives us every now and then and I am grateful. I will remember this little excursion for the rest of my life.