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Guangzhou City reports....
Now over a week has passed since my arrival in Guangzhou city.

After having met many interesting people last week and sourcing materials, the upcoming week will be filled with preparing my presentation and other necessities for the workshop I hope to be organising at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts next week.


Last week, Sue, Vincent and myself had a promising meeting with the head of the academy's fashion department, Ms. Chen. After a troublesome start, she soon got more excited when she realised I was going to be introducing ecological fabric to work with during the workshop. Nevertheless I still had to rewrite a new extremely detailed program and proposal containing my exact plans and motivations for the project period.


These plans will now have to be run trough Foreign Affairs again.
Since the whole nation of China is officially in holiday this week, we _meaning Vitamin Creative Space and myself_ are still awaiting what progress the situation has made.

While visiting the academy I noticed there were people in military clothes, marching across the school sports field (as big as the Fortuna Stadium). Sue explained to me she has had this training too, three times in her life at different ages at different schools. It's a remain form the communist regime, used to train students in thinking as a group.

 

To illustrate the group feeling, in university about three students a month commit suicide by jumping of the roof of the compounds building .Fortunately that doesn't seem to be happening at the art academy ;-) _ note by Sue and Vincent)

The day after I flew back and forth to Qingdao to visit the Eco design company, which is the only company in the wide region to sell ecologically, produced fabrics and yarns.

I received a very warm welcome and a very nice lunch. Within an hour we had to run through al the materials and prepare the order, which worked out fine.
Unfortunately they didn’t have as much fabrics in stock as they mentioned on their website so I was a little disappointed, until the fabrics arrived in Guangzhou yesterday. That's a sight for sore eyes!

This weeks holiday also means a lot of cultural and musical festivals are being organised all over the country, for example in Fo Shan, Sue's hometown, which I hope to be visiting tomorrow.

Last week I already had the chance to meet Nikita, one of Sue's friends, a former fashion editor and producer. She took us to see a dance piece performed and produced by some of her friends, which were very inspiring, especially the play's soundtrack.

 

Talking to Nikita was also a good chance for me to get some more insight in the local fashion scene and corporations. And to reflect my own visions and intentions for this project.

This week I hope to get in contact with more interesting people and to meet some local designers, hopefully to collaborate with in the workshop or in some other way.



For anybody who can read Dutch and would like to know more about my Guangzhou city adventures, please feel free to visit www.somtinels.waarbenjij.nu.

To be continued....