The Delicate Sense of History – Part I

I’ve met so many amazing people since we’ve been here and it seems like everyone I meet, young or old, is doing something “big”. There is one person however, that stands out. Her name is Fu Xin. She’s about my age but when you meet her you get the sense that she is an old wise soul. Please don’t get me wrong, it’s her spirit that’s old and wise, Xin herself is quite beautiful. I get the sense that she used to be a fashion model in her younger days. She has the stature and poise of a polished model. There’s definitely something about how she carries her tall thin frame and the way she moves through space. There’ a quiet confidence and elegance, something that is innately acquired but also something that is quite calculated that it must have been groomed and honed on a catwalk somewhere.

Her story is as interesting as she is fascinating. From some of the brief conversations that we’ve had she’s led an interesting life (did I mention she is my age). She is originally from Shanghai but left to Hong Kong when she was 18. This is where I make the assumption she did her modeling (but this is all hearsay and interpolations from our talk) but according to her, she got into journalism and became a reporter for a local station. In our conversations she always has to remind me about how amazing and glamorous Hong Kong was right before the hand over of the British to the Chinese in 1998. From there she studied Art History at Oxford then off to Italy for her Masters and eventual PhD. She’s lived all over the world traveling, teaching and buying art. From this point the details get fuzzy but she did eventually end up back in Shanghai with a contract to teach Art history at one of the Universities.

Frustrated with the educational system in China, Xin broke her contract and on a whim opened up an Art Gallery in the Moganshan District. She’s been very successful in acquiring some amazing pieces from local artists and has become a tour de force in the Shanghai art scene. She has become a conduit to introducing local modern Chinese art to the West, namely Europe.

The point of all this unsolicited praise is that she is the one that brought up this idea of “A Delicate Sense of History” which has inspired me to write. When we discussed all the differences of East and West, Art and Architecture, socio-political issues, food, whatever…. this “thought” always seemed to make its way into conversation. As I’ve written in my journal and thought of why things are the way there are here, I’ve found that this idea is at the crux of it all.

A Delicate Sense of History is essentially the idea that History is a slow fragile process that needs time to evolve, develop and mature. History needs time to make mistakes and correct them. It needs time to weed out the insignificant details and refine the ones that stand the test of time. It needs time to learn and understand beauty, goodness, justice, and all those other things that make things great.

China as a nation and as a people has an old beautiful history. One that is comprised in all of those things mentioned above. Unfortunately with the advent of the Cultural Revolution and Communism all that has been nullified. Now with the introduction of Consumerism and Capitalism from the West without a another paradigm grounded in a conscience (i.e. religion or whatever construct you feel helps you determine right and wrong), China seems to be a nation of people utterly confused about who they are, where they are and where they are going…..in short, they are missing the Delicate Sense of History…..

….to be continued…