Lunch at IKEA was a crowded affair. I find Chinese queuing practices fascinating. They design of the cafe forces people to line up and follow a single queue to get the food. They serves Swedish and Italian desserts. I got the apple cake. Of the cold foods, there were salmon, salad, and cold salmon wrap. Of the hot foods, there were meatballs, spicy pork with rice, and a vegetarian curry, which I picked. The servers just dished out the food and placed it on top of the counter for people to take.
The queue for the cutlery and drinks broke down completely. People cut in front of each other, especially those getting refills. Not one person waited but just cut in and refilled his (it was mostly men) drink.
Finding an empty table was a challenge. Most people were either families of mother, father, grandparent, and small child; couples; or a group of three to four single gender friends. The only individuals alone seemed to be student types. I sat at the counter facing the window with them.
After lunch, I walked through the store realising there was nothing I wanted to buy. I feel the need to decorate my room so that it feels less like a hotel room. I decided to buy a scented candle. The sky is so gloomy in Beijing that the warm light would by nice.
Using my Google maps app, I found the shortcut back to campus. I walked the ought the apartment complex that I can see from my window. On closer inspection, they seem to be in need of greater maintenance, but seem nice.
I ran into Dian Liu on the way back to the International dorms. She reminded me of my dinner with Professor Xu Ping.
I was exhausted when I got back. I tried to work on my marking but could not concentrate. I decided to nap from 2:30 to 3:30pm. That refreshed me and allowed me to work until dinner with Prof. Xu at 5:00pm.
First I have to say, I really admire the professors whom I have met at CAFA over the years. They are brilliant intellectually, caring towards their students, caring about the role of design in making things better for the Chinese nation and its people, and have wonderful senses of humour. With the help of Zheng Tao, who runs the International office at CAFA and speaks fluent English, Prof Xu and I had a wonderful conversation about the challenges of vegetarianism (we are both vegetarians), the context of US versus Chinese design policy (Prof Xu has been using my work to convince the Chinese government to focus design policy on social aspects not just economics), Chinese humour and the critique of capitalism, the changing gender dynamics of design where the future design professors will mostly be women as men do not pursue higher education, and the comparison of Beijing to Shanghai. It was a wonderful conversation. I also got two heavy books as gifts. One on Chinese indigo cloth weaving patterns written by a friend of his and one on the history of poster design in China based on the exhibition I saw in 2009. I look forward to more conversations as my Chinese improves.
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