So, having last week worked out a rough China arts strategy for the next three years, today I joined other colleagues to work out a national strategy for everything else. We are grandly called the China Operations Team - or COT for short. All interesting stuff and, as ever, good to touch base with non-Arts staff from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing etc.
In the evening we ate hotpot in a restaurant overlooking a fake galleon jutting out from the cliff and the gigantic stanchion of a half-built bridge, somewhere between the greys of the Jialing River and (I think) sky. It was straight out of a Terry Gilliam film. As night descended lights appeared, revealing the profile of Chongqing Grand Theatre (aka The Tank) on the opposite bank. Its massive river-facing façade comprises the biggest video screen I’ve ever seen, on which was a succession of car ads.
Afterwards we bussed it to the top of a hill overlooking the city where greenery, a welcome breeze awaited, and what would have been a fantastic view on the three days a year when there isn’t haze. But it was a nice, jovial evening ending in mass giggles.
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