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investigation of a journey to the west by marco polo: redwhiteblue / tea and chat / venice italy

artist statement

east and west cultural intercommunication began more than eight hundred years ago,

when marco polo came to the east…

evidence 1:
kublai khan trusted the western visitor, marco polo, put his talents to good use,
and maintained an open attitude.

evidence 2:
in his travels, marco polo talks about east asian and chinese cultures
and gives detailed descriptions of places such as dunhuang,
and discoveries such as printing and dynamite.
but he says nothing about the great Wall, calligraphy or tea.
did people in the yuan dynasty not like tea? didn’t they want marco polo to
take the art of tea drinking home with him?
didn’t marco polo care about tea? i shall never know.
but our art of tea drinking has given me much food for thought.
more than eight hundred years later, as a chinese,
i appreciate the richness of chinese culture.
i am proud of it and yet i embrace it with an open mind.
now that my visits to the mainland are more frequent,
i care more about the issues of the country and my home [hong kong]….

association 1:
the world is becoming smaller and smaller with the advancements in transportation
and communication,
and things are now a far cry from the way they were in the days of marco polo.
the invention of computer interconnection [micro-technology]
has cut the distance between men to zero.
but this zero distance has led to an aversion to face-to-face
intercommunication and contact.
people have become even colder than a computer monitor…
chatting over a cup of tea has become rare and strange.

association 2:
our hong kong, our home, since the ’97 handover,
has become shrouded in an atmosphere of mutual distrust,
non-communication, and non-consensus….
this makes me uneasy…
with the premise that things in hong kong can be improved,
under the alias of anothermountainman,
i shall try to promote the positive spirit of hong kong in both two
and three-dimensions.
redwhiteblue / tea and chat
i want to re-create a chinese tea-house using red,
white and blue to symbolise the spirit of hong kong.
everyone, whether hong kongite, chinese, or Italian,
is welcome to sit there and think about the 21st century [the computer age],
intercommunication between men, mutual trust and the attitude of openness.

八百多年前，中西文化交流由馬可孛羅東遊展開…

見証一：
元世祖忽必烈對西方外來人馬可孛羅的信任，用才，開放的態度。

見証二：
東方見聞錄對東亞、中國文化，發明都有詳錄如敦煌、印刷、火藥等⋯
唯獨是對長城、書法和飲茶並未有介紹。
元乾時人們不喜歡飲茶？元乾人不想給馬可孛羅帶走茶藝？
馬可孛羅不重視飲茶？⋯不得而知。中國人飲茶文化倒令我想起很多。
八百多年後今天，身為中國人一份子的我，對中國文化深遠的欣賞，
自豪之餘也帶著活學活用的心態去迎接和面對。
回國回鄉次數越多，令我想起國和家[香港]的話題…

聯想一：
世界之接近因旅遊交通之方便拉得越近，不像馬可孛羅之艱巨。
電腦互聯[mico-technology]的發明，更將人類聯通於零的距離。
但這零距離又將人和人之間介入不重視面對面的溝通和接觸，
人的感情就更甚於冷冷的電腦屏幕⋯
坐下來喝口茶，談談天，談談家事國事的機會變得陌生罕有。

聯想二：
我們的家，我們的香港在回歸後七年間大都在不互信，
不溝通，不傾不講，沒共識的氣氛底下過著活⋯
這是令我覺得最不是味道⋯
在香港可以一定好一些的大前題下，
以又一山人筆名一直在平面立體之不同空間去推銷香港正面精神。
紅白藍 / 飲杯茶．傾過飽
希望以紅白藍作為代表香港和中國的象徵，重現一間中國茶館，
希望將茗茶的文化和藝術帶到西方，讓香港人、中國人、
意大利人以致所有人在茶館坐下來，
想想我們廿一世紀[computer age]；
人與人之間的溝通，真誠的互信和放送態度。

category

installation , redwhiteblue

year

2005