Today I received a link to a compelling letter by the Chinese artist, Hou Hanrou, writing in ART IT, a Japanese web journal.
The same issue also contains a fascinating article on Africans in Guangzhou, of whom there are apparently 150.000 (it would be interesting to know the corresponding number for people from the Indian subcontinent – it is probably not much smaller).The article makes an interesting connection between the African presence and the new Guangzhou Opera House, designed by Zaha Hadid.
The foreign presence in Guangzhou is of course a very ancient one.
Guangxiao Temple, Guangzhou, said to have been founded by an Indian Buddhist monk, in the 4th century of the common era.
Entrance to the tomb of Abu Waqqas, uncle of the Prophet Mohammad, Guangzhou.
work Sea of Poppies in a local public library and I can’t believe (I am still extremely embarrassed by the fact that I spent my entire 3+ decades of adult life never touching a single work of Dr Ghosh despite a brief journey through Harvard) I never knew of such a great writer, author and individual in Dr Ghosh with a gift for writing so simple but extremely powerful bringing vividly the picture of contemporary India woven beautifully with the old and sometime painful memories going back by centuries. Currently working on Glass Palace and enjoy every word of it. This is my 4th – Sea of Poppies, Hungry Tide (possibly the best of the three I have read so far) and then Calcutta Chromosome (still not sure why you wrote this book and I just can’t seem to comprehend the style nor the plot) being the others. I feel so blessed that I found you Sir, and thank you for giving us the immense contentment with your witty, well researched, thought provoking and often times emotional writing experience. I consider myself a reasonably a good reader but may I say that you are simply the best I have ever read in my life and can’t wait to continue to enjoy the works. Now, back to Glass Palace….
Cheers
-Murali Iyengar, July 17th, 2011
Washington DC