Waiting for the slow boat from China!

Waiting for the slow boat from China!

In December 2011 I received the news that I had been patiently waiting for since negotiations to translate my first publication were completed in December 2010. I was informed almost a year to the day after that first meeting in Hong Kong, that the Chinese version of my first book had been published by SAHK (formerly the Spastic Association of Hong Kong).

The book was fresh off the press just in time for a two-day conference in Guangzhou, organised by the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, where it was to be distributed free of charge, to all of the delegates from Mainland China. What an honour it is for me to have my translated words read by so many people, many more than will have read them in their original English.

There were no photographs for me to see of the books’ distribution but I did receive an English translation of the forward that I published here on my Blog in December:

http://www.susie-mallett.org/2011/12/conduction-in-china.html

I then waited patiently for the slow boat from China to arrive, bringing in its hold ten Chinese copies, all for me!

At the conference in Rosenheim last weekend I met Rony Schenker. How excited I was to discover that she had seen a Chinese copy, having been at that conference in China. She had actually held one in her hands!

My wait was filled anew with excitement.

As she pointed out, had she had known that the slow-boat was going to be so slow she would have brought a copy to Germany with her, via Israel!

Little did I know that the wait was nearly over

At the Rosenheim conference I had no need for a Chinese version of my first book, other than to show off a bit. I had with me instead one-hundred and fifty copies of my second book, in German and English, and it was these I wanted to sell.

When I returned to Nürnberg from the conference, I found a letter in my letter-box from the customs office that is situated far out of town, down by the harbour on the Main-Danube Canal.

The letter informed me that my books had been impounded by customs! If I took an invoice with me I could have them. I had just two weeks to recover them before they would be put on the next slow boat back again!

I was straight on the phone to explain that I had not bought these books, that they were a present and that therefore I had no invoice. I was informed by a very friendly man that all I needed was an email to confirm this and the books would be mine if I made the long trek out to the customs office at the harbour.

On the following day a parcel was waiting for me on the stairs, in was the package from the slow boat from China. Ten books in Chinese and how splendid they looked, real works of art.

So what was impounded at the harbour?

The customs office was holding three extra books that had been posted from Hong Kong by Swiftpost only a few days previously. Ivan in Hong Kong had decided that I had waited just too long for that boat and he had kindly send me an extra three copies to reach me at lightning speed!

It was these three copies that I had to set about retrieving today.

What an adventure I had

I armed myself with the requested email and a copy of the English version of the book, just in case I needed more proof. I set off by two underground lines and two buses to my destination, the port of Nürnberg on the Main-Danube Canal.

The street can only be called Hamburgerstrasse for one reason. I felt just like I was in Hamburg because of the mountains of containers stored beside the canal.

The bus driver had no idea where he should stop to let me out but luckily a young man kindly showed me the way from his bus stop. Only forty-five minutes after leaving the house I took my ticket to join the queue of four other people also hoping to retrieve their goods.

I waited patiently reading an old Christmas copy of the Oldie until I was summoned. A young man gave me a knife to open my parcel with and read through the email that I gave him. He flicked through the book in Chinese and also though the English version that I had shown him in order to prove my point. He asked whether I had written it.

“Is this you?” he said pointing to my name on the custom’s letter and the name on the book. “Yes”, I proudly answered, “that’s me!”

I forgot that there is a picture of me on the back cover but he believed me anyway.

As I was signing forms at another office, still wondering how much I was going to have to pay to get my books the young customs officer asked me what it was that I had written about. I explained as well as I could in the space of thirty seconds and told him too what an honour it was for me to have the Chinese version distributed amongst so many people who were now setting out on their conductive upbringings in Mainland China.

I also enthused about how much prettier the Chinese version looked in comparison to the English version. The customs officer agreed with me, he took the signed forms, handed over the books and packaging, wished me well and sent me on my way.

This had been, despite the long cold trek, with me coughing as if on my last legs, quite a soul- healing journey. There was no grumpy customs officer, just a friendly young man who was interested in meeting an author and even had time to spare to enquire about what it is that I write about.

I did actually offer him the English version but he politely declined, saying that it was enough if I just explained it to him a little bit, as I had written it. The Chinese version really looks so gorgeous, a work of art, that I am not surprised that this man took such an interest in it.

So that was the story of the last leg of the Swiftpost from China, not very swift but very soul-healing.

It was nice to be a “famous” translated author, just for a few minutes!

Notes

Let me tell you a story, Book One - published by Conductor, Nürnberg

Chinese translation – published by SAHK, ISBN 978-962-8890-32-3

The Main-Danube Canal, Nürnberg -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhine%E2%80%93Main%E2%80%93Danube_Canal

Conduction In China

Hong Kong, 2010 by Susie Mallett 

A wonderful Christmas gift

I wrote in an earlier posting that my first book was in the process of being translated into Chinese and that it would hopefully be launched at a Conductive Education congress in Shanghai, on 26^th December 2011.

Yesterday I received the a lovely surprise Christmas Gift; the news reached me that the book has been printed, that copies are on their way to me, and that each person attending the congress will be given a copy!

Wow!

Of course I cannot read the Chinese version of my book. I have no way of knowing through looking at the pages whether the translation reflects my style or if my soul and my passion for my work shine through. I trust the project leader to have done a wonderful job.

I respect very much the work that is being done conductively in Hong Kong and I am amazed at the speed with which SAHK (formerly the Spastic Society of Hong Kong) is spreading the conductive word in mainland China.

I am very proud that they have chosen my book to assist in describing now to live conductively and how to practice conductive upbringing. I am thrilled to have received an English translation of the preface by Ivan Su and thank him for allowing me to publish it here:

Preface

The original English version was written by Ms Susie Mallett, the first book in her writing series debuted at the 7^th World Congress on Conductive Education in 2010. Using narrative essays to illustrate conductive upbringing and lifestyle is a rare form that is not always available on the market, and the realization of this Chinese version for the Cross-Strait-Four-Region readers happened only by chance.

While hurrying to the pre-Congress workshop held at our Conductive Learning Centre, Ms Mallett came across an expatriate woman in the street and asked her for directions. The lady was Sister Joan O’Connor (Chairman, Marion Fang Conductive Education Management Committee, SAHK).  They met for their first time and appeared to have hit it off. Ms Mallett gave Sister O’Connor her new book as a gift.  After reading the book, Sister O’Connor showed great appreciation and highly recommended it to Mr. Fong, Chief Executive Officer of our Association.  This has given rise to the Chinese translation.

Ms Mallett is a native British Hungarian-trained conductor, currently practicing in Nuremberg, Germany.  She speaks fluent English, German and Hungarian.  This gives her enormous leverage in acquiring the essence of Conductive Education as founded by German-speaking Jewish-Hungarian Prof. Petö. Susie Mallett once discovered an early German writing of Prof. Petö from an old book shop.  Since then, she has spent a substantial amount of time and effort in the search of the gestation of Conductive Education in Petö’s time.  Her perseverance and seriousness in pursuing the truth has engendered my greatest salutation.

Thanks to Principal Lui Kwong Bin’s volunteered translation work, we maintained a close communication throughout the translation period.  We pay tribute to her endeavor, to the utmost of her ability, to provide a faithful rendering of the jargons in the conductive world.  We also thank Ms Karen Lau and Mr. Simon Lee for their careful proofreading and liaison.

Ivan Su

Winter 2011, Hong Kong

 

As I implied in the title of this blog, what better Christmas present could I wish for than this.

Thank you to Ivan and SAHK.

I wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and I welcome any new readers who find me and my blog this weekend after receiving my book in their Shanghai Congress package.

PS

If there is anyone in Shanghai who would like to send me a photograph of a Chinese copy of Let me tell you a story, Book I, I would be extremely happy to receive it. This really is a time when I can honestly say that I wish I was there to take it myself!

Notes

Let me tell you a story, Book I, by Susie Mallett -

http://www.susie-mallett-booksandmore.com/

There is one person who you really must meet

Meeting a green man in an ancient woodland.

A wood full of lime kilns and ice houses, with a green me.

The green man was discovered by my sister at Whitlingham Broad, Norwich, 14th February 2011

This sentence that provides the title of this posting was spoken to me on my arrival in Hong Kong, on the Saturday evening before the pre-Congress workshops began.

At the time I had no idea why I should meet the person mentioned but, by the time that pre-Congress workshops the Congress and the post-Congress visits were all over I most certainly did know, and I was very happy to have had the pleasure of meeting her.

Off to a workshop

On the Sunday before the World Congress started I took myself out of the hotel door, armed with a map to guide me through the streets and the underground rail network to reach Kowleen, to take part in a pre-Congress workshop, in Cantonesse, about using art with children with disability.

In an email that I had received from the secretary of the Congress several months before, soon after I registered for this workshop, I had been asked whether I had made a mistake by registering for a workshop that was to be held in Chinese. I had not made a mistake and as it turned out I had rightly believed that I would manage all right, as a workshop about art would be mainly visual.

Armed with a map

Back to the story of the scary journey that took me on to the busy streets of Hong Kong and its to the underground railway. Even on a Sunday the place was swarming. I actually noticed no difference in the amount of traffic and people on the streets on different days of the week, or even at different times of the day. For me it was always busy, like speeded-up film image of street scenes, people scurrying like ants everywhere.

I do not like walking around with a map in a foreign place, as I think that it makes me look very vulnerable, I was soon to learn that I had apparently been giving out very different vibes, even with a map.

On the underground I made the change to a different line and settled down to count the stops before I had to get out of the amazingly long, bendy caterpillar of a train.

Meeting Sister Joan

Just before the doors shut a small lady dressed in black hopped spritely onto the train, with that style of movement that only elderly people who appear to be younger than their age have.

She stood beside me, looked me up and down and, in a wonderful Irish brogue asked tentatively whether I was in Hong Kong for a conference. I do not even think that I answered in the affirmative. I think I just said:

"You must be Sister Joan!"

Unbelievably, she answered with a question:

"Are you Susie Mallett?"

We continued on your journey together, deep in conversation. Already I was discovering why it had been suggested that I should meet this lovely lady.

Sister Joan and I travelled together to the workshop that was held at the Marion Fang Kindergarten, a place that Sister Joan holds dear to her heart. She wanted to show her face as a sign of support for her "young girls", as she called them.

By the time we arrived we had got to know each other enough for Sister Joan to tell me how she had been observing me in the underground station and had been impressed by this tourist who gave the impression that she knew where she was going. Well, I suppose I did know where I was going as I had a map in my hand and with a map one cannot go far wrong. But it was nice to know that I had shown an air of confidence and had not appeared to be the vulnerable tourist that I felt I was.

Being introduced

In the evening of the same day there was a big feast to celebrate the opening of the Congress. Just after I arrived directly from the workshop, still with paint under the fingernails, Sister Joan was grabbed in one hand and I was grabbed in the other of the mutual aquaintance who wanted to introduce us. What a surprise it was for him when Sister Joan and I then greeted each other as old friends before telling the story of our first meeting.

I talked to Sister Joan on several occasions during the Congress and was delighted to have been able to arrange a more informal meeting with her during my extended stay in Hong Kong. Over tea and coffee she described the work of SAHK, both in Hong Kong and in Mainland China.

Sister Joan makes regular visits to the orphanages in China where SAHK is assisting in developing conductive upbringing for thousands of disabled orphans.

Read all about it

Sister Joan reports on the 7th World Congress for Conductive Education here on her Order's website:

http://www.columbansisters.org/areas/china/cecongress1_1210.htm

East meets West

"Welcome to Hong Kong"

But did it?

I am not sure that it did

This Westerner, though, is certainly making as a good a job as she can in the short time available to connect with the East.

I have been to meet people at the SAHK headquarters today and tomorrow I have my last visit to a centre. I will go in the morning to the Marian Fang Centre to watch some children in their Kindergarten groups. This will be my first time observing “Hong Kong CE” with children.

But did East meet West at the congress?

The East, that is Hong Kong and SAHK, did a wonderful job welcoming us and helping us to feel at home. They began these preparations well before we landed, smoothing the way for months ahead.

So in this sense, yes we certainly met.

I wonder what others think. Did East meet West? Or the East meet the West? Did two parts come together? Did more than two parts come together. Did the conductive world move onwards in anyway?

I came here to learn about what is happening in the East. It is quite easy to follow through the Internet what is happening in most countries in the world. But it is at congresses like these that it should be possible for us to meet those that the world knows little about.

I tried to attend parallel sessions where there was a mixture of presentations from China, North and South America, Australia and Central and North European countries, but still I did not get the feeling that anyone was really meeting, East with West or North with South. Despite the big banners hanging all over the Conference Centre people, ideas or souls did not really meet on a scale that could have been possible.

The discussion time was too short, even shorter when the chairman of the session was not strict at time-keeping.

In the parallel sessions I heard about practice in centres or in whole countries as told by conductors or parents, but all as very separate units. Part of a whole? Yes, in that they were part of the Seventh World Congress, but not really part of a unified whole that could have been the world of conduction.

The Hungarian presentations all took place at one time in one symposium as did the Chinese presentations. So if we wished to listen to something else at this time we missed all things Magyar but not all things Chinese as there were a few others scattered throughout the programme, although these mainly from Hong Kong.

As I write I realise that the Hungarians were all in one symposium because there was simultaneous translation for this group and this was easier if it all took place in one session. I realise now, because we spoke to each other, that the Hungarian translator was here in Hong Kong. I know her well from my Budapest days. I gave her a copy of my book plus one for the PAI Library and discovered that she is my Budapest dot!

Perhaps we could say that East met West on the podium. In the plenary sessions there certainly was a good selection of countries represented. But again there was very little time for discussion and not an awful lot of meeting going on.

Again, it will be interesting to hear what others think.

What did I meet?

Chinese puzzles

I came to Hong Kong to find out what the Chinese, in particular the Hong Kongers, do in the field of conduction. I was interested to see how they do it without conductors and eager to find out as much as I could about the Chinese culture, to hopefully discover why the two, conduction and Chinese culture, appear to fit together so very well.

I came here also with many questions. I wondered whether the Chinese on the mainland will carry on without conductors, as they have done for many years in Hong Kong. I wondered too whether they will be looking for in-service training by conductors or if they are going to begin training their own conductors.

I wondered how the Hong Kongers will manage to export CE to Mainland China on the scale that it will be needed there. With or without conductors this is a daunting task.

In my discussion with SAHK staff today we agreed that the approach in China must almost certainly be through the families and parents learning how to live conductively and how to bring up their children conductively. We are looking at too many potential clients in China to be able to set up groups for them all outside their homes. This should not be the chosen way ahead for many other countries either.

So, after the Congress, I from the West did meet the East. I should have been very disappointed if this had not happened, as this is what I came for.

At the Congress what did I meet ?

At the pre-Congress workshop, where I understood not the spoken language (Cantonese with no translation) but the smiling faces, the artworks and activities used to create them, I learnt a lot and have been inspired, so my children in the west will be doing creative activities inspired by my colleagues in the east.

At the Congress itself I met lots of people. People who I have had contact with through my blog. I also met many more people from the past. There were so many conductors present from my Budapest days. It was a bit like a 1989-1993 reunion! Lots of hugs and happy reminiscing! It was very interesting to see such a huge proportion of this generation here in Hong Kong.

I think I have seen more of East meeting West pre- and post-Congress than during the Congress itself.

What about the others, what did they meet, and where and when and how?

Slow boat or fast train to China?

By Susie Mallett 18th August 2010

High speed rail and modern art, both in China

Both read about in Time Magazine on the high- speed train in Germany.

I think that it is common knowledge from my blog that I am a bit of a rail fan and a bit of an artist too.

As the daughter of a railwayman, the driver of stream, diesel and electrics, I grew up with all three almost running through my veins!

On ICE

I absolutely love it when I have to take a long train journey, especially when it includes a trip on the ICE trains in Germany or a double-decker regional train.

The ICE train from Nürnberg to Hamburg.
The one that I was actually sitting on for a very short part of its journey as I wrote this story, reaches 300km/h on some stretches of the track. Once or twice I have had the fortune to travel the whole way to Hamburg. The further north one gets in Germany the better the tracks and more often than not the screen in the corridor tells you that the speed is 300 km/h.

I could feel when it was nearing this maximum speed so hopped in and out of my seat quie often to check. It is quite impressive and to actually feel the speed in my body, while encased in a bullet shaped train, is a strange experience. It is not one that occurred on this particular journey, the track is not good enough this far south.
It seems that some money needs to be spent to keep the modern technology up to scratch.

For me train travel is time for not only for enthusing over railways but also for slow reading and proper note-taking, but then only if I can fight the sleepiness that is encouraged by the rocking of the carriage. Today probably should have been a sleeping journey but I had stuffed last week’s Time Mag. in my bag at the last minute because in my first quick glance as I pulled it out of the letterbox, I had noticed a couple of interesting articles. No, it was not the thinking-animals on the cover that grabbed my attention. I have been a nature-fan for over fifty years and I think that I can decide for myself what I think the animals that I come across are thinking!

No, for me it was China that caught my eye. Trains on the mainland and modern art in Hong Kong, and, as an extra treat right at the end, a City Guide to Budapest! I have not actually got that far yet but I will be sure to report if I discover anything new there too.

Back to the trains, and off to China

I thought that I already live in a country with one of the most amazing rail systems. I arrived spot on time both last weekend and this at my destination. I rode on a beautiful train that was travelling right though Germany. Yes, I admit the Germans do have a lot more leeway than in Britain. There are longer stopping times timetabled at stations, where express trains often wait for cross-country connections, but even so it usually works.

I sat on my train journey in the same “luxury “ that I experience in a plane, my seat booked in advance, plug and table for computer, and silent compartments for those who do not wish to hear the domestic arrangements being made by Tom, Dick and Harry on their mobile phones.

China apparently is at least more than one step ahead.

In fact China is so far head that its expertise is being exported to other Asian countries with the aim of connecting China by high-speed train right across to Europe. Now that would be a treat, to attend the congress in Hong Kong having travelled the whole way by train! What bliss!

Technolgy is improving. China is even putting in bids for development in the USA.

The high-speed train travelling between Shanghi and Nanjung goes much faster, at 350km/h, than the one that I was on this weekend. Another stretch from central China to southern China has the world-record average speed of 313km/h.T this makes a three- hour journey out of what used to be ten!

Fifteen years ago a different hundred-kilometre journey took over two hours in a crowded, smelly train, now it takes only forty-two minutes in comfort.

Travel in China is becoming easier. I read that it is hoped that the smaller cities in the interior will grow in importance as ease of movement provides better access to jobs and larger centres.

But it is not all good news

Much of the population cannot afford to pay the price of higher fares and many Chinese are willing to take the slower, cheaper trains. In addition to this, the maintenance in this country, with its extremely difficult terrain is very costly. But China is hoping that, by selling its expertise in high-speed train technology abroad, it will be able to offset the debts incurred by having a far better rail system than the country actually requires or uses.

And back to art

It is not only trains that are on the fast track in China. Art is on the move too.

As a child all my toys that were not British had “Made in Hong Kong” stamped on the bottom. Now all the imported toys, the trains that used to be made in Nürnberg for example are printed with the words “Made in China”. The movement from Hong Kong of all manner of manufacturing industries to cheaper pastures new in mainland China means that many factories have been standing empty.

What happened in the late nineteen seventies in Wapping is now happening in Hong Kong. The artists are moving in.

Young artists who previously created their art works on the living room floor of the family apartment, or on the kitchen table between meals, can now rent some very cheap studio space in an old factory.

When I finished my art degree in 1979 I think that about half of the fine-art students and the same number of textile-design students graduating with me, packed their bags, jumped on the train and whizzed from Surrey up to Wapping Wall to grab themselves a studio space, and if they were lucky also a vacant council flat.

This was before the property developers moved in. The whole area had been due for demolishion for years, but after the artists moved in not far behind came the property-developers. So later it became not only the artiest spot in town but also the trendiest. Most of my arty friends moved out when the trendys moved in, selling up and taking their huge profits to more peaceful pastures. Yet another exodus.

The property-developers are sure to arrive at the factories of Hong Kong too. They will arrive sooner rather than later from what I have read on the severe shortage of building space in the city. Until this happens I can imagine what a dynamic environment these young artists are creating for themselves. They are getting noticed too just as my fellow graduates did in the 70s at Wapping Wall. I missed the boat there, I rented a studio space and a winter-let-cottage in West Wales for six months!

CE on the fast track

Chinese modern art and Chinese modern trains are both on the fast track

From what I have heard and read CE in Hong Kong is travelling on the 350km/h train too and is soon to be unloading its goods on to the network right across China. CE really is moving in the fast track and on a very large scale just like China’s rail network. I wonder how long it will take for that CE network to be functioning well enough for the expertise to be exported abroad!

The railways, so I hear and read, are not held in high esteem in Britain. (I say this in a whisper just in case railway man Dad is listening).

What does the state of the railways today say about this modern nation? Is that something there that can be related to CE?

PS

Did you note that Chinese expertise is going to be helping the USA to sort out its failing rail network after it has connected China with Europe?

Notes

Time Magazine, August 16th

Engines of growth by Austin Ramzy-

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2008791,00.html

Industrial bloom by Christopher Dewolf -

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2008795,00.html

CIty Guide: Budapest,Bathed in culture by Jo lennan

http://www.time.com/