yan ling shopping for jade

yesterday, i went with two friends to the shenzhen antinquities market (深圳古玩市场), which is located in huangbeiling (黄贝岭). now we hadn’t started out in huangbeiling, but rather langxin (浪心) and it took us an hour to get from langxin, which is in baoan district to huangbeiling, which is luohu. at lunch, a jun had offered to take me to the antiquities market because i was interested in old things. true enough, but i was content to prowl around langxin. only later did i realize that he had been wanting to go to the antiquities market all morning. a piece of jade had his heart itching (心痒痒) and he just had to have it. while at the market, a stone carving caused yan ling’s heart to itch and after much negotiating, walking away and returning to the peddler, she also just had to have it. i left with a small stone chop. yan ling promissed to introduce me to a man who could carve 马丽安, the characters for my chinese name into the stone.

a jun became interested in jade about fifteen years ago, and began seriously collecting about three years ago. i asked him what he does with his jade. he said he goes home, listens to music, brews some tea, and takes out the pieces to admire, rubbing them into oily smoothness. “jade,” a jun explained, “should be moist (润).” yan ling laughed, teasing, “you’ve started to play with taste (玩品味).”

as i understand it, “play with taste” means not simply to cultivate good taste, but to start consuming various items associated with good taste; learning through trial and error, which tasteful objects satisfy an itching heart. players need knowledge to distinguish fakes from the genuine and they need passion to take the time to sort through everything out there. and there’s a lot of it. two levels in fact.

on the first level of the antiquities market, peddlers spread their wares out on blankets, having paid 50 rmb to rent the space for the day. yan ling liked this area especially because she assumed everything was fake, and therefore cheap. however, she stumbled upon a fujian peddler, who had some genuine but low quality stones for sale. a jun encouraged her to buy if she liked because even if it cost as much as a dinner, it would give more than one evening of pleasure. a jun, however, shopped on the second level, where ostensibly song dynasty ceramics and expensive jades were on display. he had made friends with several dealers as well as with other afficionados. they would sit together with a dealer examining and debating the merits of each object. i stood on the side an listened, occassionally adding little to the conversation except to say, “yes, it’s nice,” or “how can you tell the jade is that valuable?”

my last visit to huangbeiling was in 2003 with fat bird as part of the “human city” series of guerilla performances. that particular day, we were interested in visiting the pet market and using the cages of inappropriately fuzzy dogs as our stage. what occurs to me know, is how pets have become a way that shenzheners play with taste. as are the paintings at dafen village, at least if the publicity is to be believed.

so i come to the point of this entry. eleven years ago, when i first came to shenzhen, not many people played with taste. most were busy pursuing the shenzhen dream: a shenzhen identity card, a full time job, and a house. however, now, those who have achieved the shenzhen dream are pursuing other interests, including the cultivation of good taste. as in other parts of the advanced capitalist world, shopping has become an important way for individuals to create, express, and experience themselves as both part of and different from society at large.

photos of us playing with taste are now up in my galleries.