Pottery, Pottery, Pottery, BA JIA JIANG!

Saturday April 27^th, 2013

Rotary Trip Day! This time was to Yingge, which should sound familiar to y’all since I’ve already been there with host family. Yingge is the pottery filled town with museum and a street chalk full of stores containing all types of pottery. Even though this wasn’t a new place for me, things I hadn’t experienced during my last visit were pleasant surprises today.

Exchange Student Stampede! ...part of it anyway. :P

Such a surprise was our first activity, stopping by a place where we could both shape pottery and paint premade cups. These two actions took a couple hours to complete but were packed with enjoyment.

First was a short table for painting a premade white cup. Painting is the first step but afterwards the shop will glaze the cups and send them to us when finished. You could easily sketch with a pencil and then paint over it, which was the approach I took. If not pleased, it was simple to smudge off the pencil marks. The paint used was a strange consistency because it dried within a second. Seriously, it dried on contact with the cup! Some experimentation was needed to figure out the water to paint ratio consistency but I managed to get the general hold of it.

Viola! My cup was inspired by the Japanese design I’ve seen that pairs bun-buns and the moon together. It’s sweet and simple. Not a bad bunny for a paint brush, huh? ;P

For the second half, we sat down at the rotating pottery making device and sculpted away! With a lump of clay, the teacher showed us the basic technique to form basic things like a cup, bowl and plate. I tried to get artisty with mine and create a dish that’s a mutant between a bowl and a plate but then the teacher came and automatically (without asking me) shaped it down into a plate. Without further questions I had to end my shaping time so other people could get a turn. Regardless, I’m still happy with the final product, that is, at least the upper side (bottom has some flaws underneath from removing it from the machine).

Afterwards we took our individual sculpted potteries (whatever type of dish we chose to make) and took a wooden tool to carve a design into the moist clay. I dedicated the plate to Taiwan by writing Taiwan in both English and the two Chinese characters. The sun in the middle is the sun taken from the Taiwanese flag. I can easily see the final product as quite attractive if red, blue and white paint is added.

The final exchange student products. As you can see, people shaped many different potteries from pots to cups to plates. Apparently we’ll be sent the final product in June but hopefully they can ship me mine overseas considering I’ll be in America at that point in time.

A good reason this experience was kept really delightful was because I adopted simple designs for both crafts. See, I’m very much a perfectionist when it comes to my art. Mechanical pencil and eraser is my constant companion because I erase and reline frequently to get that perfect curve or angle needed for the picture. Therefore painting and carving is a lot more challenging especially with the quick drying paint. But even with my simple designs, I quite like how they turned out. Simple but still pretty and not stress inducing (good for my perfectionist side).

Our Rotary Exchange Student Gang at the Pottery Making Place!

After our crafts were complete and we cleaned up, lunch rolled around. A hefty size bowl of Chinese “biandan” was provided by Rotary. Though you see a chunk of meat, veggies and a triangle of tofu, it was only the minority of the contents. Not unusual, hidden rice dominated the bottom in a large volume. I wasn’t surprised to see many exchange students left the rice uneaten. Some, not all exchange students mind you. I nibbled on the rice because the relatively thin top layer (everything but rice) wasn’t quite enough for a whole meal. Overall, pretty tasty with the meat being the highlight.

Friendship time! Mika and me!

And insert a Taiwanese girl that came along the trip with Rotary. She was very nice and sweet, a new pal! :D

Heading to the museum, fun time with friends took place. I got to know both the Taiwanese girl and this German boy (to the right) better, liking both their personalities. The chica got clued in on some inside jokes with my other friends and somehow the German boy called me ‘bunny’ as I called him ‘Shep’ (short for German Shepard). Good times, good times! ^_^

Our troop in front of the Yingge Pottery Museum

So yes, I’ve already visited the Yingge pottery museum before but to my surprise it was a totally different exploration. Last time was mainly looking at pieces of professional, modern or historic pottery art. This time was focused on how to make pottery. A tour guide took us through displays of different clays, glazes, furnaces, etc. to explain the process to us. Since I could relate to it better after recently doing pottery, I found it all really interesting and engaging as if something not unattainable.

Funny enough we didn’t look at any of the pottery I saw last time, which I admit I’m glad for since I didn’t want to have a repeat of the same stuff. Instead we went outside to pottery demonstration areas. Three in total, each has their own style and terminology (unfortunately I forgot their individual names, sorry!). I did capture two though!

One was based on pouring clay into a mold, letting sit and dry or baking it in a furnace. The tin can holds the liquid clay and you dispense it into three-part white block molds held together by a black band.

After all dry and hard you get these cute little figurines from animals to tiny people to whatnot else. Cool procedure!

Another was a turntable spun by your own foot. This man put on an entertaining show by asking for volunteers and surprising the audience. I took a video to capture the amusement. He seemed like a charming, humorous man.

Then we were rounded up into a video room to see a movie that advertised different companies potteries. One moment I saw pretty creations and the next, blackness. The blackness comes from slipping out of consciousness. XD

To my great disappointment we weren’t able to visit the old Yingge street where we could purchase various types of pottery. Nooooooo! That’s the primary reason I was looking forward to coming here! I saw a cup last time, took a picture and debated it for a couple days. Once I decided to buy it, that meant I would have to go back to Yingge. Well I was there today…but couldn’t get it…sadness! I’ll have to find some magical free time to take the train all the way to Yingge, buy the one cup, then ride the train all the way back. Hours I wouldn’t need to waste if I got ten minutes in the old street today. Yeah…sadness. Life goes on though!

The cup dilemma was immediately wiped away from my mind when the bus landed me back at my neighborhood. Upon the sight of something special, my body was screaming to be released from the bus. In my head I was mentally shouting, “LEMME OUT! LEMME OUT! LEMME OUT!” The unexpected spectacle contained too much exhilaration and inquisitiveness for this Texan girl. ;P

Three little words: Ba…Jia…Jiang! BA JIA JIANG AHOY! A ritual procession was just coming around the corner leading to the house when I arrived. Camera was whipped out and began recording. At this point the short parade was only walking, not doing any dances or such things, but purely seeing the sight of three Ba Jia Jiang was thrilling. When one of the three looked my way and gave a little friendly wave, I nearly turned silent squealing into being audible. The significant of his motion was that he broke character (which he shouldn’t do) to make a friendly gesture to a foreign bystander. That’s totally amazing! *goes into (joking) analysis mode* Surely it means Ba Jia Jiang wants to be buddies with me! The wave symbolizes a pact for them to temporarily cease their ferocious disposition to befriend an admirer of their culture. That would be so cool! Of course, that’s not what the wave actually meant. …or is it? Why did he do it in the first place? …IT MUST BE FOR FRIENDS I TELL YOU! :D

I followed the procession to a tiny temple quite near my host family’s living quarters. I’ve never visited this temple before because it’s not much of a looker compared to fancier temples throughout Taiwan. While the short parade did some ceremonious things, I stood by and snapped away photos and videos. Though I paid attention to all that was going on, my gaze obviously kept falling upon Ba Jia Jiang oh so biasedly. :P The explosion of fireworks was a little frightening because not only were they extremely loud but the red flakes from the wrappers were falling from the sky and got me thinking they might accidently burn me. Thankfully no burns were had and I could watch in peace.

In front of the temple, the Ba Jia Jiang sat down on stools during the ceremonious stuff with other ritual objects. I waited and hoped they would do a dance of some sort but sadly that never happened. Nonetheless, just seeing them in person was pretty cool! I could get a closer look at their costumes.

They were definitely in character at this point. No smiling, no waving, just being intimidating.

The parade seemed to end at this little temple so it was time to close up shop, if you will. All three guys were being disassembled of their daunting roles. Off went their hats, huge busy eyebrows, shoulder arms, etc. I only stayed until this picture was taken because it felt weird and stalkerish to watch them get out of costume. Even if only a little and no dancing, I was still very happy to have seen Ba Jia Jiang so close and so unexpectedly. Whoo-hoo!

Wrapping the day up with a Skype to my family and that’ll end it nicely. Have a nice day all! Byes!