#sometimes the title is translated as 'guard above the river' and i really think the trouble is that the word wanted is 'over'

[xcziel]

Cdrama Above the River 《江河之上》 airing March 11 - April 1 in primetime on the state TV broadcast channel

LC captioned this picture post with "Don't wear headphones when doing experiments!" (you can listen to my song Can You Be Yourself 《可不可以做自己》 later - shameless plug lol)

So my guess is he's referencing his character's actions. Looks like Nie Wen got himself into some trouble in the lab!

[sinceileftyoublog]

Robert Finley Interview: Ready for the Race

BY JORDAN MAINZER

At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s truly been a long, often hard road for blues and soul singer Robert Finley. On his new album Sharecropper’s Son (out tomorrow on Easy Eye Sound), he delves into his past. Ever since he hooked up with Dan Auerbach on 2017′s Goin Platinum!, Finley’s 60-year backstory has been more often chronicled in the mainstream, from being born and raised in Bernice, Louisiana and enlisting in the army as a teenager to suffering from a car accident, a divorce, and eventually ending his carpentry career after being deemed legally blind. And yes, he never gave up and eventually got lucky, being discovered busking by Music Maker Relief Foundation, touring, releasing an album, and eventually establishing a long-term collaborative relationship with Auerbach. Yet, until now, Finley hasn’t written about his early childhood, being raised along with his 7 siblings on a crop share in Louisiana.

Sharecropping refers to an agricultural legal arrangement where a landowner allows a tenant to use land in exchange for the share of the crops produced. It was a popular arrangement in the South from the Reconstruction to Jim Crow years following the abolishment of slavery; in reality, it was just another way for white Americans to maintain economic hegemony over Black Americans. “You get all the work, and the money never seems to come,” Finley told me over the phone in March from his home in Louisiana. “You always break even, and unless you own the farm, you really didn’t benefit. The checks from the cotton and from the corn didn’t come in your name.” In other words, Finley said, “Sharecroppers don’t get their share.”

Sharecropping was backbreaking, “out in the hot red sun,” Finley sings on the album’s title track, “where the work is never done,” Auerbach’s blistering guitar and keyboards shimmering like rays from the sun. That said, Finley never realized how rough things truly were. “We were poor and didn’t know it,” he told me, citing the fact that because they were never hungry, he actually thought they were rich. “We had cows. We had chickens. We had hogs. We had fresh milk...It was like we were really living it up!” he said. Moreover, since many of their neighbors didn’t have direct access to fresh food, Finley’s father would share their bounty, from meat to vegetables. And, as the youngest son, he spent a lot of time helping his mom in the kitchen, citing that experience as partially inspiring his love of cooking to this day.

With Sharecropper’s Son, Finley is not trying to provide a list of lamentations. “It’s not a pity party,” he said. Even more than not going hungry, Finley cites his father’s optimism and generosity as formative. “My dad, in his religious beliefs, always hoped for better things and a brighter tomorrow...at the end of the day, after picking the cotton, or pulling the corn, we had plenty to give away. I don’t know if my dad sold some of it, but I think he did way more giving than selling.” Eventually, his father “wised up” and gave up sharecropping, and to this day, Finley’s brothers and sisters, despite only his oldest and youngest sister graduating from school, live comfortably. Notably, Finley also holds where he grew up near and dear to his heart. On “Country Child”, he juxtaposes harsh memories of cotton fields with yearning for the more comforting aspects of the South, especially country girls who “give you a country smile.” He mentioned me that the sparse population of rural Louisiana meant that he had to cross rivers just to see his neighbors, but also that folks in a many mile radius knew each other well, to the point that “you could get a couple boards and put them in front of your house, and someone would ask you what you’re doing with them.”

Above it all, Finley learned from both his father’s mindset and his own ability to overcome. “That’s why I tell my story / So you could start dreaming too,” he sings on “My Story”, while the hand percussion-laden “Starting To See” details the symbolic perspective on life he gained after losing his sight. And the album ends with spiritual gospel waltz “All My Hope”. Even better, Finley offers himself up for his listeners, on tracks like “I Can Feel Your Pain”, a church organ hymn where he empathizes with folks suffering from everything from COVID-19 to police brutality. It’s why he stays positive and keeps on keeping on. As someone who walked again after an accident despite the odds and who was “discovered’ so late in life, he doesn’t let practicality tamper his ambitions. “Like a horse in the stall,” he said, “I’m ready for the race.”

Below, read my conversation with Finely, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What made you want to sing more autobiographically this time around?

Robert Finley: I guess it was a chance to express myself and talk about these true stories. It’s not a made-up fantasy. It’s real life. It’s a chance to tell what life was like being a sharecropper. I was talking to all my siblings--4 brothers and 3 sisters, so there were 8 of us. My youngest sister doesn’t remember that much about it, but I’m the second youngest, so I wanted to get it out while all of us siblings would be able to form their opinion on it.

SILY: Would you say that the pandemic and the reckoning around the Black Lives Matter movement and subsequent increased awareness among White Americans gives these songs extra resonance?

RF: Yeah, I feel like it really opened the world’s eyes to what’s really going on. A lot of times, things happen we just don’t want to talk about, but that don’t stop ‘em from happening. In this case, it was a blessing to be writing about the right thing at the right time. 

Even me and Dan Auerbach meeting, that was heaven intervention, too. What do a 30-something year old man and a 67-year old man have in common that can reach the people? It would have to be the music. Music is not a racial thing. Music, to us, is what comes from the heart and goes to the heart. If you need a blood donor or kidney donor, you’re not gonna ask what color the person was or what race the person was who’s giving the blood and giving the kidney. The whole purpose is for you to get the kidney and stay alive. Music is pretty much the same thing. Even if people can’t speak the language, they can feel the vibes of the music. There’s always somebody that can translate what the artist is really saying, but if the music is right, and the message in the music is right, it really doesn’t matter what color the person is or where they come from. It’s all about what comes from the heart and goes to the heart. 

That’s where my songwriting comes in. To be able to reach out and touch people, because you want to give people something they can feel, that they can relate to. Not just a cool beat, not just a pretty voice, or whatever. The song needs to have a message that people can relate to. [And] as far as whether it’s soul, blues, country-western, jazz--if you’re looking for rock and roll, you can find it on the album, if you’re looking for soul, if you’re looking for country and western. It’s got a little of everything. That was the goal, and hopefully it’s being accomplished.

SILY: It seems like everybody who works with Dan has a musical connection and shared love of the same thing, even if not a widely known song or album. Do you feel that connection?

RF: Yeah. You gotta have something positive going even for Dan to reach out to you. Dan is looking for originality. People who want to stand out, not someone who’s trying to fit in. He looks for raw talent and gives them [opportunity] to express themselves. He’s open-minded and open to suggestions. He wants to know Robert Finely and produce Robert Finely and not to make me into something I’m not. 

SILY: On “Country Child”, you talk about driving by a cotton field as an older man and still feeling your back hurting. But on the same song, you talk about preferring a country girl to raise a country child. Was it important for you to talk about that complex relationship with where you came from?

RF: Yeah. Don’t get me wrong--I don’t have a thing against city ladies--nobody in the city smiles because it makes them look tough and look hard. In the country, they wave at everybody whether they know ‘em or not. It doesn’t matter because everybody’s just saying hi! In the city, people live across the hall or across the street and don’t know their neighbors. It’s a whole different lifestyle. They don’t let their guard down. I was trying to keep it as real as possible.

The country girls, they just wave and smile, and if you say something they don’t agree with, they move on. But they’ll talk for a while, and they give you the benefit of the doubt.

Sometimes, if you’re too friendly, you can become a victim. If you go in the city smiling at everybody, they automatically know you’re not from the city. It’s not what they do. Unless you’re properly introduced, the person across the hall won’t talk to you or know you. It’s all about the approach. But I have learned that a smile is universal. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in. If you smile, people will smile back. If you’re open-minded and open-hearted, there’s always somebody. People will be glad to see somebody who looks at them and smiles. It breaks barriers and opens doors, even for people trying to look hard and tough.

SILY: On a couple songs on here, you improvised the lyrics, calling it “speaking from the heart.” Do you find that the way to go when the subject matter of the song is more difficult to talk about?

RF: Yeah, I mean if you stay real with everybody, it’s not a problem. You’ve gotta be open-minded and open-hearted. Put yourself in anybody’s situation. If you do that, you can see it from their point of view. With all the stuff that’s negative in the world today, it’s good to be positive every chance you get. It needs to be something people can relate to in the real world, or that people can say, “I’ve been through that or I’ve done that.” It’s not something that’s been made up like a fairytale. It has to have meaning where people can say, “Yep, I remember those days.” 

I have 7 siblings. They all have to tell the story from their point of view. I try to leave the door open [in case] they want to tell what they remember, because they might remember something I don’t or had to experience something I didn’t. So when I was writing [the title track], I talked to them about it. In reality, I wanted it to be a true song that dealt with real life. Not made up. It needed to be something real they could identify with and their friends identify with where people could say, “I remember those days.” I also definitely didn’t want to make it seem harder than it already was. I only went back to the cotton field and put on the overalls for the video because nobody was wearing shiny shoes in the cotton field. They might have had a pair they put on on the weekend, but they definitely didn’t wear them in the field. The video could have been done anywhere, but to keep it real, I thought we needed to take it back to the country.

SILY: What did it mean for you to play with so many of the same session players as on Goin’ Platinum?

RF: It was like a family reunion. We toured together in the East Coast and West Coast. It was really an honor because everybody knew everybody. Everybody was excited to get back together because of the success of the first album. We built more or less what you could call a family relationship. Everybody knows everybody, and getting back in the studio, we got straight to work, what everybody came for. I don’t know how much time Dan spent with the musicians before I got there. When I got there, it was to lay the vocals down.

What I really noticed is that all the musicians played what they feel. They listened to the groove. And all the local musicians were in a 50-mile radius of each other. I could have them all together within a couple hours.

I was probably the youngest person in the band, besides Dan--I’m almost twice his age. When you’re with the band, it breaks out the best in you. Learning from their experience, everything they’ve done and who they’ve done it with, it makes you feel privileged to be in the company of them. They’re not on big ego trips and nobody has a big agenda. I’m easy. I don’t put no pressure on nobody--I just want the best out of everybody.

I love working with the Easy Eye Sound label because to me, I walk in, meet and greet, we break bread together, and we go to work. The work is hard, but I don’t know if you’d even call it work.

SILY: What’s the story behind the album art?

RF: The label mostly [does it] and asks me for approval. There’s not much I’d object to anyway. It’s a picture of me. I seldom walk outside even to go to the mailbox without my hat on. That’s one of my trademarks. I always wear hats or caps. I love the artwork. To be honest, I haven’t met the individual that did the artwork on it, but it very much had my approval when I saw it. Meeting everybody, sometimes it’s way down the line where I can actually meet them face to face.

[gyakutengagotoku]

GSvsAA - Dual Destinies - Character Profiles

In line with the AJ one, here’s the next in the line up. Check the master post more more of the GSvsAA translation project.

It’s worth noting that while Mr. Takumi is known to have some very obvious or random inspirations for his name puns, there are times when it’s tricky to figure out because of his choice of punny origins. Meanwhile, Mr. Yamazaki & co. tend to follow suit with the obvious, but their puns are often very straightforward and easy to deduce. Sometimes, a name has multiple layers of puns and chances are good that plenty of those puns make their way into the character’s design.

I don’t think it’s lazy design, since simplifying a character’s role in a plot means more care can be taken for the actual mystery, but sometimes it leaves something about the character to be desired. Then again, there are plenty of characters from the first four games in the series that aren’t so memorable.

I’m just obsessed with this series so I know them all. Ha.

Edit: SoJ profiles posted.

Spoilers below.

Main cast

Athena Cykes - Kidzuki Kokone (希月 心音) kidzuki means “awareness” (kinda following how Trucy is named Minuki) and the second kanji in her surname is “moon”. The kanji in her given name, when pronounced shin’on, means “heartbeat”. It can also be translated literally as “heart sound” to refer to her ability to hear people’s voices of their hearts.

Simon Blackquill - Yuugami Jin (夕神 迅) yugami means “distortion” or “twist”, referring to his epithet, “The Twisted Samurai”. The kanji form a phrase meaning “god of dusk”. jin, written as 刃, is “blade”; while the kanji in his name means “swift”. It’s analogous to Edgeworth’s name, Mitsurugi, which is the name of a noble blade of legend. Trivia: He refers to the chief in person using the term danna, a title reserved for Lords and noblemen back during the days of samurai. Since this couldn’t be replicated in English without sounding drastically out of place, it’s been tamed down to a plain “sir”. (Imo, he could very well have gone with “sire” and it’d be just the right amount of tradition and respect, but I guess it doesn’t quite sound Japanese enough.) Incidentally, Taka is Gin, which can mean “silver”, or possibly like the English word (but it’s pronounced with a hard G).

Bobby Fulbright - Ban Gouzou (番 轟三) The ban in his name may refer to a “guard”, though being written as 万 means “many”. Combined with his first name, which consists of “booming” and “three” (like in “two’s company, three’s a crowd”), you get a whole lot of bombastic in one guy. Trivia: His catchphrase is shouting “JUSTICE!!!” in English at the top of his lungs and laughing triumphantly. Imo, the localization's “In Justice We Trust!” has a certain nuance to it that really makes it pop when you realize just who he is, though.

Yep, that’s it. That’s the game. These three right here.

Episode 1

Gaspen Payne - Auchi Fumitake (亜内 文武) “Auchi” is simply “ouch”. His first name is the same as his brother’s but flipped. fumi (文) is “literature”; take (武) is “martial”. I suppose both of them are warriors of words, but I really think their parents the devs just ran out of ideas.

Juniper Woods - Morizumi Shinobu (森澄 しのぶ) mori (森) is “forest” or “woods”; shinobu means “to hide”. Meanwhile, the kanji for zumi (澄) used in the verb sumasu becomes “to look prim” or “to listen carefully”. These two definitions better relate to her from Episode 3, though. Trivia: In the Japanese version of this episode, the crime scene shows in English letters: “S I N O B U”. Since Japanese is typed using romaji, し can be either shi or si. Either way, it’s still pronounced the same. If it weren’t obvious enough from the intro, this spelling would have easily given away the real killer.

Ted Tonate - Barashima Shingo (馬等島 晋吾) barasu can mean a few things: “to expose”, “to take apart”, or “to kill”. He already covers the latter two in the first case, but the first definition doesn’t quite play in until the last one. The last syllable of his first name ties into his first name to make mashingo, or “machine language”; hence the keyboard.

Candice Arme - Kaku Hozumi (賀来 ほずみ) Her full name can be written as 確保済み, meaning “in custody”. kaku may refer to “square”/”cube”; probably referring to how she’s been hit. Her surname and the first syllable of her first name make kakuho, or “guarantee”, which seems to play into her English name.

Edit: Well, I totally screwed up this entry. My bad.

Episode 2

Jinxie Tenma - Tenma Yumemi (天馬 ゆめみ) Her surname as written here refers to the “heavenly horse” Pegasus. yumemiru means “to dream”. More on Tenma below.

Damian Tenma - Tenma Deemon (天馬 出右衛門) His first name comes from “demon”. Tenma, which is also the name of the village, is written as 天魔. It refers to the yokai of the Buddhist sixth heaven in the realm of desire who haunts people and deceives them into avoiding good. According to legend, Tenma tried (and ultimately failed) to lure the young Siddhartha away from enlightenment with earthly desires. Tenma Taro from this game is based on this Tenma. In Japanese folklore, he's described to have a bird-like appearance, hence we have jangly-cackling-bird-demon. 

The Great Nine-Tails - Great Kyuubi (グレート 九尾) He’s based on the Nine-tailed fox of Japanese legend, a yokai of immense power and influence and sometimes disastrous consequences. You know the one.

Rex Kyubi - Kyuubi Ginji (九尾 銀次) His last name is the same as the Nine-Tails. The gin (銀) in his name refers to his silver hair and to the Nine-tailed fox of legend, which is often portrayed as silver. ginjiru also means “to chant” or “to recite”.

Phineas Filch - Zeniarai Kumabee (銭洗 熊兵衛) zeni, as written above, is “money”. (This is what Capcom’s fictional currency zenny is based on.) His last name is a reference to the azukiarai, “The Bean Washer”, a yokai who resembles a small boy that keeps people up at night with the sound of washing beans. Filch here claims that he’s the grandson of an infamous thief who once kept people up by the sounds of his money-washing. His first name is made of bears: kuma (熊) and “bear”; yet he’s frequently called a tanuki instead, especially for his swindling ways.

Edit: Got that the other way around.

Florent L’Belle - Biyouin Shuuichi (美葉院 秀一) biyouin is “beauty parlor” and shuuichinichi is “once a week”. The kanji in his first name come to “excellence” and “[number] one”.

Episode 3

Aristotle Means - Ichiro Shinji (一路 真二) The kanji in his name together mean “one road, two truths”. ichiro, with the same kanji, means “straight” or “directly”, and shinjiru means “to believe”.

Constance Courte - Michiba Masayo (道葉 正世) michibata is “roadside” and masa (正) is “right” or “just”, to parallel Means’ name above.

Hugh O’Conner - Shizuya Rei (静矢 零) His name is most likely picked for the convenience of the recording that’s played during trial. In Japanese, the muffled recording sounds like it’s saying “Koroshite yare!”, which is Japanese for “I’ll kill you!” Thanks to Athena’s efforts, she reveals it’s actually supposed to say “Kora! Shizuya Rei!”, or a scolding “Hey! Shizuya Rei!” The kanji of his last name are “quiet” and “arrow”. His first name can also mean “zero”.

Edit: This one I made a mistake due to mistaken memory. It’s actually kinda hard to make out the te sound in the recording, so I assumed it was excluded.

Robin Newman - Atsui Chishio (厚井 知潮) atsui is “hot”; it can also mean “hot-tempered” or “passionate”. chishio is “blood circulation”, usually referring to hot-headedness. It also doubles over as a gender-ambiguous name.

Myriam Scuttlebutt - Uwasa Atsume (宇和佐 集芽) uwasa is “rumor” and atsumeru is “to gather”; thus, her full name comes to “gather gossip”. Trivia: Producer Eshiro is a huge MGS fan; hence Myriam’s M.O. of traveling under the cover of a box.

Episode 4-5

Solomon Starbuck - Hoshinari Taiyou (星成 太陽) His name comes from the phrase “hoshi ni naritai yo”, which means “I wish to become a star”. taiyou, as written above, means “sun”.

Clay Terran - Aoi Daichi (葵 大地) aoi is the color “blue”. daichi is “ground” or “earth”; also refers to the planet itself. His relative calm and the color blue was chosen specifically to pair with Apollo’s bright and passionate red. (In fact, it may very well have been the localization’s choice to name Odoroki as Apollo that led to the development of this game’s space theme. I don’t remember if it was mentioned in an interview or not, but I’m sure it played some role.)

Yuri Cosmos - Oogawara Uchuu (大河原 有忠) His last name means “bank of the great river”, which is a reference to the Milky Way. It’s known as “The Great River” in several cultures, including Japanese. uchuu, written as 宇宙, means “space” or “universe”.

Aura Blackquill - Yuugami Kaguya (夕神 かぐや) Kaguya is a reference to a famous Japanese folktale from the 10th century, Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The main character’s name is Kaguya-hime, or Princess Kaguya, who was one of a mysterious people living on the Moon but was sent down to Earth and raised by an old bamboo cutter. I’m not too sure if this tale inspired her English name, but when Princess Kaguya was discovered as a baby, she was described to be the size of a thumb and glowing with brilliant light. The Moon people were weird. (I can also draw the parallel to Simon’s Taka, since Aura may come from the Latin root aurum for “gold”.)

Ponco & Clonco - Ponko & Ponta (ポンコ＆ポンタ) ko and ta are common endings to boys’ and girls’ names, respectively. Aura also likes to call Clonco “Ponkotsu”, referring both to how he’s basically “Ponco #2″ and ponkotsu, “junk”.

Metis Cykes - Kidzuki Mari (希月 真理) Her first name can also be pronounced shinri, meaning “truth”. In turn, shinri, when written as 心理, means “psychology”.

DLC Episode

Sasha Buckler - Umino Shouko (羽美野 翔子) umi is “sea”, and shouko, written as 証拠, is “evidence”. Thus, her full name becomes “evidence from the sea”. The first kanji in both first and last name have to do with “feathers” and “flight”. She’s quite a flighty personality for sure.

Ora "Orla" Shipley - Arafune Elle / Ale (荒船エル / エール) Her last name is made of the kanji for “wild” and “ship”. Her name is Ale, as a shortened form of “whale”, but it doubles as the alcoholic drink too. Actually, it triples as “air”, to complement her trainer. Her supposed real name is actually her sister’s name, and it seems it was just picked to sound similar.

Jack Shipley - Arafune Ryouji (荒船 良治) ryouji as 療治 means “treatment”/“cure”, possibly referring to how he saved two precious orcas and returned them to health.

Norma DePlume - Uratori Reika (浦鳥 麗華) uratori refers to “gathering evidence” as for a news story. reika as 冷夏 becomes “cool summer”. It can even be written as 零下 to mean "sub-zero". She’s quite the contrast to the rest of the sunny crew.

Edit: Note to self: simplify.

Marlon Rimes - Itsuka Ikuya (伊塚 育也) itsuka means “someday”; the kanji iku (育) means “raise”, as in pets or children. In other words, he’ll “become a real trainer someday”. His name may have been chosen for its easy rhyme as well.

Rifle (ライフル) She was named for her dangerous temper, and probably as a shout-out to Mr. Takumi’s naming of Missile. Her daughter Sniper also keeps the same name.

Herman Crab - Sugomori Gaku (巣古森 学) His last name may be referring to su-komori, or “nest-babysitter”, since he keeps li’l Sniper up there. Even the first kanji in his last name is the right one for “nest”. gaku as above is “learning” or “study of” a subject.

Azura Summers - Natsukaze Suzumi (夏風 邪涼海) natsukaze means “a summer cold”, but it can also literally mean “summer wind”. It was picked probably as a stark contrast to Norma’s Japanese name. suzumi is “cooling off”, like outdoors in the breeze.

[francescamaxime]

Inviting an Elegant Ferocity: Grounding in Basic Goodness to Become an Embodied Antiracist from the Inside Out

“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” ― James A. Baldwin

*

“If you don’t tend to one another, who then will tend to you?” - Buddha, from  Tipitaka Vinaya Pitaka Mahavagga Kucchivikara-vatthu: The Monk with Dysentery, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

*

“39. "I don't envision a single thing that — when untamed, unguarded, unprotected, unrestrained — leads to such great harm as the mind. The mind — when untamed, unguarded, unprotected, unrestrained — leads to great harm.”

40. "I don't envision a single thing that — when tamed, guarded, protected, restrained — leads to such great benefit as the mind. The mind — when tamed, guarded, protected, restrained — leads to great benefit.” — The Buddha, from the Anguttara Nikaya, Ekadhamma Suttas: A Single Thing, translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

*

“Spiritual bypassing is a term I coined to describe a process I saw happening in the Buddhist community I was in, and also in myself. Although most of us were sincerely trying to work on ourselves, I noticed a widespread tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.

When we are spiritually bypassing, we often use the goal of awakening or liberation to rationalize what I call premature transcendence: trying to rise above the raw and messy side of our humanness before we have fully faced and made peace with it. And then we tend to use absolute truth to disparage or dismiss relative human needs, feelings, psychological problems, relational difficulties, and developmental deficits. I see this as an ‘occupational hazard’ of the spiritual path, in that spirituality does involve a vision of going beyond our current karmic situation.”   — Jon Welwood, from Ram Dass Blog

*****

Inviting an Elegant Ferocity: Grounding in Basic Goodness to 

Become an Embodied Antiracist from the Inside Out

Francesca Marguerite Maximé

June 18th, 2020

Brooklyn, New York

How I got here

A few yeas ago, after years of feeling some version of “Why don’t I feel like I deserve good things, why don’t I believe the good things about me people tell me about myself, why is there a part of me that feels unworthy, or that I’m not lovable… or that I don’t deserve, or can’t receive love, from those I want it from,” I finally found some relief. On the suggestion of someone I knew who was a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and Mahayana Mindfulness student of Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn, I read a book called There’s Nothing Wrong with You: Going Beyond Self-Hate, by Soto Zen practitioner Cheri Huber. In it, the author talks about what she calls egocentric karmic conditioning. The ways in which our minds and bodies - our wiring, if you will, or neurophysiology - is influenced by the imprints we receive in life (and even in lifetimes, if you will, epigenetically/inter-generationally) over time. That we’re shaped by our early caregiver experiences, in our families and our communities, and in our larger social world/society and global culture, over time, including our karmic iterations. 

The teachings that helped me

Huber began, as the Buddha does, with the premise of “there’s nothing wrong with you,” as the book’s title indicates. That we’re all Buddhas by nature. That in the realm of embodied human-ness and our own little bag of skin and bones we get to inhabit for nearly a century if we’re lucky, that our innate presence is, as my mentor Jack Kornfield calls it, Loving Awareness, or as he says his teacher Ajahn Chah put it, “The One Who Knows,” the witness to it all. The Knowing itself, as Joseph Goldstein says. Presence, as Tara Brach says. Process and emptiness itself, if you want to use non dual language. That we, as embodied humans, are no more fixed than a river, with its muddy or sandy banks, shifting contents and varied aquatic life; that we, too, are constantly flowing. And that as such, new things are possible if we can begin to come from that vast “mind like sky” cosmic consciousness place to witness our experiences, thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations (with a mindful, friendly, curious attention without grabbing towards, pushing away, or zoning out about, as Sharon Salzberg says). Jack reminds us this is possible, while remaining “noble and dignified, relaxed and alert, taking our seat in the midst of it all.” Mindfulness teacher Joseph Goldstein reminds us that “yes, there is a body…” and, it is in that remembering and acknowledgement of our skin and bones’ frailty and inevitable death, that we can then we can breathe our way into using that very grounded, embodied, relational (to all the parts of ourselves, as Jack says, the circle of compassion isn’t complete unless it includes you!) innate inner dignity and presence. We can then use that energy to lean into what the Buddha names as the Four Noble Truths: the truth of suffering (or pain, dukkha), the cause(s) of the suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the way out of suffering, a.k.a. the noble eightfold path. Sukkha, nirvana, enlightenment, abiding ease, equanimity, sustainable happiness, a peaceful heart, liberation awaits and is possible now: clear seeing can happen, which can then lead to right action, to wise conduct, and a wise discernment culminating in an embodied fierce compassion. This is a commitment to the path of awakening.

That’s why the precepts guard against killing, wrong speech/lying, sexual misconduct, right livelihood/stealing, and intoxicants and more: the path is one of integrity, virtuous living and dedication. Mindfulness practice taken alone, out of the context of this setting, is insufficient: we often must train the mind to wake up. It’s true that we may be graced with an awakening that happens spontaneously or suddenly. We can follow Lama Surya Das’s Dzogchen’s teachings of “being there while getting there.” We can climb while we rest and cut through the ignorance and delusions, all the while knowing that the enlightenment and liberation we long for and seek isn’t just for us alone. Our longing for the connection to our deepest selves and to all life, including Black lives, requires that we do the work the Buddha references above.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable work. Interrogating what’s in the way of our sense of connection to self and others can feel daunting, no matter how experienced a meditator, kirtankara, or yogi we are. Leaning in this way asks us to interrogate what gets in the way of, as Ram Dass himself might have said, love itself. That’s the kind of palpable, unconditional acceptance he and others felt from Neem Karoli Baba, Dipa Ma, and the kind I’ve been graced to have felt from my mentor Jack Kornfield, as well as from my maternal grandfather Louis Magnani when I was a child. That attuned presence from another fits well with what psychology’s attachment theorists call secure attachment. It’s that sense of being grounded and connected, like when a baby feels safe, seen and soothed, is attuned to by another, and met. Without that, we tend to feel “off.” Insecure attachment styles develop including avoidant/dismissive, preoccupied/anxious, and disorganized/unresolved. These actually go quite well with Huber’s egocentric karmic conditioning and the Buddha’s teachings on greed, hatred and delusion. What’s known as learned or earned secure attachment can be a gift given to oneself, like a heart-mind well cultivated, built over time.  Solo practices like meditation and relational ones like practicing right speech (Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communications is a great template, as well as Thich Nhat Hahn’s Deep Listening practice) can help. Learned secure attachment means you’re coming from a place where you feel sufficiently OK about yourself, without having to eschew  parts of your own self, or of others. You’re willing and able to give yourself the self-compassion Kristin Neff and Chris Germer talk about. You can give self-love for the parts of your actions and behavior that may have developed from having been imprinted in a way that was once adaptive for your survival, but is now perhaps more outdated and maladaptive. For example, that time when you learned to hide in your room at six years old when your parents were fighting. Or when you learned to start to yell and fight when you couldn’t get your dad to pay attention to you. Or when you kept on pestering others to bend to your will without pause or distance. From this grounded place of “I know I’m ok,” you can now lean into doing the work of unpacking and unlearning your personal habit patterns that once helped you survive that now don’t work so well and have become the go-to pattern. Self-worth is an important foundation to have, in order to really show up for others. We learn that hating ourselves (while a habit of mind for many of us) is a waste of time and utterly self-absorbed. While shame feels bad and grandiosity/blame can feel good, they’re both self-centered. We need to be centered. Then we can use a mindful curiosity and kindness to lean in to unpacking our thoughts, feelings and attitudes of self-and others, as well as interrogate the oppressive systems and structures that are the “water” we swim in.

What shifted

When I began to understand that thoughts and beliefs I had about myself and others were the product of my perceptions and imprinting, things began to change. I noticed my thoughts could be real, and not necessarily true. That they’re not the whole, nor the end, of the story. “Is that true?” became a silent refrain. When I began to be able to be with those thoughts, feelings and emotions and recognize the somatic sensations that preceded them like tightness in my chest, a sinking in my stomach, a clenching of my jaw, I wasn’t as absorbed in them. After a lifetime of traumas and avoiding what was happening in my inner life for fear I’d drown in quicksand I felt grounded enough to lean in. Many have heard “my mind is a bad neighborhood that I try not to go into alone” from writer Anne Lamott. That was me. I went on to study neuroscience and neurophysiology, and have understood what many of the great mindfulness neuroscience researchers like Richie Davidson have shown: that very old parts of our brain that were needed for survival get “fired up” sometimes. Mindfulness can help calm those parts, so we can then tap into what’s known as midbrain subcortical areas where our memories, thoughts, and beliefs are stored. Using books as an analogy, this might be more how we feel about things: more a memoir than an autobiography, and begin to unpack those. Sharon Salzberg talk about how mindfulness helps us understand and shift “how we relate to what happened” versus just understand the “facts.” Homo sapiens sapiens, that’s us: the one who is aware we’re aware. We can make new choices with our executive functioning/prefrontal/neocortex, the newest part of our brain, and not just get caught in what Tara Brach calls a limbic hijack. From that place of loving awareness and pause, like Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl talks about in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, we can act and respond skillfully. Instead of reacting without awareness (including fight, flight, or freeze responses) we can develop a capacity for consent and agency (or choose to not act at all - if doing so would cause harm, be unskillful or be unwise). From that awareness, we can learn to recognize when we’re into running our “top ten tunes” as Jack says. Our stories, our tightly-held beliefs, conceptions and thoughts. We recognize what Dan Siegel calls the “default mode network” of fight/flight/freeze/fawn/fix reactions that commonly pop up in our daily  actions. We can recognize how these can point back to the Buddha’s teaching of understanding our own minds and the roots of aversion, craving, or ignorance.

How this relates to Black Lives Matter

So, now that we know that 1) there’s nothing wrong with us and 2) we are conditioned beings, then 3) we can recognize what Ruth King says is our “racialized being-ness.” Meaning, although race is a made up construct, we’re all influenced by causes and conditions. In a society of white body supremacy, we necessarily become racialized beings. In a society where white body supremacy is what is historically posited as the “most desirable,” we can see where the majority of humans on this earth would never be seen or accepted for the beauty of who they uniquely are. With Black people in America, there has been an entire system existing over centuries that lives on in our culture today. This began with using racial divisions in service to financial gain for elites (primarily made up of white men) where even our founding fathers like Thomas Jefferson equated Black bodies to animals. The horrendous truth is that Black men, women and children were regularly kidnapped from Africa, enslaved as laborers, sold, owned, abused, raped and murdered (and their children sold, owned, abused, raped and murdered) by people perpetuating systems of oppression for their own profit. These include the origins of our modern police force: the night patrols and slave patrols. Black people were deemed 3/5 of a human to deny them a voice in voting. Redlining, Jim Crow laws, public lynchings and systemic practices have long created wealth inequities and disparities for brown and Black people. Privileged and advantaged white-bodied folks receive lower interest rates than Black folks. Indigenous people were killed in a genocide we as a nation don’t even acknowledge. Currently Indigenous folks (Native Americans) are the group most killed by police, more even than Black folks. For Indigenous folks, you can look back to just a couple of decades ago for traumas that live on today. The 60’s scoop and Residential schools ripped apart cultures, customs and families. These are not entirely unlike policies we now see with children in cages at the southern U.S. border. Many Indigenous folks are still here, like the Diné, the Shoshone Bannock, the Akwesasne Mohawk, and the Kewa Pueblo. Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) people were killed and enslaved, and Black bodied folks continue to be seen as less than human by the Derek Chauvin’s of the world (the very epitome of violence made possible by extreme chauvinism). This is why being nonracist isn’t enough. That’s why being a “good white liberal” isn’t enough. This is why white privilege is a thing, even if you aren’t rich and you’re white. That’s why #BlackLivesMatter. All lives do indeed matter when we look into our hearts, including Black lives. But Black lives are not and have not been valued equally by people upholding this white supremacist system. It’s created a culture we’ve inherited, and now sustain and participate in, whether knowingly or unknowingly. 

As practitioners of practices of devotion and love, insight and open awareness meditation, of kirtan and yoga, we now need to use the tools of mindfulness more than ever, to see clearly and become wiser. We need to even see that these practices have been appropriated, and if we use them, to do so wisely. To uproot our conditioning, our ignorance, our greed and aversion. We can use somatic tools to process our shame and guilt. We can be held accountable for harmful and unskillful actions and exhibit sincere remorse. We can lean in to doing the work of becoming an embodied antiracist, a skillful ally, and a good ancestor and true boddhisatva. This is the work white bodied and light skinned people have to do. Each one of us, on our own, or together in same-race groups like the ones dharma teacher Ruth King mentions. We can try to skip ahead and engage in virtue signaling, performative allyship or spiritual bypassing, but the Buddha’s teaching is that this work is to be done from the inside out.

Why its inappropriate to ask the Black community to help you with your guilt, pain and shame

The issue here lies with the lack of interrogation of whiteness. These are the grand delusions, defenses and disassociations white bodied folks hold. They may be conscious or unconscious, but they’re needed to uphold white body supremacy, whiteness itself, and racist practices that work in service to capitalism, greed, and extraction. Unchecked, whiteness destroys Black lives, our own sense of morality, and wreaks havoc on our planet. 

While unique and not monolithic in any way, Black and brown people, and people of color including AAPI (Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders) as a whole are EXHAUSTED by current events and by years of systemic racism and microaggressions alone. It can then feel very extractive if you’re going to BIPOC to have your questions answered. When you feel entitled to asking them and get upset or defensive when someone says no and asks you to do your own work, please notice that. Instead, spend all your time doing your own work interrogating whiteness and white body supremacy, and how it lives in you, your thoughts, beliefs, patterns, actions and behaviors. Interrogate white racial advantage and white privilege. Discover who you were before you were white. Donate to causes.  Vote.

Do not do performative mea culpas, do not publicize this, don’t get frozen in a shame spiral, just be accountable. Spend your money and time on educating yourself about all the things you don’t know, weren’t taught, and now need to learn. Many classes, books and resources are on my website. Do not ask your BIPOC friends what something means, like “what does BIPOC mean.” Look it up. Don’t say things like “your people.” Take time and effort to become educated, don’t resent it, be remorseful about what you don’t know. Understand why refusing to do this isn’t fair and why expecting a friend to educate you would be a microaggression. Don’t assume you are a safe space for BIPOC to come to and confide in or talk to, even if you’re “friends.” You have no idea how many things you have done to offend, to step on, to dismiss them over time.

You have no idea how many ways in which your lack of awareness and education shows up in service to protecting yourself and your feelings versus in being present and tolerant of your own discomfort while opening to the raw pain of a BIPOC colleague or friend. The only work a white person has to do right now is to do your work. Be accountable. You don’t need to advertise it. Check your deepest intention: you don’t need to “check in” with your BIPOC friends if it’s in service to you and not to them. You need to commit to being actively anti-racist. That means making a commitment to incorporating classes, books, and conversations with other white people in a regular space, be it a Racial Affinity Group, Book Club, talking circle, you name it.

Once you do this work, you’ll listen more easily. You have to take this on. You’ll watch videos of slaughter that will make you cringe. You’ll learn that The Statue of Liberty was created with broken chains in her hands, but people wouldn’t accept it so only a  few broken chains at her feet remain. You’ll learn who does or doesn't get paid and published and why. You’ll learn the way the media re-creates images of historical discrimination. You’ll get closer to a pain you’re privileged to not even feel. You’ll understand why nobody who is a BIPOC wants to explain to you what you don’t know. When you do this work, it will begin to dawn on you all that you don’t know. It’s uncomfortable and hard for you; it’s deadly for BIPOC like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. You can do it. You have the tools of mindfulness practices and your Buddhanature.

Learn somatic tools to help with your distress tolerance. Notice your breathing. Return to it, and to the buddha, dharma, and sangha as your refuge. Interrogate how whiteness kills the human spirit and accept it’s a spiritual disease of the soul, even a mental illness. Know you have to dig really deep and question everything from the capitalist society we live in, including your daily choices about what you buy and wear, who you spend time with, how you spend your time, and what you think you’re entitled to as a level of comfort. Spend a lot of time with that.

Interrogate whiteness and structural racism. It’s work you can do on your own. Racial Equity Institute, The People’s Institute, Patti Digh’s racism course, Dr. Joy DeGruy, White Awake and many more, all offer classes on this. Learn what you had to give up to assimilate and “become white,” from cultural practices to your own spirit and natural innate empathic attunement. Take every one of them, and read the NYT books on the bestseller list right now like My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem, How to Be an Antiracist any Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. Start a book club with your white friends. It’s a lifelong commitment and the only way we can begin to enter into collective healing and wellbeing.

Being accountable feels like being called out. It’s really a calling in. The hard yards. The dark night(s) of the soul. The hero’s journey. The despair. The overwhelm. The truth of realization. It’s the embodied work white people must do on their own, and with one another. Black people built this country after being kidnapped and enslaved. No more emotional labor should be needed from them for your comfort and to appease your curiosity. Understand your own whiteness, that’s the job. In the collective healing space of “all my relations,” we are connected but there are some insights and “aha” moments only a white person can experience for themselves. For white peple, your own insights as to how you’ve moved about in the world as a white person and the cost of whiteness to BIPOC will eventually be revealed. You’ll unpack why “I don’t see color” or colorblindness is wrong. You’ll discover why diversity and inclusion initiatives haven’t been sufficient. You’ll learn why “white silence” is violence. And you’ll return to your seat, having set your deepest intention to non-harming, as the Buddha teaches us. When we’re following our breath and our mind wanders, as Sharon Salzberg says, “we can always begin again.” We can return to skillful behavior where we know more about what to do, and what not to do. You’ll embark on the path of becoming an embodied antiracist. You’ll be in it for the long haul and remember the middle way: “not too tight, and not too loose.” You’ll balance doing the work with self-compassion and reflection. You’ll notice sensations, thoughts and feelings of overwhelm, aversion, or an urgency so frenetic it aborts the process. As it is in having tea with Mara, you’ll say “hello” to all of it. Even the disturbing and painful parts.

Paraphrasing Tara Brach and Michele McDonald, perhaps use the process of RAIN to help: Recognize, Allow, Investigate and Nourish. It can support the “U-turn” needed to do the inner work, holding yourself in warm regard (positive self-esteem, self compassion, self-kindness). Remember, you’re “same-as” other people, no better or worse, but you acknowledge you’re someone who’s got white privilege. That you have physiological habit patterns that have developed over time that have, as a product of white body supremacist culture and whiteness itself, necessarily caused harm to self and others. White body supremacy can result in, among other things, rage, anger, shame, guilt and deep grief. When we shift into remorse and allow our hearts to be cracked open with sadness, things can change. It’s like the Leonard Cohen Anthem, “Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in.”  When this happens, we can begin to be more of an embodied ally and anti-racist.

What does being a white ally, partner or accomplice entail

Being a white ally is a good start to being antiracist. Other terms are partners, co-conspirators, accomplices, and comrades. Being an ally is more about standing up for what’s right, regardless of whether it seems to “personally” affect you. Being an embodied antiracist ally is engaging in an ongoing commitment. That commitment is to a process of deepening humility, learning, listening, growing and leaning into discomfort, and potentially giving up entitlements and privilege, in service to active anti-racist causes. It is cultivating the discerning wisdom to know when taking action and speaking up is what’s called for, and it’s also knowing when to de-center yourself, sit down and listen with an open heart-mind. It is to question, interrogate, and actively engage to disrupt a system of white body supremacy and invite an ongoing deep quest of inner interrogation around all the ways in which whiteness cuts us off from our innately natural belonging to one another and to our deepest Self.

Strong allies see all the ways in which structural racism and oppression exists in their families, communities, towns, religious institutions, universities, corporations, non-profits, and every day “friendship” interactions, like those on the tennis court, at the ballpark, or at the theatre. An effective white ally uses their privilege and the white racial advantage given to light/white bodied people in a white body supremacist society to work towards abolishing racism at all levels, even at the risk of your own discomfort. Being an ally means standing up in solidarity with BIPOC, nourishing interpersonal relationships with BIPOC, listening and learning from those relationships. It also means investing in new relationships with white people that are centered around interrogating whiteness itself, while examining both internal and personal beliefs and behaviors, as well as structural manifestations of systemic oppression. 

There is an open-sourced ally guide, Racial Equity Institute and this CNET article also has lots of links and resources. Two examples of strong white allyship include Jane Elliott and Anne Braden. A resource as to how to be an ally if you are a person with privilege is available here. And a class white women can take to learn how to be better allies is here.

I named my podcast here on Ram Dass’ Be Here Now Network ReRooted, because I wanted us to all “re-root” ourselves back into our own mother earth, our original true nature, the stardust and soil from whence we came. In order to re-root, however, we often need to “re-route,” and that is the path of disrupting our conditioned thoughts and behaviors, attend to them with a curious lovingkindness and fierce compassion, and then start showing up anew.

We know that the concept of race was created. Race is a construct, meaning, as humans, as homo sapiens sapiens - wise ones; the ones who are aware that we are aware - we’re all descended from a common African ancestor, little “Lucy,” dating back to over 3 million years ago. Her Ethiopian name is Dinknesh, which translates to “you are marvelous.” Kind of like Buddhanature. Or, “there’s nothing wrong with you,” like where I started this post with Cheri Huber’s book. The pseudo-scientific concept of race was invented by Carl Linnaeus several centuries ago to divide and conquer people along racial lines in service to a supremacist economic class system in favor of elites (again, we return to the Buddha’s core concept of craving and greed). In much the same way mudita or appreciative joy counters envy and jealousy, the alternative to this greed, as law professor Ian Hainey López points out, is to unite and build. Unlike in individualistic cultures like our Western culture, where we “uproot” ourselves to move away from where we were born, live in single family homes away from friends and family, and are conditioned with the narrative of expecting everyone to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps and not need others,” the African concepts of ubuntu means, “I am because we are.” It describes life relationally, not individually. Others describe it as a connection, caring and kindness for all. Its a “we” not a “me” view, like Dan Siegel’s “MWe.” It’s interdependent, as the Buddha’s teachings on emptiness essentially are. We’re process, part of the flow of life. We belong to one another. Like Haney López’s modern ‘unite and build,’ it’s a recognition of our shared union. It’s what Eugene Gendlin of Focusing might point to in his philosophy of the implicit as the life-force of carrying forward because “we are interaction.”

The word “race” comes from the French “rasse” or Italian “razza.” I used to think it went back to the Latin “racine,” or root. I can’t find sufficient supporting evidence of that; it’s been debated so I can’t say with conviction yea or nay. However I can say that we if we can jettison the false pseudoscientific concept of race and grasp it as the construct it is, perhaps we can be more motivated to become actualized and embodied antiracists and commit to waking up. Race is a construct invented to make us feel separate, in service to greed, when we really have a longing to remember our belonging to one another. It keeps us from acknowledging the horrendous realities of our history that still live in all of our bodies somatically. Name it to tame it: we can then begin to change. While whiteness hurts us all, as we’ve seen, it kills some more than others.

Doing this work takes effort. It also begs for humility, culturally and otherwise. In a recent email newsletter I received from James Gordon at the Center for Mind Body medicine, the author reminds us that the word humility “Comes from the Latin meaning both ‘humble’ and ‘of the earth’. It implies modesty, a gentle appreciation of who we are that recognizes and turns away from the temptations of pride, arrogance, self-importance, and selfishness.” Again, this reminds me of mother earth trembling to bear witness to the Buddha’s awakening after having been tempted by Mara. Instead of being drawn into the chaos, the Buddha is validated by the very earth from which he, Siddhartha Gautama, came, rerooted back to our original earth mother.

Tomorrow is June 19th, known as Juneteenth, dating back to 1865 commemorating the day when enslaved Texans found out they had been free for over two years. It’s a day celebrating freedom for Black Americans. It could also be a day of national mourning and reflection for white Americans to question how such a system lives on today. I hope it becomes a federal holiday. Reflecting on Juneteenth, I remember that one of my Black activist clients has a tapestry on her wall, which I read this afternoon during our session. Pondering this moment in time, #BlackLivesMatter, and the invitation for white bodied folks to interrogate whiteness and move towards embodied antiracist actions, it got me thinking. It reads:

MUCH TO BE DONE AND UNDONE

And so, there is. 

Let’s tap into ubuntu, into virya, and a wholesome, engaged, antiracist attitude and embodiement.

Let’s get to work.

It’s time. We can do this.

With love,

Francesca

 Francesca Maximé, SEP, CMT-P, IFOT, RLT is the founder of ARREAA: Anti-Racist Response-ability, Embodiment, Accountability and Action, a weekly Wednesday group for white-bodied folks to “ask anything” so they don’t have to ask BIPOC friends. 

From a social location/positionality standpoint, her pronouns are she/her/hers, she identifies as a multiethnic Haitian-Dominican Italian-American woman, and recognizes her social location as intersectional insofar as being a non-white woman of color with some inherited class/wealth equity, and lighter skintone racial advantage/privilege (aware of colorism and shadeism within varying communities also) who is also currently able-bodied. Other aspects of privilege include, but are not limited to, having an Ivy League and graduate school education, as well as having been raised Catholic/Chiristian. Francesca resides on Indigenous Lenape and Canarsie territories on the land now known as Brooklyn, New York and thanks all her relations and ancestors from the Island of Hispanola, Europe, and Western and Southern Africa, for their part in surviving, to facilitate her existence. 

Francesca is an anti-racism educator, IMTA-accredited certified mindfulness meditation teacher, somatic experiencing trauma healing practitioner, Indigenous Focusing Oriented practitioner for complex trauma, relational life therapy couples, life, executive & organizational coach, and award-winning poet and author. Through her private practice, Maximé Clarity she sees adults, couples, and groups, teaches workshops, and gives public talks to organizations and communities. Francesca hosts the ReRooted podcast on Ram Dass’s Be Here Now Network , as well as the live online mindful talk show, Inside Out with Natasha & Francesca: Getting Comfortable w/ Being Uncomfortable & Becoming an Embodied Antiracist available live and at noon ET Wednesdays on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter with replays available here.

More about Francesca is available on her website and many free anti-racism resources including classes, books, authors, articles and exercises, are available on her resources page.

[travisfranks]

A China Study Tour in Pictures

As part of my creative writing degree at RMIT I was given the amazing opportunity to go to Guangzhou and Yangshuo, China, to put together a collaborative anthology with students at Sun Yat-sen. Here is what the 12 days looked like...

Following Paul, and hightailing it across Sun Yat-sen campus. 

Paul was an amazing and wonderful welcoming ambassador, always ready to help everyone dot their i’s and cross their t’s. After an unexpected tragedy early in the tour, a lot of people willingly stepped forward and made sure the study tour went ahead, keeping a lot of independently moving pieces moving in the same direction. 

Nat and Matt on a stroll along the Pearl River, just above the SYSU campus. 

It’s a hive of activity in the mornings and evenings. One of the things I love about China most is the energy of so many people spilling out into public places. While out jogging one morning, I also came across Lisa sitting alone, just near here, scribbling into her notebook and soaking up the China vibe...

Each morning involved a mad dash across campus to find coffee before classes and meetings began. From the hotel it was at least a good 20 minute walk, occasionally preceding a 10 minute jog to get back, depending on how long it took for the coffee to be made. 

On the first day we found a cafe called  Fashion Coffee Design, or another combination of three seemingly unrelated words. It was closed every other day we went past. Eight of us had inundated the sole barista with coffee orders in one hit. I think we may have overwhelmed her. 

Michelle and Nat recline while waiting for their coffees to arrive. 

There were several occasions when SYSU students joined RMIT students for meals and social occasions. Not always familiar with the traditions and etiquette of the Chinese dining table, they sometimes had to explain how certain things were done. 

For varying reasons, food was a source of discomfort for several students gently nudged outside their comfort zone. Ashlea in particularly, being vegetarian, found it difficult to find food she could eat. Others were really able to embrace their adventurous side, and try things they would never have thought to try before. After all, it’s not that often in Australia you’ll be served a whole fish, head included.

After our very first meeting with the SYSU students, some of them took us to one of their usual go-to restaurants just off campus. 

Others, like Jules, were able to find ways of compromising. Each morning at the Kaifeng Hotel, students strolled through the buffet area before sitting down to assemble some very unusual breakfasts.

Despite very much feeling like foreigners in another city, it didn’t take long for us to get used to the enormity of Guangzhou, to feel at home among the towers of Haizhu each day, seeing small slivers or the Pearl River in the gaps between the concrete and glass. 

Our host, Professor Dai Fan, stands in the drizzle on our first day in Yangshuo to familiarise us with the area, and the stunning surrounding landscape. 

It was here we were to put the final touches to the edited pieces for the anthologies, and make titles for each, and then begin the long list of production tasks. While also enjoying one of the most beautiful places any of us had ever been. 

It was an eerie way to be introduced to the other-worldly landscape of Yangshou, shrouded in rainclouds. 

Shine, one of the SYSU master’s students, and Shona conversing in the mist and drizzle under the cover of parasols. Shine was a very valuable last-minute addition to the study tour.

Nat blends in with the stunning landscape...

The villa we stayed in, which is the usual place Professor Dai takes her artists in residence, is surrounded by layer upon layer of majestic land formations. It’s overwhelming, the first time you’re confronted with such unfamiliar beauty. At several moments I was unable to shake the surreal sensation of being on another planet pretending to be earth. Or that they were sleeping gods, their dormant bodies covered with centuries-old dirt, and at any moment might sneeze and wake up the other sleeping gods sprawled across the landscape. 

Everyone fell in love with Yangshuo. 

Georgie jumps for joy in her newly bought threads. 

Nat, in the shade of the Scholar’s Walk. 

Riverside dining. A friendly and rather vocal cat came to clean the dishes before we left. 

One morning we were given the special opportunity to witness the folk tradition of shan’ge, ‘Mountain song’, in which two groups sing dialogue back and forth to each other. In earlier years, it was sung while people worked in the fields, and the singers would collaborate in teams to create impromptu lyrics, singing their replies to what they had heard sung to them. Professor Dai translated for us after each round, so we knew what they were singing. They (the men) would begin with flirtatious flattery, to which the ladies would be impervious, leading to  a pretend disagreement. It was a great opportunity to witness Chinese humour at play. 

After the mountain songs, we walked into the bustling downtown area of Yangshou, which somehow still manages to be incredibly beautiful. 

Some unusual sculptures. 

One of the highlights of the tour was Impression Sanjie Liu, an elaborate dance and light show out on the water, with a cast of more than 500. We were the very last to leave. Directly after the show, the young people in the cast were kept behind to rehearse for the next performance the following day. The director hadn’t been happy with their performance. We had been almost speechless at the spectacle. 

Ashlea and Pallavi guard the bags at Yangshuo railway station while everyone else finds fried chicken and train snacks for the trip back to Guangzhou. It was a sad moment, to leave the peace and quiet of the hills, the evening sunsets over the river. But we had managed to have a productive time there, and most of the remaining tasks for the anthology had either been completed, or organised. 

Back at SYSU, on our last day, some of us met with the second year students, splintered off into smaller groups and discussed private writing practices and techniques, our favourite genres, poetry, and of course, food; a staple of Chinese conversation. 

As is often the case with these kinds of trips, you spend a great amount of time preparing yourself for something that is ‘coming up’. And then you’re suddenly in the midst of it. There is so much happening all around you, and so much of it is unexpected. There are flashing lights and loud noises and blurred movements, there are different emotions (again, many of them unexpected); everything is an intensified whirlwind of energy and creativity. You’re meeting new people in places you’ve never been and doing things, so many, many things you’ve never done. And then all of a sudden it’s over. And you’re exhausted, and tired, and perhaps a little weepy when you weren’t expecting to be. All that time you spent trying to mentally prepare yourself has led you through the intended course of what you set out to do. It’s drawn to a close, and you’re not really sure what to make of it all, because a part of you is relieved, a part of you wants it to keep going, a part of you is sad that it’s over, another part is ready to move on or head home. And then a week has passed, and then two weeks, and the whole thing almost instantly feels like the distant past, or something that happened to someone else you know, but not you, and the dust of reality, the submergence into the mundane and everyday has begun to settle on your memory of the adventure that had always been before you, only now it’s behind. 

I’m not sure I can articulate how grateful I am to have been a part of something so special. To have bridged such a wide physical and mental gap, between Australia and China, is not an opportunity that presents itself often. To have formed new friendships with people in Guangzhou, with people in my own course I hadn’t connected with before, even the graduating third years who joined us on the study tour. It revealed a lot, about ourselves to ourselves, and to each other, about what it means to bring so many different people into one creative space and create something that can reflect us all in a way that we would like to be reflected. What a journey...