Musings on Midsummer’s Eve

Some 27,000 of you have read about my ‘art auntie’ Hung Hsien [AKA Margaret Chang, married name], who just had two belated retrospectives, and my ‘tennis uncle’ T.C. Chang an eminent architect and elite elder tennis player who recently passed!  Their remarkable, triumphant diasporic stories of these two engaging, wise and avuncular souls have captivated you.  We are all living a bit vicariously through Margaret and TC … what full lives!

Fifteen years ago, my 90-something father befuddled by early dementia surprised me at dinner, ‘B, how far has the science of longevity advanced?’  I responded that some of the basic pathways and potential treatments of aging had been discovered but that there had been no human trials.  Why was he was asking, ‘I have enough projects to take me to 130 years!’  I just learned that the abstract ink artist Liu Kuo-sung, whom my father discovered in 1964 now considered the father of modern Chinese ink painting, told his daughter, ‘I have enough ideas to paint until I’m 120!’   Partners in abstract ink dreamt well beyond …  We all know how we end up, if not where, if anywhere.

I am beginning to emerge from a 2-year trek through radiation, hyperbaric oxygen – 45 feet ‘deep’, and hormonal therapy.  Although able to continue most activities (exercise, travel, academic, family), it has impacted me daily, and nightly.

Apart from supporting Margaret, it has been a busy spring.  An invited talk on Hung Hsien at the Phoenix Art Museum,

 Hung Hsien’s catalog launching in Houston,

 a talk at the American Headache Society in Orlando, a road trip to Lawrence/Kansas City to see the Song Dynasty (960-1279) painting exhibition

 and the contemporary works of Hong Zhang, 

and a glorious trip with Rachel’s family in the BVIs. 

A ‘water boarding’ adventure of a lifetime on a stable catamaran operated by a lovely marine biologist couple from New Zealand who live on the boat with their three kids.  Moving from cove to cove, daily snorkeling (some scuba) in Caribbean clear with tropical fish aplenty plus giant turtles, sting rays, barracudas, a shark and 1850 shipwreck. Besides, paddle boarding, scooters, hydrofoils were punctuated with unprecedented naps under the embracing wrap of sun, sea, breeze and gentle rolling.

 

Then, as has become annual, I abruptly transition to a distinct summer environment in Vancouver.  From mile high to sea level, temperature 70-95 to 60-75, from townhouse to 800 sq ft, from white to a 95+% Chinese diaspora (Cantonese, Taiwanese and Mandarin lingua), from car to hoof, two wheels and skytrain, from dearth to best Chinese cuisine in North America, from divided Americana to civic Canadian and from semi-retirement to Tai Chi bootcamp (16 hours this week).  Peripatetic adaptability is my summer mantra.

If you wish to purchase a copy of Hung Hsien’s catalog, it can be obtained through Asia Society Texas (txcenter@asia.society.org)