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Hi,Dear Friends
Dear Friends,
How are you?
Today is my 18th day in Sydney on my 8th trip to Australia. During the past two weeks and four days, many things have happened. Now I would like to share some of them with you, and I hope to bring you a big smile.
The first “big thing” is due to the good assistance and help from my work partner, Mrs. Michelle (she is on the first photo). I offered my first “Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art” lecture titled "Introduction to Cross-cultural Integrated Art - Starting with Chinese Painting" to about 50 Chinese Australians from a government-established elderly care institution and led them to enjoy Chinese paintings and poems by seeing, reciting, and singing together with me. Everyone was excited and interested in it. Even after finishing the job, some elderly people asked me again about the deeper meaning of one poem by Li Bai (701-762), and when they learned that I am a PR in Australia, they expressed hope that I would settle down here.
Then their manager Ms. Ying (she is on the photo in the middle) said that they had decided to hold a "Cross-cultural Comprehensive Art Workshop" with me for these elderly people starting from July, which would be similar to the one I did at the American Chinese Church from December 2024 to March 2025, combining poetry, painting, and music but mainly focusing on painting…
Although it’s just a small test event, it’s the first step for me to enter an Australian community to expand my Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art that I created during my travels between China and the US from 2008 to 2025.
Related to this event, a great and lucky thing was that the former president of Sydney Reading Club Ms. Xia Xiaolong came to my little event. Her arrival moved me deeply and gave me great encouragement.
The second “big thing” is that with great marketing jobs from my work partner Mrs. Michelle, we have built our first cooperative relationship with a Sydney branch of a global training organization. Its boss, Mr. David, has introduced me to someone who is responsible for multicultural affairs elsewhere; we will have a meeting soon.
The third “big thing” is that my first small flyer has been sent for printing by the good work of Mrs. Michelle and the assistance of Mr. David; it will come out on May 29, 2025. To be honest, I was very tired because of the long-distance travel but deeply touched by the activity level of my work partner Mrs. Michelle's efforts as well as her support for marketing jobs over those initial fourteen days after I arrived in Sydney. That’s why I've worked three all-nights just within the first 12 days since the night of May 8 when I arrived in Sydney until she sent the flyer for printing on the morning of May 22, 2025! However, after checking up on more than four TB of data I had accumulated during my more than 16 years working between China and the US, I also felt much clearer regarding what I'm doing now in Sydney, Australia and how to continue working with my former cooperators in the USA!
The fourth major event was made possible thanks to my son's help. Before I arrived in Sydney, he drove for two hours one way to personally view the property. He had rented a detached place that includes an independent art studio for me near my work partner Mrs. Michelle’s workplace, which is close to the shopping center and the train station. The studio now houses over 100 kilograms of books, paper, and materials, such as three 2-meter x 1.75-meter Chinese Gongbi painting frames, tables and chairs; and two 1-meter x 2-meter portable magnetic freehand painting boards that will be air-freighted to me on June 6, 2025. In addition to the brushes, ink, paper, ink stone, Chinese painting colors and some small-sized painting frames I have brought and stored in Sydney respectively in 2023 and 2024, I have not only opened up a logistics channel for purchasing Chinese painting supplies between China and Australia but also established the basic conditions to engage in large-scale artistic creation in Australia.
Besides these work-related matters, I would like to share an interesting experience with you:
Days ago, on May 22, 2025, in order to find a place to go, I checked Google Maps, recorded the detailed information, and then confidently confirmed the route on my cell phone. After double-checking several times, I left in the light rain, hoping to reach the destination in about 15 minutes, as the map showed that the building was less than 500 meters away from my actual location...
However, after walking for about an hour, I still couldn't find the first intersection marked on the map. I was quite astonished, so I went back home, put down my suitcase, and decided to abandon the map and rely on my memory to find the building that my work partner had once driven me to.
So I ventured in the opposite direction in the rain agin. Can you imagine? Just about five minutes later, I saw the first intersection on Google Maps, and then after walking for about ten minutes, I entered the building and found the place. Do you know why? The Google Maps had given me a wrong route in the opposite direction. At this point, the step counter on my phone showed that I had walked 6.5 kilometers that day!
Wow! As I entered that building and sat down to dry my wet dress and shoes, I couldn't help smiling to myself. It reminded me of an experience in the US in 2015: I mistook "Grand" Street for "Grant" Street, a difference of just one letter, which led me further and further away from home...
What about you? Do anything special wish share?
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Sincerely, I am just a lifelong learner in the arts of painting, music, English, management and Chinese art teaching, and work on the website in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned and make this website a little electronic bridge for cross-cultural and integrated/comprehensive art and Chinese language studying. This way, I can help others while improving myself.
Thank you always for your understanding, guidance and assistance and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to write to info@ebridge.cn .
Shirley Yiping Zhang
May 26, 2025 (Australian Sydney Time)
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