I have loathly changed my timetable again and again, ultimately it is fixed at the moment, I would not be surprised if somebody told me to change it again tomorrow, but I do hope it was the last time for this semester, I start to find how important a plan is, especially when it comes to what you really care about.

 

The Peach Blossom Land is a classical Chinese article, which means not even many Chinese people can get the meanings unless professionals, however, in Chinese education, ranging from classical till now, since primary to high school, many articles in the same type are taught, some of them are preciously memoriable, The Peach Blossom Land is one of them. It was written by Tao Chien (Tao Yuan-ming), a famous poet of reclusion, a sage in Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420), here is a link of his profile which also included some of his works.

 

There are various titles of this article in English, its Chinese pronunciation is "Tao Hua Yuan Ji", in English you can find other titles like "Peach Blossom Valley" "Paradise Beyond Peach Blossom"etc.

 

In this article, he tells a story about a fishing man happened to find a beautiful place where peach blossom can cover the whole mountain, people there living in another dynasty and the life there just peace and quite. That is supposedly Tao's imagination, reflecting part of his ideality of paradise, however, famous writer Chen Yan-ge found out the place to be real through some texual-research. here is a link to the full text of this article.

 

In 2006, I found a whole collection of Taiwanese living theatre director Stan Lai, totally 17 DVDs, and watched one of his most famous stage works (it has a film version as well directed by himself) called "The Peach Blossom Land"

 

I was deeply moved, it was both dramatic and experimental, with overflowing emotion, and was certainly one of the best theatres I have ever seen, it is even better than the Waiting for Godot I have seen.

 

I decided to share this with you, because it is not just a story, it has 2 stories included in one stage, and it deconstructs the oringinal with smart decoration in story.

 

Comparing to the dramatic interpretion of Tao's original text, it should more be pointed out that Lai resolvedly or even ruthlessly question Tao's work.

 

Why was the fishing man going upriver where is more dangerous, why did he come out again and later absolutely lost that place?

 

The answer would be really suprised, have a look then.

 

It is good to be here guys, to be back, I am so happy, and still hoping that we can feed ourselves with all the precious nutrition, thinking more about life, about the time left, about whether what we are doing is what we should be doing.

 

Think about one day you might come to a place where you can find the feeling of Peach Blossom Land, that might just be your room.