Finding Andersen: from his birthplace to the funeral church

I worship Andersen. Sometimes, I call myself Jessie Anderson.  I always like stories that are short but powerful with poetic language and  insights. Some of his stories may be too obvious with moral lessons, but some pieces like Little Mermaid are winged with bitter truth that could fly through times and touch hearts of different generations. I took a four-day trip to Denmark to find Anderson. I wanted to walk around the places where he walked, and if lucky, I could pick up some inspirations that he might have left behind.

I know some writers are not lovable, and Andersen was with no doubt one of them. People have already known that he was not good looking, or he was vain (always formally dressed and posed his profile for portraits). I wasn't surprised that he didn't like children or he tried to cover his humble beginning.  Here I want to give you a less-known part of Andersen.

Artistic Andersen:

 Can you believe this tiny little paper rock chair came from his big hands? Anderson was good with paper cutting, but this one shows us how crafty he was.

 He liked to draw. These sketches showed his potential to be a painter, totally self-taught, hey, like me.

 Looks like a modern art? If you look closely, you can find it is a matrix where Andersen stretched letters in an artistic way.

Ink drawing? I did that a lot when I was in primary school. I squeezed color paints and then folded the paper to make symmetric patterns. It was fun because you'd never know what the pattern would look like  until you open the paper.







Awkward Andersen:

 This 185cm tall and lanky man had a dream to be a ballet dancer. See my feet are only half of his size. I can only laugh when I imagine him move awkwardly on the stage with his long legs and arms getting in the way.

 He had been paranoid about fire breaking up in tall buildings. This is the rope he always brought when traveling. He reckoned he could save himself by throwing the rope down and climbing himself to safety.

He Stayed with Charles Dickens for more than 5 weeks, having no sense that he was not really welcome there. What worse was he later wrote something about the Dickens, which was considered private and inappropriate. Dickens cut off the communication, which Andersen had absolutely no clue why.





Anderson in comics

 It's fun to see people portrait him differently.

 Andersen's ugliness has become a distinctive feature. See this sculpture set up in his home town.

 Young Andersen and his patron, the one who supported him for better education to become a better writer. But imagine he went to school at 17 with other 14 years-old boys? Embarrassing.

 He looked so young, shy, and reserved.

 This picture reveals a lonely childhood so much that you just want to sit beside him.
















      In Copenhagen : Glory and Death  :  


In this flat in Nyhavn, he created many of his famous fairy tales. I've found a small cafe named after him at the first floor. I saw they decorated the entrance with his tall hat. Unfortunately, it was closed. Looks like the name "Andersen" did not bring much business.

  The inside of the flat. It was said that Anderson always sat by the windows, watching people passing by. The flat is vey close to the theater where he worked. I trailed along the path to the theater, imagining him going to work, picking up inspirations along the way. 

 Cathedral of Our Lady, the church that held Andersen's funeral. Here, he bore the final farewell to the people.

 Inside of the Church.

 At the right hand side of the entrance, I saw this neon-lighted message. Immediately I feel God's love and warmth.

Like Anderson, I love The Lord, too. I couldn't believe the blessings that have been given to me. He created Andersen; he created me. I don't know whether I could be as influential as Andersen, but I do believe that I have my calling, and I'm fulfilling it.

The international fellows: authentic encounters

An unforgettable experience, and maybe the most valuable one, of doing a research with the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich is to meet international fellows from around the world.     I always think that to learn a culture you have to interact with the people from that culture. Going to places or museums may give you organized or wikipedia-like info about it, but only through people, you can feel the culture alive. 

Of course, sometimes, our individual personalities may be stronger than the cultures, and what we perceive from somebody may not be the cultural in general, but the individual in a special case.  So, I have to constant remind myself: It could be the cultural, but find more evidences...

I have the honor the meet the following individuals in the library during my stay. I love them so much that at the end, the cultural/individual distinctions did not make sense any more. They are just my precious friends who happen to come from different corners of the world. 

 This is Ihsan (I always misspelled his name as Ishan). He was the one who took me to the library on my first day. In fact, he took every new girl to the library from our shared house. He is such a gentleman that he accompanies girls home when the time is late. 

 He is agreeable, too. "yes, yes" is how he responds to your comments, and "absolutely" means he couldn't agree more. The only time when he said only one "yes" was when he was given a sour plum (I spit it out immediately). He didn't even frown, and when being asked, "do you like it?" He said, "Yes!" At that time, we know, there is no "No" in Ihsan's dictionary. 

Right? Ihsan?

This is Reina who gave Ihsan the sour plum. She is from Japan and calls herself "children's literature geek" (and she didn't know what C.L.G stands for in the picture).  She broke the stereotype of Japanese people, who are supposed to be shy and not funny. Reina is not shy at all. Although her accent is a little hard for us to understand, she would try her best to make us understand (she even made a Polish couple to understand her on the train). 

And, she is extremely funny. She talked to her food, she misunderstood people's talk and came up with her own interpretations, she acted out the characters from the books, and she always raised her hand high for us to follow her like a professional guide. 

And, she is extremely polite, and this is no doubt very Japanese. 

Ah, our Junko, the leader of this international group and the information center, too. She knows where to get the best ice-cream in town, all the cultural activities, and is the best trip-planner ever. 

We followed her from ice-cream shop, to Frankfurt, Cologne, and Kassel.  She took all the memorable pictures that made people jealous of us.

But, this generous and inclusive spirit cannot tolerate chemicals. No one wears perfume when she is around, and guess what, we didn't smell at all! Well, happy spirits always smell good, I guess.

Roya, our delicate lady, Roya. She is so sophisticated in one way, but in another, she is so free-spirited like a child. She would take off her shoes to walk on the sand or grass, or suddenly lie down on a marble seat of a museum to take a photo of herself, or she would do this sexy dance which is absolutely not her normal style.

 Sometimes, I wonder she is surrounded by all the elves, and they have secret talks or codes to do happy things together.

                                                                            

Teresa, our shopping and fashion queen from Mexico. She was always fashionably dressed, and she had no problem biking in mini skirt. 

She was such a good hunter in shopping that I think no one can compete. She can step in a store and within 5 minutes, she got this 5-Euro scarf and another fancy bag for 5 Euros, too. 

I always think that shopping is a therapy; the thrill you have when hunting the things you desire with the best prices is indeed very satisfying. And I think Teresa knows about it, too. 

Well, these are the fellows that I have encountered. I feel grateful for meeting them. I believe that our friendship will last because for us who study children's literature, we are always children in some ways, and children never forget their friends. 

Cheers, my friends.  

first impression of Copenhagen

I always wanted to see Anderson and his hometown, and I made it. I am in Copenhagen. 

Since I'm a terrible map reader and finding my hotel had taken me almost an hour after I arrived.

 I was drawn to Gorge Jensen's store in the airport, but was heart-broken after looking at the prices. Well, I don't have to own them to feel happy, I told myself. People who can afford to own them do not necessarily appreciate them. 

My first impression of the city was shadowed by the strong tourism, well, how can any city avoid that? I reminded myself to look into details from people. I like watching people. but, most people are tourists. So i looked into the things and so far, I found Copenhagen more lively than Munich. The shops, I mean their window displays, are more interesting to watch.  

I will see Anderson tomorrow and design museum as well. In fact, I'm so fed up with museums now, but design is the thing I like about Denmark. It is the thing that they are famous, too. How can I miss that?

The church-look-alike build doesn't want to be a church. Some art events are going on there.

An elf coming out of the slide.

The famous "Royal Copenhagen"

Love to see a black doll showcased. 

the children's clothes shop

different window, different story

love the idea of paper-faced model.,,and the picture book-like setting.

A piece of green in the mind: rented garden

I was lucky enough to be invited to have a brunch in a garden of my friend. It was a rented garden. Sound strange? yes, it is a very German idea about renting a piece of land to grow your own greens. You need to build a small cabin, though, to store your gears. Then, work on your land to build a green dream. For people who live in flats or small apartments, this is a wonderful idea to reconnect to the nature in big cities.

In Taiwan, we don't have spare lands for this idea in big cities. and I'm wondering even if we did, the hustle and bustle of city life seems to drain our energy to the last bit. Are we interested in doing so? But, why people in Munich still find time and energy to work on the land, even the lands that do not belong to themselves?

I think it is not about the land; it is about the mind. It is a piece of green in the mind that has driven them to do so. A desire to be in the nature, the joy to eat the greens that you grow yourself, and a place to hide from the robotic daily routines.

I remember last semester, our university had the same idea. The students could adopt vegetable patches to grow their own things. I wanted to do so, but....well, you know the excuses. Well, if the school will continue the project, I think I will definitely sign up. I do have that piece of green in my mind to grow, too.

sour gooseberries

A less colorful but sweet gooseberries. 

The outdoor grill oven.

A closer look of the inside. You put your pan on the rack and put charcoal underneath.

Dill (回香) I never saw the whole plants.

Poppy

I ate the flowers, a discreet flavor of sweet. (forgot the name)

Your salad on the soil.

He didn't know what kind of juice that I liked, So, I had the pear, the cheery, the apple, and the black cherry ( forgot the name). 

I wanted to show the fancy cutlery.

Documenta (13) : No pain no art

Every 4 years (Or 5? still not sure about it), in a small town called Kassel in Germany, an olympic event of art is launched to draw art-lovers from around the world.  My colleague Peng told me that it shouldn't be missed when I am here is Germany. So, I went there and check it out.

I'm not big on modern art, so I had prepared myself to be confused and shocked. But, it turned out that I loved some of the ideas and found most of the art pieces humane, touching, and mystically sad. It seems that experiencing pain, lost, violence, death, ignorance, war...all the negative strong feelings are the bases for art. To deal with those traumatic emotions and make sense of them brings those artists, I think, a desire to embody it in art as a testimony of being alive or worthy of living.

 I'd like to share some of the pieces that I like here.

The museum to enter the Documenta 

Outside, the Occupying xx Group is camping and quietly protesting

Lost books burned by human ignorance are remembered in these stone books

The books saved.

one-man band. He played, sing, and tell stories. 

A shelf of wooden books

When you open the books, they nestle plants and nuts to remind you the relationship with nature.

Does it look like our puppets in Taiwan?

But the characters and personalities are stronger.

I love this camel. Do we have animals in our puppets?

Pictures on sticks

All the images cut out from Time magazines published from 1930-60?

walking through this, recognizing the images, it's like a brain is cut open to show what has been stored. Amazing how much we remember!

The artist from China remade those well-known images. They hang on the walls like posters, but to change the idea of exhibition, the artist takes one poster down and replaces it with a colored board. Can you imagine maybe before the end of the exhibition, all the posters will be gone and only the colored boards left. Interesting isn't it?

A film where you see a head, fragmented parts of the head, and each frame is a highway where cars rush through. Fascinating! I can see my head like that when I'm thinking.

I took this when I was sitting in the woods (an installation), where the music coming from above, 2 characters were talking, playing, joking maybe, then, there was wars, the noises of cars, screams, ...

a film, a woman sits in front of the donkey. they sit there...sit...sit... sit...and I left.

I wish I could have more time to comprehend more the ideas but by the end of our 2 days visit, I hit the saturation point that I couldn't think or appreciate any more. That's why the Documenta will be going on for 3 months. It doesn't meant to be comprehended in 2 days. But, I got to taste a little bit. And for art, we experience it every day in our mundane life if we have an artistic mind.  but it's still wonderful to see these artistic minds gather together here in Documenta.