SOMETIMES THEY TALK ABOUT FOOD

Ming is an excellent barber. But he dwells too much on food. While waiting for my turn, I listened in on him and the man under his hands talking bout food. That customer, makes no mistake, likes Cantonese food. Why, the food in Guangzhou is delicious! But the younger generation prefers MacDonalds and Pizza. Oh, these modern times!
Followed a back-and-forth about stir-fried vegetables and fish.
All, of course, superlatively fresh! In Guangzhou.

By this time my mouth was watering.

Because my Cantonese is not quick enough for long conversations, I tend towards fairly non-communicative. So when I was under the clippers Ming ended up talking about food with two other people. His assistant had already eaten, he hadn't. No time, work called. He likes dim sum.
Who doesn't?
But he does not know very many people, and consequently seldom heads out to a tea-house.

Which begged the question how he was EVER going to meet a woman. He averred that women would probably not like him, modern girls like men who can show off their means. Not so, one of the others said, what mattered most was a true heart. But where to find? If he never went out to dim sum, nor parties, he would never meet someone.
Followed a description of steak, which was on a sizzling platter. Plus soups, homecooking, and pizza.

Why, just look at so-and-so (a gentleman outside my field of vision who was waiting his turn), HE still woos the ladies. And he might just get lucky one of these days. You have to take risks, and eat well. Some women find food way more important than material goods, and at least you'll get fed, she might even bring you lunch, seeing as you're so hardworking!

After this philosophical high, the conversation veered back into dim sum.
As I knew it would.

Did I already mention that my mouth was watering?



Care to guess what I had for lunch?



I finished the afternoon by spending an hour at a calligrapher's studio, listening in while he gave a lesson to an older Taiwanese woman, who uses too much pressure on the curves rather than letting the stroke guide the brush. Which is why the swooping overhand toward the right and down shows fibres but scant ink.
Additionally, like many people, she does the vertical trunk before the horizontal component through which it cuts. A logical mistake. First stroke, at top, horizontal. One could assume that the vertical which is attached should next be written, but one should instead make the box-like part immediately underneath the topmost vertical. Only then proceed to the vertical. Again, lightly, do not press. It is not heavy.

He couldn't find a seal-script version of 卷 in the dictionary he was consulting at the time. So I pulled a copy of the 印雕辭典 which I saw in his book shelf out. Yes, the character was in that one. Alas, only one example in 篆書。 One likes to have more for comparison. But all three of us failed to find it in the first dictionary.
As a phonetic element is also occurs in 捲、箞、棬、and 錈。
Which gave us plenty of fine variations.

As you can see, one can play around with curves and line-tension inside the confines of the space. It's an attractive vibrant character.
Just not represented in all seal-script dictionaries.


Both the stick-inks used in brush calligraphy and the vermilion paste for seal impressions have their own smell, an evocative aroma. What better way to occupy a gloomy afternoon than drinking in their fragrance?



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