I’ve just woken up from from dead sleep. It had been over 43 hours since I’d had some. It’s dark now outside and Harry potter lights up the screens above and Russia is probably below. The foam earplugs are in and I’m typing to the muffled sounds of a jet engine and an american and a german, discussing rather loudly what they do for a living behind me in row 39. One’s an architect and the other I don’t know as I’ve now added an extra layer of protection in the form of music on top of the foam mufflers. The first song in my headphones is “beaming husband’ by Goetic. I surprisingly perhaps, rarely listen to music. When I do, it’s a sign of me slowing down, sadness or content. The spaces in between the often mayhem of my everyday pace and I don’t seem to find them very often. Something I’ve been feeling I’d like to change but that will already have to wait for 2013. I and all of the other passengers are on our way to Frankfurt to connect to the next parts of our journeys. I suppose most of us to be with our loved ones for Christmas. Tonight I fall into the arms of Thomas in Sonderborg, Denmark for his family christmas gathering due tomorrow, then Thomas and I head back to ol’ blighty for our Christmas and reconnections with my family. The 24th December will be the first time in nearly 3 months on home turf. I return a with a view of the East greatly different to the one I had before I left. This trip will turn out to have been a huge positive shift in my life. From now on, I can look over at China’s huge land mass and see a bright light in Hangzhou, a place of great inspiration, full of new friends and a future for me in it.

I don’t know how and where to start as I really have a lot to catch you up on, so perhaps I’ll begin with the last conversation I had in China in the car on the way to the airport. It clearly identifies to me that this was not a fleeting visit but more the beginning of my creative dialogue with China, through Hangzhou. The conversation was with Joe, the man I’d pretty much spent all of my 6 weeks in China with and who amongst being many other wonderful things, is a journalist at the Dushukuibao (City Express local Newspaper). The 2nd largest local paper in China with 1.3 million readers and a few of who’m got in touch with us to be part of the 24 hour filmed day in Hangzhou (on my birthday). I will just say now that Joe was awarded for his work on this project by his boss and vey well and rightly deserved too. We were discussing what Professor Chen (who is the head of curation and public art faculty at the University) had suggested at dinner last night in that I make this a regular yearly occurence for Hangzhou. My first verbal reaction was that perhaps it was too much for me to take on every year but a part of me instinctively felt he was right, that the Hangzhou story doesn’t end here.

My next thought was perhaps a much longer term project involving photographers, documenting the change in the city and it’s rapid development. This connects in part to the theme of the song I just wrote in Hangzhou ‘Xizi She Knows’ (previously known as #heapsong5).

So… getting back to the car. I was saying to Joe how I’d really love to make a film of collected photographs from as far back as they go and encourage people in the city over the next 5 years to get involved and anyone who’s been to Hangzhou (including me) to be a part of it also. To focus on particular areas these next 5 years to document and feature in the film. One of the major areas is a place I loved called Mantoshan, which I’ve made reference to in Xizi She Knows. Hopefully this area, one of the last few older parts of town and it’s community will still be there intact in 5 years but it’s not at all a given. 5 years from now, we can really document the further growth of the city. That may not seem like a lot to see much of a difference but to give you an idea of the rate of change, Joe remembers fields all over, from just 10 years ago, where now the city sprawls with new roads, buildings and construction everywhere, much like the rest of China.

There would need to be a website created for the Hangzhou pics to be uploaded to and ask people to plot on a map where it was taken and from what direction as best they can. The website is a huge part of the main work and it can continue long after the project for residents beyond to share, update and enjoy. It could also be replicated in other cities once it’s been formulated. The film I can already see an early version in my head. From monochrome to full colour HD, the energy picking up throughout, buildings sprouting up out of fields as we traverse from dirt roads to multilane major roads. All animated using only still photography. Perhaps even ending panning out to the whole of china’s lights at night from satellite imagery if we can get it (or in after effects if we can’t) so you watch the glow of city lights in bloom. I’d write a piece for the Hangzhou symphony orchestra that be the soundtrack to the film. We of course need to find the lead team but in my head it already exists. I’m just out of the frying pan and already oiling up a huge wok!

I am going to come back to Hangzhou for the Lantern festival on 6th Feb which is the last official day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. I’ll do a talk and play the film we just shot in Hangzhou, and also play the song of ‘Xizi She Knows’ to those involved (there were probably about 300 people in the end!) and anyone else who fancies coming along too. We’re going to give away 1000 lanterns with the song and film to mark the occasion. I will also with Joe, talk a bit about the 5 year Hangzhou project and see who raises their hands to get involved.

Firstly though, I mustn’t get too carried away and finish what I started! Between Christmas and New Year I will mix Xizi She Knows at home. Then In the New Year will edit the music video and the film with Alex and Mike (which I also need to score!) complete with a version sung in Mandarin and 3DiCD digital artwork of pics from the big day. All this need to happen before release 23rd Jan! Crazy woman! My energy will come from imagining myself in the room with everyone involved watching and listening for the first time and seeing all the friends I made again.

Completely not expecting to be going back to England with these extremely warm feelings for a country that often gets rather bad press. I wanted to understand and discover my own version of China. My first and only other trip to mainland China was in 2007, when I spontaneously diverted from my writing trip to do a three song performance at a festival in Beijing. I was in Hong Kong when I got the request, so it was relatively down the road. I had a very different experience. Short, hurried and disconnected. Sadly I didn’t really garner much positive thought from my stay and wanted to not have that as my lasting impression of China. It’s not down to Beijing my experience wasn’t good but I didn’t have a local ‘Joe’ there to humanise it and show me around. I was a tourist in Beijing but I felt like part of a community in Hangzhou. I met poets, calligraphers, journalists, teachers, students, musicians, dancers, shop owners, street cleaners, you name it to an amazing group of older men and women doing traditional dancing in their spare time and organising fashion shows. These people included to the girls who worked in our little hotel bar and the every day contact with people just getting around the city, I can honestly say I didn’t meet one person I didn’t like. I found individualism thriving and people curious not nervous of my being there and really wanting to share their love for the city. The whole project was done with volunteers and the great generosity of the Dushukaibao local paper.

One of my most favourite characters I met is a city express reader who got in touch after reading one of my articles about the project, Zyang, a retired coal miner of 40 years. A complete lust for life in his new found spare time, he finds joy in dressing up in clothes made for and designed for him by his wife and performing all over the city with his flag or fan dancing or just quite simply, strutting his stuff for the crowd assembled around him wherever he goes. On his 60th birthday, same day as mine he waved a bright yellow huge flag in a pink silk embroidered shirt and white chinos triumphantly, gracefully, joyfully, seriously at an intersection of rush hour traffic for our cameras and that (minus the cameras) is quite normal for him! He’s having fun and it can’t help to make you smile to watch him.

There are obvious factors that I didn’t get along with. I couldn’t tweet, access my own tumblr blog or go on youtube for instance without using my UK iphone, due to the great firewall of China. Not only very frustrating and irritating to not feel free to roam as I please but as a result I ended up using my iphone for internet access which largely contributed toward a £5k phone bill! Why the phone company didn’t warn me of this ridiculously outrageous bill in the making I don’t know… but I am going to ask and try to get some of that back. That’s just plain stealing! anyway.. i digress…

The greatest gift is to know and relate to China without only the bias of international press. The sometimes awful fragments we hear about in our headlines, that often don’t seem to make it onto local news channels, are not representative of the China I experienced this time. It fills me with great hope for the future, as global power shifts from West to East this century. I have had many thoughts and eye opening discussions during my time but I will just say that knowing that bright, well informed, good hearted individuals such as professor Chen, Zhu Jian, Meta and Joe are all there, I believe things will work themselves out. I would also add Veronica, who was also with me for most of my trip as a volunteer translator (and pipa player in our film) to the list but she got into Brown University so will be in Rhode Island for a few years! Congrats! (we are in Skype birthday message video together if you have come across that rather odd thing I did also while I was in Hangzhou).

So in brief, what else did I get out of from my stay in Hangzhou? Well… I rediscovered (perhaps temporarily as I plunge back into the studio) the long lost social being in me, played some pool, laughed a lot, ate out every day and discovered a whole new cuisine (nothing like the chinese food I’ve had outside of China!), made some great friends, thought about my life and what I want out of it, wrote one of my favourite songs, curated a project outside of music involving 100s of local residents, directed a film, immersed myself into the culture and history of a place I haven’t ever done for longer than 2 weeks outside of London and want to help create a small cafe/ gallery/ come talks and music performance venue for Hangzhou. I also met during the end of my stay a painter called Yu Peng from Taiwan. He would have been the first painter I would have forked out a huge sum of money for one of his works had he not offered to give me a piece when I come back in February (which will make up for the phone bill!)! I am one lucky girl! I haven’t yet had a chance to see if any of his work is online but will look soon as I send you some links.

Well that’s about it, I haven’t caught up on my incredible trip to Bhutan and the Himalayas or India and the playing my first gigs there. Both of which I visited in November (in between 6 week Hangzhou residency) but we are now descending into Frankfurt and I wanted to get this updated a bit before family time sets in. So I will leave you with my lyrics for Xizi She Knows, which after a long discussion with Pan Wei (a very well respected poet from Hangzhou, who has graciously agreed to translate it due to in part a mutual love for Hangzhou, pic above of us discussing the lyric) are going to be translated into Mandarin! After all… the song is about Hangzhou at its core and would be a shame if nobody from there could understand it. Some things will definitely get lost in direct translation so Pang Wei will be expertly weaving in some of his own artistry to get the points across. It was very interesting to dissect a lyric fully to someone and realise what ‘tricks’ I use. I will do that later for you in writing but for now, here are just the lyrics which I hope speak to you also, even though most likely you are not from Hangzhou, as you can’t access my blog without a VPN for a start. Unlike poetry, it may need the music to make complete sense! I’ll add more photos more later.

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p.s. For the ultimate experience, come to Hangzhou and cycle through the city with it at high volume! Highly recommended by Hangzhou Heap.

The song Xizi She Knows, making of Neglected Space, surround sound mix of Neglected Space, 3DiCD digital artwork, film and music video will all be released 23rd January if all things go as planned so you’ll have to wait until then I’m afraid.

p.p.s If you’re looking for some Imogen Heap for a christmas playlist might I suggest ‘Just For Now’. Not exactly ‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’ I grant you but still… topical! x Lots of love! xxx