Chinese tissue paper is unforgiving. Therefore, very good Chinese artists are forced to save their painting meticulously in mind and to transfer it onto paper as a copy of this with a skilled hand. The feelings they associate with this are described in words using Chinese calligraphy. European painting, on the other hand, is completely different. It wants to express the message in the picture itself, which, depending on the era, is more or less linked to painting specifications and viewing habits. In order to learn this, the Chinese landscape architect Xuan Tan is now touring the museums of Europe for three months. She dreams of combining her extremly strict training by her father Kaiwen Tan with something completely unusual for Chinese people and thereby of developing her own style. Even her grandfather Haiping Chen was considered to be one of the greatest artists of his time in Chendu, where the panda breeding station is located, although he spent ten years in prison during the Cultural Revolution. At least that’s what I got by with my basic knowledge of English during the four long evenings of conversation she spent in our house.

 drawn by Kaiwen Tan, Xuan's father

What struck me was, how painful it is still for her to disengage from her parent’s traditional rigid idea of a Chinese family with a clear role as a daughter. Learning Mandarin, the official language of China, as a six-year-old girl on the balcony in the fresh and cold morning air was a drill that my wife and I find hard to imagine our own children doing.

drawn by Kaiwen Tan, Xuan's father

At the beginning of October this year, Xuan Tan, my wife and I ran into each other during the tour at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and went back to Berlin Central Station together, time enough for a first, long conversation. We found out that she was the same age as our adult children. We exchanged email addresses and stayed informed about Ms. Tan’s travel experiences in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal. She accepted our invitation to come to Crailsheim for four nights in the second week of November. Before she would meet other artists in Munich again and would then begin her journey home.

A retired couple of teachers can’t help abandoning teaching. Thus she learnt something about Advent. There was a wreath, Christmas fairs and a typical German dinner with bread, butter, cheese and sausages. Crailsheim has an Asian grocery store. We went shopping together. Xuan is an excellent cook. For three evenings we dined quite lavishly like in a Chinese restaurant, sometimes with chopsticks.

In Ellwangen we showed her the “Sieger-Köder-Museum“ and the Schönenberg pilgrimage church with its landscape-like cradle and explained everything to her. After that we visited the “Würth Museum Forum 2“ in Gaisbach, where she was particularly deeply impressed by the current exhibition of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, then the center of Schwäbisch Hall with its “Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum“ and the “Johanniter Church“, currently with the “Rimini-Altar“. Having a Turkish lunch there, it was important to me that she could see that, despite all conflicts reported in the news, a peaceful coexistence between cultures is possible and that you don’t need a dictatorial structure to maintain social order.

drawn by Xuan Tan : peace  love  hope

Now she’s gone again and leaves a certain emptiness behind, which we can hopefully bridge a little with email and WeChat.

for my wife and me drawn by Xuan Tan

Xuan Tan's friends on WeChat can see it only.