After a few days in the smoggy city of Shanghai, China it was time for me to head down to Xiamen, a city of 5 million on an island between mainland China and Taiwan. Its name translates as The Gate to China so its no wonder that many nations made it their own over the centuries.
Three years ago my friend Runar along with his wife Elin and two sons did exactly that, packed up home in Iceland and moved to Xiamen and opened up the HEIMA Bistro and continued to work on music and art in China. They have been performing together all over China for the past three years and this weekend was no different, as they played at the Xiamen Daily Festival in one of the cities biggest parks. Runar, who also interprets his songs with photographs that are pressed on glass, was offered to put up his work alongside playing at the festival, which had an estimated 50,000 visitors during the day. With each song being represented in a photo with lyrics both in English and Chinese, Runar and Elin played 12 songs during their set with Polish born Asia explaining in Chinese what the songs meant to the crowd (and she is also the main hostess at HEIMA). After the show, Common Talk Weekly, an English language paper in the city, did and interview with Runar and Elin and since their photographer had vanished I took on the gig, landing my first published photo in China and making it even better, it’s one of my friends.
Sunday night and the show must go on, playing at the Nihao gallery, one of the premier galleries in the city, which Runar and Elin also helped turn into a concert venue. It was here I got my first taste of Mijo, some sort of hot sweet sake type thing.
Finally, after a long weekend Runar, Elin and the artwork were home at HEIMA ready for the next adventure. As for me its time to get Big In Japan.
So enjoy the photos from the shows and around town and yes its a snake and a scorpion in the wine.
