Art Zen Village and leaving China

Richard Bock

Art Zen Village

So…back in Michigan once again.   I will explain a little about our leaving China since I somewhat dropped off of media when I arrived at an intentional community there, and I’ve been slow in my coming back in other ways than physically.

First of all…we weren’t ready to leave China, although we weren’t convinced we would stay there long term either.  We decided to leave the resort after 3 months of negotiations and not feeling like we were making much progress on the pool...cultural differences, language challenges, and ungrounded visions.

When we left the resort, we went back to the intentional community we had visited a couple of times, called Art Zen Village (https://artzenvillage.com/) and decided to stay.  Our friend Richard Bock… a long term Harbin  hot springs (birthplace of some aquatic bodywork) resident and aquatic bodyworker was living there with his new Chinese wife, Ki Ki.  We had plans to build a pool there with him, had the details all worked out, then long story short, the new government started investigating why there were so many foreigners living here among other things, and so we decided to leave.

                           

 Art Zen was a mix of Chinese individuals and families, and about 1/3 foreign residents and visiting teachers and students from Argentina, US, England, Iran, Greece, Poland, Romania and more.  For 7 years or so it was about 4-6 members until 6 months ago when over 20 folks came in from another community, so there were growing pains, but willingness to work it out.

Piao Piao was the founder and owner of the land and his vision was living in harmony and being happy. There was meditation, mountains, and rivers to swim in, art and tea ceremonies, a pizza oven and a  geodesic dome, music, workshops, dogs, kittens, children, good people, good conversations and beautiful connections.  For me, it was an opportunity to live in community, my first time besides a bunch of young punks in a couple of houses in Detroit in the early 90's.  I liked it, I could see the challenges and frustrations and where I had to work on finding balance, but I liked being in community.  I enjoyed the people that lived there and the visitors.  Sometimes there were exchanges with language and sometimes with smiles and actions.  Overall, it was a nice place to be.

So…no more community in China, politics and governmental control dictated that the “brain washing” foreigners weren't really welcome.  A sad day...perhaps possibilities to return, but most have moved on with their lives, including us.  There is too much uncertainty to live there.  And the same language and cultural differences didn’t disappear, although they were much softer and easier there.

 More Art Zen Photos

Coming "home"

"I'm going home. she said.

"Where's home to you?" he asked.

"My house?" she said confused and laughed a little.

"Home isn't a place," he paused, "It's a color, a song, a scent, a feeling, a person, but it's not a place."   

~excert from a book I'll never write #6 (via@pixelateprincess-WHI)

We met someone studying at Polytech University in Hong Kong.  He is exploring the idea of “home” for his thesis, and we had many lengthy conversations about that topic.  He is American, but has lived outside of the US for manyyears.  So, in returning to Michigan, I have been exploring what home is. Is home what is familiar? Is home where I grew up?  Is it the house I lived in for 17 years, although I haven’t lived there for 19 years now? Is it St. Clair Shores, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is it the US? Is it where family and friends are? Although I now have friends all over the world.   I know it can be anywhere. Some say home is where the heart is, so wherever you are can be home. Or is home where we return to when we die?

I have had difficulty being “home”.   First of all, I feel 
like I landed like an albatross!  Almost 2 weeks of jet lag walking around zombie like, wondering if I put my toilet paper in the bin or the bowl, can I drink the water, getting used to the new weather,  the new, yet not new, food.... re-remembering all of the things i forgot that i forgot about!  It's all so familiar, yet 5 months is enough time to forget things exist and you have to get used to them again.




Then there was the sloth stage...still tired,
wondering where I was and what I was doing with my life.  Then I remembered reverse culture shock, in many ways the same as culture shock when you go somewhere else.  No one wants to hear you talk about your experience all the time, you might feel bored, have mood swings, unrest, frustration, anger, depression, alienation, you have homesickness for the place and people you left, your relationships have changed, you have changed, you are feeling alientated and hyper-critical about your home culture, you feel like your experience is slipping away from you...

I did a sound and movement workshop, specifically Authentic movement and I moved through being a worm underground into a caterpillar who went into a cocoon and then came out as a butterfly which was the beginning of moving from slothdom into movement in my life.  I also did a family constellation the next day, which was very opening. (ask me about it if you don't know what it is, it is a beautiful process)... so now I feel that almost 4 weeks after physically arriving, I am actually beginning to arrive, so please pardon my slowness and tentativeness with plans, etc..it is all just part of the process of coming "home".