A Kiwi Cellist in China

The life & times, ups & downs, of a Kiwi / Australian cellist in Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Of Legal DVD's and Mafia Coffee

When everything is alien any small comfort is appreciated ten fold. My small comfort came yesterday in the form of a TV unceremoniously delivered to my lounge. Despite there being no English channels here there's something strangely re-assuring about this heavy lump of technology sitting in a room which previously was home to an uncomfortable couch, a locked cupboard, and a lot of dust.

This TV was to lead me to one of the not-so-hidden pleasures of expats and locals alike all over China, and especially in Shenzhen: DVD's.

So far I've bought about 50, which apparently is quite average for a western musician's first visit to this particular shop. I've also purchased a DVD player which is capable of everything but making my morning cup of coffee (more about that later). The shop assistant assured me that all of these were legally manufactured DVD's, even the ones with obvious spelling errors like "Great Vilinists of the Bell Telephone Hour". This is no-doubt the reason this particular shop was on the 5th floor of an unmarked building through an unmarked door out the back of someone’s living room... all that was missing was a secret knock.

The range of titles available is incredible. I have beautiful archival footage of Paul Toutellier, Zara Nelsova, Richter, Oistrak, Gould, documentaries by Simon Rattle and the BBC, materclasses by Greenhouse, operas by Tan Dun, concertos by Rostropovich. For the Australian readers there was even a Ten Tenors DVD although for some reason I neglected to buy that one... So for the time being the humid night air is now penetrated by the oh-so-soothing voice of Lord Clark and his BBC documentaries on Western Civilization. This almost makes up for the lack of a kitchen...

With my fine Brazilian coffee still sitting in my bag unused my search for a decent cup is gaining momentum. I took a stroll through a series of markets yesterday and stumbled upon a place called "Besta Coffee Original Making Happy Place" or something along those lines. There was a billboard outside with a photo of something calling itself a Cappuccino. It had enough frothy white peaks to pass for a Queensland surf beach and a squiggle of something reddish black on top that was as likely to be red-bean paste as chocolate. What was more interesting were the numerous Mercedes parked outside and the uniformed guard at the door. On close inspection all the cars had little hammer and sickle flags in the windows and official looking number plates. I decided not to venture in for fear of upsetting the local Russian mafia contingent. The billboard also had the price: 25 Yuan, or about AU$4. Now this is expensive coffee even for Australia. To put it in perspective here, a good meal at a well-appointed Chinese restaurant costs about 8 Yuan - That coffee could feed me for 3 days!

Tomorrow I'll meet Hannah, another Australian expat, at a place called "Italian Best Coffee" that purportedly serves Illy. Hopefully I'll have more luck there, but for now I'll have to settle for the hot sweet soymilk that everyone seems to have for breakfast.

Posted By charlesbrooks at 10:24 AM 0 comments

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