TAIWAN｜“Tea in the Park”

TAIWAN｜“Tea in the Park”

お茶と書道の新しい領域を切り開く、台湾の旅

PAPERSKYでは3回目の特集となる「台湾」、そして2019年のオレゴン特集以来の海外特集です。今回、注目したのは台湾の「お茶文化」。 お茶そのもの、そしてお茶の時間は、人々を結びつける不思議な力があります。そこには会話が生まれ、アイデアを共有し、心地良く質の高い時間を過ごすことができ、そして自分の内面とのコミュニケーションにも良い影響をもたらすものです。台湾では、古くから公園でお茶を飲む文化があります。その新旧のお茶の文化を紹介するとともに、登場してもらうのは書道をベースにした8人の台湾人アーティストです。また、旅のゲストは伝統的な書を現代的な表現で追求する、新城大地郎さんを日本から迎え、お茶と書道の新しい領域を切り開く人々と一緒に “Tea in the Park”。その時間が、まだ知らなかった台湾を見せてくれるはずです。

 ＜ゲストプロフィール＞

新城大地郎 / Daichiro Shinjo

1992年、沖縄県宮古島生まれ。アーティスト。静岡文化芸術大学を卒業後、2017年の初個展「Surprise」を皮切りに本格的な活動を開始。禅や沖縄の精神文化を背景に、オールドファッションな書道を飛び越え、形式にとらわれない軽やかで、身体性、空間性を伴ったコンテンポラリーな表現を追求する。

Taiwan Love & Tea

Taiwan has always been a second home and a place I love dearly for its heartful people, rich and diversified culture, stunning nature and of course it’s awesome gastronomic culture. This is Papersky’s third Taiwan issue! The first, featured chef Masayo Funakoshi and Taiwanese ‘Cooking’ (2015). The next spotlighted outdoor brand, Yamatomichi’s, Akira Natsume as we hiked & biked our hearts out while exploring the islands dynamic outdoor field with a ‘Hike & Bike’ trip (2019). This issue our theme is ‘Tea in the Park’ and our guest is young artist-calligrapher Daichiro Shinjo. Join us for a walk around Taipei as we sip tea under Banyan, Cypress and Rain Trees in the city’s local parks while enjoying conversations with Taiwanese artists. But first I would like to share a true story as to how this issue came to light.

While working on a Papersky Store pop up shop in Taipei I had the good fortune to catch a bit of Corona. I know most people would be bummed out or even terrified to catch Corona in a home away from home. But in Taiwan my friends as well as the Taiwanese government took great care of me. My hospital, hotel and food expenses were covered, and I was fortunate to be able to stay an extra five days in a country I love. The slow time, kind care and great Taiwanese food gave me time to think about what made Taiwan such a special place. I came up with these key words: PARKS, ART & CALIGRAPHY and TEA.

Then with my Corona down time I began to think through how I may be able to put these Key Words together to create a Papersky feature story. The answer came to me while looking out the window of my room. I saw in the park a stunningly beautiful Banyan trees. I thought to myself, with a remaining three more days of isolation, what I would like to do once I left my room. I imagined myself taking a trip to a local Tea Stand and with tea and some black Taiwanese peanuts in hand heading to the park and sitting on a bench. I continued to daydream – and thought who I would like to have sit next to me on the bench. I wanted to ask my imaginary friend about the current state of Taiwan, Tea, Plants, Art and the Future. I thought if the person was an artist, they would be able to shed some light on these topics that to me were so TAIWANESE. And thus our ‘Tea in the Park’ edition was born, and a daydream once again brought to life.