entertainment
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  Where do we come from? gouache & ink, diptych on Kyro, 70 x 100 cm, 1968, unsigned Inscribed on the back: D'où venons-nous <><>
T'ang is born in 1927, in Amoy, now Xiamen, an island located in the Formosa Strait, along the Fujian coast, a province of Southern China. Amoy is one of the ports that opens to trade after the Opium wars and falls back into apathy when Hong Kong becomes the gateway to China. At the start of the 20th Century, the island is still green and peaceful, basking in the sunny climate of the tropic of Cancer. Time is running slowly, paced by the Taoist calendar and the arrival of boats. The economy is based on fishing, boat making, and the maritime trade. Every one has a cousin or a brother striving to "make a fortune" somewhere else in the world. Peking is far away and the Fujian look out to the open sea. The islanders go to the great isle of Formosa, now Taiwan, to visit relatives or sell goods. On several occasions, T'ang escorts his father there. Like all Chinese children, he learns by heart the words of the Daodejing, the book of the way by Laozi. Superstition and devotion are found in many of the rites designed to heal the sick, exorcise demons and honor ancestors or deities. Somehow, every human activity is attached to a ritual.. In 1937, when the war starts in Asia, T'ang's father takes his family to Cholon, the Chinese district of Saigon, in Indochina. This crossing is T'ang's first lengthy trip. Here is what he wrote to his brother thirty years later: "I remember stories told about my childhood. It seems that I used to get lost in the crowd, and perhaps, something inside is drawing me towards the unknown. I don't need the sense of security that appeals to others". Following his arrival, he joins the Southern Chinese Communities School and befriends a young girl named Ming Qing. In 1942, Ming Qing drowns while crossing a canal. This is the first tragic event in T'ang's life. One year later, he attends the French school in Saigon, as a serious and hard-working student. By this time, he is already drawing pencil portraits on the pages of his French-Chinese dictionary. Then, he also underlines a few words in red ink: peintre (painter), peintresse (woman painter), peinturage (peinturing), peinture (paint). His grandfather, son of a member of the imperial administration, is teaching him calligraphy according to the cursive script, the academic and regular standard.
(continued tomorrow)
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T A O t e C H I N G 
f o r
t y
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Return is the movement of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. All things are born of being. Being is born of non-being. —
translation by S.
MITCHELL
Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of being. Being is born of not being. — translation by GIA-FU
FENG
Return is the motion of the Tao. Softening is its function. All things in the cosmos arise from being. Being arises from non-being. — translation by C
MULLER
Motion and Use The motion of the Way is to return; The use of the Way is to accept; All things come from the Way, And the Way comes from nothing. — translation by P.
MEREL
Reversal That which is converse is the action of a guide. That which is weak is the use of a guide. The cosmos and the ten-thousand natural kinds arise from 'existing.' 'Existing' arises from 'non-existing.' — translation by C.
HANSEN
The movement of the Way is a return; In weakness lies its major usefulness. From What-is all the world of things was born But What-is sprang in turn from What-is-not. — translation by R. B. BLAKEY
Reversion is the action of dao. In dao the only motion is a return; and the one useful quality is named soft [or polite] gentleness, So polite or weak gentleness [or humility] is the function of dao. The creatures and things of this world come from being. And being from not-yet-being. — translation by T.
BYRN
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BEING AND NOT BEING The motion of nature is cyclic and returning. Its way is to yield, for to yield is to become. All things are born of being; being is born of non-being. — translation by S.
ROSENTHAL
OMITTING UTILITY The Tao proceeds by correlative curves, and its might is in weakness. All things arose from the Teh, and the Teh budded from the Tao. — translation by A.
CROWLEY
Movement of the Way Returning is the movement of the Way. Gentleness is the method of the Way. All things in the world come from being, and being comes from non-being. — translation by .S.
BECK
Serenity is its ultimate function. Everything rises from existence. Existence rises from non-existence. — translation by C.
GANSON
Yielding is the way of the Tao. The ten thousand things are born of Being and Being is born of Nonbeing. — translation by T.
McCARROLL
Weakness is how the Tao works. All of creation is born from substance. Substance is born of nothing-ness. — translation by J. McDONALD
The
movement of the Tao
By contraries proceeds; And weakness marks the course Of Tao's mighty deeds. All things under heaven sprang from It as existing (and named); that existence sprang from It as non-existent (and not named). — translation by JAMES
LEGGE
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