{"id":2087,"date":"2025-01-01T08:15:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-01T08:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/birdandocean.com\/studio\/?post_type=fw-portfolio&#038;p=2087"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:21:17","slug":"kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch","status":"publish","type":"fw-portfolio","link":"https:\/\/birdandocean.com\/studio\/project\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\/","title":{"rendered":"Kowloon Park stillness &#8211; a sketch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;.text_black_indent&#8221;]<strong>April 6, 2013, mid-afternoon: Kowloon Park stillness<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On one of those strange days when spring is unbearable, under a heavy, overcast sky, in Kowloon Park the sculpture garden lay like a concrete lawn, wet and cold, its colors all reduced to silvers, blacks, and grays. The sculptures were muted. The thick air had quieted their steel and stone voices, softened their edges so that finally they appeared mere shapes, only unusual shapes left standing out in the cold. Rain threatened, light rain, a drizzle, but only threatened, never fell. From time to time, though, blasts of wind swept through the park spraying cold water from trees and bushes into the air, which shocked the skin and made the park benches too wet to sit or even to lean on.<\/p>\n<p>I brushed water from off of a bench, spread out a plastic shopping bag, sat and watched. From surfaces of gray buildings standing against gray sky my eyes slid to surfaces of gray trees standing in gray concrete, finally came to rest on the gray space where the sculptures were silent.<\/p>\n<p>Some distance away a woman practiced Chinese exercises, slowly, carefully. Another woman, farther away, was doing the same, infinitesimally slowly moving, still almost as a sculpture, an endless, endlessly patient, silent meditation.<\/p>\n<p>Gusts of wind swept past. I put my head down to avoid the spray of cold and wet then saw on my coat an ant was crawling, a tiny red ant scurrying about on the surface of my coat, protected from the wind and the rain by the bench and by my arm, going through its frenetic, seemingly aimless activity, searching for some lost thing. I started to blow the little insect away but the silly thing wandered inside my coat pocket, where it was impossible to extract it without squishing the harmless creature. So I left it alone. Maybe it will find its lost object in there, alongside my mobile phone.<\/p>\n<p>Against the sculpture garden&#8217;s monochrome dull-colored space only a single large tree stood out, an ancient banyan growing nearby, its multiple trunks thrust straight into the ground, solid and confident, its canopy spread thick, proud and luxuriant overhead, its myriad small dark leaves quivering in the cold air, a vibrant living creature.<\/p>\n<p>But the gray and the monotone wore on me until at last I left the park and wandered through Tsim Sha Tsui, through the narrow winding lanes, drifting wherever my feet led me, a desultory, seemingly pointless activity, searching for something, I don\u2019t know what. Tsim Sha Tsui is itself a sculpture garden. The buildings stand in the cold like the sculptures in the park, silent, backs turned to the wind and rain. Still, even in Tsim Sha Tsui there are some warm pockets to crawl into. I pushed open the door of a small Cantonese restaurant and as the raucous noise of life hit me I thought, \u201c\u5c31\u662f\u70ed\u95f9\u7684\u610f\u601d\u201d, \u201cThis is what renao means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRenao\u201d (\u70ed\u95f9) describes a noisy, exciting atmosphere, a boisterous place, lively and fun, just the opposite of a rainy and quiet spring day.<\/p>\n<p>The clamor in the caf\u00e9 erases stillness. Noise crowds the air, sizzle of cooking, clash of dishes and cutlery, two dozen conversations blending and rising and falling like calliope music. Waitresses, cooks, managers, everybody&#8217;s talking. Customers are squeezing past tables, past each other, past waitresses delivering food on trays held high above their heads. Somebody&#8217;s singing. Who&#8217;s that singing? Is the cook singing? A great billow of steam rises together with a whoosh of water boiling and then in the middle of all of this suddenly unexpectedly my mobile phone rings.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"featured_media":2090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"redux-templates_full_width","fw-portfolio-category":[17],"fw-portfolio-tag":[],"class_list":["post-2087","fw-portfolio","type-fw-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","fw-portfolio-category-featured"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kowloon Park stillness - a sketch - Bird and Ocean<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/birdandocean.com\/studio\/project\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kowloon Park stillness - a sketch - Bird and Ocean\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; el_class=&#8221;.text_black_indent&#8221;]April 6, 2013, mid-afternoon: Kowloon Park stillness On one of those strange days when spring is unbearable, under a heavy, overcast sky, in Kowloon Park the sculpture garden lay like a concrete lawn, wet and cold, its colors all reduced to silvers, blacks,...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/birdandocean.com\/studio\/project\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bird and Ocean\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T08:21:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/birdandocean.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/KowloonPark1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1290\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"526\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kowloon Park stillness - a sketch - Bird and Ocean\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/KowloonPark1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-01T08:15:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-21T08:21:17+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/KowloonPark1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/KowloonPark1.png\",\"width\":1290,\"height\":526},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/project\\\/kowloon-park-stillness-a-sketch\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/birdandocean.com\\\/studio\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kowloon Park stillness &#8211; 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