There is no Chinese word for FEAST. As Kimho explains, the calligraphy combines four characters: living, colour, vibrant, aroma.

“When you combine these four it means something like ‘things coming together’”, says Kimho, “in other words life is more enjoyable and meaningful with this combination. That is the closest we come to FEAST”

Read more about that in Found in Translation, and while you are at it, check out the other intriguing insights in stories of our supporters and sponsors.

Thanks to all of you again for taking the chance to support something very different. Food, film and music in a public place – as one member of the audience said with a big grin on his face: “It’s not a combination I would have dreamed of. But do you know something, it really works!”

“The culture of a city shows in the kind of energy you find in public spaces” Peter Casebow, goodpractice.net

Kimho, Filip and Found concentrate on fast and sometime furious rhythms of a piece called Quarrelling Ducks. No hard feelings on a sunny afternoon in Castle Street as you can see by clicking on this picture for the rest of the photo spread. Then make your way to Feast in the Eating Place.

We are meeting in the Modern Art Gallery café because this is her favourite place to eat in Edinburgh – fresh salads with raw vegetables are an intriguing taste for the owner of a Chinese take away restaurant – and the symbol of food is important.

For Fooklan Szeto believes that subtle changes in food and fashions of east and west show that we are moving, however slowly, to a world of converging cultures where people will live in greater understanding. “Hong Kong is the best example of how Chinese and western influences already combine,” she says, “In Scotland, Chinese food adopts a style to suit western tastes and western cooking now uses spices like ginger and Chinese mushrooms.”

Fooklan and Kimho met through music – Fooklan sings in the Edinburgh Cantonese Opera – and since then she has become an enthusiastic supporter of his innovative efforts to promote intercultural understanding through live performances and workshops. Tea ceremonies (at our Out of the Blue filming session and Castle Street as well as Kimho’s other public performances for iMAP) invariably happen as if by magic thanks to Mrs Szeto’s quiet organisation.

A fusion of influences

But art is her greatest interest and her knowledge of Chinese folk art also influences the stage setting of Kimho’s performances. This cultural blend comes naturally to Fooklan who arrived in Edinburgh 30 years ago already open to new ideas from the West. During the 1960s she was an avid reader of the radical Chinese Students Weekly, full of music, film, literature and politics from the West. Students were part of a passionate campaign for democracy and the movement for change led to the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) established in 1974 to clean up corruption in the Hong Kong government.

By that time Fooklan and her husband were beginning to raise a family in Scotland. Laughing, she apologises for occasional difficulties with the English language. She says the language barrier is still the biggest problem for first generation Chinese in Edinburgh. “But not for the second generation. My sons are both totally fused with the culture here.” Ironically they also have an appreciation of traditional Chinese culture lost to mainland China during the cultural revolution.

In this context, the meaning of FEAST gains special significance. There is no such word in Chinese. The calligraphy of the banner Fooklan provided for the FEAST combines four characters: living, colour, vibrant, aroma.

“When you combine these four it means something like ‘things coming together’”, says Kimho, “in other words life is more enjoyable and meaningful with this combination. That is the closest we come to FEAST”

FEAST: living, colour, vibrant and aroma in Castle Street on August 30

Our thanks to Mrs Szeto, of the Wok Inn, Newhaven Road for support and delicious tea!

We’re sitting in Peter Casebow’s smart new office in Dundee Street talking about the changing world of business. The view from his boardroom window shows just how quickly Scotland’s capital is growing with the latest development along the Union Canal.
In seven years since Peter moved from the Royal Bank of Scotland he has seen Edinburgh’s boom reflected in a rapidly expanding service sector. *goodpractice.net is a good example with 170 clients across 26 countries and a recent expansion in Canada.

Clients logging on to GP’s online training resources tend to be managers and leaders looking for answers, help and support with their management and leadership challenges. “We are here to help people perform better.”

Increasingly, Peter says, managers must be able to understand social attitudes of a more culturally diverse workforce who are likely to come from across Europe as well as the Far East. “Basically it is always about people. Whatever business you are in, your ability to grow and develop in the outside world depends on how well people are able to function within your organisation.”

Body language and other essentials

Good briefing is essential to understanding subtle differences in intercultural communication. And differences are not always so subtle.

“I recently heard a brilliant example from a British Army officer stationed in Afghanistan who has learned that Afghan people display trust by taking you by the hand and holding your hand as you walk and talk. That is so totally alien to our culture, especially the macho culture of a soldier, but it is vital to understand the importance of such gestures in building trust and empathy.”

*goodpractice.net literature is full of intriguing intercultural insight. But ultimately there is no substitute for meeting and mingling with people to overcome stereotypes and prejudices. As former head of communications strategy for RBS, Peter Casebow quickly learned to assess the culture of a local branch by the human welcome he received in the front office. “What kind of greeting did I get? Did people look up and smile?”

He believes people make the same judgement about cities. “In a sense the culture of a city shows in the kind of energy you find in public spaces. If the city centre is full of life and diversity that must help to create a sense of community and better understanding because it is a place where people are happy to meet and mingle.”

Thanks to *goodpractice.net for sponsoring equipment and materials. In fact their allweather cover was so effective the sun shone on Castle Street for the FEAST performance!

The sun shone, the tea and music flowed and some of the audience just had to get up and dance when the Chinese percussion really got going.

FEAST drew a crowd of all ages to the Eating Place and if you didn’t manage to get there on Thursday never mind because we will soon be posting lots more pictures with film and music to recapture the atmosphere of the afternoon – though you will have to imagine smells of sizzling ostrich and beef burgers from neighbouring stalls for yourself.

Meanwhile, thanks to all those who helped to make the event a great success – not least the Malaysian band from the festival at the other end of Castle Street who came to listen while FOUND, Kimho and Filip were playing. And special thanks to Tristan Maclean, from Edinburgh City Centre Management, for all his hard work setting up stalls and tables to create a stage for the performance in the middle of a food market.

FEAST didn’t have so far to go: just a shortish walk to Edinburgh Farmers’ Market to find Puddledub Pork who kindly donated some of their finest for our dim sum filming session. But Tom Mitchell (on the right), who runs the family farm business in West Fife, was amused to hear this – true – story (which we found thanks to Googling the words Tom, Mitchell and Clentrie and with a click here it is). It adds to his already impressive reputation for producing the best bacon in Scotland.

For Tom, who is chair of Fife Farmers’ Markets, small-scale farming offers a chance to concentrate on quality at a time when people are increasingly interested in where food comes from and how it is produced. “A few years ago the food industry was in a terrible state and farmers were going bust, we simply couldn’t compete with cheap competition from abroad.”

Puddledub specialise in fresh pork, bacon and sausages though Tom says he also has Chinese customers who want not just belly but trotters and ears, “the bits and pieces we tend to waste.” [Editor says we'll be asking Eric Wun the chef how he cooks those].

Farmers’ Markets offer the choice of good local food but they still have to compete with the relentless marketing power of supermarkets.

So Tom likes the idea of events such as FEAST adding live music to the fun of the food market. “I often think we are not so much in the food business as the entertainment business,” he says, “A lot of people see going to the Farmers’ Market as something to do on Saturdays, a place to be sociable and meet friends.”

You can find Puddledub Pork at Farmers’ Markets throughout the Central Belt every weekend and at Edinburgh Farmers Market on first and third Saturdays of the month. More on the Puddledub website.

A mix of fresh chicken, pork and spices ready for the wok at the FEAST filming session in Out of the Blue

As it happens Shaw’s stall of fresh game and cured meats and sausages was right next to the FEAST stage for the last appearance of the family business at the Eating Place in Castle Street. With a season of big food fairs just about to begin, the Cumbrian firm is now concentrating on Farmer’s Markets nearer home in the North West.

Barry Shaw, a traditional butcher who makes a point of sourcing fresh meat from local Cumbrian farms, set up his business six years ago. But there’s a multicultural flavour to products ranging from pancetta and Parma style ham, to pastrami and salami which he learned to make in Australia when he was working there nine years ago. Not to mention the very British black pudding – with and without fat.

New ideas are always tried on the family first and the three Shaw children don’t hesitate to say what they think. What’s the favourite? “Sausages always go down well,” says Barry’s wife, Angela.

We’ll miss them in Castle Street but you can visit the shop and buy online from the Shaw meats website.

Kimho arrived at the FOUND HQ last Friday laden down with bags full of Chinese percussion: he’d brought with him all manner of Chinese cymbals, gongs and wood blocks plus a large wok which is also to be hit. He then set about teaching us ‘Quarreling Ducks’ a piece in which Kev takes on the role of Big Duck, Bobby and Kimho are Small Ducks and Ziggy and I hold down the rhythm (because it’s by far the easiest part!)

We’ve put together a 30 minute set which includes the ‘Quarreling Ducks’, plus music based on the material we gathered at the dim sum evening at Out Of The Blue, a piece from Kimho Ip and Filip Davidse’s brand new album for yang chin and saxophone Runaway Horses and one piece from our forthcoming album. We’re looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather will hold and it will stay dry.

As previewed in the List. Photo by Michelle Kasprzak.

Thanks to Donald Reid food editor who contacted us last week to ask how we would describe FEAST: film, music or theatre?

To be honest, that threw us a little. FEAST could be any or all of these things. As it happens it looks great in the film section. Page 27. Go get a copy of the List, this is the last of the weekly guides to fringe and festival.