Catching up - Europalia China

Europalia takes place in Brussels every other year, but from Sept/October of odd years to Feb/March in even years, so in fact it is on every year. In October 2011, Europalia Brazil will be starting already, but at the beginning of 2010 I went to a number of the exhibitions on China. My favourite "event" was the tea house in the Dynastie building at the foot of the Mont des Arts, which was exceptionally open to the public, and fetchingly decorated for the occasion with 5000 lanterns.

The "Son of Heaven" Exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts displayed some fantastic porcelain, manuscripts, textiles and objets d'art, and "The Three Dreams of the Mandarin" was largely about writing and Chinese brush painting. One of the great things about Europalia is that in addition to the official exhibitions, concerts and so on, local shops also get in on the act: Wittamer made a chocolate version of one of the terracotta warriors (for Europalia Mexico they made a chocolate cake in the shape of an Aztec pyramid - can't wait to see what they do for Brazil!), and another shop was selling Chinese lanterns.