The first three photos were taken in Meishan city of Sichuan province during the Chinese new year. People enjoyed their lives in the square, drinking tea and playing cards. It evoked me about the leisure life style in my homeland. People focused on enjoying lives more than earning money. It’s a philosophy of leading a leisure life which lasts for thousands years.

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I once rode a bicycle from Chengdu to Meishan in a summer vacation 10 years ago. It’s a journey of 80 kilometres. It took me almost a whole day. I remember I walked into a small tea house just beside the road and tried to get some help to fix my bike. It’s a farmer’s tea house. Many farmers enjoyed tea there. One of them helped me to fix the bike. The owner gave me a cup of tea. I enjoyed the tea with them. They were friendly and kindly. They even refused to charge me for fixing the bike. It turned out that I bought two pocket of cigarates for them.

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If you visit Chengdu or Meishan city in future, you must visit local tea houses. Tea houses for us are just like coffee shops for you. You could experience the local culture when you enjoy Chinese tea with local farmers. You need to get used to the noise of the tea houses.

I have many many beautiful memories of tea houses. My grandfather used to take me to the tea house where he practiced his Chinese medicine and social communication. I enjoyed many delicious food with my grandfather in 1980s when the country was poor and with lack of modern goods.

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This photo is taken in Jinsha ruins park in Chengdu city of Sichuan province. It’s in February this year when we celebrated Chinese new year. It evoked in me about the long history of our culture.

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The fifth photo was taken in Nanshan expert hotel in Nanjing normal university where we held narrative therapy with children and families with Jill Freedman and Jane Hutton. I downloaded the photo on the internet, so I don’t know when it was. I choose the photo as it’s the place where we cultivate the seeds of narrative practice in China. We had more than 50 participants from all over the country, including one from Taiwan. Many of them are local therapists in hospitals, schools, universities of their cities. They play an important role in developing narrative practice in their cities. They train colleagues to practice narrative therapy. Some of them even train couples in a narrative way. Nanshan expert hotel is the place where our narrative dreams begin. The photo evoked me one story about Jill. It’s in a summer time. We went out for delicious Chinese food after a whole day training. When we walked back to the hotel, Jill asked me what’s the name of the hotel when she saw the Chinese characters. I told her the name. She laughed out and said “We are anti-expert, but we hold narrative therapy training in an expert hotel.” We would invite Jill to hold intensive training program on April in Nanshan expert hotel.

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The sixth photo was taken in Nanjing psychological assistance center for children and adolescents where I work now. My office is on the third floor. We provide a 24-hours hotline and counseling service for local children and adolescents. We also train local teachers to be therapists. We have a history more than 20 years. There are 4 narrative therapists in my center, all of them have taken part in the narrative therapy with children and families training program.

We have a narrative therapists team here. We plan to practice narrative community work and do research together.