New York based writer Jennifer Cody Epstein has just published her first novel "A Painter from Shanghai" based on the life of Chinese painter Pan Yuliang. The book traces Pan Yuliang's tumultuous life and her relentless pursuit of artistic fulfillment against the backdrop of seismic political and social change in the China of the early 20th century. Jennifer's novel has been called "luminous" by the New York Times and Publishers Weekly says it "captivates to the last line". She recently "sat" down for an online interview with Shortcut to discuss her new book, her transition from journalist to writer, and what drew her to write about a woman a century and a continent removed from her.

Jennifer's book is available at Amazon.com

You are an American writer, based in New York. How did you hear about Pan Yuliang and what were your intentions in writing about her?

It actually began at the Guggenheim Museum, about ten years ago. My husband and some relatives and I were at an exhibition on Modern Chinese Art, and there was just one image by Pan Yuliang on display. But it drew me over immediately. It was a typical Pan Yuliang in that it was very evocative of Matisse and Cezanne, and the bright, bold colors and distinctly Western setting (as compared to the huge propaganda-style images and much more subtle ink paintings around it) really stood out for me. I went over to see more and when I read about Pan’s story (prostitute-concubine-Post-Impressionist icon; really?!) it just blew me away. I’d never heard of her before—but I couldn’t, at that moment, understand why---it struck me that everyone should know about her.

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It's been quiet on the interview front at Shortcut, but here's a special treat: I've talked childhood friend Linda Heydegger into letting me interview her about her work as a painter and showcase some of her pieces in digital form on the site. Linda's been painting and drawing since i first met her at age 11 and she's done so with increasing success. Her last exhibition, a series of still lives, was a delightful amalgam of mundane objects set off by dazzling colours: these are household items glimpsed perhaps casually on kitchen tables across Europe, but rendered with fastidious detail and arranged sensually like objets d'art before the viewer. Each piece barely bigger than a large-sized envelope, the still lives evoke a series of postcards conveying multiple domestic worlds, each with its inherent cultural flavor. And yet these multiple, disparate words, nudged into careful composition and bathed in glistening colours, converge into fundamentally the same vision: an image of home.

Linda was born in Basel but raised between Arizona, Germany, Switzerland and now lives in France.

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Shortcut: You've been painting for years and have had several exhibitions. At what point did painting become more than a hobby for you?

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Shortcut talks to Graham Holliday, journalist and (food) blogger

You recently attended the WE MEDIA conference in London - what was your impression of the event? What did you think of the interaction between traditional media representatives and bloggers?

What interaction between old media and bloggers? Was there any? Not much that I can remember. The most useful conversations took place outside the auditorium and, at least for me, that was mainly between bloggers and new media folk. Having said that, I did get to have a chat with Monique Villa, one of the Heads of Reuters and a bunch of other old media folk. I tried not to look at name badges too much.

However, the whole set up was very much 'top down' which is not at all reflective of what's going on in media these days. Although, I must say I had a fantastic time. I finally got to meet some people, like Rebecca McKinnon from Global Voices for example, whom I've been corresponding with for years. So, on a personal level it was very useful just for that face to face element. I just think the conference itself should have been less of a lecture. I think they should take a leaf out of Global Voices way of doing things for the next one. More on that here

You ran your own blog "noodlepie" out of Vietnam. What brought you to Vietnam and why did you stay as long as you did?

I was living in Korea in 1996/97. I went to Vietnam on a 3 week holiday, I'd long had an interest in the country. I quite liked the place during my holiday and so I decided to see if I could go there to live and work for a bit. Initially I was thinking of going for around six months to a year or so. I was then planning to move to Argentina. I ended up staying in Vietnam for 9 years. I stayed predominantly because I met my wife in Hanoi in 1998. Her job kept her in Vietnam for a while.

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shortcut talks to fernando couto, graphic designer and berliner

A Portuguese graphic designer living in Berlin - how did that particular combination happen?

Well, it is the result of chance, actually.

In 2002 my wife received a ten-month scholarship to study here at the University of the Arts. She came and I stayed back in Portugal, working as a freelancer and dropping by once in a while to be with her. Of course the city is really appealing and we discussed the possibility of moving to Berlin on a permanent basis, but since we enjoyed so much the life we had in Porto and she was planning to stay here for just two semesters, we decided to keep with this arrangement. Also at the time I was learning Japanese, so Germany was not at all part of my plans; at least not to live. I wanted to move to Japan for a couple of years and experience the culture. But that didn't happen.

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How did a Thai girl get involved with European giant Benetton?

It's a bit of story, but in a nutshell:  after I finished graduate school (Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York University), I was lucky enough to be selected as part of a team from NYU to do an art installation project in Nice, France at MAMAC (Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain).  At the end of the 5-week residency, my partner (Mark Argo) arranged for a short visit to Fabrica, which is located near Venice, in Italy.  So the team, which is myself, Mark Argo (www.markargo.com), and another artist Daniel Hirschmann (www.plankman.com), showed up at Fabricaand did a little show-and-tell of our work.  A few short months later, we were all back at Fabrica as research fellows for the Interactive department.  Fabrica is a creative research center sponsored by Benetton, so that's how I am connected with Benetton.  And no, we don't design the clothes.  :) 

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shortcut talks to tina smrekar, visual artist and fulltime snorkeler in the fabulous worlds of art, film and music.

You're doing a worldwide project on visual artists' living conditions - how did you get started on this topic?

It was the situation I found myself in after finishing my studies as an artist and wanting to continue working in this field. The fact that artists have to struggle to be able to survive AND produce art is known, a cliché even, but I had the feeling that although practically all of us face this dilemma at least at the beginning of our careers, there is not much discourse whether in the art community and even less in the general public.

Much of our identity nowadays is channeled through work and my question here is how are we supposed to be liable and have credit as artists and how are we to produce art if a lot of our time and energy goes to working odd jobs, often working several jobs at a time.

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shortcut talks to madhav kakani, chemical engineer and world citizen

Let's start with the serious stuff  -  we know what Danes think about the cartoon crisis, we know what
Americans think by and large, and we certainly know what the Arab world thinks of it. You're an Indian living in Copenhagen, what is your take on it?

India is very multicultural, essentially we all get along, unless there's political incitement that fuels discord and violence. I, along with other Indian and Pakistani friends, think it was stupid to publish it, it reflects ignorance. "Freedom of speech" as a justification is not enough. And in any case, if you do publish potentially incendiary material, you have to accept the consequences. The response in Denmark was very defensive, there is still only a rudimentary understanding of how a globalized world works - Denmark is not used to being in the spotlight and certainly is not used to widespread criticism of its values. But today what happens in a small country can set off a powerful chain reaction.

I read in a newspaper poll that more than 50% of Danes think the cartoons should not have been published. In the end it is a matter of judgement and in this case, a lack of judgement on the part of the editors. That said, the punishment - the firebombing and death threats - certainly didn't fit the crime!

I'm fairly sure that most of the violence was orchestrated by the respective Arab governments. Many in the Arab world are dissatisfied with their corrupt, ineffective regimes and the governments just gave that street anger an occasion to vent. There's a good thing to all this though, which is that all sides are now more aware and will think twice next time.

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shortcut talks to ben curtis, podcaster and spain aficionado.

TRAVEL TALES: Ben has penned a book on his experience of moving to Spain and making himself at home there. Read about house buying, inlaws and the most beautiful street in the world here.

What was your image of Spain before arriving there? Lives punctuated by tortillas, flamenco and siestas?

I used to imagine drunken Brits getting into trouble on the Costa del crime, bullfights, dusty plains and jugs of Sangria!

What was the most surprising thing about Spain once you got there?

The total lack of immigrants. There were no coloured people in Madrid when I arrived, just Spaniards, and a few western Europeans and South Americans. All that has changed now, but it was quite a shock after the London suburb of Brixton, where as a white Englishman I was in the minority.

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shortcut talks to michael scott moore, berlin contributor and budding novelist

1. You're a writer because....?

Not writing depresses me.

2. Your first novel "Too much of nothing" - how did the book come into existence?

The book started with a memory. One scene in the novel, where two kids chop down a tree, is semi-autobiographical. Everything spun from that. Soon I had a story about two delinquents in California that would make a pretty good satire of American counterculture, especially if I pushed it -- which is why one kid, the narrator, winds up dead. I had no idea until my manuscript was making the rounds in New York that someone else had a book with a ghost narrator. That was The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.

3. Ich bin ein Berliner - does that apply to you by now?

"I am a jelly donut." Yes.

4. Role models? Or do you recommend not having any?

Robertson Davies and Julian Barnes have their fingerprints all over Too Much of Nothing. Davies' second-to-last book is Murther and Walking Spirits, and that's where I got the ghost-narrator idea. But he pulls it off a lot better than me (or Alice Sebold), mainly because he really believed in ghosts. I don't.

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shortcut talks to johanna erla, designer and roving ambassador for iceland

What are Icelanders really proud of? Bjork?

We’re a proud nation so there are a lot of things I could mention. Of course it’s great how many artists are doing well abroad, especially in music, following into Bjork’s footsteps (who is without doubt the most famous Icelander). But we’re also very proud of our nature; pure water and clear sky that give us strength and creativity.

Icelanders are perceived as either taciturn or crazy (see Bjork above) - what's the real picture?

I guess we’re a little bit of everything! Bjork though does not portray the typical Icelander , I don´t really think she could resemble herself with any nation at all – she’s one of a kind!

What made you leave Iceland and go to Milan?

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shortcut talks to belgian tom schutyser, conspiracy theorist, former Vietnam operative and sailor.

How did Belgium get to be EU headquarters? Did they bribe someone?

You know, historic evidence shows the Southern Lowlands have always been EU headquarters, though under different formats and not always on friendly terms … Bribing would really have been an overstatement in a number of cases. It rather sounded like a free lunch, and more than that.

But, bit by bit Belgians got their act together.
There is a strategy, let me explain, …

Throughout centuries different tribes, people and nations have been rowing, sailing or motoring our seas and rivers; marching, ploughing, parading, rampaging and pillaging our soils and crops; invading, digging in, bombing and chasing our towns and people.

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You're British, you've worked in the Foreign office around the world - best memories from that time?

I was much younger when working for the Diplomatic Service; I was overseas with them from the ages of 20-29.  My memories of the time are necessarily refracted through my current 40-year-old frame, though I do have letters I wrote to my late father from Rome, circa 1986.  Each letter was characterised by (and without fail) the following:

How much I could drink; How beautiful the girls were; How tanned I was; How much cricket I was managing to play; How little time I spent at the.  This might in part explain why I am no longer a British Diplomat.

Not to forget:  sitting on my roof-top terrace in Bombay watching the sun drop into the Arabian Sea.

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