Last month, your roving correspondent found himself on a cultural delegation to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, China. Organised by the China Cultural Centre in Sydney, the trip was graciously hosted by its Deputy Director, Mr Yuan Wei.

Photo © Hao Liang/Pexels

We were a ragbag team from different creative disciplines – watercolour artists, abstract painters, a conductor, a composer, an opera director and an Oscar winner. I had never been to Mainland China before, let alone as a cultural delegate. We arrived at the airport in Xiamen and noticed we were the only Westerners in sight. We were each given an intensive security frisking before our connecting flight, but it was done with such a light touch, like a flapping of wings, that I found it almost pleasant. I called the experience Butterflies in the Night Forest.

We visited the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music with its huge campus, massive library, 3,000 students and 1,000 practice rooms. I doubt we have that number of practice rooms in all of Australia. You could have stuffed every single Australian conservatory and music school into that campus and had room left over – and this was just one institution in one...