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Cafes fill the mind and the stomach
By Shi Xiaohan |
July 5, 2011, Tuesday
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THEMED cafes offering more than simply food are springing up all over Hangzhou.Shi Xiaohan discovers some eating establishments where everything from group psychotherapy and Italian lessons to photography displays and classical music are also on the menu.
While Hangzhou is well on its way to becoming a busy metropolis, theme cafes are emerging all over the city to bring back a sense of community. People with similar interests in fields such as music, photography and foreign cultures are gathering in these cafes to slow down the pace of their fast lives.
Clara Pan, a professional psychological counselor, is launching a psychological development course in a themed cafe called Learning Center Cafe. "Urban dwellers today are prone to being stressed and isolated. To make a difference, I will introduce group psychotherapy during the course to let them solve their problems by sharing with others," says Pan.
Nestled in the quiet Xihu Hi-tech Park, the recently opened Learning Center Cafe has a life-long learning theme coupled with delicious Italian food. With a big screen displaying photos of Italy and a shelf filled with Italian books, the cafe is ideal for Italian cultural promotion.
However, those running the cafe have much greater expectations for it. The cafe is opening four courses including Survival English, Italian for Beginners, Yoga and Psychological Development. The business model for the cafe was brought from Verona in Italy by its Italian owner.
More than 20 people have signed up for the classes and a company in the park plans to let the cafe host English training sessions for their employees. The classes are arranged around dinner time from 5:30pm to 8:30pm on weekdays.
"Most white-collar workers in the Xihu Hi-tech Park are too busy to attend classes in the daytime on weekdays and need the weekends off to relax. So weekday evenings are the best time for them to learn something and meet some new friends over a delicious dinner," says Gigi Chen, manager of the cafe.
For the teachers, the teaching approach also has to be altered for the cafe. "It's more important to teach them spoken Italian and to let them express themselves," says Clelia Osti, the Italian teacher. She plans to focus on practical language used in daily life occasions such as restaurants, shops, theaters and even football matches.
"Through these daily life topics, I want the students to learn about Italian culture and have fun finding the differences and similarities between Italian and Chinese culture," says Osti.
Not far from the Learning Center Cafe, the photography-themed 35mm Cafe offers its guests a place of tranquility on the bustling Wenyi Road. The two-story cafe has a small cinema hosting themed photography and movie showings every Thursday on its second floor.
The owner of the cafe, Raymond Wu, has been interested in cameras since childhood as his family runs a shop selling electronic products including cameras. He developed a passion for photography when he was a junior student in college. "That's when I bought my first DSLR camera. Since then, I have been taking a camera with me wherever I go," says Wu.
The idea of running a photography-themed cafe however came later, after he had been working two years for a company following graduation. "I went on a journey and found various cafes on the way are my most pleasant memories. So I decided to open one myself," says Wu.
After its opening in May 2010, the cafe soon started hosting regular themed events showing movies and pictures, and encouraging exchanges of ideas and photographs by the participants. "Once we had a themed salon about travelling. Our guests shared their travel pictures from across the world. We later held an exhibition of all the photos," Wu says.
Wu is not the only one who got serious about his passion in life. Zhang Ming, born to a family of musicians, is a violinist at Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra. He gives lectures on classical music in his spare time at local universities and companies.
"My passion for music started with my admiration for Mozart, who passed away in starvation, debt and poverty. Whenever I listen to his music, I feel nothing but pure pleasure and faith in life," says Zhang. "Therefore, no matter how much trouble I am faced with in reality, music sets you free."
Zhang has dedicated his life to sharing his passion with more people. His goal is to give lectures to more than 1 million people in his life. As an approach to his goal, he opened the Charming Music Library situated close to the West Lake in 2002, sharing his own collection of CDs and books with the public. The library is the first of its kind in China.
To help people better appreciate the music, a cafe was set up in the library with a couple of sets of headphones, a CD player and high-quality amplifiers on each table. The walls of the cafe are lined with more than 6,000 CDs of classical music and 3,000 books to choose from. The cafe is frequently visited by people who have attended Zhang's lectures.
While Hangzhou is well on its way to becoming a busy metropolis, theme cafes are emerging all over the city to bring back a sense of community. People with similar interests in fields such as music, photography and foreign cultures are gathering in these cafes to slow down the pace of their fast lives.
Clara Pan, a professional psychological counselor, is launching a psychological development course in a themed cafe called Learning Center Cafe. "Urban dwellers today are prone to being stressed and isolated. To make a difference, I will introduce group psychotherapy during the course to let them solve their problems by sharing with others," says Pan.
Nestled in the quiet Xihu Hi-tech Park, the recently opened Learning Center Cafe has a life-long learning theme coupled with delicious Italian food. With a big screen displaying photos of Italy and a shelf filled with Italian books, the cafe is ideal for Italian cultural promotion.
However, those running the cafe have much greater expectations for it. The cafe is opening four courses including Survival English, Italian for Beginners, Yoga and Psychological Development. The business model for the cafe was brought from Verona in Italy by its Italian owner.
More than 20 people have signed up for the classes and a company in the park plans to let the cafe host English training sessions for their employees. The classes are arranged around dinner time from 5:30pm to 8:30pm on weekdays.
"Most white-collar workers in the Xihu Hi-tech Park are too busy to attend classes in the daytime on weekdays and need the weekends off to relax. So weekday evenings are the best time for them to learn something and meet some new friends over a delicious dinner," says Gigi Chen, manager of the cafe.
For the teachers, the teaching approach also has to be altered for the cafe. "It's more important to teach them spoken Italian and to let them express themselves," says Clelia Osti, the Italian teacher. She plans to focus on practical language used in daily life occasions such as restaurants, shops, theaters and even football matches.
"Through these daily life topics, I want the students to learn about Italian culture and have fun finding the differences and similarities between Italian and Chinese culture," says Osti.
Not far from the Learning Center Cafe, the photography-themed 35mm Cafe offers its guests a place of tranquility on the bustling Wenyi Road. The two-story cafe has a small cinema hosting themed photography and movie showings every Thursday on its second floor.
The owner of the cafe, Raymond Wu, has been interested in cameras since childhood as his family runs a shop selling electronic products including cameras. He developed a passion for photography when he was a junior student in college. "That's when I bought my first DSLR camera. Since then, I have been taking a camera with me wherever I go," says Wu.
The idea of running a photography-themed cafe however came later, after he had been working two years for a company following graduation. "I went on a journey and found various cafes on the way are my most pleasant memories. So I decided to open one myself," says Wu.
After its opening in May 2010, the cafe soon started hosting regular themed events showing movies and pictures, and encouraging exchanges of ideas and photographs by the participants. "Once we had a themed salon about travelling. Our guests shared their travel pictures from across the world. We later held an exhibition of all the photos," Wu says.
Wu is not the only one who got serious about his passion in life. Zhang Ming, born to a family of musicians, is a violinist at Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra. He gives lectures on classical music in his spare time at local universities and companies.
"My passion for music started with my admiration for Mozart, who passed away in starvation, debt and poverty. Whenever I listen to his music, I feel nothing but pure pleasure and faith in life," says Zhang. "Therefore, no matter how much trouble I am faced with in reality, music sets you free."
Zhang has dedicated his life to sharing his passion with more people. His goal is to give lectures to more than 1 million people in his life. As an approach to his goal, he opened the Charming Music Library situated close to the West Lake in 2002, sharing his own collection of CDs and books with the public. The library is the first of its kind in China.
To help people better appreciate the music, a cafe was set up in the library with a couple of sets of headphones, a CD player and high-quality amplifiers on each table. The walls of the cafe are lined with more than 6,000 CDs of classical music and 3,000 books to choose from. The cafe is frequently visited by people who have attended Zhang's lectures.
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