This Side Up

His new love: Rocky Point

John Howell
Posted 12/2/14

In the shadow of the arch at Rocky Point Park there’s an inviting cut in the chain link fence that separates the shoreline walk from the emerging field that was once the Rocky Point Midway. …

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This Side Up

His new love: Rocky Point

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In the shadow of the arch at Rocky Point Park there’s an inviting cut in the chain link fence that separates the shoreline walk from the emerging field that was once the Rocky Point Midway. There’s also a sign, not far away from there, that warns you to say out.

I’ve been through the hole in the fence before, and so have hundreds of others. There was a steady stream of people through the break on Oct. 25, the bright and sunny fall day that the DEM celebrated the reopening of Rocky Point as a public park. But, on Sunday, with nobody else on the state side of the fence and all that green openness, I felt like a trespasser. The stares of walkers augmented my sense of guilt, even though the park is open to the public and the fence will come down before the end of the year.

I slipped through and waited for Carol and Ollie. Carol wanted to look at the stanchions to the Skyliner and, in particular, the boarding platform with freshly painted yellow railings.

Our intrusion acted as an invitation to others. A man with wavy black hair and a video camera and tripod followed us. That’s how I met Zaixian Wang or “Andersen Woof,” which he said is his American name. Many Chinese take English or American names, so I wasn’t really surprised when he introduced himself as Andersen.

“Andersen?” I asked. He smiled. Andersen smiles a lot.

“You know Hans Christian Andersen,” he said. “He has best stories.”

It seemed somewhat out of place that he would pick a Danish writer for his American name, but I didn’t question any further.

Andersen has been in this country – the first he’s visited outside of China – for about 18 months. He said he loves it here. He especially loves Rocky Point. He has visited on several occasions. He made one trip from Providence by bike that took him about two hours. On Sunday, he came by bus as far as he could and then walked the rest of the way. That trip was about, well, two hours.

Andersen was introduced to Rocky Point as a class project. He is a landscape architecture student at the Rhode Island School of Design, and he and nine other students have been exploring different designs for the land. As part of the project, Andersen and his colleagues are videotaping people’s stories about the park and asking them to share their dreams of what it should become. On Sunday, he was looking for more footage from the rocky ledge where the Skyliners once made the turn and then started the trip down over the Midway filled with people.

“I love Rocky Point.”

I asked Andersen if he would take a picture of the two of us with the Skyliner behind us. He put his video camera on the green shoots of grass. I handed over my newest gadget, my Hero 3+ GoPro camera. It’s only slightly larger than a matchbox.

He was in awe as I explained it as a video and still camera, waterproof, that can be operated from a smart phone.

“I love this camera,” he said, as I showed him the full extent of my knowledge, which is pretty much limited to turning it on and taking a picture.

“I love this,” he repeated.

Andersen loves a lot of things, I discovered. He handed it back after taking a half dozen shots and picked up his camera.

“Can you do interview?”

I obliged as he videotaped my comments about the park.

He was delighted with an offer of a ride back to Providence. We agreed to meet at the parking lot later that afternoon.

On the trip to Providence, I learned that the class project had included a study of Warwick and that Andersen was familiar with the city’s demographics, as well as the role the airport plays in its development and traffic patterns. He said he came from a city about the same size as Warwick, not too far from Shanghai.

As an elementary school student, he knew he wanted to “go outside” – leave China – and that he worked hard to learn English. He described his parents as working class. Although retired from a job in a hospital, he said his mother is a good cook and works odd jobs. His father was a supervisor in a steel foundry before he retired. He has no siblings, reminding me of crowded China’s one child per family policy.

His parents’ savings and his own borrowing are paying most of his tuition. He said he picked RISD even after gaining admission to programs offered at Dutch and Danish institutions. He decided on this country.

“Rhode Island School of Design is best,” he said.

But there’s more than an appreciation of RISD. Andersen said he wants to stay in this country. I wondered why, thinking he would talk about economic opportunities.

“Freedom. I love freedom,” he said.

I dropped Anderson off on South Main Street. He wanted to return the video camera and then spend time in the studio working on his Rocky Point presentation.

I’ll be interested to see what he thinks should be in the park’s future. He knows the affection people have for it, but he is seeing it as a fresh canvas. Perhaps he and his classmates will help found a new vision of Rocky Point and create their own memories of the park. We’ll be sure to report on what they propose.

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