Changing Landscapes, the first exhibition of contemporary Chinese fiber art to travel to the U.S., has its only Midwest stop at Dayton Art Institute, opening Saturday and continuing through June 17.

Maya Lin’s installation piece “Flow” is being shown in conjunction with the exhibit. Lin is best known for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Changing Landscapes showcases 45 pieces from the past five International Fiber Art Biennales held in China since 2000.

Devoted to innovative new ideas and thinking in the field of fiber art, Changing Landscapes “provides a snapshot of how three generations of artists have responded to the economic, political, and social changes that have transformed the Chinese landscape over the past decade,” said guest curator Lisa Morrisette, faculty member of the Department of Art and Art History at Wright State University.

Morrisette added that the title “not only refers to the outer visible form of the world, but also serves as a metaphor for the inner landscape of the artists’ hearts and minds.”

The works are wide-ranging in scale, materials, techniques and content, from figurative to abstract, two-dimensional to sculptural, crafted to conceptual. Techniques and forms include classic tapestry weaving and pile weaving, embroidery, printing, dyeing, and large-scale sculptural pieces.

“The (work) demonstrates how contemporary Chinese fiber artists have forged a new aesthetic by combining their own experiences with the diverse influences of China’s artistic heritage.”

Lin’s “Flow” is made up of thousands of two-by-four boards, cut and stacked on end to create a wave-like form that swells to a height of two feet.

“She explores relationships between architecture, sculpture, and landscape, between the natural and the man-made, between science and art. Her inspiration is drawn from a wide range of sources, including geological phenomena and topography, prehistoric earthworks, Japanese gardens, and engineering principals such as fluid mechanics,” Morrisette said.

SINCE the late 1970s, Dow Griffith has traveled to 86 countries as a location manager for the film industry. It’s a fast-paced job that at any given moment has him scouting the world for a place that could look like Earth 1,000 years after humans abandoned it or the surface of Mars or a prehistoric jungle. Once he has found the right spot, he puts down roots and gets to know the area intimately, he said in an e-mail from Manila, where he recently spent time working on “The Bourne Legacy,” which will be released on Aug. 3.

For the last decade, the “Bourne” films and jobs like Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion” and Taylor Hackford’s “Merchant of Shanghai” have kept Mr. Griffith exploring Asia. He has come to appreciate its cultural variety, from the urban efficiency on display in every Chinese city to the ancient majesty of Bhutan. Below are excerpts from a conversation about how the continent’s diverse regions can make an impression. 

Q. What has it been like scouting in Manila?

A. The “Bourne” movies are known as a more urban and gritty kind of product, and that was certainly true of Manila. It is congested, with the highest population density in the world. But the people are the best thing about it. Don’t be fooled by the signs everywhere that say “Check Your Firearms at the Door.” Many citizens are packing, but you couldn’t meet more hospitable people. We put our crew up in the Manila Mandarin Oriental. Sometimes, when you are traveling, no matter how much you spend, you can’t buy good service. At the Mandarin we enjoyed personalized service at very affordable prices. When it completes renovations, which begin in April, it will be even better.

Q. Would you go back for a vacation?

A. Manila served our purpose, but for the casual traveler, it’s a good place to go to get somewhere else. The real reason to go to the Philippines is to explore its more than 7,000 islands, from the heights of the rice terraces of Banaue to dives with the whale sharks in Donsol — and that’s just on one island, Luzon.

El Nido, on Palawan Island, is paradise, and for a family trip, you are very well looked after at any of the resorts. We put our crew up at the El Nido Resort in Bacuit Bay.

Q. You were in Thailand, Vietnam and China working on “Avatar, The Last Airbender.” Which was your favorite?

A. I was there from 2007 to 2010, and I liked Vietnam best. I covered that country from the hill tribes in the north all the way down to Saigon. Someday some travel writer will publish an article saying that the drive through Ninh Binh in the Red River Delta is the most beautiful in the world.

Q. What parts of China should people see?

A. In 2009, I worked with Taylor Hackford and Bruno Rubeo on a film about Shanghai’s heyday. The Chinese crew was so hard-working. The food was superb everywhere we traveled in the countryside. I enjoyed visiting the water towns around Shanghai and Gulangyu Island offshore from Xiamen. I wish the Chinese government made it easier to travel independently in Tibet. I took the train from Shanghai to Lhasa, which was delightful. I shopped for a driver and a car with good tires and set out on “the roof of the world.” It reminded me of the Old West.

Q. Which places would you visit for pleasure?

A. Bhutan, because it is a stronghold of culture. The people are not overly enticed by the temptations of modernity. I will also return to Myanmar. There is so much going on there now. It’s a flood of changes. I wonder how long it will take before Bagan and its temples are overrun. What a stunning place wrapped in its cloak of tranquillity.

Auctions like this have made the city a central proving ground in the global market for classical Chinese art over the last few decades. But the pace has quickened over the last year, with collectors like Steve Wynn setting records for prices, bidding up values and coaxing more antiquities out of private drawing rooms, and — less legally — across the border from mainland China. (The People’s Republic forbids the export of any artworks made before 1911.)

Just last fall an early Ming vase that had been sequestered in a Swiss estate’s private underground gallery for the better part of a century sold for a record $22.6 million at the Sotheby’s sale. Another local hero for rapid appreciation is a simple but vivid raspberry-patterned vase that Christie’s sold for $10 million to Mr. Wynn, whose casino in Macau has become a showcase for all kinds of classical Chinese art.

Next month, all eyes at the Sotheby’s auction will be on a simple, small, luminous celadon brush-washing bowl from the Northern Song dynasty that was last on the market 35 years ago. Only five imperial pieces from this era around 1,000 years ago remain in private hands; this one is expected to bring about $10 million. (For those interested in more modest investments, deals remain in the private galleries for less than $3,000, though buying into this market, too, takes expertise to weed out forgeries.)

But the auctions, which run roughly every spring and fall, are merely one aspect of the churning and ever-growing art scene here. Thanks to committed collectors and the museums and galleries they support, Hong Kong has become the best place in the world for ordinary art lovers to learn about Chinese works, from the broad sweep of the dynasties to the nuances of technique that distinguish one kiln from another.

If you are lucky enough to go during an auction, these events are free to anyone. They provide a special opportunity to get up close to rare and valuable Chinese art, and to learn and compare notes with more than 20,000 aficionados who converge to admire and to bid.

“It’s here you’ll see the rarest and finest pieces, often coming onto the market for the first time in years,” said J. J. Lally, a New York-based dealer of Chinese antiquities, who has been going to the Hong Kong auctions for more than 35 years. “Even if you’re not buying anything, everybody flocks to Hong Kong to see and hold new things.”

Yes, visitors have the opportunity to touch and maybe even hold objects that were once used by an emperor. “That’s the best way to get a feel for these objects, their weight and balance in your hand, the presence of the person who made it and the people who used it,” said Nicolas K. S. Chow, who runs Sotheby’s global Chinese ceramics and works of art department.

If you don’t happen be in Hong Kong during the sales, however, there are plenty of other ways to immerse yourself in Chinese art. The best place to start is the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Just across Victoria Harbor from the main island, this brick and concrete box has become a nexus of the mainland government’s efforts to showcase traditional Chinese culture since the handover from the British in 1997. Each new bequest expands its collection — now more than 15,000 items — which represents every major era and style of ceramics, from the earliest Neolithic urns to the final flowering of the Qing dynasty. Each piece is displayed in historical context, illustrating its place in a continuous narrative that tells us something about how people once lived and worked, and the beliefs they held. A miniature guard tower found in a third-century tomb, for example, gives silent voice to Han dynasty advice to always keep an eye out for brigands, even in the afterlife.

Across the room, a richly detailed 18th-century urn with Chinese designs and European enamels could be a one-piece history lesson on the encounter with the West and the not-so-new global supply chain.

After the museum, some visitors might be interested in exploring more uncertain waters. Hollywood Road, winding uphill about a half-mile between the Central and Sheung Wan districts, is home to dozens of antiques shops. Tightly jammed together and sprawling upward into three and four floors, these paneled, musty dens can be treasure houses, embracing everything from ancient funerary urns to terra cottas still dusty from the packing crate.

But it’s strictly caveat emptor here. Unlike the auction houses, these galleries typically do not have access to the battery of experts and technical resources that can prove a piece is authentic — a persistent issue in a part of the world where faking classical ceramics has been an art in itself for centuries. Clever fakes can fool even experts, and there is a brisk industry producing them for sale to the unwary.

To look in and perhaps do business, do not be intimidated by the buzzer entries, the private club vibe or the scowling older relative parked inside the entrance of more than a few shops. Informed questions about provenance or the validity of certain testing practices will often qualify an unfamiliar buyer as a fellow art lover.

To see Chinese artifacts of a completely different era, walk down the well-worn stone alley off 57-59 Hollywood Road to Vintage Hong Kong for a selection of colorful clocks in plastic and Bakelite from the 1960s, made in Shanghai to go with the space age, with no regard at all for United States patent and trademark law.

Enthusiastic local art patrons have left their mark in a number of smaller museums. The Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is celebrating the Year of the Dragon by convening more than 200 dragons of fortune, wisdom or imperial authority. Most of these rare works came out of the cupboards of private donors, some of them from the reclusive, secretive Min Chiu Society, which has played a key role in preserving classical art.

The ritual of drinking and preparing tea has inspired more than 600 works at the Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware. Within verdant, lively Hong Kong Park and a favorite spot for the more adventurous wedding parties, the former home of the British commander in chief presents works ranging from the archaic and homespun to the reverent and even the playful and ironic.

Finally, peek in to the K. S. Lo Gallery next door, where you will find seals — official and personal stamps for signing documents and art — that have been used to arrange marriages, buy estates and cast spells, offering another glimpse into a culture that believed the human touch on a piece of clay could give it the power to change lives.

IF YOU GO

AUCTIONS

The auctions are held every spring and fall at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centrer (26 Harbour Road, Wan Chai).

Sotheby’s Spring Exhibition and Auction will open for viewing on March 26, with auctions for Chinese classical works on April 4 (sothebys.com). Christie’s Spring Exhibition and Auction will take place from April 24 to 30 (christies.com).

MUSEUMS

The Hong Kong Museum of Art (10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon; 852-2721-0116; www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Arts).provides an energetic, accessible introduction to Chinese art. The classical galleries can be seen in a few hours, but taking in the modern exhibits and the sculpture garden as well can occupy the entire afternoon until closing time, 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. on Saturdays.

That’s the right time to end up on the museum’s spacious waterfront plaza facing Victoria Harbor, overlooking the towers of Hong Kong Island. The view is even better from the Lobby Lounge of the old Regent Hotel (now the InterContinental) next door. But after dusk it’s best from the nearby Star Ferry (www.starferry.com.hk), from Tsim Sha Tsui pier just west of the museum. To either pier, Wan Chai or Central, it costs up to 3 Hong Kong dollars (about 40 cents at 7.5 Hong Kong dollars to the United States dollar).

Other museums include: The Museum of Tea Ware (10 Cotton Tree Drive, Central; 852-2869- 0690; www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Arts/en/tea/tea01.html); the Art Museum, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shatin, New Territories; 852-3943-7416; www.cuhk.edu.hk/ics/amm); and University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong Kong (90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam; 852-2241-5500; hku.hk/hkumag/main.html).

GALLERIES

Among the Hollywood Road galleries, these are mentioned by Chinese antiquities experts as especially well-informed, welcoming and trustworthy: Joyce Gallery (123 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan; 852-2545-1869; joycegallery.com), and Tai Sing Fine Antiques (12 Wyndham Street, Central; 852-2525-9365).

RESTAURANTS

Jutting into the harbor, the convention center nudges up to a cluster of big-name, costly but somewhat generic hotel restaurants. To rub shoulders with a more lively crowd for artisanal cocktails, it’s a short ride into Wan Chai to the Pawn (62 Johnston Road, Wan Chai; 852-2866-3444; thepawn.com.hk). Take the unmarked, surreptitious-looking winding staircase set into a renovated pawnshop with generous balconies for watching over the night scene.

For a more elegant than usual dim sum, it’s a short walk up Johnston Street to Fook Lam Moon (35/45 Johnston Road, Wan Chai; 852-2866-0663; fooklammoon-grp.com/en/hongkong/home.asp).

Downhill from Hollywood Road, many of the local antiques dealers can be found midday at the Ka Ho Restaurant (Queen’s Road; 1/F; 328 Queen’s Road Central; Sheung Wan; 852-2815-8133).

DONALD FRAZIER writes the Eastern Exposure column at forbes.com.

BEIJING, March 21 — This week, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced plans for a China-specific chain which will eventually set up shop outside of the country, highlighting yet again that China’s growing economic might is having an interesting effect on the way we travel.

Thanks to the staggering statistics (outbound trips from China alone are projected to grow from 10 million to more than 100 million in the next 10 to 15 years), hotel chains are keener than ever to ensure that Chinese guests feel at home in their properties — meaning those Chinese-friendly amenities will be coming to more and more hotels in the near future.

Fortunately, many travellers will find that all of the concepts identified by chains such as IHG make for a nicer hotel stay anyway — here, a handy guide to what you’ll soon find at Chinese-friendly hotels.

Food

Expect rice, and lots of it. Many hotels outside of China are now opting to serve congee for breakfast and throughout the day — it’s basically a rice-based porridge, served with accompaniments such as fruit or honey.

Many hotels are also opting to plump for noodle dishes — IHG’s chain Hualuxe will offer a late-night noodle joint, while Starwood is offering its Chinese guests instant noodles in rooms.

Drinks

Tea — especially green — is a favorite of Chinese-friendly hotel chains. Expect to find in-room kettles with a selection of Chinese tea on offer in Hilton hotels offering the ‘Huanying’ Chinese welcome package, as well as Starwood properties and Campanile in France.

Some brands will take this even further, with Hualuxe promising ‘Tea Lounges’ where guests will be invited to entertain visitors or business partners. If you’re partial to the mini-bar, you could be in for a shock — reports suggest that Hualuxe will skip alcoholic beverages in favour of tea.

Hospitality

Status and respect underpin many Asian cultures and chains operating outside the country are making it abundantly clear that they are keen to serve Chinese visitors, rolling out Chinese-speaking front-desk staff and plenty of literature in Chinese, for instance.

For those running hotels inside China, it’s a race to localise —with Accor-owned Mei Jue promising staff in elegant Qipao evening dresses and Hualuxe promising ‘hosts’ dotted around the hotel to ensure a high level of service for guests.

Decor

‘Modern Chinese’ styling is coming to dominate hotels inside China, as well as influencing the design of those outside the country. This means eschewing replicas of ‘traditional’ Chinese objects such as Ming vases in favour of clean lines and a modern style which only hints at its forebears.

Look out for decor inspired by natural themes such as woodland, water and mountains, especially in conjunction with the growing ‘green’ trend enthusiastically embraced by properties around the world.

Services

Specific services designed to appeal to Chinese travellers will become standard in the coming years — Tai-chi sessions, for instance, are a popular way for hotels to connect with their guests. In a similar vein, expect more hotels to embrace Chinese-style relaxation aids, whether that means lobby gardens or lavender-scented bathroom amenities.

As hotels are regularly used for business meetings in China, expect to see more ‘multi-purpose’ areas that can be used for meeting, entertaining and unwinding — and perhaps even a karaoke bar along the way. — AFPrelaxnews.com

China is spending 30 million yuan (4.8 million U.S. dollars) to build scores of mobile flushing toilets along tourist routes in a sparsely-populated northwest plateau region.

The move is meant to address tourists’ chronic complaints about the trouble of finding a proper toilet in Qinghai province, where breathtaking scenery is hidden among its vast plateau mountains more often trekked by herds than humans.

Local herders do not bother with toilets in the rural areas and long-haul truck drivers seldom bother, either, but the lack of toilets has become a problem for urban tourists who are too shy to opt for an “open-air roadside solution” when nature calls.

The provincial government has earmarked 30 million yuan for the construction of some 80 mobile toilets, with each costing an average of 375,000 yuan, along key provincial roads and inside popular tourist spots this year, said Xu Chaowei, an official with the provincial tourism bureau.

Xu said the planned toilets, along with 40 others built last year, would enable tourists to relieve themselves in modern facilities spaced about two hours apart on major tourist routes in the province.

The government’s goal is to further reduce the travel time between toilets to just one hour by building more toilets before 2015, Xu added.

It is costly to build and maintain flush toilets in the remote plateau region, officials said.

Qinghai is located at the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Outside the provincial capital of Xining, the population is sparse — fewer than five people per square kilometer on average.

But tourism has been developing fast over the past few years. In 2011, more than 14 million tourists visited Qinghai, bringing in 9.2 billion yuan in tourism revenue, official statistics show.

By Kathrin Hille and Patti Waldmeir

It is no secret that it is no longer that cheap to make things in China. But now, it is becoming expensive to sell there, too.

Neiman Marcus, the US multi-brand luxury retailer, plans to enter China via e-commerce rather than traditional bricks-and-mortar. And it is not the only one. A report due to be published on Friday shows that the spiraling cost of doing business in the country is driving other foreign companies with new products away from traditional retailers and into the arms of e-commerce firms.

The problem for retailers looking to get into China may be two-fold. Listing costs are high – but brand recognition may not travel online. The Neiman Marcus news was greeted with scepticism by local retail analysts. Shaun Rein of China Market Research in Shanghai said: “nobody knows who Neiman Marcus is in China.”

Rumours have been swirling for years about Neiman trying to get retail space on the Shanghai Bund for a large new store. Most analysts see it as essential for foreign brands – especially luxury brands – to have bricks and mortar shops to bolster their credibility in a country where seeing is still believing.

“Customers really need to be able to see and touch the product and feel the brand heritage in a physical environment,” said Rein. “Luxury sales are booming online but people still tend to equate e-commerce with cheap,” he said, adding “I don’t think it’s possible for a foreign brand to come in and sell at high prices just online”.

But the costs of physical retail space may force a rethink. According to the report by Data Driven Marketing Asia, the marketing consultancy, the cost of listing one new product “with an established supermarket chain can be as high as $27,000”.

This adds to steep rises in labour, rental, logistics and marketing costs. Distribution costs increased 200 per cent over the past five years. Warehousing cost was up 23 per cent last year, while the cost for advertising on CCTV, the national broadcaster, has risen almost 50 per cent since 2007. And retail rents in China’s largest cities are forecast to increase by an average 12 per cent this year, according CB Richard Ellis. The cost of employing more experienced white-collar staff in the more affluent parts of China has risen almost 60 per cent over the past three years.

Sam Mulligan, China Director at DDMA, said: “Over the past three years, these costs have started to become prohibitive. When we work with customers on a new market entry, once we get to formulating a retail strategy, the metrics fall out of the window.”

As a result, companies are shying away from traditional retailers. Yihaodian, the online grocer in which Walmart recently raised its stake to 51 per cent, is trying to grab that business by offering a one-stop-shop service for new market entrants. It helps them register their brands, deals with import formalities, transport, logistics and advertising.

Yihaodian has already seen a steep increase over the past six months in requests from foreign companies that want to bring new products into the Chinese market. The online retailer saw the number of products available in its store jump to 180,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from just 50,000 a year earlier.

HONG KONG — China is Eldorado for the world’s major hotel companies, which, among them, have opened hundreds of multi-star hotels across the country in recent years.

For the most part, the operators have simply tweaked their tried-and-tested brands to appeal to the Asian market — by beefing up the food-and-beverage element of their hotels, for example. Asian travelers want hotels to be much more than just a place to sleep. Wining and dining options are expected, and they form a much bigger part of a hotel’s revenues than in Europe and the United States.

Now, two of the biggest hotel companies, Accor and InterContinental Hotels Group, are going a step further. Each is launching a new China-specific brand in the hope of winning the loyalty, and cash, of millions of Chinese who travel within China — and beyond.

InterContinental’s new baby, announced this week, will be called Hualuxe (here, “hua” translates as “majestic”). Aside from oodles of Chinese design features, the hotels will have a traditional tea house, VIP check-in and a “resort inspired bathroom experience.”

IHG is planning to take the brand to 100 cities across China, with the first hotels opening late next year or early 2014. The company also intends to export Hualuxe to other parts of the world, in the hope of attracting Chinese tourists as they venture abroad.

The French hotel giant Accor, meanwhile, said recently that it was “re-engineering” the upmarket Grand Mercure brand it already operates in China.

Again, there will be lashings of design, tea and local food (including 24-hour access to congee, the rice porridge popular in China), as well as tai chi lessons. Head-and-shoulder massages will be available for guests on premium floors.

Ten Grand Mercures — known in Chinese as Mei Jue — already exist in China, and Accor plans to expand the network to 65 hotels by 2015.

As always with new launches, it remains to be seen whether the made-for-China identity will allow Mei Jue and Hualuxe to stand out from the crowd. After all, China’s main cities (and, increasingly, more out-of-the way destinations, too) now have plenty of upscale options for travelers.

Still, the immense numbers that apply to the Chinese market — remember: population 1.4 billion, more and more of whom can afford to travel — could well justify the attempt.

By Patrick Brzeski

Road Warrior provides travel tips from those who know best: busy executives and other globetrotters.

Dynamic Marketing Group

Since Dan Mintz co-founded Beijing-based Dynamic Marketing Group in 1993, it has become one of China’s leading advertising and marketing firms, representing Volkswagen, Johnson Johnson and the U.S.’s National Basketball Association in the country.

With the addition of subsidiary DMG Entertainment in 2009, Mr. Mintz has also become a player in the Chinese film industry, producing domestic top-earners such as “The Founding of a Republic” and “Beginning of the Great Revival,” and distributing Hollywood properties such as “Twilight” and “Resident Evil: Afterlife 3-D.” DMG is now finishing production on “Looper,” its first major Chinese-Hollywood co-production, starring Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Mr. Mintz, a native New Yorker, spoke to the Journal about fending off jet lag with gym time and his favorite hotel in Seoul.

How often are you currently traveling? On average, probably about eight times a month.

Where do you go the most? From Beijing and Shanghai, I go to Seoul, Los Angeles and New York pretty regularly, [with] a little bit of Tokyo sprinkled in there for good measure.

What’s your favorite airport? I’d say it’s more about the one you can tolerate the most compared to the rest. There is something about knowing your way around an airport intimately that really helps, though. In that respect, I like Beijing Capital, LAX and JFK. I know exactly where I’m going.

How do you keep up with exercise on the road? This is actually how I often choose hotels: I always look for a place that has a rocking gym. I have a little system to keep me going, and part of it is hitting the gym during daylight hours.

What else do you do to fight jet lag? The most important thing is getting to sleep right away after takeoff. If I can crash right away, I’m good.

Favorite hotel? A little boutique hotel in New York called the Surrey, a very hip spot on the Upper East Side. Korea has some very stylish hotels these days. I like the W Seoul a lot – great skyline views.

Do you have a preferred carrier? I’m more interested in what’s going to get me from point A to point B the fastest. One thing I always look for are direct flights. This is an issue with being based in Beijing, because not every airline is allowed to fly in and out of here. Air China has the most direct flights to L.A. and New York, so that’s the most regular for me. As far as the actual best airline in general, Cathay and Singapore are the strongest. They always have an air of exclusivity and a standard of quality that doesn’t slip, whereas some of the bigger Western carriers are pretty hit or miss.

What do you do for in-flight entertainment? I really treasure my time in the air. You’re not online. You can’t be reached by phone. For someone as busy as I am, it’s a great time to concentrate. One of the things I do is look at dailies, which is the raw footage from the projects we’re filming. I look at the edits, make comments and changes. By the time we land, I usually have a very defined point of view on where the story should go. It’s not quite “entertainment,” but I find this flight time very useful.

Best in-flight meal? Singapore Airlines has the best first-class meals. They take it seriously.

Essential travel gadgets? I have the usual MacBook Air and iPad. I also have a nice little adapter bag, which keeps all my wires and adapters together. I also always have to remember not to mix up my L.A. phone and China phone.

Favorite luggage maker? Tumi is smart and functional, and Varvatos gives off the right hip-but-professional energy for someone in my industry.

Takeaway travel tip? Unpredictability is the magic of travel…Don’t overload your time. Whether it’s business opportunities, new relationships or personal inspiration, leave room for life to happen.