ChinaDaily[980108-8]

[Chinese News]

China Daily

98 / 01 / 08 /

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1. Lean art best conveys beauty
2. Crosses show casualness
3. Prints on exhibition
4. Traffic cop rules road in English
5. Too many Chinese names the same!
6. What's on (Page 10, Date: 01/08/98)
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Lean art best conveys beauty
CHINESE arts, including the performing arts as well as graphic
arts, stop short of bringing out all details, preferring to guide
the viewer through hints and suggestions, in the opinion of
painter Lin Kai.
"This is the quintessence of Chinese arts," said Lin. "Take Peking
Opera, for example. A whip and the movement of the actor suggest
that he is riding on a horse. If a real horse were to be brought
on stage, what then? Everything would be ruined."
In the same way, a few seemingly cursory strokes or a number of
ink patches in a Chinese painting are enough to appeal to the
viewer's sense of beauty or make him think of something more
profound underlying the images.
"The late master Qi Baishi was quite right in his statement that
it is better to leave the images somewhere between looking real
and not looking real. When the images look too real, the painter
is just catering to unsophisticated tastes. When the images do not
look real at all, the artist is simply cheating and lying," Lin
said.
All this constitutes the corner stone of the artistic belief of
74-year-old Lin Kai, an accomplished painter, calligrapher and
seal-carver.
Born in 1924 in Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, Lin entered
the National Art Institute in Hangzhou, now the China Academy of
Fine Arts, as a Chinese painting major. There, he was taught by
the late masters Huang Binhong and Pan Tianshou, towering figures
in contemporary Chinese art history. His study covered landscape,
figure and flower-and-bird painting.
Upon his graduation in 1951, he joined the People's Art Publishing
House in Beijing as an art editor as well as a painter.
His paintings and calligraphy have won a number of prizes or
awards at various national and local art exhibitions and some have
entered the collections of the museums in Beijing, Zhejiang and
Jilin.
Lin is now a member of the Chinese Artists Association and also a
member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association.
Lin's lean painting style expresses an unstated strength, the
painter's honest personality and a kind of "innocently awkward
beauty." It is free of any hint of frivolity, affectedness or
effeminacy.
"If you make a painting excessively polished, decorative and
beautiful, it will be weak and smell of unimaginative
craftsmanship," Lin said. "Look at the antique bronze casts. The
pieces are rugged and coarse gauged by today's technical
standards. But their forceful and simple beauty appeals strongly
to your soul. Now, take a look at the elaborately carved furniture
and window panes of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911)
dynasties. What do you get from them? Nothing but a feeling of
weakness and a s
ense of entanglement."
Lin is also opposed to being too skilful. When a painter is too
skilled and has a strong desire to show it, he is reminding the
viewer of a fellow speaking with a glib tongue. His piece will
have no gravity or truth and lean very much to the side of vulgar
taste, with all its fluent lines, pleasing images and beautiful
colours, according to Lin.
What Lin is after is a beauty of gravity and seeming awkwardness.
Only this really appeals deeply to the audience, in his view.
Shen Peng, former director of the People's Fine Arts Press and
also a renowned calligrapher in his own right, has this to say:
"Lin's art has nothing at all to do with pettiness and decadent
sentiments. His pieces are all about simplicity and sincerity."
His landscapes are tinted with heavy red and blue. Randomly
running thick lines and strokes, which are suggestive of Chinese
calligraphy, outline the images. Different areas of a picture,
which become whole through the medium of large colour patches,
echo and rival with each other in beauty. The misty touches of
colour on the horizon erase the boundary between the earth and
sky, which help create an ethereal universe.
His figure paintings are mostly of Buddhist monks who have left
the mark of their personal accomplishments on Chinese art history
or legendary figures such as the devil-eating Zhong Kui.
The monk calligrapher Huai Su, for example, looks like a monolith,
with his image made up of iron-like lines. The weird shape of the
figure suggests a kind of supernatural beauty. "The whole picture
appears to take a few steps back from reality," said art critic Ke
Wenhui.
Chinese painting is actually a combination of painting, poetry,
calligraphy and seals, which complement each other and make the
painting an organic whole.
This requires that the Chinese painter be well versed in all of
these branches of arts.
Lin Kai's calligraphy, poetry in classic styles, painting and seal
carving can stand on themselves as independent arts. Placed in a
painting according to the compositional design or by spontaneous
impulse, they make up a pleasing picture.
Lin's calligraphy as an independent form of art is well liked by
connoisseurs and collectors of Chinese calligraphy for the gravity
of its strokes and lines and a kind of "clumsy beauty."
This is also true of his seals. The powerful, angular and
heavy-handed strokes exude unspeakable beauty that is far superior
to the glib-tongued style of beauty marked by showy and
excessively polished images.
In addition, his poems, inlaid with pearls of wisdom, are a
vehicle for expressing his feeling for life. They are lean in
style, rhythmic and forceful, just like his painting, calligraphy,
seals, and, above all, just as he himself is as a man.
Lin is known within Chinese artistic circles as an all-arounder
because of his accomplishments in these different fields.
Shen Peng assesses him this way: "Although it is really something
to be accomplished in painting, calligraphy, poetry and seal
carving, versatility is only an outward expression of one's
multi-accomplishments and should not be praised too much. What
matters is the painter's artistic attainment underlying his art."
"Poetry should be pictorially beautiful and painting should be
poetically beautiful," once observed Su Shi, a great poet of the
Song Dynasty (AD 960-1209) and also one of the pioneers of Chinese
scholar painting (literati painting).
Lin Kai, believing that his art should not be an instrument to
show his versatile skills, has forever been working for
calligraphic, poetic and pictorial refinement, which are bound to
tell in his painting, though not assertively in specific forms.
"This is the consummate state of Chinese painting," he said. "And
I'm only half way up this great mountain. What I should do and can
do is to go on climbing. There is no turning around or stopping
for a rest."
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_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: Hua Jia_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Crosses show casualness
THE exhibition of artist Ding Yi's works, entitled "Ding Yi:
Crosses '89-'98," will open at the art gallery of the Beijing
International Art Palace on January 10.
The show, sponsored by the Beijing-based New Amsterdam Art
Consultancy, features a few dozen of Ding's mixed media pieces
from the Cross series.
On corrugated paper or tartan fabrics, Ding, with charcoal, chalk
and acrylics, brings out elaborate patterns made up by crosses in
yellow, pink, blue, red and brown.
Ding started painting the Cross series in 1988, using a very
simple and natural pattern "+." This was inspired by his knowledge
of printing techniques (the cross marked and divided the surface
of the sheets). He challenged himself to transform its simplicity
and functionality into a pictorially rich and variegated subject.
From the early works to today's paintings, the Cross series shows
a surprisingly wide variety of appearance, colour and materials.
After the precise lines of the original, Ding went on to conceive
more relaxed structures, which did not need measurements, and so
the play of positive-negative is evident in his black and white
works. He then experimented with different materials: chalk and
charcoal took the place of acrylic paint on untreated canvas,
producing a texturally rich result.
Ding likes to express the casualness of nature on the tartan
fabrics he has recently chosen as a basis for furthering his art.
At the same time, Ding is aware of the strong "industrial"
implication of machine-produced fabrics, and, taking up another
challenge, he wants to be able to raise such to the status of art.
The undertaking is even more daring taking into account that the
brush strokes he applies are not a display of pictorial skill but
are rather simple, which any person familiar with the brush could
produce. In this sense, Ding openly disagrees with the
traditionally held belief that technical skill should always be
visib
le and apparent.
To look at details of his paintings and to look at the whole
picture evokes different responses. While the details give an
impression of regularity and monotony, the larger view adds
spontaneity, richness, depth and casualness to the supporting
medium. (CD News)
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Prints on exhibition
THE Retrospective Exhibition of Wang Qi's Art Works, held in
commemoration of Wang's 60-year career as an artist, opened on
January 4 in the Yanhuang Art Gallery in Beijing.
The show, sponsored by the Chinese Artists Association and the
Central Academy of Fine Arts, displays a few dozen of Wang's
prints and paintings from the last 60 years.
Wang graduated from the Shanghai Art School in 1937, when the War
of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) broke out. He
went to war for the survival of the Chinese nation.
He staged a number of exhibitions of his prints that were aimed at
encouraging the Chinese in their struggle against Japanese
aggression.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he
became a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1989, he was elected managing secretary of the Chinese Artists
Association. (CD News)
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Traffic cop rules road in English
THE morning routine of Yang Xinhua, a traffic policeman in Dalian,
begins with a hasty breakfast at half past six and a leap into his
Honda cruiser where, pushing a tape into the deck, he starts his
30-minute New Concept English lesson.
"I appreciate very much these morning English exercises because
they make me feel confident about my job," said the traffic
policeman from the seaport city.
An open port in Northeast China, Dalian has tens of thousands of
foreign investors and tourists.
Some of the overseas newcomers are unfamiliar with the seaside
city's traffic regulations and often get confused about them.
"This poses a danger to the foreigners," said Yang, who pointed
out that hundreds of thousands vehicles, including 21,000 public
buses, shuttle the hilly streets of the city with its population
of 4 million every day.
"I still remember the first time I stopped a foreigner for a
traffic violation," the officer said.
As Yang patrolled the Shenda (Shenyang-Dalian) Expressway one day
two years ago, he noticed a car exceeding the speed limit. When
the sedan was stopped, Yang found the driver was a foreigner whose
eyes seemed a bit out of focus.
When he asked the driver if he had been drinking, the response was
angry gestures and a string of words in a language he did not
understand.
"We couldn't understand each other, and that put me in an
embarrassing position," said Yang.
Then Yang politely invited the driver into his patrol van and
phoned headquarters to send a translator.
It turned out that the foreigner was hurrying to a conference, and
had been asking to be allowed to pay his fines later, after his
meeting.
"The entire affair struck me as being terribly unfortunate, and
from that day I started studying English," said Yang.
His studies paid off. Later on, when he stopped a Japanese
businessman driving in the wrong lane against the traffic, Yang
used his still halting English to explain the traffic rules and
directed the Japanese driver into the right lane, which earned him
an apologetic bow from the businessman.
"Learning English at 35 has been a challenge to me," said Yang who
has had a long ride on his way to becoming a "model traffic
policeman," even having once had to risk his life.
In June last year, when Yang was driving home, he heard cries for
help from an apartment building he was passing, and noticed black
smoke billowing out of a window.
Yang rocketed into the room and saw a gas cylinder in flames.
Swiftly Yang took off his shirt to cover the burning cylinder and
carried it outside.
Because of his quick action, no one was hurt and little damage was
done.
"When you are in a policeman's uniform, you have to be prepared to
take risks," Yang said.
This experience was just another event in the course of his daily
work for Yang. It is not surprising that he has been honoured with
the title "outstanding police officer" for eight consecutive years
in Dalian.
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_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: Shen Yefan_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Too many Chinese names the same!
ASSOCIATE researcher and linguist Zhang Shuyan can tell a lot of
ludicrous stories that happened as a result of people sharing the
same full names.
In one plant, there were seven workers whose names were all Li
Hong. When one phone call for a Li Hong came, often another Li
Hong picked up the receiver.
One pharmacy in a hospital found it had delivered the wrong
medicine to a child. The pharmacist-in-charge went to the police
station to check residents' registration for the child's address,
only to discover there were dozens of children of similar age with
the same name.
During her decade-long research on Chinese names, Zhang Shuyan,
who works with the State Language Working Committee, has
accumulated numerous stories and data on Chinese names that offer
a glimpse into the diversity of Chinese society.
She contributed to the compilation of the 790-page "Statistical
Analysis on the Use of Characters in Given Names and Surnames,"
which listed the frequencies of the Chinese characters used in the
Chinese names.
According to this analysis, published in 1991, the top 10 most
frequently used characters in Chinese names are ying, hua, yu,
xiu, ming, zhen, wen, fang, lan and guo. The persons who use the
top six characters in their names make up 10.3 per cent of the
whole population; the top 10 characters, 14.9 per cent; and the
top 15 characters, 20 per cent.
Other statistics collected by Zhang and her colleagues indicated
that 55.6 per cent of the Han people share only 19 surnames -- Li,
Wang, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Zhao, Huang, Zhou, Wu, Xu, Sun, Hu,
Zhu, Gao, Lin, He, Guo and Ma. Those Han people who have the
surnames Li, Wang and Zhang number 265.9 million, making up 22.4
per cent of the Han population.
"It is not unusual for us Chinese to share the same full names,"
Zhang said.
The commonly used Chinese characters number 7,000. Of them, only
3,913 have been used in given names.
"But the population is 1.2 billion," Zhang said. "And the fact
that people often choose the same few favourite characters only
aggravates the problem."
"Different social events also have left their imprint on given
names," she said.
Take the Chinese character hong (meaning red) for example. Before
the founding of New China in 1949, the use of hong in Chinese
names ranked only 164th. Between 1949 and 1966, it advanced to
45th. During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), it became the
most frequently used given name. But after the "cultural
revolution," it fell to 6th.
Likewise, jun (meaning military) was listed as the 253rd most
frequently used character in Chinese names for people born before
1949. After 1949, it rose to 41st place. During the "cultural
revolution," it shot up to the 3rd, but fell to 7th after 1976.
The practice of using a single Chinese character in given names
was also affected by social change, Zhang said.
Among the people born before 1949, those with a single character
in their given names made up only 11 per cent.
But 50 per cent of those born during the "cultural revolution"
have only a single character in their given names.
Zhang said she becomes increasingly worried as the trend to use
one-character given names continues. Among the people born after
the "cultural revolution," 66 per cent have one-character given
names.
According to one local survey, residents with the full name Wang
Wei and Li Jie number 3,000 in Shenyang alone, which has an urban
population of 4.8 million.
In Beijing, 129 residents born in 1969 with the surname Liu, were
given the name Wei.
As more and more people share the same names, it has aroused
concern.
Last March, Zhao Qing, a veteran dancer, proposed, at the Fourth
Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, that China should formulate a
naming law.
There are other suggestions to regulate the use of Chinese names.
For instance, some suggest that children adopt the less frequently
used surname whether from their father or mother. Others propose
that the combination of the surnames of both parents be used as
their child's surname.
More and more people nowadays begin to realize that two characters
are better than a single character in a given name.
Meanwhile, Chinese linguists are racking their brains to find ways
to diversify Chinese names.
Zhang has tentatively formulated her own "dictionary" of Chinese
characters for use in Chinese names. The characters are selected
not only from the commonly used ones but also from the list of
words that bear useful meanings and are more frequently adopted in
names.
Her list of those Chinese characters numbers between 4,500 and
5,000.
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: Wu Juan_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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What's on (Page 10, Date: 01/08/98)
EXHIBITIONS
German art -- A modern art exhibition from Bavaria, Germany is
holding at China National Art Museum.
The art show features more than 100 drawings, photographs and
sculptures by 16 German artists from Bavaria.
These works reflect the development level of art in Bavaria and of
the whole Germany.
Time: 9 am-5 pm, through January 18
Place: 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng District
Telephone: 6401-2252
Oil paintings -- Wanfung Art Gallery is holding an oil painting
exhibition "Scenes of Old Beijing."
On display are more than 20 oil works by three middle-aged,
Beijing-born artists who have captured scenes of old hutong,
time-honoured gates and life in quadrangles with a true-to-life
effect.
Time: 9 am-6 pm, through January 10
Place: Wanfung Art Gallery, 136 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng
District, Beijing.
Telephone: 6512-7338.
Ancient handicrafts -- Beijing Art Museum, situated in the ancient
Wanshou Temple, reopened its Exhibition of Handicrafts in the Ming
and Qing dynasties (1368-1911) on November 28. The exhibition not
only keeps the best items of the old exhibition, but also includes
more than 100 selected treasures from the collection of the
exhibition hall.
The exhibition is divided into six parts: jadeware, wooden and
bamboo carvings, rhinoceros horn, glassware, enamel and
lacquerware.
The treasures display a good mixture of palace art, literati art
and folk art of the Ming and Ching dynasties.
Time: 8.30 am-5 pm, daily
Place: Wanshou Temple, Suzhoujie, Haidian District
Telephone: 6841-3380
Medici collection -- The Italian Medici Collection Show is running
at the Working People's Cultural Palace.
The Medici collection show features original works of Michelangelo
and Sandro Botticelli.
The Medicis were the famous Italian family that ruled Florence
during the Renaissance (1300-1600). Florence at that time was very
prosperous and formed the focus of Renaissance art. The Medicis
patronized Michelangelo, the most famously gifted sculptor of the
Renaissance or perhaps any era.
Through the efforts of the family, especially Lorenzo de Medici,
Florence and their home boasted a rich collection of Renaissance
artwork.
Time: 8 am-5 pm, through January 10
Place: Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace, east of
Tian'anmen Rostrum
Telephone: 6403-1631
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_Date: 01/08/98_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Updated on September 24, 1997

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_[1]The 15th Party Congress_

_[2]Sep. 12 - Sep.18, 1997_

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[3][LINK] _[4]General Secretary Jiang Zemin's
Report to the 15th Party Congress_
[5][LINK] _[6]New Party Leadership elected,
Top Leaders' Profiles_
[7][LINK] _[8]Communique of 15th CPC Central
Committee's First Plenum_

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_Copyright by CBnet ®, China Daily Information_

References

1. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtg124.html
2. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtg124.html
3. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/report.html
4. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/report.html
5. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtgb46.html
6. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtgb46.html
7. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtgb09.html
8. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/15/engtgb09.html
9. mailto:cd...@chinadaily.net

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[2][LINK]

[3][LINK]

[4][LINK]

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_Chinese, U.S. Presidents Hold Press Conference _

WASHINGTON, October 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Jiang
Zemin and U.S. President Bill Clinton have agreed that China
and the United States should strengthen cooperation in
building a strategic partnership oriented toward the 21st
century, with a view to promoting world peace and
development.
This was stated by Jiang during a joint press conference by
the two presidents Wednesday.
The two presidents also shared the view of holding regular
visits between the two countries' heads of state,
facilitating a Washington-Beijing presidential communications
link, triggering the mechanism of a regular exchange of
visits by foreign ministers and other cabinet officials, as
well as strengthening cooperation in economic, scientific and
technological, cultural, educational fields and in law
enforcement.
Jiang described his talks with Clinton as "constructive and
fruitful," and believed that his ongoing visit could attain
the goal of enhancing mutual understanding, broadening common
ground, developing cooperation and building the future.
The two presidents also agreed to handle bilateral relations
and differences in line with the principles of mutual
respect, non-interference in each other's internal affairs,
equality and mutual benefit, and seeking common ground while
putting aside differences.
Clinton said that Jiang's visit to the United States gave
them the opportunity and the responsibility to build a future
that is more secure, more peaceful, more prosperous for both
peoples.
The two countries share a profound interest in a stable,
prosperous and open Asia, and a strong interest in stopping
the spread of weapons of mass destruction and other
sophisticated weaponry, Clinton said.
He said he agreed to move ahead with the U.S.-China agreement
for cooperation concerning the peaceful use of nuclear
energy.
In both China and the United States, trade has been a
critical catalyst for growth, and China is the fastest
growing market in the world for America's goods and services,
Clinton said. He also said the United States would "do
everything possible to bring China into the World Trade
Organization."
Referring to the Taiwan issue, Jiang said that China wishes
to effect the peaceful reunification of the motherland by
means of implementing Deng Xiaoping's concept of "one
country, two systems."
But China is not committed to giving up the use of force in
this regard, he said, adding that this does not target the
Taiwan compatriots, but direct against the foreign force
interfering in Taiwan affairs and against the scheme that
would attempt to separate Taiwan from China.
On the human rights issue, Jiang said the current world is a
rich and diverse one, and concepts on democracy and human
rights and on freedoms are relative and specific ones.
Therefore, they should be determined by the specific national
situation of different countries.

References

1. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/visit/report.htm
2. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/visit/d1-jiang_j15.htm
3. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/visit/comment.htm
4. http://www.chinadaily.net/cndy/history/visit/backgrnd.htm

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