ChinaDaily[971118-8]

[Chinese News]

China Daily

97 / 11 / 18 /

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1. Artist sees life through child's eyes
2. Notes (Page 9, Date: 11/18/97)
3. Woman helps tame Yangtze
4. Emigrant also thrills to see Three Gorges Dam
5. What's on (Page 10, Date: 11/18/97)
6. [INLINE]
7. [INLINE] __
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Artist sees life through child's eyes
WHAT would I do if I couldn't paint?" artist Nie Ou often wonders.
Nothing else. Painting has become her life since she picked it up
decades ago, out of choice, not out of necessity.
Nie was born in 1948 in Shenyang, capital of the northeastern
province of Liaoning, and moved to Beijing with her parents when
she was very young. She started to learn painting in 1960 at the
Beijing Young Pioneers Palace, which marked the beginning of her
six-year art apprenticeship. Then came the "cultural
revolution"(1966-76) when she, like millions of people of her
generation, went to rural areas to be re-educated by the peasants.
She never dropped painting, even in that poor tiny village made up
of only 40 households in northern Shanxi Province.
Then, in 1978, Nie returned to Beijing and enrolled in the Central
Academy of Fine Arts. Upon her graduation, she joined the Beijing
Painting Institute and has been a professional painter there ever
since.
"My history is simple -- school, the countryside, school again,
then the painting institute. I've never done anything except
paint," she says.
Simple as this is, her career as a painter is laden with rich
content and success.
Childish innocence, simplicity, insouciance and mischief mark much
of her work. Featuring predominantly in her paintings are farmers
reeking of earthy simplicity, mischievous country kids, dumb and
yet lovely donkeys, geese and ducks frolicking in the water,
barking dogs, meek goats, high haystacks and farm tools casually
littering the farm yard.
"Her paintings are lovely because she sees this world with the
curious eyes of a child and feels the world with the loving heart
of a child," says Deng Fuxing, a well-known critic, "instead of
trying to be childishly innocent by affectedly metamorphosed
images, gaudy colours and seemingly casual composition."
Curiosity is the centre of children's psychology, says Deng. When
the child comes to this world anew, he or she is just able to
feel, observe and think and everything before him or her is
strange, novel and interesting. "The ordinary trees, rocks,
villages, thatched cottages, old men, kids, crops and animals take
on an interesting air in the eyes of the child and also in the
pictures of this equally curious painter," he says.
Nie speaks her mind: "One's artistic personality is not
artificially wrought. Artistic creativity should be a spontaneous
outpouring of the painter's feelings, a process of the artist's
self discovery -- recognizing herself, respecting herself and
having confidence in herself."
Nie's work is the expression of her purified mind, says critic Xue
Yongnian, who is the former director of the Art History Department
of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The artist is not telling a
story with her brush. Instead she is baring her soul before the
audience. As a result, dramatic details and moralizing preaching
are hard to find in her work, according to Xue. What impresses the
viewer most are homey touches, healthy human spirit and a
refreshing earthy atmosphere.
"Seeing her pieces gives you a feeling of being yourself in a
northern-country village, the land giving off an earthy fragrance,
the old houses hidden among the crooked trunks of old trees,
bevies of birds brightening the sky. In this world,
person-to-person relations are full of tender feelings, good will
and sympathy. The relations between man and nature are harmonious.
People who extract their livelihood from nature now become
integrated with nature. Here, you see no bitter winds and rains,
no cut-throat competition. What you see are caressing breezes,
crystal-like morning dews, mild snowfalls and gauze-like fogs and
the joys of children doted upon by the elderly," says Xue.
Among other things, the painter's five-year stay in a rural area
helped shape her art. Away from deafening revolutionary slogans
and the masses locked in fierce struggle against each other in the
city during the "cultural revolution," Nie found the little
village where she was to live half a decade quiet and peaceful.
People there were living as they had lived for centuries -- going
to work when the sun rose and getting home to rest when the sun
set. She really felt a sense of relief, though at the same time
she was uncertain where the future would take her.
She still remembers a young boy who often brought her roasted corn
on the cob that had been freshly picked from the fields. "How
delicious and heart warming! What did he want from me, a helpless
and forsaken middle school student? He was doing something
meaningless gauged by the conventions of a commercialized society
where people expect a return for anything they have done for
others. Still, the boy kept coming to visit us and unfailingly
brought us something fresh to eat," Nie says.
Nie was especially appreciative of the casual style of life and
work of the farmers, who did not deliberately seek order and had
no clearly imposed routine in their everyday life. When they were
hungry, they ate. When they were tired, they slept. Could she
express this in her painting?
All this was bound to have influence on the shaping of Nie's
spontaneous and improvised style.
Also, she does huge pieces based on the best known classic essays
written by ancient Chinese literary masters such as "An Account of
the Old Boozer Pavilion," "Tale of Peach-Blossom Spring," "Preface
to Orchid Pavilion Poems" and so on. In each piece, Nie depicts
100 or even 200 or so figures in various attitudes, with different
moods and expressions set against a backdrop of mountains, hills,
and brooks. In this way, she can exploit her techniques in figure
painting and landscape painting to the utmost and express her
feelings to the full.
She is also an accomplished oil painter. "Her oils have the same
simplicity and childish innocence as are found in her ink and wash
pieces," says critic Xue Yongnian.
"I'm looking forward to staging an exhibition of my oils in the
not too distant future," Nie says.
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 11/18/97_
_Author: Hua Jia_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Notes (Page 9, Date: 11/18/97)
Winter auction
CHINA Guardian Winter Auction Guangzhou 1997 is to open on
December 6 in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.
There will be three specialized sessions in the auction --
porcelain, jade ware and handicraft works in the December 6
morning session, art works exclusively by Chinese woman artists in
the afternoon of the same day and Chinese painting in general on
December 7.
A pre-auction exhibition of all the pieces that are to go under
the gavel is to be held December 4 and 5 at Guangzhou's White Swan
Hotel.
Among the porcelain ware is a set of bowls custom-made for the
late Chairman Mao. Called "contemporary official kiln ware," this
set of bowls is of high historical value and a highly valued
collectors' item.
Among the Chinese paintings are works done by such Chinese masters
as Zhang Daqian, Guan Shanyue, Qi Baishi and so on.
Embroidery piece
A HUGE embroidery piece that combines the art of calligraphy and
embroidery has been recently completed in the Suzhou Embroidery
Museum.
The piece features the complete text of "the Art of War," a
military classic written by Sun Tzu, a master military strategist
in the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,000 years ago. All
6,000 characters of the book are in the hand of the late
calligrapher Cheng Keda.
The piece is 11 metres long and 65 centimetres wide and folds into
the form of a book.
Six embroidery workers, guided by Master Gu Wenxia, worked on the
piece for six months before its completion.
Painting album
"THE Selection of Traditional Flower and Bird Paintings," compiled
by the Beijing Research Institute of Culture and History, was
published recently by the Beijing Publishing House.
The book features more than 70 paintings by 15 famous painters
including Wang Aishi, Pu Xuezhai, Song Junfang, Sun Jusheng and Qi
Liangchi from the institute.
The book is a model for the study of traditional Chinese painting.
Gongbi works
AN exhibition of contemporary Chinese Gongbi painting (works
characterized by fine brushwork and attention to detail) opened
last Saturday at the China National Art Museum in Beijing.
The show displays 218 examples of gongbi painting from across the
country.
The 218 pieces on show were selected from 1,300 paintings by 1,000
painters. (CD News)
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 11/18/97_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Woman helps tame Yangtze
LTHOUGH Chen Xiaolin is often admired and eyed with curiosity by
her new acquaintances, she is far too busy to notice it, let alone
enjoy it.
For outsiders, it is hard to imagine that the soft-spoken old lady
is one of those who took command and directs the work of
construction at China's largest civil engineering project since
the Great Wall was built about 2,000 years ago.
At 60, Chen -- the only woman deputy director of the Gezhouba
Group, which is heavily involved in the Three Gorges Dam Project
-- has devoted her life and energy to the cause of taming the
turbulent and mighty Yangtze River, the longest in China and third
longest in the world.
Since her graduation from college in 1959, Chen has made it her
career to build dams on the Yangtze and its tributaries, including
the Gezhouba Dam, just 38 kilometres downstream from the Three
Gorges site.
"Building a facility to keep a tight rein on floods in the middle
and lower reaches of the Yangtze is the long-aspired dream of
several generations of Chinese, especially dam builders," Chen
said. "I am truly honoured to participate in such a great
project."
The project, expected to cost about $25 billion, won approval from
the National People's Congress, China's parliament, on April 3,
1992, and its first-phase construction started in December 1993.
For Chen, the Three Gorges project -- the fifth major water
conservation programme with which she has been involved -- poses a
"brand new challenge" for her and her colleagues with the Gezhouba
Dam group. The group has already built a major dam on the
Yangtze's mainstream.
"With a 185-metre-tall dam and a reservoir with a capacity of 39.3
billion cubic metres, the Three Gorges project ranks on a higher
level than the Gezhouba Dam in terms of both scale and technical
complexity," Chen noted.
Whereas the Gezhouba Dam has a water head of 27 metres, that of
the Three Gorges Dam will reach 170 metres, "which has been almost
unheard of elsewhere in the world," Chen said.
Ever since construction of the project was launched in late 1993,
Chen, a safety helmet on her head, has become an integral part of
the worksite, and her short figure strikes a sharp contrast to the
line of colossal Caterpillar dump trucks and bulldozers shuttling
around the site.
Chen spent a long and worrisome day on October 26, when the gap
between the two sections of the upstream cofferdam was narrowed
from 130 to 40 metres, which was the most difficult and arduous
stage before the Yangtze was blocked by the joined-up cofferdam.
Workers began to throw gravel and stones into the turbulent waters
at 8 am. Two hours later, the flow passing through the narrowed
gap became so swift that rocks weighing about 1 ton each were
flushed away soon after they were dumped into the water.
Then she consulted Huang Huaping, deputy chief of the headquarters
at the worksite, and her other colleagues and worked out emergency
measures to overcome difficulties created by the swift current.
After 14 hours of intensive rock-filling, the gap began to close
again by 2 am and was narrowed to 40 metres at 7 the next morning.
"Only then did the stone in my heart finally drop," she said,
recalling the exhaustion she felt after 23 hours of intense
working.
Chen braves challenges. Known for her competence and dedication,
she has always taken her career as the most important part of her
life.
"She will never let anyone, anything beat her," said Huang
Huaping, Chen's mentor. "And her careful and meticulous style of
work makes her an invaluable part of the team."
In Huang's opinion, Chen's experience epitomizes the dedication
and sense of mission of Chinese water conservation workers. For
generations, they have made many sacrifices and are working under
the most adverse natural conditions for the benefit of all.
However, as a wife and mother, Chen feels much indebted to her
husband and children during the four past decades, when she has
spent most of her time, summer and winter, at worksites along the
Yangtze and its tributaries. And it is her husband, a water
conservation researcher, who took all the responsibilities at
home.
"When I was about to have my first baby, I was still on the
worksite, and my family and friends worried a lot," Chen recalled.
After her two children were born, they had little time with their
mother. Her son was brought up by her sister, who is five years
her senior. (Xinhua)
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 11/18/97_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Emigrant also thrills to see Three Gorges Dam
WATCHING the Three Gorges Dam Project take shape on the Yangtze
River, Henry Hui Yao Wang, a Chinese-Canadian, could barely
contain his excitement, just like so many others involved in this
gigantic project.
Wang, 38, is director of the Asianada International Group Ltd
(Canada) and a Beijing-based vice-president of the Monenco AGRA
Inc, the largest engineering contractor in Canada.
"Being an overseas Chinese, I feel very honoured to have the
opportunity to help the Three Gorges project, and I'm extremely
proud of my motherland, which has launched such a gigantic
project," he said.
Wang was invited to attend the ceremony for the damming on
November 8 as an honoured guest for his outstanding contribution
to the project over the past decade.
Wang had worked for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic
Co-operation until the mid-1980s, when he left Beijing for Canada.
Later, he realized his dream of getting an master's degree in
business administration.
From 1990 to 1993, Wang was the first Chinese-Canadian to be
appointed by the provincial government of Quebec as its councillor
of commerce to Beijing and Hong Kong. During the period, he
brought nearly 30 Canadian companies into the Chinese market.
His involvement in the dam project can be traced back to as early
as 1987, when he persuaded the Canadian Government to grant 20
million Canadian dollars ($14.6 million) for a feasibility study
on the project.
In 1995, AGRA signed an agreement with the China Yangtze River
Three Gorges Project Development Corp, which manages the project,
to establish a managerial system for the work with C$30 million
($21.9 million) in loans from the Canadian Government.
It is the first time that an advanced foreign managerial system
has been adopted in a major Chinese project, and the system has
been described as a "revolution in management" by Lu Youmei, the
development corporation's general manager.
(Xinhua)
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 11/18/97_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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What's on (Page 10, Date: 11/18/97)
ACROBATICS
Acrobatics -- The China Acrobatic Troupe is juggling, cycling and
tumbling every night at Chaoyang Theatre.
The 46-year-old troupe, one of the best in the country, has toured
more than 60 countries and won international competition awards.
The company's repertoire includes tightrope walking, martial arts
and traditional Chinese magic tricks.
Time: 7:15 pm, daily.
Place: Chaoyang Theatre, 36 Dongsanhuan Beilu, Chaoyang District
Tel: 6507-2421.
DRAMAS
Sartre tragedy -- The Central Experimental Modern Drama Theatre's
new production "Death Without Burial" by Jean-Paul Sartre in
Chinese is under way in Beijing.
Sartre (1905-80) was a French novelist, playwright, and exponent
of Existentialism. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1964, but declined it.
"Death Without Burial" raises questions about the value of human
life, human dignity and the significance of death.
The play portrays a group of French Resistance fighters struggling
in jail with the French traitorous government during World War II.
Zha Mingzhe directs the play. The cast includes Feng Xianzhen and
Han Tongsheng.
Time: 7:15 pm, until November 30 except Monday.
Place: The Central Experimental Drama Theatre, A45 Mao'er Hutong,
Dongcheng District.
Tel: 6403-1099.
EXHIBITIONS
One-woman show -- Liang Xiaoshan is holding an etching exhibition
at the Gulao Art Gallery.
Time: 10 am-6 pm, November 22-December 7.
Place: Gulao Art Gallery, Ritan Dongyijie, east of Ritan Park,
Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Tel: 6509-3083.
Russian treasures -- An exhibition of treasures from the Russian
National Treasury is running at the China National Art Museum.
The exhibition features 1,700 Russian treasures and two-thirds of
the items have never been displayed in Russia.
All the exhibits are normally housed in the collection of the
Gokhran of Russia. The items include a natural gold nugget
weighing 1,581.8 grams, a 46 kilogram gold ball fashioned in 1890,
and several of the world's most precious medallions.
Time: 9 am-4 pm, today through Sunday.
Place: China National Art Museum, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng
District.
Tel: 6401-2252.
Etchings show -- Tan Ping, a Beijing artist, recently opened his
1997 collection of etchings at the Red Gate Gallery.
Time: 11 am-6 pm, through tomorrow.
Place: Red Gate Gallery, third floor, China World Trade Centre, 1
Jianguomenwai Dajie.
Tel: 6505-2266 ext 6821
Old Beijing -- A joint art show featuring Beijing's old scenes,
past customs and folk arts such as hutongs and old-style gates is
running at Wanfung Art Gallery.
More than 30 oil paintings by young artists are on display.
Time: 9 am-4 pm, today.
Place: Wanfung Art Gallery, 136 Nanchizi Dajie, Dongcheng
District, Beijing.
Tel: 6523-3320.
CONCERT
Folk music -- The Folk Music Troupe of the China National Song and
Dance Theatre will hold a concert, featuring its star singers:
Wang Tiechui, Ma Xianghua, Deng Jiandong and Qian Zhiwen.
"Liuyang River," "Moon Reflected in Springs," "Farewell to My
Concubine," "Merry Songs of the Miao Group," "Ambush Around," "A
Hundred Birds Sing a Hymn to the Phoenix," "Story by the Yellow
River," "Concubine Yang's Heart" and "Honghu People's Desire."
Time: 7:30, tonight.
Place: Beijing Concert Hall, 1 Beixinhuajie.
Tel: 6605-5812.
BALLET
Italian ballet -- Italian contemporary ballet company Aterballetto
will present a modern ballet night in Beijing.
Founded in 1979, Aterballetto's artistic direction was entrusted
to Amedeo Amodio, the well-known choreographer and dancer.
Aterballetto has established itself as a fixture at major Italian
festivals and as a crowd-pleasing attraction on tours of Europe
and the United States.
This time, Aterballetto is in China to take part in the Italy Week
sponsored by Chinese and Italian governments, when more than 200
Italian companies are coming to Beijing. The programme includes
"Persephassa," "Songs" and "Canzoni."
The activity is sponsored by the China Performing Arts Agency and
organized by CPAA Cultural Entertainment Company.
Time: November 27.
Place: Beijing Century Theatre, Liangmaqiao Lu, Chaoyang District.
Tel: 6405-5512, 6407-3532, 6407-3534.
_____________________________________________________________

_Date: 11/18/97_
_Author: _
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Updated on September 24, 1997

[INLINE]

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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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