Editor's note: Beijing is hush-hush about its much anticipated Olympics opening ceremony, but according to some American scholars who visited China recently, folk art will be prominently featured. They talked to NAM editor, Jun Wang, who monitors Chinese media.
SAN FRANCISCO – What will be presented at the Olympics opening ceremony has been kept under wraps in China, but U.S. scholars and students revealed that folk art will be performed in the most-looked-forward-to event ever in that country.
Blair Remington, a junior art major at the University of Central Florida (UCF) told New America Media that yo-yo and bow-and-arrow performances will be showcased at the Olympics opening ceremony. Peking opera masks will also be on display. "I'm looking forward to seeing them on TV," she said.
Remington, on her trip to China in May, learned this from artists who told her they would be performing. She went there last May with a student team from UCF and the University of Oregon (UO) to cover and do research on Chinese folk arts.
Christine Dellert from News and Information Services at UCF said students were sent to China for half a dozen trips in China Vine, a joint project by the two universities and their China partner, Shandong University of Art and Design, in the city of Jinan. Students there told her that folk artists will also be displaying their skills in the Beijing Olympic Village and media center, as well as at the opening ceremony. Besides the promise of fireworks, Beijing has not released information on what the opening ceremony will be like.
Showing posts with label chinese folk art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese folk art. Show all posts
2008-08-04
China explores folk art market
China's rich treasure of folk art is not only a precious cultural legacy, it's also an important economic resource. For years, the Chinese Folk Artists Association has toiled to help underdeveloped villages and counties to explore the lucrative potential of their own folk cultures.
Hougou Village in northern Shanxi Province had been economically depressed for years. Its plantations and stock breeding are spare. Mineral resources are scarce. Per-capita yearly income had long been around 400 yuan, or 58 U.S. dollars.
Five years ago, experts from the Chinese Folk Artist Association arrived in Hougou to look around. They carried out a careful evaluation, then advised the local government to make the development of rural tourism a priority.
The ancient village opened as a tourist attraction two years ago. The traveling public has responded enthusiastically.
Significant numbers are being drawn by the village's unique folk culture and traditional ways of life. At the end of 2007, local villagers' yearly average income had grown to more than 5000 yuan more than 10 times what it was just a few years ago.
In Wei County of Hebei Province, the tiny art of paper cutting helps to swell the fortunes of local people. Paper cutting has a history going back hundreds of years in Wei County. But until not long ago, people there considered the art nothing more than a trivial handicraft.
In 2003, the Chinese Folk Culture Association launched a project to try to save and protect the declining art of paper cutting.
Dozens of experts traveled from village to village, helping local folk artists to realize their artistic potential and to exploit the economic value of their craft.
In the short time since, Wei County paper cutting, has becoming celebrated for its delicacy and originality. Works from the community are selling worldwide.
Hougou Village in northern Shanxi Province had been economically depressed for years. Its plantations and stock breeding are spare. Mineral resources are scarce. Per-capita yearly income had long been around 400 yuan, or 58 U.S. dollars.
Five years ago, experts from the Chinese Folk Artist Association arrived in Hougou to look around. They carried out a careful evaluation, then advised the local government to make the development of rural tourism a priority.
The ancient village opened as a tourist attraction two years ago. The traveling public has responded enthusiastically.
Significant numbers are being drawn by the village's unique folk culture and traditional ways of life. At the end of 2007, local villagers' yearly average income had grown to more than 5000 yuan more than 10 times what it was just a few years ago.
In Wei County of Hebei Province, the tiny art of paper cutting helps to swell the fortunes of local people. Paper cutting has a history going back hundreds of years in Wei County. But until not long ago, people there considered the art nothing more than a trivial handicraft.
In 2003, the Chinese Folk Culture Association launched a project to try to save and protect the declining art of paper cutting.
Dozens of experts traveled from village to village, helping local folk artists to realize their artistic potential and to exploit the economic value of their craft.
In the short time since, Wei County paper cutting, has becoming celebrated for its delicacy and originality. Works from the community are selling worldwide.
2008-08-03
ChineseJinshan Peasant Paintings'
ChineseJinshan Peasant Paintings' Background
Jinshan Peasant Paintings are created by Chinese peasants working in Jinshan County near Shanghai, China. During the late 1970s, the Chinese painter Wu Tongzhang began teaching painting techniques to the farmers in Jinshan. Most of these first painters were older women skilled in various folk arts that had been passed down through generations. These traditional folk arts, such as embroidery, paper cutting, paper folding, and weaving, heavily influenced the style of painting that developed.
Style
Jinshan Peasant Paintings are both natural and unnatural. They are natural, for they show a love of ordinary life--love of children, love of festivals, love of animals, and love of work and chores. But they are also unnatural, in that these ordinary life-events are shown according to the painters’ imaginations. The painters use a wide range of bright colors--colors that are often unnatural--and spread them throughout the paintings. Spatial reality and perspective are unimportant in these paintings. Figures and objects are usually drawn in a way that looks child-like. Taken together, these elements give the paintings a charming, primitive style. The paintings that result are not traditional Chinese and not Western, but are universal celebrations of life.
Artists at the Jinshan Peasant Painting Academy use tempera paint mixed with chalk, and paint on xuan (rice) paper. The paintings are then attached to heavier paper.
Original Paintings
The artists who create these paintings work together at the Academy of Jinshan Peasant Painting. All our paintings are original paintings created by these artists, and contain a "chop" and an "authentication sticker" from the Academy of Jinshan Peasant Painting. Other artists (not at the Academy) often copy the originals (most of the paintings for sale at tourist sights such as Guangzhou's Shamian Island are these copies), but when you buy our paintings you can be sure that the artist who created the design has painted it.
After designing a painting, the artist at the Academy of Jinshan Peasant Painting paints it many times. Each painting is "original", however, for it was done by the original artist; furthermore, since slight variations inevitably exist each time the artist paints the painting, each painting is unique.
2008-07-31
Shandong folk art greets Olympics
Shandong folk art greets Olympics
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-16 13:33:13 Print
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
BEIJING, July 16 -- Olympic fever has spread to Gaomi city, the renowned birthplace of Shandong folk handicrafts. Local artists from this area of eastern China are sending best wishes to the Beijing Olympic Games through their latest works.
Clay sculptor Li Xiuzhen has just finished 50 sets of clay figurines. Her subjects are the Olympic mascots, the five Fuwa. With her innovative designs and ingenious carving, those mascots are given some pure and even vital spirit.
And the works depicting the Fuwa competing in sports, bring together the ideals of artistry and sports.
The middle aged woman with simple and earnest face is Qi Xiuhua. She's a paper cutting artist who was born in Gaomi. She won her reputation at national and international cultural events for her exceptional technique.
Qi started planing her Olympic greetings at the end of last year. Besides the five mascots, she also incorporated the 28 events of the Beijing Olympics into her creations.
(Source: cctv.com)
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-16 13:33:13 Print
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
BEIJING, July 16 -- Olympic fever has spread to Gaomi city, the renowned birthplace of Shandong folk handicrafts. Local artists from this area of eastern China are sending best wishes to the Beijing Olympic Games through their latest works.
Clay sculptor Li Xiuzhen has just finished 50 sets of clay figurines. Her subjects are the Olympic mascots, the five Fuwa. With her innovative designs and ingenious carving, those mascots are given some pure and even vital spirit.
And the works depicting the Fuwa competing in sports, bring together the ideals of artistry and sports.
The middle aged woman with simple and earnest face is Qi Xiuhua. She's a paper cutting artist who was born in Gaomi. She won her reputation at national and international cultural events for her exceptional technique.
Qi started planing her Olympic greetings at the end of last year. Besides the five mascots, she also incorporated the 28 events of the Beijing Olympics into her creations.
(Source: cctv.com)
2008-07-30
Beijing Olympics best chance for world to know Chinese calligraphy
Beijing Olympics best chance for world to know Chinese calligraphy
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-27 08:53:56 Print
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
ZHENGZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese master calligrapher and Beijing Olympic torchbearer said he hoped the country's traditional calligraphy art could spread throughout the world with the Olympic sacred flame.
"I hope the Chinese art could be well accepted and prosper wherever the Olympic flame reaches," said Zhang Hai, Chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association.
Zhang run the first leg of the Olympic torch relay in the Luoyang City in the central Henan province. The gray-haired artist waved his hand and raised the torch high.
"The upcoming Beijing Olympic Games is the best chance for the whole world to know the Chinese calligraphy," he said.
"The Olympics in China will amaze the world not only with its high-quality venues, but also the enchanting traditional culture," he added.
Calligraphy, which has remained a potent force in Chinese life up to the present, continued to be a central art of the literati, closely associated both with painting and with the social and cultural life of the educated elite.
Zhang called the Beijing Olympic emblem Chinese Seal a "perfect combination of the Olympic spirit and the traditional Chinese culture".
The emblem artistically incorporates the seal, the Chinese characters and the calligraphy.
"Although only 18 countries and regions attended the 8th International Calligraphic Exhibition that wrapped up days ago, I see a bright future for the art," he said. "More and more countries will attend the exhibition when they understand the beauty of calligraphy in the near future."
www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-27 08:53:56 Print
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
ZHENGZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese master calligrapher and Beijing Olympic torchbearer said he hoped the country's traditional calligraphy art could spread throughout the world with the Olympic sacred flame.
"I hope the Chinese art could be well accepted and prosper wherever the Olympic flame reaches," said Zhang Hai, Chairman of the Chinese Calligraphers Association.
Zhang run the first leg of the Olympic torch relay in the Luoyang City in the central Henan province. The gray-haired artist waved his hand and raised the torch high.
"The upcoming Beijing Olympic Games is the best chance for the whole world to know the Chinese calligraphy," he said.
"The Olympics in China will amaze the world not only with its high-quality venues, but also the enchanting traditional culture," he added.
Calligraphy, which has remained a potent force in Chinese life up to the present, continued to be a central art of the literati, closely associated both with painting and with the social and cultural life of the educated elite.
Zhang called the Beijing Olympic emblem Chinese Seal a "perfect combination of the Olympic spirit and the traditional Chinese culture".
The emblem artistically incorporates the seal, the Chinese characters and the calligraphy.
"Although only 18 countries and regions attended the 8th International Calligraphic Exhibition that wrapped up days ago, I see a bright future for the art," he said. "More and more countries will attend the exhibition when they understand the beauty of calligraphy in the near future."
2008-07-29
painting of bamboo
Li Kan was a Chinese poet famous for his \'Book of the Bamboo\' where he described with enthusiasm a great many qualities of bamboo and other plants. He was also known for his painting of bamboo.
Amateur painters, from Su Shi and his friends on, had favored painting bamboo in ink monochrome, in part at least because those skilled in the use of the brush for calligraphy could master these genres relatively easily. Bamboo, plum, orchid, pine, and other plants had over the centuries acquired a rich range of associated meanings, largely from poetry. In Song and especially Yuan times, scholar painters began to systematically exploit these possibilities for conveying meaning through their pictures. Bamboo, because it is flexible and can withstand storms without breaking, is a symbol of survival in adversity.
Although bamboo leaves could be painted with single, calligraphic strokes, of the sort Wu Zhen used above, some literati painters also did bamboo with outline and fill techniques associated more with professional and court painters. Li Kan wrote a treatise on bamboo painting in which he criticized amateurs who thought that they could skip step-by-step learning and simply release their momentary feelings with their brush. Li Kan himself did both bamboo in ink monochrome in broad brushstrokes, and, like this one, in outline and fill manner, using colored washes.
This large monochrom ink bamboo scroll was executed with fluid brush stroks without outline. A large seal of Li Kan\'s studio " Xi Zhai" and the outstanding elegance links this work to Li Kan.
2008-06-23
Chinese dragon
Chinese dragon is considered as one of the foremost auspicious symbols of power, good luck and good fortune, abundance and prosperity, attainment of a great success, protection from unfavorable spirits and events in life, wisdom and courage, loyalty, strong self-esteem, happy marriage and lasting love
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
