International Herald Tribune
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Hong Kong-Shanghai rivalry goes creative
By Kai-Yin Lo

HONG KONG Over the past decade, China's premier business centers, Hong
Kong and Shanghai, have engaged in a friendly rivalry, touting their
relative strengths in hopes of attracting investment. Now they are
waking up to the theories of a growing number of experts that cities
must nurture their "creative capital" in order to entice capital of a
more conventional sort.

Both are now taking a cue from experts in urban regeneration like John
Howkins and Richard Florida, who argue that cities succeed by
establishing themselves as fun places to live that attract the creative
classes - writers, musicians, publishers, architects - and provide an
environment for this elite to change society.

The cities' efforts are paying off with the return of people like the
Hong Kong-born architect Edwin Chan, a co-planner of the Guggenheim
Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and now a partner in the Los Angeles-based
architectural firm of his boss, Frank Gehry. Chan fled his home city at
an early age to pursue a career in the arts abroad. So did the composer
Bright Sheng, a Shanghai native who is Leonard Bernstein Professor of
Music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and who received the
MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in music in 2001.

When he left China, Chan complained that Hong Kong was "not nurturing."
Sheng found Shanghai "suffocating." Skip forward 20 or 30 years and both
men are regular commuters, lured by China's buzz and the exploding
opportunities now on offer.

Hong Kong and Shanghai are taking as reference points cities like
London, where long-term planning starting in the Thatcher era succeeded
in revitalizing the city, resulting in a surge in property prices,
multinational investment, tourist income and a flowering of the arts.

As the Hong Kong-Shanghai competition goes beyond business to enter new
spheres, from the arts and design to sports, lifestyle, entertainment,
tourism and the convention business, each city is taking steps to
manipulate its image for greater emphasis on creativity.

Shanghai's determination to enter the world league of cities is
reflected in the breakneck pace of building, as well as the high
priority given by the city's leaders to "cultural enterprises," backed
by national leaders in Beijing who cherish their Shanghai affiliations.
Since the early 1990s, the Shanghai government has invested $230 million
in cultural complexes in the city center, more than any other Chinese
city, although Beijing is quickly catching up.

Shanghai, which will hold the World Expo in 2010, is using this as a
target date for reaching world-class status. The World Expo plans were
on the agenda in October at a conference called by Mayor Han Zheng, with
an international advisory committee that enlisted world business
leaders, and the mayors of Paris and Seoul, to provide suggestions on
how Shanghai might boost its international competitiveness.

By comparison, Hong Kong may seem a bit tired, despite its famous
skyscrapers, efficient infrastructure and legacy of British institutions.

The difference between the two represents a difference in stage of life,
with Hong Kong taking a more relaxed approach to events that Shanghai is
experiencing for the first time.

Hong Kong leaders envision a spectacular 40-hectare, or 100-acre,
cultural center in the West Kowloon district that will increase the
city's appeal, but they have run into snags of a type that Shanghai has
yet to encounter: Citizens' groups have questioned not only the finances
of the plan, but whether the development, no matter how iconic, will
provide a basis for organic and sustainable growth in arts and culture.

The competition is at its sharpest when it comes to positioning for
business. Shanghai is the logical choice for multinationals that need to
keep a close watch on the vast Chinese consumer market they desire. Hong
Kong, a traders' city, is friendly to exporters, small and medium-size
enterprises and financial services.

Hong Kong remains significantly more attractive than Shanghai as an
operational base because of its mature business culture, its
bilingualism in English and Chinese, its efficiency and its rule of law,
which includes vigilance over intellectual property rights, especially
protection against rampant Chinese counterfeits.

Somewhat belatedly, the Hong Kong government has recognized the power of
the creative industries to energize its economy and to add value to the
advanced manufacturing industries in the adjacent Pearl River Delta on
the mainland, where Hong Kong business controls 70 percent of the work
force. This recognition has resulted in a $32 million innovation and
design fund for helping small creative industries and a renewed pledge
for support from the city chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, in his policy
address last week.

Under way is an aggressive program to establish Hong Kong as the hub of
design in the region. Lifestyle Asia, an annual event organized by the
forward-looking Hong Kong Design Center and the Hong Kong Trade
Development Council, has become Asia's foremost design conference. Last
autumn, three major design and branding conferences took place,
attracting a stellar list of speakers, from the architects Tadao Ando
and Frank Gehry to the designer Philippe Starck, the Guggenheim Museum's
Thomas Krens, the innovation strategist Larry Keeley, and the luxury
brand supremos Bernard Arnault of LVMH and Santo Versace.

The conventional wisdom about Shanghai is that it dazzles with its
speedy development of "hardware," from commercial buildings to cultural
and entertainment venues, while Hong Kong is strong on institutional and
legal "software." The truth is more complex, and requires a look at the
cities' cultural background.

Historically, both cities achieved prominence through their foreign
connections, Shanghai as a treaty port, Hong Kong Island as a British
imperial possession, together with its leased territory on the adjacent
mainland. Still, both absorbed and assimilated the dominant regional
cultures of their Chinese hinterlands.

In Shanghai's case, that meant drawing upon one of the pre-eminent
centers of China's literary culture in the Song and Ming dynasties (the
10th to 17th centuries), the so-called Jiangnan region centered in
nearby Suzhou and Hangzhou. These cities were renowned for their
creativity, taste and individuality, in contrast to the formal style
associated with government-dominated Beijing. "Suzhou style" was
reinterpreted as Shanghai style as that city prospered. By the 1930s,
together with Berlin and Chicago, Shanghai attracted global attention
with its mix of sophisticated opulence and the demi-monde.

Both Shanghai and Hong Kong are indelibly associated with their colonial
pasts. However, after 56 years of Communist rule, Shanghai is currently
reveling in its economic growth and newness. Colonial residues remain in
the stately edifices on the Bund, the city's famous waterfront, and the
hybrid Chinese-European residences still standing in the old French
concession, largely retained for their tourist value.

In contrast, Hong Kong has kept many virtues of its British colonial
masters, if little of their architecture. Its legal institutions,
individual liberties, deep-rooted ethical standards, vigilance against
corruption and efficient civil service are the cornerstone of its
business, political and civic culture.

Visiting the city recently, Bruno Marquet, executive director of the
Pompidou Center in Paris, paid Hong Kong a backhanded compliment by
describing it as "Chinese, but not very Chinese." This perception
reflects Hong Kong's attractiveness to Westerners, but does not
adequately measure the connection between Hong Kong's culture and its
hinterland, historically looked down upon by northerners as provincial.

Hong Kong remains an extreme example of southern China's linguistic,
ethnic and cultural diversity. If Shanghai's strength is the strategic
vision of its leadership and the renewal of the colorful culture of its
heyday from the 1920s to 1940s, Hong Kong is spurred by a kind of
creative combustion and resourcefulness.

An emblem is the late James Wong Jim, an icon of Canto-pop music, whose
lyrics were the defining expression of Hong Kong's golden era of popular
culture in the late 1970s and 1980s. His composition "Under the Lion
Rock," the title song of a television series, speaks to the sentiments
of many in Hong Kong, who came by chance or as refugees after the
Communist revolution in 1949, and thrived despite adversity.

In a seminar at the University of Hong Kong last year, Wong said: "We
were not consciously creating anything. Hong Kong culture is just
ordinary living." His definition encompasses the mix of commercial
instincts, hard work and entrepreneurship that translates into a Hong
Kong lifestyle based on business success, materialism, flexibility and
an international outlook.

Over time, differences between Shanghai and Hong Kong are likely to
persist, although in some respects the cities may come closer together.
They may not be rivals in the true sense but, like other major brands,
they thrive on competition with each other.

Kai-Yin Lo is a designer, consultant and writer based in Hong Kong.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/19/news/cities.html

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China Daily
A snap in time
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-20 09:16

Facing modernization and urbanization, how do photographers present
modern cities and the possible problems they pose to the public? And how
do they refresh their critical insights towards the great cities of the
world?

Photographers face such dilemmas and social responsibility whenever they
view cities through their cameras.

The 2005 Guangzhou Photo Biennial Exhibition, which is being held in
this capital city of South China's Guangdong Province, encourages all
photographers at home and abroad to apply this scholarly topic when they
select works.
[image] Visitors admire photos during the onegoing 2005 Guangzhou Photo
Biennial Exhibition, which is being held in the capital of South China's
Guangdong Province.

The biennial show, named "Review the City," is co-hosted by the
Guangdong Museum of Art (GMA) and the Art Museum of the Guangzhou
College of Fine Arts, and it will last until February 27.

The main parts of the photo show include four thematic exhibitions,
namely "Cities of Dream and Urban Remembrance," "Significance of Scene
Perspective," "Marginality and Dissimilation - City as Reality" and
"View of the Flaneurs."

A large number of photos produced by 38 Chinese photographers and 14
international photographers are displayed in venues of the Guangdong
Museum of Art, the Guangzhou College of Fine Arts and the Time and Rose
Square in the city during the exhibition.

The biennial show also includes five special international group
exhibitions to display the development of cities around the world.

Altogether 166 works of 32 renowned French artists, including William
Klein and Adre Kertesz, form the exhibition of "Paris of the
Photographers." Another exhibition, named "Lights on France," is also
being shown, aiming to demonstrate the embellishment of the urban
environment through light.

In addition, the "City on the Move," which has been shown in over 20 big
cities around the world, is also displayed in Guangzhou this time.

The photographic works, produced by French artists, cast a critical eye
on the neglected spaces of daily urban life by recording the urban
change on the move.

For this part, the Chinese photographers, A Niu in Guangzhou, Song
Gangming in Wuhan, Luo Yongjin in Shanghai, Li Lang in Chongqing and Liu
Zhijian in Beijing, take a new look at the movement of cities, one that
casts light on the changes occurring in Chinese cities both in urban
lifestyles and in the shapes and spaces.

An Israel photo exhibition, named "Western and Eastern Time," displays a
number of works produced by five Israel photographers. An international
photographers group, named "Tangophoto," also displays their recent works.

In addition, an international academic photography conference, which has
attracted a number of renowned domestic and overseas artists, including
Gu Zheng, An Ge and Alain Jullien, will be held during the exhibition.

"The biennial photo show aims at enhancing people's understandings of
the relationship between city development and human beings," said Wang
Hangsheng, director of the GMA.

"Since its very inception, photography has remained intimately connected
to urban development and transition, and urbanization has markedly
altered the lifestyles, ethics, senses, and psychologies of city-dwellers."

Through photos, people discover not only the essence of photography
itself, but also the essence of the development of cities and human
beings, Wang said.

Expo

Since "Humanism in China: Records of the Contemporary," a large-scale
photographic exhibition held last year, the GMA had considered
collecting and displaying the contemporary photographic works as
principal research to modernization and urbanization.

According to Wang, the photo show of "Humanism in China" will also be
held in five museums in Germany in May 2006 to March 2008, in a bid to
enable the public to know more about the development of Chinese cities.

In addition, Wang is to make a proposal to the local government,
suggesting the establishment of a photographic museum to better collect
and display modern photographic works to the public.

"Besides the photo show, people should have more opportunities to
understand the relationships between urban development and human beings
through photos," said Wang. There are currently no photo museums across
the nation," he laments.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-01/20/content_410669.htm

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Taipei Times
Southern branch of Palace Museum emphasizes Asia
STAFF WRITER
Friday, Jan 21, 2005,Page 4

While the nation's culture is immensely influenced by Europe and the US,
the branch of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi will focus on Asian
cultures, the museum's director said yesterday.

"I'd prefer to see it as a decision with foresight rather than a
challenging mission," said the museum's director, Shih Shou-chien (??
?). "I'd like to see more cultural exchanges and interaction with Asian
countries, and to accent the unique Asian spirit and civilization."

The museum's collection and displays not only emphasize the importance
of Asian cultures, but also broadens the horizon of Asian cultures, he said.

"With extended professional experience in art education, we feel
obligated to educate the public about the splendor of Asian cultures,"
he said. "Ideally, we will enrich people's minds with Asia's rich
history and cultural artifacts."

Under the museum's plan, the southern branch will be developed by
combining local artifacts with exhibits from other Asian countries.

With some 650,000 items in the museum collection, many of them can't be
exhibited at the same time due to the lack of adequate display space.
Collections from such Asian countries as Japan and South Korea will be
included.

The land for the project is owned by the state-owned Taiwan Sugar
Corporation and covers 57 hectares.

The branch has one lobby with guided tours available, five long-term
display halls, a special exhibition hall, a media center and a child
creativity center.

The main themes of the five long-term display halls are about Asia's
religion, textile, pottery, fine arts and literature.

Displays are currently running on tea culture, jade, Taiwan's religions
and ancient military weapons.

Of the 3,000 items on display, 60 percent are in the museum's
collection, while the remaining 40 percent are on loan from other
countries.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/01/21/2003220306

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NY ARTS March/April 2005
China: Dynamics of the Public Space
By Meike Behm

[Image] Chen Wenbo, Passage, 2003, Oil on canvas , 178 x 235 cm. Image
courtesy of L.A. Gallery, Frankfurt am Main

With its 1.2 billion inhabitants, China is the world's most populous
country; 12.6 million people live in its Capital Beijing alone, 14.5
million in Shanghai. "Dynamics" and "vitality" are two prominent
catchwords in modern China. Everything is bigger than life, everyone
wants to be state-of-the-art, and "bigger, broader and fresher" is the
way to go.

Referring to Asian metropolises, the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas coined
the term "generic city," meaning cities governed by maximum efficiency
and functionality. His theory sets forth an extreme case, assuming
cities that are completely shedding themselves of their–historical and
physical–identity, no longer marked by deep-rooted structures, but a
mere reflection of the needs and skills of the here and now.

During the 1990s, Beijing's and Shanghai's architectures changed
rapidly. Entire settlements with traditional architecture were torn
down, taking with them an urban identity established over centuries.
Even today, privately-owned apartment houses continue to make way for
new office buildings, shopping malls and other modern premises by order
of the municipal authorities, with the former inhabitants rarely getting
compensated for their relocation. Human values such as compassion and
charity yield to egoism and lone-wolf mentality, while the individual is
left with little space, and little time, to establish or improve his or
her social environment.

The dynamics of urban space in these cities has had a powerful and often
disadvantageous effect especially on the lower classes, and as such has
been the critical subject of a variety of Chinese artworks. Many of the
artists were born in the Chinese provinces, but have long since moved to
one of the country's major urban areas.

In China, temporariness is a prevalent phenomenon of contemporary life.
Living space is temporary, jobs are temporary, the interpersonal
institution of marriage is temporary, life is temporary. The exhibition
China: Dynamics of the Public Space puts works of art in dialogue which
deal with this rather sobering fact in different ways. They approach the
rapid developments of urban space in Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzen by
pointing out their negative effects on private and social life. It is
true that in its critical and questioning response to the changes of
urban space, contemporary Chinese art is not really that different from
its Western counterparts. However, globalization, the breeding ground of
"generic cities," has hit cities like Beijing and Shanghai with much
more force and within much shorter time than the metropolises of the
West. As Lothar Albrecht, L.A.Galerie Director, commented, "I took the
freedom to look at China for many years before I decided upon the
artists to exhibit."

Ma Han, Map of the City, 2002

The Chinese artist Ma Han (b. 1968) has been living in Beijing for ten
years. His work is in part driven by the question of how to keep a
deeper insight and understanding through the medium of art at a time
when one is constantly inundated with pictures, be they real or digital.
He also reflects on the rapid changes of urban centers as well as the
reconstruction of Chinese culture.

In his photo-collages Ma Han deals with the velocity ruling his
environment. Map of the City consists of numerous little single takes
arranged against a monochrome gray background. Their setup corresponds
to the street grid of Beijing, a structure of concentric circles
suitable for the heavy traffic governing the city's infrastructure. The
individual pictures, in contrast, convey the impression of chaotic,
unstructured activities in the street. Comparable to a battlefield,
every conflict represents the problem of a rapidly changing environment.
Elements that seemingly providing order and structure, like the traffic
system, are exposed as merely superficial.

Wang Jinsong One hundred Signs of Demolition, 1999

"Chai" is the Chinese word for "demolition." Its graphic symbol shows up
all over a photograph by Wang Jinsong (b. 1963) with the telling title
"One hundred Signs of Demolition." The picture shows Chinese signs
sprayed on many building fronts by the municipal building inspectorate,
suggesting that inhabitants look for a new place to live because their
house will be torn down soon and fall victim to the construction of a
modern skyscraper. The actual structures and functions of these
buildings cannot even be guessed at, as Jinsong focuses on the causes of
urban change, as much as those responsible for it.

The sign for demolition symbolizes the radical transformation of city
landscapes; throughout Beijing, entire neighborhoods have been
guillotined by order of the city's building inspectorate. The absence of
human beings--the real victims of the eradication--in combination with
the cool, off-putting sign for demolition, makes these photographs sharp
criticism, if not an outright accusation, of the city's building policy.

Xiang Liqing, Rock Never, 2002

In a series of rigorously upright photographs entitled Rock Never, Xiang
Liqing (b. 1973) presents another reaction to the architectural changes
and breakneck construction of skyscrapers in Shanghai. Numerous
traditional-style housing communities have been leveled to make room for
postmodern shopping centers, office buildings and apartment complexes.
Rigid apartment high-rises bespeak the discipline that push horizontally
structured communities into vertical organizations of order and control.
Xiang Liqing's photographs, with their grid-like facades of contemporary
residential buildings, scrutinize these symbols of architecturally
controlled life. Their extreme upright format and cold
black-and-whiteness give an impression of the narrowness in the streets
between all these skyscrapers. Unlike other artists-photographers who
focus on the high-speed development of China's urban areas, Xian Liqing
reflects on the coolness and tightness of existing in these "dwelling
machines."

Cai Guangbin, Window No.12, 2004

Cai Guangbin (b. 1963) uses the traditional Chinese painting technique
of watercolor on paper. He does not, however, feature traditional
subjects like exotic birds or plants illustrating poems or Confucian
writings. His compositions, in mostly square format and titled, e.g.,
"Window: Departure" or "Window: Reflecting," are dominated by
crosses--mullions and transoms with a dividing function. From behind the
mullioned windows, heads stare at us with wide-open eyes or cast empty,
inward gazes which suggest a constricted, insecure situation. These
faces do not appear in a clearly defined environment, but are left
disoriented. With great force, Cai Guangbin tells of existential
threats, of the both physical and psychological constrictions imposed on
the individual by nowadays' living conditions in overpopulated cities.

Wang Wei, "Temporary Space", 2003

The video entitled "Temporary Space" by artist Wang Wei (b. 1972)
documents the building of a wall inside a gallery. Within two weeks, ten
workers put up a wall four meters high and thus erected a ceiling-less
"room within a room" spanning 100 square meters in a commercial gallery
in Beijing. Farmers who ordinarily subsist on selling well-preserved
bricks from destroyed buildings transported those bricks to the gallery
on donkey carts. Wang Wei took pictures of the construction work on a
daily basis. When the wall had reached four meters in height, Wei
invited not only the farmers, but also visitors to the gallery for a
topping-out ceremony. Because space was now much more limited, people
were crammed into the only 60 cm-wide corridor surrounding the wall.
After the ceremony, the builders tore down the wall again and bought the
bricks for less than half of what they would have sold them otherwise.
The donkey carts reappeared, and bit by bit the room became as empty as
it had been before the construction of the wall. What remains are the
video and a series of photographs called "That which stands cannot
fall," which show that the workers disappear behind the walls more and more.

This work is designed to be temporary, with regard to both form and
content, and it emphasizes the displacement of public and private
lebensraum, as those present at the topping-out ceremony were especially
made aware of. Thus it represents a critical comment on the
city-planning problem of construction and deconstruction. It also points
to the desire to leave no trace of former long-grown traditions.
Correspondingly, it directs our attention to the social problems
resulting from the far-reaching architectural changes through the
demolition of countless houses. The video demonstrates how the farmers
make a virtue of necessity, taking advantage of the changes in city
planning by selling the bricks.

Chen Wenbo "Passage", 2003

In his pictures, Chen Wenbo (b. 1969) deals with the variety of aspects
characterizing today's fast-paced life, determined by the power of
money, superficiality and instability; he also puts forward an aesthetic
manifestation of China's socio-political climate. His pictures usually
feature details of urban life--a facade reflecting glittering
streetlights or a tunnel leading into nowhere and also seemingly
immersed in artificial light. His superrealistic, ductus-negating
painting technique corroborates this impression of artificialness,
conveying a cool and artificial atmosphere. A human being is nowhere to
be seen, only referred to by the form of expression. Chen Wenbo's
pictures can be placed in the tradition of photo-realistic painting
because of their technique, which the artist utilizes to convey the
artificialness and anonymity characteristic of big cities. For him, it's
a matter of "depicting the surfaces of things." The tunnel appears to be
immersed in excessively artificial light, which dematerializes it and
makes it seem like an illusion of the real thing.

In a video called "Bored Youth" by Zhao Liang (b. 1971), a teenaged
actor is walking through the sorry remains of a declining traditional
neighborhood of Beijing. We watch him go inside dark, empty houses, and
hear rocks falling down, window panes shattering or objects being
smashed, as the protagonist is joining in and speeding up the
destruction. Slow music without any distinctive rythm accompanies the
sequences and enhances the monotony that the film conveys.

With its title "Bored Youth" the video also brings to mind the concept
of the so-called "no-future generation" ascribed to Cinese youth. As
long-grown traditions become lost and replaced by a life where one
always has to go faster, higher, or further, the younger population
especially does not always end up in boundless enthusiasm; aimlessness
and often total resignation are common effects of these developments, too.

http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/articles.php?aid=911

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A behind-the-scenes look at the private side of public art
Jun Lai's show at the Taiepi Fine Art Museum illustrates how one artist's ideas become public property
By Susan Kendzulak
Sunday, Jan 23, 2005,Page 19

Not many local art exhibitions give a behind-the-scenes look at Taiwan's major public art projects. Jun Lai's (???) solo exhibition New Vision: The Melody of Color and Light, at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum until Feb. 13, is an exception since it provides an overview of her award-winning public art sculptures and includes architectural models, large scale photographs, framed drawings and a light-hearted documentary video that gives insight into how a major mega-bucks public art installation starts as an individual artist's idea.

Public art is a recent phenomenon for Taiwan. The percent-for-art program (inspired by Western programs) became law in 1992 and public art came into being six years later. According to recent government statistics, there were 42 public art projects in the year 2001 and 121 projects in 2002.

In 2001, NT$400 million was spent on public art in the city of Taipei alone. As public art projects increase, so do opportunities for Taiwan's artists to gain visibility.

Public art projects are normally conducted as competitions with either open calls for submissions or selected invitations to submit. The artist then makes a written proposal along with digital imagery of what the finished art project would look like on site.

The proposals are judged by committees, most often by a committee of government officials and then by another committee composed of art experts.

The first-prize winner is funded to create the public art, while the second-prize winner receives money to cover the artist's initial research and proposal costs.

On view at Lai's clearly organized exhibition are examples of Lai's prize-winning public art projects such as South Melody, a set of colorful geometric Plexiglas shapes installed at the Nanshijiao MRT Station. The cheerful lime- green and tomato-red mobiles and glowing azure-blue wall plaques brighten up an otherwise dreary public passageway and bring to mind the pleasing and playful qualities of the work of early modernists such as Miro and Picasso.

In most of Lai's work, the qualities of lightness and translucency are dominant and the durable pieces of shaped plastic -- based on organic forms -- look like glass and so allow the sculptures to interact with the natural light of the environments where they are installed.

The Penghu Mangong Airport project is a perfect example of this interplay of light and color. Lai's fish shapes made from painted Plexiglas are suspended from the ceiling and seem to float in mid-air.

As light from the skylights filters through the terminal, it picks up the dots of blue and green on the fish and allows the bits of color to shimmer onto the floor, thus giving visitors a feel and preview of the island's natural scenery with its breezy winds and sparkling waters.

The huge free-standing multi-colored sculpture placed at the Sihu Service Area of the Second Highway and titled Sihu Concentric brings to mind the corporate-plaza-sized sculptures of Alexander Calder.

Using a modernist vocabulary of shapes and sizes, Lai also incorporates Chinese mythical creatures such as the dragon, phoenix and Chilin (Chinese unicorn). Whimsical and colorful, the sculpture is a joyful sentinel to a dull part of a non-descript flat highway.

Ocean Garden is a glittery, candy-hued collection of shapes to be installed this March at the bland Airport Arrival Hall of Hong Kong's MTRC.

In addition to the public passageways of commuter trains and airport terminals, Lai has also installed work at financial banks often incorporating Chinese principles of Feng Shui design and symbols.

In Friendliness is Conducive to Business Success for the Bank of Taiwan, Lai installed a chandelier-like sculpture that looks like bamboo grown upside-down as that symbolizes fortune and growth. Her intentional placement of light, color and shape was also done to enhance the space's magnetic field to create an area conducive to financial success.

One point that emerges in the exhibition is that in order to be a successful public artist, one must wear many hats: that of businessperson, interior designer, one familiar with architecture, and one who can gauge the public in order to make work that is accessible, non-offensive and consistent.

While working with a limited palette of bright primary and secondary colors, neon lighting and simple organic and geometric shapes, Lai proves to be that type of artist.

Exhibition notes:
What: Jun Lai Public Art Solo Exhibition
Where: Taipei Fine Arts Museum,181, Zhong-Shan North Road, Section 3, Taipei
When: Now through Feb. 13, 2005,Tuesdays to Sundays, 9:30am to 5:30pm. Closed Mondays.
More information: http://www.tfam.gov.tw; www.junjunart.com

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2005/01/23/2003220684

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BERN, KUNSTMUSEUM
Jahresprogramm mit Höhepunkt «Mahjong»
Das Kunstmuseum Bern hofft nach einem turbulenten 2004 auf ruhigere
Zeiten. Mit der China-Schau «Mahjong» steht im Sommer die grösste
Ausstellung in der Geschichte des Museums an.
Mathias Frehner (Archiv) / Tomas Wüthrich
Links zum Thema:

*
Website des Kunstmuseums Bern

Das Hauptereignis des Berner Kunstjahres ist - das liess Museums-
Direktor Matthias Frehner bei der Medienorientierung am Mittwoch in Bern
nicht unerwähnt - die Eröffnung des «Zentrum Paul Klee» (ZPK) am 20.
Juni. Diesem Ereignis wolle das Kunstmuseum mit seinem Programm einen
«harmonischen Kontrapunkt» entgegen setzen.

Eine Woche vorher nämlich, am 12. Juni, eröffnet das Kunstmuseum mit
«Mahjong - Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg» die
grösste Ausstellung seiner Geschichte. Es sei auch die grösste je
gezeigte Ausstellung von Gegenwartskunst aus China.

Uli Sigg, von 1995 bis 1998 Schweizer Botschafter in China, besitzt die
«weltweit grösste, vollständigste und gehaltvollste Sammlung von
chinesischer Kunst von den 80er Jahren bis heute». Sie umfasst über 1200
Werke von rund 180 Künstlern und Künstlerinnen. In Bern wird die
«Sammlung Sigg» erstmals so umfassend zu sehen sein.

«Franz Gertsch» in Bern und Burgdorf

Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt im Jahresprogramm 2005 ist die Retrospektive
«Franz Gertsch», die, aufgeteilt in Frühwerk und neueres Schaffen,
gleichzeitig auch im «Museum Franz Gertsch» in Burgdorf zu sehen sein
wird. Insgesamt 34 Gemälde, rund die Hälfte von Gertschs Gesamtwerk,
wird aus Anlass seines 75. Geburtstags ausgestellt sein.

(...)

Das Jahr 2004 bezeichnete Kunstmuseums-Direktor Frehner in seinem
Rückblick als von den Eintritten her positiv. Das Budget des
Kunstmuseums werde mit schwarzen Zahlen abschliessen. Rückschläge waren
2004 jedoch der Bilderstreit mit dem ZPK, das Scheitern der Abteilung
Gegenwartskunst, und der Verlust der angekündigten «Brücke»-Sammlung des
Kunstsammlers Hermann Gerlinger.

http://www.espace.ch/artikel_53750.html

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www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-18 10:17:59
Five years of Chinese art, one timeless exhibition

BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- A week ago, the climatic exhibition of awarded
works for the 10th National Arts Contest drew its curtains in Beijing.
The exhibition had drawn great attention from the public not only
because of the disputed sculpture of the "Kneeling Chinese," and not
just because of the visit paid by famous Nobel Prize winner and newly
wed Yang Chen Ning, who was accompanied by his young wife.

No, for most, the art was the main reason for attending, with this
event serving as a review of the achievements made by Chinese artists
during the past five years.

Artistic Design is a relatively new category to the National Arts
Contest, having been added at the last exhibition five years ago. At its
second showing, it proved to be one of the hottest sections of the show,
and a good indication of the growing attention being paid to China's
domestic design industry.

"Seeking Phoenix, Performing Phoenix and Following Phoenix" took
gold prize for fashion design, with creator Qiu Haisuo having produced a
series of clothes made in the batik style, using the materials of flax,
cotton, gauze and silk. She explains the meaning behind the name of her
design.

"Ever since ancient times, people have been pursuing a beautiful
life or ideal. The phoenix is a symbol of something that doesn't exist
in the real world, but people have attached the most beautiful concepts
to it. My design manner, however, is very simple and all the elements in
my work are conventional, so conversely they have created a brand new
image with a unique style," said Qiu.

Launched in 1949 and subsequently held every four years since, the
National Arts Contest is a cultural event devoted to the exhibition of
works from China's highest artistic echelons, and especially works found
in the fine arts. From August to November last year, the 10th National
Arts Contest was held in ten major cities across the country, with more
than 3,000 pieces of works on show.

The best were given awards, and a month ago these six hundred
prizewinners were displayed in Beijing, where they drew a great number
of art lovers from all over the country. Indeed, during the exhibition's
first two days, more than 3,000 people walked in the presence of these
prize works. For the public, it was not only a good opportunity to
appreciate the best of Chinese art from the last five years, but also a
chance to communicate with some celebrated artists. China's Vice
Minister of Culture, Chen Xiaoguang, speaks highly of the event.

"As a significant activity in the circles of fine art, the national
arts exhibition has become an event to promote artistic creation and to
discover artistic talent. It is a comprehensive arts exhibition with the
most participants, the widest range of genres and the most authoritative
judgment in China," said Chen.

In a breakaway from previous incarnations, this exhibition
championed a number of alternative and avant-garde works not yet
critically recognized by the majority of the Chinese art world. Even in
the traditional Chinese painting category, the gold winner, Treasure of
Nature, was quite daring in its approach.

Using drawing materials more often found in western paintings, such
as propylene, the work physically brushed aside Chinese painting's
tradition reliance on ink and mineral paints.

Moreover, with a distinctly modern keynote of light green and
silvery grey, this painting has seriously subverted the conservative
"dots and lines" technique of traditional Chinese painting.

But despite being controversial, the painting still provides a
dreamlike portrayal of the landscape around the south part of the
Yangtze River, a portrayal which well expresses the essence and artistic
pursuit of traditional Chinese painting.

Unlike Treasure of Nature, another gold prize winner, the oil
painting "Nanjing, September 9, 1945", won unanimous praise from
audience and critics. Taking realism as its mantra, the painting depicts
the moment when the Chinese government accepted the Japan's surrender in
1945.

As five meters wide and two meters high, the picture boasts a grand
panorama but still maintains a great delicacy. All of the historical
figures are vividly portrayed, while the whole scene conveys a sense of
solemnity and stateliness. It took the artist Chen Jian a decade to
complete this painting, but his reward was its reception as one of the
best historical works by a Chinese artist in many decades.

Despite the radically difference approach of works such as Treasure
of Nature and Nanjing 1945, An Yuanyuan, of the Arts Department of the
Chinese Ministry of Culture, lumps all this creativity and innovation
together as representing the future of China's fine arts.

"These works represent the achievements made in recent years by
various genres. We can tell from these award-winning works that the
artistic psychology of contemporary Chinese artists is becoming
progressively peaceful and calm. They are paying more attention to the
expression of the essence of Chinese arts and culture, with more mature
experiments in the fields of artistic skill and manner," said An.

For art lovers, the National Exhibition is an infrequent,
highlighted day in their calendars, but for Chinese artists there is
much to regret, and much progress still to be made. Han Meilin is a
senior Chinese painter, as well as the designer of Beijing's emblem
during its bid for the Olympic Games.

He said that he had felt so moved upon seeing that the younger
artists could do better work than the old artists. They felt being
pushed forward by their efforts, but he still felt some remaining
regret. He thought the works in several genres hadn't attain the high
level of which they are capable, and among all of the sculptures, he
didn't find a single top quality work."

Yang Hailin is an art lover originally from Shenzhen, a city once
located in the forefront of China's economic reforms, and now found in
the vanguard of Chinese art. Compared with exhibitions held in Shenzhen,
Yang Hailin thinks that this Beijing display is still a bit behind the
times.

To this end, the organizational committee of this Beijing event
promises to display even more modern and contemporary works next time
round. Five years is a long time in art, and when 2009 arrives, it will
be interesting to see at the next exhibition which artistic styles are
still considered cutting edge, and which have been blunted by age.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/18/content_2475321.htm

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The Korea Herald, 2005.01.19
New dictionary on art, archeology published
By Iris Moon

In its continuing efforts to introduce Korean culture to a wider
audience, the Korea Foundation has introduced a new dictionary of Korean
art and archeology.

The "Dictionary of Korean Art and Archaeology" features almost 3,000
terms in both English and Korean and costs 18,000 won. A broad range of
topics are given brief and concise entries. Totaling 347 pages, the book
is small enough to tote around on trips to the museum or library.

Covering archaeology, architecture, art history and folklore, terms are
written in Korean and English and follow the order of the Korean
alphabet. Familiar terms, such as "mudang" or shaman, as well as lesser
known words like "mumoil," meaning a day representing hairless animals
in the Chinese zodiac, are included.

The Romanized Korean used in the dictionary is based on the system
adopted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2000. Sanskrit and
Hanja, or Chinese characters, are also given where the word's root is
based in either language. A number of illustrations accompany entries to
help clarify definitions.

The dictionary was published by Hollym Press. Roderick Whitfield, a
professor of Chinese art and archeology at School of Oriental and
African Studies in London, served as chief editor, with definitions
given by several Korean professors. Whitfield has previously published
books on Chinese art, Korean ceramics and Buddhist sculpture.

The dictionary represents the government-sponsored foundation's attempts
to introduce Korean culture to a wider audience. This year, the Korea
Foundation plans on publishing an introductory series on Korean culture
that will include subjects such as traditional knots, Buddhist temples
and palaces. A book on modern and contemporary Korean art is to be
published in the spring.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2005/01/19/200501190022.asp

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www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-18 08:47:32
50 years of the Chinese ballet

BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- The Red Detachment of Women, The White-haired
Girl, Butterfly Lovers and Raise the Red Lantern… Chinese ballet has
been on the road for about 50 years, a time that began with the founding
of the Beijing Dance Academy in 1954 and the Central Ballet Troupe of
China in 1959.

During this half-century exploration of grace, Chinese people have
come to a great understanding of what was previously an exclusively
Western art form. Presently, a great number of ballet dancers and
choreographers are trying to bring the world an understanding of Chinese
ballet, and to use this western art to tell Chinese stories. Shen Ting
has more.

Ballet The Red Detachment of Women (baidu photo) by NBC
Ballet The White-haired Girl by Shanghai Ballet(baidu pohto)

"The Red Detachment of Women" and "The White-haired Girl", although
written and performed at a time when revolution was the prevailing and
somewhat distorting theme of Chinese art, these two works are still
regarded as classics of Chinese Ballet, and remain part of the standard
repertoire for practitioners of Chinese ballet.

These classics are now used as a foundation for Chinese ballet
dancers and directors, who are attempting to combine this Western dance
style with Chinese cultural elements, and finally create "Chinese
ballet". The results can be found in the likes of Raise the Red Lantern,
which was produced by the Central Ballet Troupe, and marked a new step
forward for Chinese ballet in 2001.

Ballet Raise the Red Lantern by NBC (baidu photo)
Huang Minxuan, the Vice President of the China Central Ballet Troupe,
gives his definition of Chinese ballet.

"Chinese ballet' means that we should use the performing style of
this western art form to express the emotions of Chinese culture, and
the feelings of Chinese people."

For 50 years, Chinese ballet artists have been dedicating
themselves to the development of Chinese ballet, and they finally have
something to show for their efforts. Young ballet dancers have won gold
medals at every major world ballet Competition, including Moscow, Verna,
and Helsinki.

Li Chunhua is the Dean of the Ballet Department at Beijing Dance
Academy, the largest professional dance educational institute in China.
She gives her opinion as to the balance of western assimilation and
Chinese originality in current ballet.

"Ballet is a foreign art. As ballet educators, we have so far
persisted in learning from the West. We invite foreign experts to teach
the students, and send our ballet teachers to study abroad where they
can pick up more advanced education principles and methods."

Learning from the West is the first step; the next step should be
to produce Chinese works which can honestly be judged as classics. But
the nagging doubt remains as to whether western art can really be used
to effectively express Chinese culture. Huang Minxuan actually sees this
problem as an opportunity for Chinese ballet performers and directors.

"Ballet is distant from Chinese culture, so it is difficult to use
it in a Chinese context. But on the other hand, because of this
distance, it offers the opportunity to do something truly innovative.
This is why The Red Detachment of Women and Raise the Red Lantern are so
popular with western audiences."

As an experienced professor of ballet, Li Chunhua also appreciates
the ongoing experimentation of Chinese choreographers, but she feels
that there is still a gap between China and the West in this area.

"The Chinese directors of choreography are working very hard to
produce works of Chinese ballet. However, compared with western
countries, the ideals and methods of Chinese choreography still have a
long way to go. Nowadays, young choreographers need greater time to
mature and to discover a way to make Chinese choreographers world class."

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/18/content_2474620.htm

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Cleveland.com/The plain dealer, Sunday, January 16, 2005
Let's not forget Wai-kam Ho
Michael Cunningham

As others frequently have pointed out, public as well as institutional
memory is brief - and with the arrival of the Internet it surely will
become more so. Local and regional history is not immune from this
phenomenon either. Witness the silence by the Cleveland Museum of Art
and the local academic community recently on the death of Wai-kam Ho.

Wai-kam passed away Dec. 28 at the age of 80. He was in Shanghai at the
time to receive a cultural award from the Chinese government celebrating
his achievements as one of the pre-eminent scholars of Chinese art in
the world.

Why is this noteworthy for Clevelanders?

Wai-kam was the curator of Chinese art at the Cleveland Museum of Art
from 1959 until l983, precisely the time frame in which the museum, on
an unprecedented scale, formed one of the great collections of Asian art
in the Western world.

The architect of this endeavor was former CMA Director Sherman Lee, a
name considerably more familiar to Northeast Ohioans. Lee, who led the
museum from 1958 to 1983, combined a superb eye for art with a deep
understanding of art history. He was also an active buyer in worldwide
art markets in the 1960s and '70s, bankrolled by the museum's
considerable endowment and the unquestioning support of its board of
trustees.

But Lee could not have built the museum's Asian collection by himself.
He needed a full-time partner - a curator intimately familiar with the
art, culture and languages of the region. He found that partner in
Wai-kam Ho.

Even in 1959, Wai-kam was the most talented young scholar of classical
Chinese history and culture in the West. When Lee met him, he was a
graduate student in the art history program at Harvard University. He
was adept at reading classical texts, seal and inscription documents on
paintings, dedicatory texts carved into Buddhist stone imagery, and much
more. Wai-kam became the indispensable resource the museum needed to
authenticate, or discredit, the many Chinese and Japanese paintings
being considered for purchase each year.

Wai-kam also provided access to realms of little-known but pertinent
archaeological, historical and archival materials emanating from
provincial and metropolitan cultural agencies in China during the 1950s,
'60s and '70s. These often proved critical in forming the sculpture and
Buddhist arts collections, as well as the museum's outstanding library
holdings. His writings on the collection in the '60s, written in
marvelously graceful English, were 20 years ahead of Western
scholarship. In Japan, his work became quickly admired and understood
for its insights and depth of learning.

Over the years, Wai-kam's knowledge and scholarship naturally attracted
students and American scholars eager to study the collections and to
learn from the master. The museum's Oriental department routinely hosted
visitors - graduate students as well as Asian-art specialists - from
around the world in its study room. Wai-kam would quietly show up in the
late afternoon, and the cacophony of discourse would subside as he
offered his comments on the object being viewed.

Frequently he would join the visitors for dinner, becoming the natural
center of attention, awe or amusement (he possessed a remarkable sense
of humor).

Wai-kam's legacy includes the first multifaceted, serious study of early
Chinese painting (eighth-14th centuries) and its documentation; the
close examination of early Japanese ink painting traditions (13th-15th
centuries); the first modern study of early stone Buddhist sculpture and
stele in China, and finally, toward the end of his career, his magnum
opus: the monumental exhibition, catalog, and international symposium
centered on China's greatest scholar-historian-painter Tung Chi Chang
(1555-1636), held at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo.

Wai-kam left Cleveland in 1983 to go to the Nelson-Atkins to occupy
America's, and the West's, first endowed curatorship in Chinese art.
There, his learning and talent served that most extraordinary Chinese
collection well, until he retired in 1994. Thereafter, he lectured
occasionally and notably on early Buddhist sculpture at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.

The stature of the Chinese collections in the Cleveland Museum of Art,
and some of the Japanese collection, rests solidly on the collaboration
of Sherman Lee and Wai-kam Ho. And it was the latter's talents and
contributions that were without equal in the rigors of East Asian - and
particularly Chinese - connoisseurship in the West.

Unlike most American and European museums whose collections have evolved
essentially through private gifts of art over the past 100 plus years,
the Cleveland collections achieved their particular character through
individual, selective purchases based upon experienced curatorial
expertise. Wai-kam Ho was the key figure in the institutional
development of the Cleveland East Asian collections.

Lee and Wai-kam Ho represent not only the high point of the museum's
history, but an unparalleled moment in the American enterprise of
community cultural endeavors. Clearly we should herald such moments in
this community and honor those who made it realizable, even when they
are no longer with us. Wai-kam's legacy will not be forgotten here, or
farther afield where he was held in great esteem and affection.

Michael R. Cunningham is former chief curator of Asian art and former
curator of Japanese and Korean art at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He is
currently a Presidential Fellow at Case Western Reserve University
teaching in the SAGES program.

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/voices/index.ssf?/ base/entertainment/1105785102152811.xml

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Chocago Maroon, January 7, 2005 in News
Smart Museum exhibit wins prestigious award
By Usman Ahmed
The Smart Museum won a highly coveted "Best Show" award in December for
its show Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China.

The United States members of the International Association of Art
Critics (AICA USA) have given students and community members one more
reason to patronize the University’s Smart Museum of Art. The Museum,
under-acknowledged and under-appreciated by many, won a highly coveted
“Best Show” award in December for its exhibition Between Past and
Future: New Photography and Video from China. The Smart Museum of Art
will share the award with New York’s Institute for Contemporary
Photography (ICP), which co-organized the exhibit. The Museum of
Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago and the Asiatic Society in New York
collaborated on the show.

Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China is the
first comprehensive exhibition in the United States to show innovations
in photographic and video art produced in China since the mid-1990s. The
exhibit displays and considers a broad range of individual responses to
the unprecedented growth and change China has experienced in its recent,
turbulent history, but especially in the last decade.

The exhibition was co-curated by Wu Hung, Harrie A. Vanderstappen
Professor of Art History and consulting curator at the Smart Museum, and
Christopher Phillips, Curator at the Internatinal Center of Photography.

Initial work on the show began about four years ago, as Hung, a
well-known scholar of traditional Chinese art, grew intensely interested
in contemporary Chinese photography. His enthusiasm in the subject led
him to Phillips, who was also interested in organizing an exhibition on
contemporary Chinese photography.

Jacqueline Terrassa, Interim Director and Educational Director at the
Smart, explained that because of the scale of the project, the initial
collaboration between the Smart and ICP was soon extended to the Asiatic
Society in New York and the MCA in Chicago.

“Early on we realized that the size of the works and their number made
for a show that was too large for our respected museums,” she said.
“This four institution collaboration made the planning process over the
past several years both complex and exciting.”

Rare in its scope and size, the exhibition includes 130 pieces of art by
60 artists, ranging from a relatively small, untitled piece of 10 pairs
of handmade shoes by Yin Xiuzhen to 1/30th of a Second Underwater by
Wang Wei, a large floor installation designed to be walked on. The
exhibition is divided and displayed thematically.

Additionally, this is the first time many of the artists have been
displayed in the United States. Hung said he could not even remember how
many visits he had paid to China or how many shows he had seen there in
recent years preparing for the exhibition.

Hung noted that while China has been thrust into the international
spotlight because of its staggering growth and emerging role as a global
power, the country has also experienced tremendous internal growing
pains. He felt that the Smart Museum was particularly well suited to
display these lesser-told tales.

“University shows differ from others because they present more
challenging, more cutting edge, and less mainstream art,” he said. Hung
added that the themes and ideas seen in the Chinese exhibit are
representative of the incredible changes taking place not only in China,
but in the rest of the developing world.

Benjamin Gage, a third-year concentrating in Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations, agreed with Hung, noting that one can witness the immense
changes taking place in much of the world by spending an hour or so at
the museum. “The great thing about art and this exhibit in particular is
that you can get an emotional impression of what a person on the streets
of a Chinese city might tell you about current conditions in China or
popular perceptions of issues in Chinese society and history,” Gage said.

Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China is on
display in Chicago at the Smart Museum of Art and the Museum of
Contemporary Art until January 16. It will travel to Seattle, Santa
Barbara, London, and Berlin.

Permanent URL:
http://maroon.uchicago.edu/news/articles/2005/01/07/smart_museum_exhibit.php

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gansudaily.com, Jan 10, 2005
Virtual treasures get real protection

Digital technology is being used to conserve the Mogao Grottoes of
Dunhuang, in Northwest China's Gansu Province.

The "Digital Dunhuang" project, which aims to pool all the treasures
from Dunhuang, has also paid close attention to protect its intellectual
property rights (IPR) in the digital era.

The Dunhuang Academy, solely authorized by the Chinese Government as
the official institute in charge of the protection, research and
management of treasures in the Dunhuang grottoes, has announced that it
holds all rights to images of the ancient treasures under Chinese IPR laws.

It has obtained copyrights to digital images of the murals, statues
and documents from Dunhuang's grottoes.

No other entity, business or institution, can reproduce, transmit or
display the images of Dunhuang in any form without the consent of the
right holder.

Digital Dunhuang

Dubbed "Digital Dunhuang," the ongoing project to protect cultural
relics through new technologies aims to build a database containing
detailed digital information and high quality colour images of the
treasures.

It embraces two categories of work - one is a database of highly
intelligent digital images of Dunhuang treasures and the other is a
digital library containing historical records and research findings on
Dunhuang and related materials, Liu Gang, a top researcher with the
Dunhuang Academy, said in an interview with China Daily.

The project, which started in the late 1990s, has drawn participants
from more than a dozen organizations which possess related collections
or have an interest in the conservation of cultural heritage.

The project team includes the Dunhuang Academy, the National Library
of China based in Beijing, national libraries of the United Kingdom and
France, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the US-based Mellon Foundation.

The most eye-catching part of the digital project is said to be the
digital shooting of the grottoes, or Virtual Caves.

With financial support from the Mellon Foundation, the shooting
started in 2000, and was undertaken by several academic organs,
including Northwestern University in the United States.

State-of-the-art digital photographic technology, capable of
capturing the cave murals invisible under natural light or obstructed by
the structure of the caves, was used, said Liu.

The introduction of digital technology will help upgrade
conservation efforts, including the control of tourist numbers, to
preserve irreplaceable cultural heritage.

Scholars are paying more attention to the academic aspect of the use
of innovative digital means to theoretically eternally conserve,
especially in an undisturbed way, the country's magnificent cultural
heritage, including Buddhist manuscripts, painted scrolls and other
historic documents.

The city of Dunhuang, adjacent to the crossroads of the ancient Silk
Road, owes its fame today to the Mogao Grottoes, one of the world's most
important sites of ancient Buddhist culture.

The grottoes, also known as the Caves of a Thousand Buddhas, contain
some 2,000 clay sculptures and more than 45,000 square metres of murals,
dating back to the 5th to14th centuries.

The grottoes were put on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list in
1987.

Of the 735 caves, about 492 remain intact. But all have been
subjected to various kinds of damage or indignities to some extent, from
long-term exposure to the elements to the smoke of fires made by
tourists and locals, according to specialists from the Dunhuang Academy.

Damage also threatens from the modern perils of mass tourism, where
moisture from the breath of visiting crowds can impair delicate murals
that have survived for centuries in an arid desert climate, specialists
acknowledged.

And down the years treasures removed from the grottoes have found
their way into museums, libraries and research institutes around the world.

Studies on Dunhuang began in 1900, when the Dunhuang Library Cave,
which had been sealed for 850 years and housed more than 50,000 relics,
was accidentally found by a Taoist priest.

Some of the Dunhuang relics were taken out of China in the early
years of Dunhuang's discovery and acquired by collectors in the United
Kingdom, France, Russia, Japan, India, Republic of Korea and Finland.

But not all of the Dunhuang collections overseas are available to
researchers or the public. Demand for access from the scholars is
another key factor behind the Digital Dunhuang project.

In May last year, a digital Dunhuang website in Chinese opened,
allowing viewers to browse nearly 10,000 titles of digitized records and
300 images, murals and sculptures.

The Digital Dunhuang project demonstrates how new technology can
"virtually" reunite materials scattered across the globe and will give
new opportunities for scholarship in art history, archaeological
linguistics, religion and other disciplines, experts believe.

IPR protection in a digital world

The development and application of digitized technology, in
collaboration with Internet services, is expected to bring together
again the scattered Dunhuang treasures and expand the scope of research
into Dunhuang, said Liu.

"The national treasures of Dunhuang would have likely been exploited
by the Internet without any compensation if intellectual property rights
protection had not been introduced," said Liu.

The academy has adopted a litigation strategy to encourage a narrow
interpretation of the fair use of Dunhuang images to bar intrusion of
their exclusive rights.

The academy has signed four contracts since May 2000 with the Mellon
Foundation to highlight its exclusive property and copy-rights over
Dunhuang images.

The contracts specify the IPR of all the caves' images included in
the process of digitalization.

The IPR of the film negatives and digital images of Dunhuang,
produced by both sides, solely belong to the Dunhuang Academy, state the
contracts.

When disputes occur, both sides have agreed to resolve them in
accordance with Chinese law and regulations or to seek mediation from
the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Committee.

Furthermore, new copyright protection technology has been
implemented including pay-per-view technology, click-through barriers
and digital watermarks which embed information about the rights owner
into video, audio or graphics files.

"The legal and technical measures in place will help protect the
intellectual property rights of Dunhuang, and could have significant
influence on other aspects of cultural heritage protection," continued Liu.

The Dunhuang Academy has employed a set of strategies to identify
and maximize control over its IPR assets, in order to secure an economic
return and to control the misuse and improper representation of Dunhuang
images, he said.

The academy chose the non-profitmaking Mellon Foundation as its
partner to digitize Dunhuang's treasures, in light of the foundation's
reputation in aiding and promoting the well-being of mankind through
charitable, scientific, literary, and educational means, explained Liu.

"Co-operating with non-profitmaking organizations will help
guarantee a better protection of our intellectual property rights and
bar commercial exploitation of the relics," he said.

In recent years, IPR owners have begun feeling very threatened by
the advent of the Internet, a tool of perfect reproduction and
unprecedented distributive scope.

In the late 1990s, rights holders and legal experts began proposing
changes to Copyright Law.

In 2001, the amended Copyright Law was issued and introduced with
computer and Internet related property right protection clauses. The
Supreme People's Court then issued a judicial interpretation on how to
resolve computer and Internet related IPR disputes.

"The country has provided a specific legal environment to protect
computer and network related IPRs," said Li Shunde, professor of law
with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

One of the virtues of the Web is its reach - the ability to widely
distribute digital works less expensively and faster than ever before.
The downside is the lack of control creators and rights holders are able
to exert on the subsequent dissemination and use of their work, said
Professor Li.

"Rights holders need to increase self-protection awareness and to
make their rights extend into the digital environment," added Li.

In 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization regarded the
storing of products in digital form in the electronic media as
"copying." Offering digitized works for others to skim, read, copy and
print through networking also amounts to "copying."

People who download, copy or print the works of others without the
authors permission violate copyright laws and are liable.

At a virtual library, books are digitized and distributed online.

The current laws in almost all countries stipulate that a book's
publication, circulation and usage involves intellectual property
rights. And this applies to electronic books, continued Li.

China's first National Digital Library is expected to become the
country's main online information centre and service database when
completed in 2007.

Researchers in library and information sciences, engineering and
computer science have combined to better protect digital copyright by
introducing such measures as charging browsers and using codes and
digital watermarks to prevent illegal downloading. (China Daily)

http://www.gansudaily.com.cn/20050111/112/2005111A0001G003.htm

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telepolis 06.01.2005
Romanze aus Seide, Blut und Bewegung
Rüdiger Suchsland

Ekstase der Sinne: Zhang Yimous neuer Geniestreich "House of Flying Daggers"
Romeo und Julia trifft Martial-Arts - Chinas Starregisseur Zhang Yimou
erzählt in seinem neuesten Werk "House of Flying Daggers" wie schon in
"Hero" eine archaische Abenteuergeschichte, große Gefühle in großen
Bildern. Diesmal sind es die Farben des Herbstwaldes: Sattes Grün,
weißhelles Gelb und dunkle Brauntöne. Hier finden spektakuläre
Martial-Arts-Kämpfe mit Schwertern, Dolchen und Pfeil und Bogen statt:
ein Kino, das an die Klassiker von King Hu und an Ang Lees "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon" anknüpft, und dabei nicht überwältigt, sondern
verführt - Kino als Kinese und grandiose Unterhaltung; ein Western auch
China und zugleich eine "typisch asiatische" Romanze aus Tuch und Schwert.

Für prächtige Bilder ist Zhang Yimou seit jeher berühmt. Der ehemalige
Kameramann, der bereits mit seinen ersten eigenen Filmen "Rotes
Kornfeld" und "Rote Laternen" zum wichtigsten Vertreter der "Fünften
Generation" des chinesischen Kinos wurde, bestach schon immer durch die
Verbindung einer überraschenden und zumeist mit den Stereotypen
westlicher China-Wahrnehmung brechender Geschichte und visuellem Zauber,
einer Bildsprache, die immer doppelsinnig und eigenwillig bleibt. Subtil
transportierte sie Zhangs Botschaften und Kommentare zur
politisch-kulturellen Lage. Die Filme dieses Regisseurs enthielten schon
immer mehr, als viele westliche Beobachter in ihnen sehen wollten: Auf
den oppositionellen Kommentar eines heimlichen Dissidenten ließen sie
sich in früheren Jahren ebenso wenig reduzieren, wie sein letzter Film
"Hero" - wie von manchen geschehen - auf einen Kotau gegenüber der
Pekinger Führung. In erster Linie ist Zhang ein Bilderkünstler, ein
Meister darin, in Farben und Einstellungen zu sprechen.

Zhangs neuer Film "House of Flying Daggers" besitzt alle diese Tugenden
und ist doch wie schon "Hero" noch mehr: In beiden Filmen erfindet
dieser Regisseur sich noch einmal neu, reiht nicht einen
Zhang-Yimou-Film an den nächsten. Zum zweiten Mal nach "Hero" hat der
Kampfkunst-Fan Zhang das Drehbuch selbst geschrieben. Stilistisch ist
der Film nicht besser oder schlechter, sondern anders. Etwas anders.
Bodenständiger nämlich, etwas weniger intellektuell, abstrakt und
archetypisch - dafür traditionsverbundener. Zugleich entwickelt er seine
Stoffe und Themen - hier einmal mehr die von der verbotenen Liebe und
der Selbstbehauptung einer "starken" Frau in einer Männerwelt, die sie
schwach machen will, ihrem opferreichen Kampf um ihr Glück - weiter.

"House of Flying Daggers" muss vor allem als Ausdruck des Willens des
Regisseurs gesehen werden, sich dem Massenpublikum in seiner Heimat zu
öffnen, und auch im Westen die Arthouse-Nische, in denen seine früheren
Werke ihre Zuschauer wie ihre Grenzen fanden, zu verlassen. Mit gewissen
Konzessionen ans westliche Publikum, das mit den Erzählweisen und
Motiven des chinesischen Populärkinos vergleichsweise unvertraut ist,
gelingt Zhang auch diesmal ein Film, der - wie schon "Hero" - das
westliche Publikum scharenweise bezaubern wird. Damit ist der Film
einerseits eine Form, dem chinesischen Kino einen neuen Markt zu öffnen,
ein Stück Kulturimperialismus, wenn man so will, getragen vom Stolz auf
die eigenen, jahrtausendealten Traditionen, die auch das chinesische
Kino speisen, genährt vom Aufbruchsgefühl des neuen China, der
selbstbewussten Überzeugung, dass man sich dem Westen und den
asiatischen Nachbarn gegenüber nicht verstecken muss. Andererseits ist
"House of Flying Daggers" aber ebenso eine Form, um auch die heimische
Industrie zu neuer Offenheit gegenüber dem Westen und westlichen
Erzählweisen zu bewegen - Zhang Yimou, der seinen neuen Film ebenso wie
"Hero" als "Action-Arthouse" bezeichnet hat, charakterisiert ihn
mitunter als "panasiatisch", als den Versuch, Elemente verschiedener
asiatischer Filmkulturen verschmelzen zu lassen. Dies ist kein
Widerspruch zur "chineseness" seines Werks, es zeigt vielmehr den
impliziten Anspruch, Kino zu machen, in dem sich mehr als nur das
chinesische Publikum wiederfindet.

Lob der Leichtigkeit

Im Original trägt "House of Flying Daggers" den Titel "Shi Mian Mai Fu",
was man ungefähr als "Hinterhalt aus zehn Seiten" übersetzen kann. Beide
Titel lassen wenig doppelbödige Lesarten zu: Ein unterhaltsamer
Schwertkampffilm, Martial-Arts-Kino auf hohem Niveau, das souverän mit
allen Konventionen des Genres spielt. Was schon nach wenigen Minuten
offenkundig ist: Dieser Film hat, was so vielen westlichen Filmen fehlt:
Leichtigkeit. Keine überschnellen Schnitte wie "Spiderman", der
Betrachter behält immer den Überblick, kein Pseudoepos wie "Troia",
sondern fast ein Kammerspiel, einfach und klar, darum bezwingend, und
kein schwülstig-düsteres, martialisches Computerspiel im Leinwandformat
wie "Lord of the Rings" - an Zhangs Inszenierungskunst gemessen, wirken
selbst die besseren der westlichen Filmemacher ziemlich schlicht. Zhangs
Kino ist "bigger than life" und behauptet das nicht nur. Die
Leichtigkeit, die hier zelebriert wird, ist um so absoluter, als das sie
nicht nur die Körper betrifft, die hier maßlos durch die Luft fliegen,
sondern die Herzen der Figuren. Alles hier ist Geste, ist das Streben
nach Absolutheit im Moment, und nirgendwo sind "uns" diese Figuren
fremder, als in der Beiläufigkeit, mit der sie ihr eigenes Leben zu
opfern bereit sind. Dies können sie nur, weil sie die Idee der Hoffnung
durch die der Haltung ersetzt haben, die Geschichte durch das Jetzt und
Hier.

Ein Drama, eine Frau zwischen zwei Männern, dazu Wirren aus Krieg und
Politik, die sie trennen, am Ende ein Liebestod im Schnee. Es ist ein
leidenschaftliches Melodram, dass Zhang Yimou hier erzählt; Kino als
große Oper, als Bad in opulent-grandiosen Bildern, und
leidenschaftliches Fest der Sinne, bei dem kaum ein Register ausgelassen
wird. Doch zugleich ist "House of Flying Daggers", auch voller
Feinheiten, bildgewaltig und lyrisch zugleich, musikalisch und
ergreifend. Ein Western aus China, eine abenteuerliche Romanze von Tuch
und Schwert, die ihre Figuren in einen Naturzustand zurückführt, der ihr
Glück bedeutet, aber auch ihr Gegenteil. Der Anfang spielt noch inmitten
der Zivilisation: Im Jahr 859, die Tang-Dynastie, die das Kaiserreich
regiert, ist im Begriff zu zerfallen, begegnet man der Tänzerin Mei (die
atemberaubende Zhang Ziyi, längst ihrem einstigen Image als "little Gong
Li" entwachsen). Obwohl sie blind ist, stellt sich bald heraus, dass sie
offenbar in Kontakt zu der Oppositionsgruppe "House of Flying Daggers"
steht - sie soll die Tochter des ehemaligen Leiters dieser
Geheimgesellschaft sein, die als aus dem Untergrund die Herrscher
bekämpft. Zunächst gefangengenommen, lässt die Obrigkeit in Form von
Polizeioffizier Leo (Andy Lau) sie zum Schein aus dem Gefängnis
befreien. Auf der Flucht verliebt sich ihr Befreier Jin (Takeshi
Kaneshiro), der im Dienst der Polizei steht, in sie. Eine unmögliche
Liebe, Romeo und Julia mit Martial Arts. Als beide den Sitz der
Untergrundbewegung erreichen, eskalieren die Ereignisse...

Kino, das viele Motive streift und kombiniert: das Reiten im Film, die
Wahl der Waffen, zu denen neben dem obligatorischen Schwert auch Pfeil
und Bogen, sowie die "fliegenden Dolche" des Titels gehören. Gerade hier
entfaltet der Film mithilfe der klug, das heißt nicht übertrieben
eingesetzten Computertechnik enorme Poesie. Das Motiv des blinden
Schwertkämpfers - schon in Zhangs "Happy Times" war die weibliche
Hauptfigur blind - ist im asiatischen Film - vgl. zuletzt Takeshi
Kitanos "Zatoichi" - sehr beliebt.

A touch of dance

Weit mehr als dieser Plot zählt, wie ihn der Regisseur inszeniert.
Gleich zu Beginn steht eine ebenso hochgradig artifizielle, wie
wunderbar ausgefeilte Sequenz: Umringt von Dutzenden von Männern, die
kleine Trommeln halten, tanzt Mei, gekleidet in ein Kleid aus goldener
Seide, durchwirkt mit türkisen Farbtönen. Mit ihrem Schal bedient sie
die Trommeln, in einem Rhythmus, den ihr der Widersacher, der
Polizeikapitän vorgibt, indem er kleine Bohnen gegen die Trommeln
schnippt. Kinomodernität und CGI-Technik trifft hier auf Farben, Orte
und Themen des chinesischen Mittelalters, Martial-Arts-Choreographie
verschmilzt mit dem stilisierten Spiel der Peking-Oper.

Ganz anders geht es dann weiter: Ritte durch die wilde Natur,
Verfolgungsjagden im grünen Wald - einem klassischen Thema des
chinesischen Kinos. Die Farben spiegeln den Verlauf der Geschichte:
Sattes Waldgrün, dann Brauntöne und Herbstfarben, dann kurz eine gelbe,
blumenbeschmückte Wiese, das Hellgrün eines Bambuswaldes - in dem einer
der spektakulärsten Martial-Arts-Kämpfe stattfindet, gleichermaßen eine
berühmte Szene King Hu's und Ang Lees "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
zitierend - dann am Ende eine Winterszenerie. Weiß ist in China die
Farbe der Trauer. Das alles ist von ähnlich programmatischem
Farbgebrauch wie in "Hero", und doch sieht bei allen Ähnlichkeiten der
ganze Film völlig anders aus. Zum einen, weil die Farben andere sind,
wenigrer Primärtöne dominieren. Zum anderen sind Szenerie und
Schauplätze authentischer, "realistischer". Wie im Western feiern die
Blicke der Kamera (Zhao Xiaoding) die Landschaft, erobern den Raum.
Mitunter möchte man sich in ihnen einfach verlieren. "House of Flying
Daggers" ist grandiose Unterhaltung, ein ekstatisches Fest aus Seide,
Blut und Bewegung, Kino als Kinese.

Das gilt besonders für zwei bravuröse Kampfszenen im Wald: Ein
atemberaubend schöne, dabei sehr präzise Raumchoreographie, ein
atemberaubend schönes Spiel mit horizontalen und vertikalen Linien, ein
essentiell romantisches Martial-Arts-Ballett, bei aller Opulenz und
Kunst der Inszenierung erzählt in archaischer Einfachheit. In seiner
pathetischen, wohldosierten Übertreibung ist der Film jederzeit große
Oper und zugleich einer der Höhepunkte des Martial-Arts-Genres. Mit viel
Magie malt Yimou mit Menschen auf der Leinwand, nimmt auf Logik
ebensowenig Rücksicht, wie auf Schwerkraft, lässt Traum, Gefühl und
Bewegung zu einem einzigartigen, zeitlosen Zauber verschmelzen. Der Film
ist sexy.

Verführung, nicht Überwältigung

Wenn in diesem Zusammenhang im Westen gern von "Überwältigungskino"
gesprochen wird, dann ist dass eine doppelte Unverschämtheit: Sie liegt
zum einen in der leicht gerümpften Nase, die man zwischen den Zeilen
solcher Formulierungen förmlich sehen kann, denn überwältigen darf sich
der aufgeklärte Westler ja allenfalls von Hollywood lassen - bei denen
weiß man ja eh, was man zu erwarten hat: niveaulose Unterhaltung nach
fester Rezeptur -, aus China haben gefälligst "authentische" Werke,
möglichst in der Tradition des Neorealismus zu kommen: Filme wie
"Beijing Bicycle", der oberflächlich betrachtet Vittorio de Sicas
"Fahraddiebe" in die chinesische Hauptstadt verpflanzt - tatsächlich tut
er auch noch eine Menge anderes -, Filme, in denen arme Menschen leiden
müssen, in langsamen Einstellungen zum Weinen und irgendwann zum Lachen
gebracht werden, Filme, in denen Fischer dem Fluß beim Fließen und
Bauern dem Wind beim Wehen zuschauen, Filme in denen die Moderne
westlich und böse und die Tradition eigen und gut ist, Filme, wie sie
nur scheinbar progressiv, tatsächlich denkbar konservativ sind, und wie
sie Zhang Yimou angeblich früher, in Wahrheit aber nie gemacht hat. Doch
bediente er sich für seine Allegorien über Sein und Schein, das Zeigen
und das Verbergen, lange Zeit der neorealistischen Form, und traf damit
gerade das, was chinesischer Kommunismus und westliches Kulturpublikum
in Festivals und Jurys gemeinsam haben: Den Puritanismus.

Unverschämt ist aber nicht nur der Unwille, auch Asien sein
Mainstreamkino zu gönnen und die generelle Ignoranz, den Mainstream an
sich so aufmerksam zu betrachten, dass zumindest die Basis-
Differenzierung in guten und schlechten Mainstream möglich wird. Als ob
ein Film, weil er sich populärer Mittel bedient, nicht mehr von
authentischen Erfahrungen handeln, nicht gut beobachten, nicht tieferen
Einsichten populärmythologische Formen geben kann. Wer "Überwältigung"
sagt, meint letztlich immer auch Vergewaltigung des Betrachters, Raub
seiner Freiheit, in der Konsequenz: Faschistische Ästhetik. Doch wie
schon bei "Hero", wo manchem, gerade deutschen Betrachter auch nur
"Riefenstahl" einfiel, versteht man hier den Unterschied zwischen
Überwältigung und Verführung nicht. Wer aber verführt, lässt etwas
geschehen, schafft Bedingungen dafür, dass es geschieht, aber er "macht"
nicht. Alles bleibt offen und leicht, bei aller technischen Perfektion
ist nichts endgültig kalkuliert. "Auf chinesischer Seite läuft alles auf
ein Lob der 'Leichtigkeit' hinaus." schreibt der Sinologe Francois
Jullien in seinem "Traité de l'efficacité" - und dies ist ein
Schlüsselsatz zum Verständnis dieses Films.

Auch von "Nummernrevue" konnte man lesen. Welche Arroganz, mit der
unterstellt wird, es ginge um pure Simulation - schon die "Ilias" und
die "Odyssee" bieten in diesem Sinne nicht mehr, als eine "episodische
Spieleästhetik, bei der Level für Level neue Konstellationen entstehen",
wie einer schrieb - völlig übersehend, dass es auf der einen Ebene
natürlich immer darum geht, das Können des Regisseurs und seiner
Mitarbeiter vorzuführen, und in immer neuen Situationen, an neuen
Herausforderungen entlang von Höhepunkt zu Höhepunkt zu steigern, dass
hier aber zugleich die Charaktere und ihre Beziehung zueinander sich
ebenso verändern, wie die Handlung als ganze.

Zhang probiert Inszenierungsformen und Gesten aus, teased an. In seinen
Bildern liegt das Subversive. Zhang realisiert ein Kino der reinen
Freiheit, das uns in der Entfesselung unsere eigenen Fesseln, in seiner
Leichtigkeit unsere eigene Erdenschwere um so schmerzhafter vor Augen
führt. Der Regisseur feiert dabei die Freiheit selbst: "To be free with
the wind" sagt die Heldin am Ende - keineswegs eine Absage an die
Politik also. Aber der westlichen Kritik gefällt es diesmal besser, weil
hier kein klar sichtbares, in ihren Augen in chinesischen Filmen per se
politisch unkorrektes Unterordnen unter irgendeine Obrigkeit auszumachen
ist.

Die chinesische Erfahrung

Hinter der gradlinigen Handlung mit tragischem Ausgang verbirgt sich ein
pessimistischer Lebensentwurf und eine sehr chinesische Erfahrung: Die
von der Übermacht der Geschichte überzeugt ist, die persönliche
Biografien und individuelle Hoffnungen immer wieder zerschlägt. Am Ende
- soviel zu den angeblich "klaren" politischen Botschaften des
Regisseurs - sind es die politische Fronten und Parteien, die die große
Liebe verhindern, das private Glück nicht weniger zerstören als
schlichte Eifersucht und Besitzanspruch. Zuletzt beschwört ein Gedicht
die Macht der Liebe, erzählt davon, wie Land und Stadt durch sie
zerstört werden. Die Schönheit, heißt es, sei unerreichbar. In diesem
Film zumindest erleben wir das Gegenteil.

 

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Matthias Arnold M.A.
Digital Resources
Institute of Chinese Studies
University of Heidelberg
Akademiestr. 4-8
69117 Heidelberg
Germany

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