A New Spring for Woodcuts
By Bridget O’Brien

[image] “Tanada” (1993) by Morimura Rei
It seems a new kind of spring has arrived for the old East Asian
tradition of woodblock printing. In ``Red Blossom _ Contemporary
Woodblock Prints of Korea, China, Japan'' at the Ilmin Museum of Art,
the old printing technique has returned in an era of digital mass
production.

From the first woodcuts in China followed by Japan and Korea, the
medium has a 1,200-year history. Modern times have held many obstacles
denying a clear passage for development, but artists featured in this
exhibition ask for a return to tradition.

``Through their hard labor of carving wood blocks they seek to deliver
their message and energy to the public and this attitude shows the mass
communication capability that printmaking has,'' explains Kim Hee-ryung,
director and chief curator at Ilmin.

``Recently, the attempt to move away from cultural perceptions
influenced by the West toward valuing our own cultural heritage is
coming to the forefront,'' she said.

Earlier forms from Korea are shown in a special side exhibition of
``Korean Traditional Woodblocks'' with religious iconography and
teachings from the Goryo and Chosun periods. Most prized are works such
as the ``Diamond Sutra'' (Treasure No. 877) and the ``Lotus Sutra''
(Treasure No. 1306), which are among the earliest Buddhist manuscripts
in the country.

In much of Chinese art today, styles retain a solid, social realist
force after years of propaganda imagery. On the other hand, cheerful
zodiacs by Bang Ling bounce color, illustrating a taste for a more
healthy folk culture.

For Japan, the most famous woodblock era is the Ukiyo-e (of the Edo
period). Here, the work was achieved through collaboration by painters,
carvers and printers. The Meiji Period brought in the Western concept of
individual artist works with ``Sosakun Hanga'' (Creative Prints).

``I have used motifs from the Ukiyo-e period such as flowers, wind, moon
and bird but I have also used paint like Jackson Pollock,'' explained
Kinoshita Taika, acknowledging the influence of both traditional and
Western influences.

Korea's subject of nature and scenery, including Buddhist temples,
mountain landscapes and trees, are prominent in the contemporary styles
in contrast to the teaching scripts of the old.

Though the artists in this exhibition are usually older, more
established artists, the hope for a revival in the medium would best be
realized by inspiring younger artists. However, the exhibition exerts a
genuine desire to see the printmaking tradition continue.

``Spring is around the corner when flowers show off their colors, and I
hope this exhibition will serve as a foundation for artistic development
through woodblock printing. Just as flowers blossom, I wish for the
blossoming of print art in the three countries,'' the curator said.

Red Blossom: Contemporary Woodblock Prints of Korea, China and Japanb.
Where: Ilmin Museum of Art, near Kwanghwamun Station on subway line 5.
When: Until Apr. 3
How much: Adults 3000 won, students 2000 won
More Info: (02) 2020-2055 or www.ilmin.org

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200502/kt2005021819182111700.htm

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Shanghai Daily, February 17, 2005
Free museum exhibit draws huge crowd

[image] free museum exhibit
Despite chilly wind and overcast skies, thousands of people lined up
outside the Shanghai Museum last night for free tickets to the last day
of an exhibition of cultural relics on loan from Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.

"The Civilization of the Zhou, Qin, Han and Tang Dynasties," the biggest
exhibition on the museum's 2004 program, which started last December 25,
has attracted nearly 300,000 visitors.

"We know that many locals are still interested in seeing these national
treasures," said Li Feng, the museum's spokesman. "It's a pity that the
exhibition didn't last long. So we decided to open to the public through
midnight on its last day and those who come after 5pm will get free
tickets."

According to Li, the museum prepared 5,000 free tickets.

But a long line appeared outside the museum after 8pm, although 3,500
tickets had already been handed out.

"I read in the newspaper that the museum will open to midnight free of
charge," said Pan Wei, a 50-something retired worker.

"I purposely come here to catch the last train. Xi'an is a bit too far
for me to visit. I know that some terra-cotta warriors are on display."

The 219 national treasures were on loan from 13 museums and
archaeological institutes in Shaanxi Province in Northwest China. Some
of the items never travelled outside the province, including two
polychrome terra-cotta warriors in a kneeling pose.

So far, only eight ancient polychrome figures have been discovered
anywhere in the world.

"We also revealed the result of the '10 Most Favored Items' from the
visitors at this exhibition," added Chen Xiejun, the museum's curator.

About 10,000 visitors voted for their favorite exhibits, naming a group
of containers that are said to have held the finger of Sakyamuni Buddha
(the sage of the Sakyas, a Buddhist god), the most popular item on display.

"Although it's a pity that the finger bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha isn't
coming, the containers are so intricately designed and they are a
compensation," said Wu Wei, a 30-something white-collar worker.

A Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) agate cup and the kneeling polychrome
terra-cotta warriors were named the second and the third most popular
exhibits.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200502/17/eng20050217_173826.html

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Taipei Times, Friday, Feb 18, 2005
Literature musuem has new shows
HISTORICAL LINKS: The two exhibitions that open Sunday at the two-year-
old Tainan-based museum are its most ambitious yet
By Wang Hsiao-wen

[image] Lin Juei-ming, director of the National Museum of Taiwanese
Literature, talks about two new exhibitions on the development of
Taiwanese literature and Taiwanese architecture during a press
conference held at the Council for Cultural Affairs yesterday. The two
exhibitions will open on Sunday and run for three years.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

The National Museum of Taiwanese Literature is inviting the public to
flip through pages of Taiwan's literary past and find their cultural
roots by launching an exhibition on the development of Taiwanese literature.

"Taiwanese literature is a diverse entity that involves many ethnic
groups and evolves with different political rules," museum director Lin
Juei-ming (???) said at a press conference yesterday.

"The exhibition will chart the ups and downs of Taiwanese literature and
feature some works of Taiwan writers since early 1920s," he said.

Lin said the exhibition will encompass four periods of Taiwanese literature.

The first is traditional literature at the time of Dutch colonial rule,
the Cheng family of Ming loyalists and the Ching Empire.

The second period is the 50-year Japanese colonial era, when writing was
often used as a means of resistance and struggle.

The other two periods encompass works written under the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) government and the Democratic Progressive
Party's administration.

The exhibition, which opens Sunday at the museum in Tainan is scheduled
to run for three years. On display will be manuscripts by distinguished
writers such as Lai Ho (??), who is lauded as "the father of Taiwan's
new literature," and various translated versions of Taiwan's most widely
translated novel, The Butcher's Wife, penned by the feminist writer Li
Ang (??). The exhibition is the museum's most ambitious project since
its opening in 2003.

"On the sidelines of the literature exhibition, we will also have an
exhibition on the architecture of the Tainan State Hall, the site of the
museum," Lin said.

"We have spent a total of NT$25 million [US$790,000] on these two
projects, the most significant projects we have ever undertaken," he said.

In an age of multimedia, an exhibition on the art of words could have
limited appeal to the public. Lin knows this very well and so the museum
has used audio and visual aids to recreate the literary world of another
time and place to attract more visitors.

The museum has borrowed relics from the Lai Ho Foundation to recreate
the diagnosis room of the doctor/writer, a space where the writer drew
inspiration from his patients and nurtured his sympathy for the poor.

To revive the aura of Taiwanese literature, the museum also planned two
theme exhibitions with literary relics and historical data. One centers
on an ox plowing a field or dragging a wagon, a symbol of the nation's
agricultural past and a recurrent image in earlier literary works.

For the theme of farming, for example, the socialist writer Lu Ho-juo's
(???) maiden work Ox cart and Wang Chen-ho's (???) short story A
Ox-cart Full of Dowry will be on display for onlookers to "feel" the
rural life depicted with unaffected realism in both stories.

Another theme exhibition will feature a railway, a metaphor for Taiwan's
social transformation and its steady march towards the 21st century.

"The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is not just a library," said
Council for Cultural Affairs Chairman Chen Chi-nan (???). "We will
materialize fictional scenes and contextualize them. By doing so, we
hope to offer a channel to all the people, not just intelligentsia, for
developing an appreciation for Taiwanese literature."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/02/18/2003223521

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the korea times, 02-16-2005 19:48
1916 Photograph to Be Palette for New Kwanghwamun Signboard
By Kim Tae-jong

[image] Above are some of the styles of renowned calligraphers being
considered for the new Kwanghwamun signboard. From top: King Chongjo
(1752-1800), Sokbong Hanho (1543-1605), Chusa Kim Jung-hee (1786-1856)
and Toegye Yi Hwang (1501-1570).
[image] Detail of a 1916 photograph showing the signboard on Kwanghwamun
Gate, Seoul
The original calligraphic characters on the signboard at Kwanghwamun,
the main entrance of Kyongbok Palace in Seoul, will be restored by the
latest in digital technology in a move to replace the current signboard.

The Cultural Heritage Administration is now analyzing a photo negative
of the gates that dates back to 1916.

``We have successfully outlined the three Chinese characters of `Kwang
(?)’ `Hwa (?)’ and `Mun (?)’ in the photo negative, which is now
preserved in the National Museum of Korea,’’ said Yoo Hong-jun, director
of the Cultural Heritage Administration during a briefing Monday.

Two of the character’s strokes have yet to be clarified, but the
administration expects to finish restoring all three original characters
in two months, Yoo said.

The restoration project comes after Yoo’s decision to replace the
current signboard written in Korean by former President Park Chung-hee
with one written in Chinese characters compiled from script by a chosen
historically renowned calligraphist.

The director has claimed that the current signboard does not match with
the nature of Kyongbok Palace.

The current signboard by Park was written in Korean in 1968 to celebrate
the restoration of Kwanghwamun, but unlike the original Chinese
characters made in the 19th century, it is written from left to right,
which is opposite to the traditional order.

The organization is also considering using the style of a renowned
calligrapher from the past for the new signboard. The word
``Kwanghwamun’’ would be made by taking letters from other calligraphic
works and creating a composite.

The styles being considered include that of Sokbong Hanho (1543-1605),
Chusa Kim Jung-hee (1786-1856) and King Chongjo (1752-1800), the 22nd
king of the Choson period (1392-1910).

If the original letters of the Kwanghwamun signboard is determined, the
committee is expected to use them over the letters of other calligraphers.

The plan to replace the signboard has also sparked controversy. While
many have approved the decision, saying the current signboard is a relic
of Park’s military dictatorship, some organizations devoted to the
preservation of the Korean language such as the Korean Language Society
and Sejong Memorial Society argue that it would be an affront to the
Korean language.

Conservative politicians and media have called the decision to take down
the Park’s version politically motivated.

Kyongbok Palace was first built in 1394 by King Taejo, the first monarch
of the Choson period, but was destroyed when the Japanese invaded the
peninsula in 1592.

The palace was rebuilt in 1865 and the signboard was rewritten in the
same year` by General Im Tae-young, who was in charge of the
reconstruction. However, the signboard was burned along with the gate
during the 1950-53 Korean War.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200502/kt2005021619464211700.htm

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Welt, Sam, 19. Februar 2005

In China boomt auch die Kunst
Der Deutsche Ring stellt modernen Werken traditionelle Arbeiten gegenüber

Als älteste ununterbrochene Zivilisation habe sich die chinesische
Gesellschaft durch die Geschichte als extrem stabil und traditionsbewußt
erwiesen. Das erklärte der Sozial- und Kulturhistoriker Professor
Gerhard Armanski bei der Eröffnung der Ausstellung "ChinaKunst &
Zeitenwandel" im Haus Deutscher Ring. Das Ideal dieser Tradition: die
gegebene, unveränderliche Welt in all ihren Facetten aufzunehmen. Dem
gegenüber steht: der neue, rasche Wandel, der rasante Fortschritt, der
das boomende Reich der Mitte seit 20 Jahren prägt. Die chinesische Kunst
verhält sich angesichts dieser Pole konsequent. Sie nimmt, so Armanski,
"alte Anregungen auf und stellt sie in die neue Wirklichkeit".

Wie das geschieht, zeigt die Schau schlüssig am Beispiel zweier
Künstler, Vater und Tochter. Ein Dialog der Generationen par excellence.
Der Maler und Kalligraph Zhang Yun Sheng, geboren 1931, studierte
traditionelle Kunst an der ältesten Kunstakademie Chinas, seine Tochter
Zhou Fei, Jahrgang 1971, ist Videokünstlerin. Ihr Studium, in China
begonnen, schloß sie an der Hochschule für Bildende Künste in
Braunschweig ab. In der Vergangenheit liegt Ruhe. Zhang Yun Shengs
Arbeiten strahlen sie aus, ohne überholt zu wirken, obwohl die
Tuschemalereien auf Chinapapier jeder überkommenen Vorstellung von
chinesischer Malerei entsprechen: hochaufgetürmte Berge und Bäume, Vögel
und florale Pracht vor einer fast surreal in sich ruhenden Landschaft.
Zudem schuf der Künstler eine Installation aus Zeichen. Weiße,
horizontal und vertikal zusammengesetzte Kuben, deren Flächen mit
kalligraphischen Botschaften versehen sind, erzählen Poeme aus der
Tang-Dynastie.

Der allmähliche jahreszeitliche Wandel der Natur, der dem beschleunigten
Lebenstempo im Riesenreich nicht mehr entspricht, wird von Zhou Fei
zauberhaft inszeniert. Fei zeigt zwei Videoinstallationen und Stills
daraus, die drei Fotoserien bilden. "Lily Dance" beschreibt das Werden
und Vergehen einer Pflanze, "Wintersleep" eröffnet Räume, die langsam in
Landschaften übergehen. Dort mutiert der Teppichboden zum vereisten See,
dann spielen die Schatten der Bäume an den Wänden, die sich auflösen, um
der erwachenden Natur Platz zu machen. Oder ein Tisch ist zu sehen, ein
Raum, ein Fenster, doch drinnen und draußen verschwimmen, saftige Wiese
gedeiht, es wird üppiger Herbst und wieder Winter. Moderne Bilder eines
ewig gleichen Kreislaufs.

Bis zum 24. Juni im Haus Deutscher Ring, Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 22, Mo -
Fr 10 - 18 Uhr jp

http://www.welt.de/data/2005/02/19/508195.html

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Hamburger Abendblatt, Sonnabend, 19. Februar 2005
Von der Poesie der Natur
Kunst aus China: Der Deutsche Ring zeigt Arbeiten aus zwei Generationen.
Von Ursula Herrndorf

Hamburg - "Eine große Begabung" meinte Zhang Yun Sheng in den
Kalligraphien seiner Tochter Zou Fei zu erkennen. Wahrscheinlich nur zum
Teil ein von Vaterstolz verklärtes Urteil, denn er selbst gilt in China
als Meister dieser hohen Kunst. Zou Fei lernte von ihm schon als Kind
den geschickten Umgang mit Tusche und Pinsel. Als sie sich später der
Fotografie und Videokunst zuwandte, hatte der Vater wenig Verständnis.
"Es gab viele Auseinandersetzungen", erinnert sich die 34 Jahre alte
Künstlerin. Die Ausstellung "China Kunst und Zeitenwandel" der
Versicherungsgesellschaft Deutscher Ring vereint nun Kalligraphien und
Tuschmalereien von Zhang Yun Sheng mit Fotoserien und Videos seiner
Tochter Zou Fei. Und zeigt damit, wie nah diese scheinbar so
verschiedenen Ansätze beieinanderliegen.

"Die traditionelle chinesische Kunst hat einen tiefen Einfluß auf meine
Arbeit", erklärt Zou Fei, die für ihre poetischen Filme bereits mehrfach
ausgezeichnet wurde. In Hamburg zeigt ein Video das langsame Wachsen,
Aufblühen und Verwelken einer Wasserlilie. Einer von Zou Fei gemalten
Wasserlilie. Jedes Stadium hat die Künstlerin mit Tusche gezeichnet und
die Bilder wie bei einem Trickfilm in Bewegung versetzt. Auch ihre
Fotoserien vermitteln Kontemplation und Verbundenheit zur Natur. Beides
Grundlagen einer Philosophie, die durch ruhiges Beobachten der
Naturgeschehnisse zum Wesen der Dinge strebt.

Was bereits die Dichter der Tang-Dynastie (618-907) in bildreichen
Poemen darstellten. Zhang Yun Shengs Kalligraphien beziehen sich auf
diese alten Verse. Seine Arbeiten sind auf hohen Bauten aus
Papierwürfeln aufgebracht, die wiederum Schriftzeichen nachbilden. Den
Zeitenwandel macht unter anderem die Form der Schriftzeichen deutlich.
Jede Würfelseite trägt das gleiche Zeichen in verschiedenen Stilen, die
für verschiedene Epochen stehen.

Die Ausstellung ist eine Fortsetzung der Reihe "Dialog der Kulturen".
Unter diesem Titel zeigt der Deutsche Ring seit 2002 regelmäßig Arbeiten
von Künstlern verschiedener Nationen. Ziel ist es, "Türen zu öffnen und
neue Begegnungen zu ermöglichen". Zou Fei bedeutet das Wandeln zwischen
den Polen jedenfalls viel. "Ich arbeite in beiden Ländern, damit
Bewegung in die Kultur kommt."

http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2005/02/19/400900.html

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Cellesche Zeitung, 17.02.2005 21:15
Ein Stück China in Celle für Kultur und Wirtschaft
Christian Weingärtner

[image] Ding Yuan (rechts) mit Zen-Buddhist Sogen Rihaku.
Mit dem cellesch-chinesischen Kulturaustausch geht es bergauf. Der
chinesische Kunstprofessor Ding Yuang ist Leiter der neuen Kunst- und
Sprachschule in der Trift. Neben chinesischer Kunst und Kultur spielten
bei der feierlichen Eröffnung der Schule auch die wirtschaftlichen
Beziehungen der Region Celle zu China eine Rolle.

Näher als während des Besuchs des China-Restaurants um die Ecke sind die
meisten Celler dem Reich der Mitte noch nicht gekommen. Ding Yuang will
das gerne ändern und den Menschen mehr von seiner chinesischen Heimat
und der traditionsreichen, fernöstlichen Kultur vermitteln, als dies
durch Peking-Ente und Drachen-Dekorationen möglich ist.

Vergangenen Mittwoch eröffnete Ding Yuan deshalb die deutschlandweit
erste chinesische Kunst- und Sprachschule „Yuanding” im zukünftigen
China-Zentrum in der Trift. „Es war mein lang gehegter Wunsch, solch
eine Schule zu gründen, nun ist er endlich in Erfüllung gegangen”,
freute sich der Professor, der bereits seit zwanzig Jahren in
Deutschland lebt und hier als Kunst- und Sprachdozent gearbeitet hat.

Mit Eröffnung der Schule hat er jetzt die Gelegenheit, seine
wissbegierigen Schüler in die Geheimnisse chinesischer Malerei und
Kalligrafie sowie die sicherlich nicht ganz einfach zu erlernende
chinesische Sprache einzuweihen. Bekannte und Freunde wie der japanische
Zen-Buddhist Sogen Rihaku kamen und präsentierten den Gästen ein breit
gefächertes kulturelles Programm, das sich von chinesischer Akrobatik
und Volkstänzen über Kung Fu bis hin zu
einer ostasiatischen Modenschau erstreckte.

Die fernöstliche Kunst und Kultur waren jedoch nicht der alleinige
Grund, aus dem sich Gäste wie Liu Jing Hui, Bildungsbeauftragte der
chinesischen Botschaft, Oberbürgermeister Martin Biermann
sowie Celles China-Koordinatorin Lydia Richter zur feierlichen Eröffnung
einfanden. So verspricht sich Oberbürgermeister Biermann von der Schule
nicht nur Auftrieb für den cellesch-chinesischen Kulturaustausch,
sondern erhofft sich auch positive Impulse für eine wirtschaftliche
Kooperation zwischen dem riesigem China und der kleinen Stadt Celle, die
Teil der geplanten Metropolregion Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen ist.

„Wir glauben, dass wir für China ein hochinteressanter Partner sein
können”, sagte Biermann, der auf das große wissenschaftliche Potenzial
und wirtschaftliche Know-how in der Region Celle hinwies. Auch Ding Yuan
sieht die Möglichkeit, örtlichen Wirtschaftsvertretern durch die
Vermittlung von Sprache und Kultur bei ihren Kontakten nach China
weiterhelfen zu können.

http://www.cellesche-zeitung.de/lokales/celle/335688.html

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people's daily, February 16, 2005
City site in central China may be 4,000-year-old capital

Archaeologists claim that the large-scale city remains they discovered
in Dengfeng in central China's Henan Province may be the ruins of
Yangcheng, capital of King Yu, founder of the Xia Dynasty (21st century
B.C.- 16th B.C.).

The discovery was made during the excavations of ruins at Wangchenggang
site near Dengfeng from 2002 to 2004, which was cooperatively made by
archaeologists from the School of Archaeology and Museology of Beijing
University and the Henan Provincial Research Institute of Archeology.

Covering 300,000 square meters, the remains include the ruins of a city,
a moat and a city wall.

Preliminary age dating found that the city site belongs to the late
Longshan period, a late Neolithic culture which can be dated back to the
21st Century B.C..

"Because the period was generally recognized as the Xia Dynasty, the
large city ruins have enough reasons to be judged as the site of King
Yu's capital, whether from the location recorded in history or from the
scale of the city," said Liu Xu, professor of the School of Archaeology
and Museology of Beijing University and head of the excavation team.

Archaeologists have also unearthed relics such as sacrificial pits with
human bones, human skulls used for sacrifice and buried under the moat
and long hollow pieces of jade with rectangular sides and white pottery,
which demonstrated the noble status of the owner.

"These discoveries suggest that the city may have been a major
settlement for people in central China some 4,000 years ago," said Fang
Yanming, a research fellow with the Henan Provincial Research Institute
of Archeology.

The Wangchenggang site, which is now supposed to be the Yangcheng, was
discovered in 1959 and became famous in 1977 when archaeologists
excavated a small city to the northeast of the newly discovered big
city, and relics including fragments of bronze wares, inscribed
characters and a dozen foundation pits buried with humans skeletons.

As the first city site of the late Longshan Culture confirmed in Henan
Province since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949,
the small city remains, covering just thousands of square meters, were
then thought to have been the capital of King Yu by some archaeologists.

However, the small scale of the city was strong evidence for those
refusing to accept the small city remains as the capital.

"The discovery of the large city site throws new light on the
identification of King Yu's capital," Fang said.

Both cities were constructed in the same manner, though the small city
was built a little earlier than the big one.

Some archaeologists argue that the small city may have been used for
sacrifices. Others think that the big city may have been constructed
after the small city was demolished by the cataclysm during which Yu, a
legendary hero and the founder of China's first slave-owning society,
led the people to fight floods some 4,000 years ago.

"There are still many questions waiting to be answered," Fang said.

But Fang said that with more materials to be found, whether the large
city site was the capital of Yu or not will soon become clear.

China is one of the oldest countries in the world. Existing Chinese
historical chronicles, however, begin in 841 B.C. and there is no
precise record of nearly half the nation's history.

The Chinese government started a project to put precise dates on the
three dynasties of Xia, Shang (16th century B.C.- 11th B.C.) and Zhou
(11th century B.C.- 3rd B.C.), all the three of which are featured in
abundant legends and anecdotes.

"There has been a common understanding in archaeological circles on the
significance of the Wangchenggang site in discovering the early culture
of the Xia Dynasty," Liu Xu said.

"As it is generally recognized that Yu is the first king of the Xia
Dynasty, once the big city remains are confirmed as the site of
Yangcheng, the mystery of the origin of the Xia culture will be solved,"
Liu said.
Source: Xinhua

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200502/16/eng20050216_173707.html

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PD, February 15, 2005
300-plus artifacts to be on show in HK

More than 300 artifacts valued at more than 2 billion HK dollars (256
million US dollars) will be put on display in Hong Kong next month in
the largest exhibition of Chinese national treasures outside the
mainland, local media reported in Hong Kong Monday.

The collection, scheduled between March 12 and June 10, has just been
shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and will be taken to
Japan after it closes in Hong Kong, South China Morning Post reported.

The exhibition, called From Eastern Han to High Tang, tells the story of
the fall of the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), the coming of the Xianbei
nomadic tribes and other nomads, the Silk Road, and the reunification in
the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Most of the exhibits, assembled by China's State Administration of
Cultural Heritage from 46 museums in 14 provinces, are recent
archaeological discoveries.

Tom Ming, chief curator of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum where the
three-month exhibition will be held, said 70 percent of the 300 exhibits
were "class one" treasures.
Source: Xinhua
´
http://english.people.com.cn/200502/15/eng20050215_173630.html

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The Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2005
Film deepens divisions in South Korea over the North
The dark comedy is stirring memories of a former dictator known for
rights abuses and a tough line on Pyongyang.
By Donald Kirk

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – A new movie on the killing of South Korea's most
controversial leader more than two decades ago evokes a dark period from
the country's turbulent past - and is polarizing Koreans on how to face
North Korea.

The film, "Those People, That Time," opened this month amid a firestorm
of conservative criticism for its fictionalized portrayal of the 1979
assassination of dictator Park Chung Hee.

Scenes of black comedy spliced with historical footage of Mr. Park's
grieving family members have upset the slain leader's admirers. Worse,
in their view, the assassin, who was his intelligence chief, comes off
as a kind of hero when he tells his accomplices, "We are going to ...
give our lives for democracy."

Now, the government has opened an investigation into the killing, as
well as other events during Park's harsh rule - notably the 1972
kidnapping of the dissident, and future president, Kim Dae Jung.

Conservatives fear that all such inquiries may posthumously vindicate
the assassin as well as the relatively soft line the country has pursued
toward North Korea in recent years. The government, for its part, is
struggling to persuade Park's diehard followers of the urgency of
reconciliation with North Korea and the importance of having moved
beyond the human rights abuses associated with the Park era.

The spotlight the movie places on injustices of a generation ago, and
the bitterness it has stirred, worries some observers. The film
"reinforces the obsession with history," says Peter Beck, director of
the International Crisis Group, which is studying paths for
reconciliation between the two Koreas. "It's hard to get beyond history
- and look into the future."

Under Park's 18-year rule, thousands of foes were imprisoned, tortured,
and in many cases killed. Yet it was during this period that South Korea
began its rise to economic greatness in an effort to catch up not only
with the West but with Japan, which Park held up as an example for Korea.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy has exposed deep divisions
among South Koreans. Kim Dae Jung was elected president in 1997 by a
razor-thin margin over a conservative foe. Despite his narrow mandate,
Mr. Kim reversed decades of confrontation to pursue reconciliation with
Pyongyang, a policy furthered by President Roh Moo Hyun, who in 2002
also won by a narrow margin.

Earlier this month, South Korea's Defense Ministry, in its first white
paper in four years, dropped any reference to North Korea as the "main
enemy." Conservatives, who also say they want peace, see such moves as
emblematic of government weakness. They admire Park for his tough
policies, economic as well as military.

The conservative Grand National Party supports the campaign against the
film, in part because Park's daughter is its leader. A court ruled
against a ban of the film, but ordered the deletion of newsreel footage
that gives a veneer of historical accuracy.

Park Jin, a conservative party leader in the National Assembly, says he
still believes that many who see the film "could easily be confused."
And, he says, he could not "exclude the possibility that the message of
the film was political."

Opponents of the film argue that the purpose is to offer a rationale for
killing Park. According to government sources, the National Intelligence
Service, which is responsible for the inquiry, is quietly looking into
rehabilitating the assassin, Kim Jae Kyu, who was hanged for the deed.
The agency has declined to comment publicly.

Conservatives see any such effort as undermining what they view as
Park's most enduring achievement, his economic reforms that helped make
Korea the world's 11th-largest economy. "A lot of people still love
him," says Jung So Yoon, a member of the film's marketing team. "He made
the economy strong. Middle-aged people who lived in that period think
it's totally unfair."

The film's director, Im Sang Soon, told reporters his aim was not to
"criticize anybody or damage any political party." But he admitted
privately that he was strongly critical of Park's background as a former
junior officer in the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II. The film
pointedly has the president making small talk in Japanese. Activists
here have been demanding a full investigation into ties between
influential Koreans and the Japanese, who ruled South Korea for 35 years.

Park's human rights abuses, though, are what most upset his critics. The
government still hopes to revise - conservatives say water down - the
National Security Law that Park used to arrest dissidents.

Assemblyman Chung Eui Yong says its abolition ranks as high as
conservative demands for inquiries into the North's record on human
rights. "They are equally important," he says.

Such talk upsets Park Nei Hei, a professor at Sogang University. "There
was no choice except to execute Kim Jae Kyu," he says. "Young people
think he should be pardoned. They should look at what's going on in
North Korea before they talk about human rights in South Korea."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0215/p05s01-woap.html

***************************

tirol-online, 2005-02-17 14:04:53
Osterfestival Tirol wirft einen Blick auf das "Lächeln Asiens"
Vom 9. bis 26. März in Innsbruck und Hall

Mit dem "Lächeln Asiens" beschäftigt sich vom 9. bis 26. März das
traditionelle Tiroler Osterfestival "Musik der Religionen" 2005,
kündigten die Organisatoren am Donnerstag bei einer Pressekonferenz in
Innsbruck an. Das Festival wird heuer bereits zum 17. Mal von der
Galerie St. Barbara veranstaltet und findet in Hall und Innsbruck statt.

Neben barocker Passionsmusik wie Bachs Matthäus- und Johannespassion
stehen heuer auch traditionelle und zeitgenössische Musik, Kunst,
Theater, Tanz, Film und Ausstellungen aus China, Indien und Japan im
Mittelpunkt des Programms. Einer der Höhepunkte des Festivals ist die
Ausstellung "China: Leben der Menschen und Götter" in der Innsbrucker
Hofburg.

Eröffnet wird das Osterfestival mit japanischem Theater: Das Kabuki
Theater aus Tokio wird im Innsbrucker Congress Ausschnitte des Kabuki,
vor allem Tanzszenen aus der Edo-Zeit (1603 bis 1868), zeigen. Dazu
werde es auch eine Einführung in die Welt des Kabuki geben. Die Künstler
des Kabuki Theaters versprechen "uns in die wundersame Welt
kontrollierter Gefühle und kunstvoller Distanz zu den Freuden und
Schwächen menschlichen Zusammenlebens" zu führen.

Im China vor über tausend Jahren ist "Traum bei Tage" angesiedelt. Vom
10. bis zum 20. März führen chinesische Schattenspieler und Musiker aus
Henan erstmals in Europa ein Schattentheater auf und führen in der
Hofburg aus Tierhaut gefertigte Stabpuppen. Das Ensemble gilt als
bekannt für das besonders harmonische Zusammenwirken von Puppenspielern,
Sängern und Musikern.

Von indischem Tanz des Prashant Shas & Ensemble wird hingegen der
Palmsonntag geprägt sein. Unter dem Motto "Japan elektrisch / Live!"
werden am 22.3. die Punk-Pop Gruppe No-Arashi und Kazumi aus Japan,
Hey-o-Hansen aus Berlin und Gordon Odametay aus Ghana im Haller
Kulturlabor Stromboli zu hören sein. Ebenfalls stehen dort auch
Platzgumer und Shinto am 24.3. auf der Gästeliste.

Das Osterfestival endet mit zwei Schlüsselwerken der neuen Musik: Pierre
Boulez "Der Hammer ohne Meister" und Olivier Messiaens "Sieben Haikai"
sind am Karsamstag im Haller Kurhaus mit dem Tiroler Ensemble für Neue
Musik zu erleben.

Das Festival soll dazu beitragen, Vorurteile durch Begegnung abzubauen,
sagte die künstlerische Leiterin, Maria Crepaz. Die drei Wochen würden
Möglichkeiten entfalten, die eigene Weltanschauung im Dialog mit uralten
außereuropäischen Kulturen zu erfahren.

http://news.tirol.com/kultur/artikel_20050217_316994.html

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Mercury News, Sun, Feb. 13, 2005
CHINA MAKES ITS MARK
By Jack Fischer

China's emergence on the world stage usually is discussed in economic
terms -- it is underwriting America's deficit, after all -- but as the
sleeping giant awakes, its contemporary artists want a place at the
international table, too.

``On the Edge: Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West,'' now at
the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, finds a dozen
of China's most highly regarded contemporary artists making their cases
with a frankness not typical in an international setting.

The exhibit, which continues through May 1, features a dozen native
Chinese artists living both in China and abroad and working in a variety
of mediums, from painting to performance art. Its diversity of invention
should be a revelation to anyone who still thinks of Chinese art mostly
in terms of antiquities, traditional brush painting and tentative
imitations of the West.

Double disadvantage

Unlike their Western counterparts, these artists have labored under the
double disadvantage of being marginalized by their government and then
marginalized again in the international world of contemporary art which,
despite growing pluralism, remains mostly in the hands of influential
European and U.S. curators.

Their impatience for recognition is understandable when you realize that
the many artists in ``On the Edge'' who were born in the 1950s lost a
decade of their careers to the repression of the Cultural Revolution,
Mao Tse-tung's purge of bourgeois ``elites'' that closed the art
schools, among other disruptions.

But the show begs several complicated questions. Key among them: Is
there anything intrinsically Chinese about contemporary Chinese art, or
is it mostly the product of a global sensibility and artists who simply
happen to have come from China?

As noted in essays in the catalog that accompanies the exhibit, some of
these artists have objected to Western curators picking their work for
its ``Chinese-ness,'' which they interpret as Westerners exoticizing
them, as they've done for a century with non-Western art. The artists
even have a term for compatriots who manipulate this predilection: They
call it ``playing the China card,'' a deft appropriation from the world
of Cold War politics.

If there is little to differentiate contemporary Chinese art from
contemporary art elsewhere -- and virtually all of the art-making
techniques here are the same as in the West -- then what is the basis
for pleading inclusion in the international art circuit based on
nationality?

The differences are small and growing smaller with every chat over the
Internet and exchange of movies and television. But -- for the moment,
anyway -- place still makes a difference. For all but the youngest
artists in the Cantor show, that difference grows from the radically
different experiences these artists have had during the past 20 years,
as China swung from extreme isolation and radical egalitarianism to its
embrace of the free market.

While much of the rest of the world was introduced to Pop Art,
minimalism, the post-modern ironies of Jeff Koons and so on, many of
these artists are of an age when heroic social realism was virtually the
only acceptable art, making politics still inextricable from what they
do. The loosening of government repression of artists that occurred in
the 1990s has offered a chance to reflect on what they had to endure.

The Cantor show, guest-curated by Britta Erickson, a recently minted
Stanford Ph.D. in art history and a leading scholar of contemporary
Chinese art, tries to capture much of the foregoing by dividing the show
into three parts: ``The West Through a Political Lens,'' ``Cultural
Mélange'' and ``Joining the Game.''

In ``The West Through a Political Lens,'' Wang Du, who lives in Paris,
combines the political with an insight into mass media in his sculpture
``Youth With Slingshot'' (2000). Wang appropriates images from the
media, here a photograph of a boy shooting a slingshot at the U.S.
Embassy in Beijing after the accidental NATO bombing in 1999 of the
Chinese Embassy in the former Yugoslavia. But Wang, whose sculpture
re-creates the distortion in the photograph by greatly enlarging the
boy's fist and slingshot, is less interested in the incident than in how
the media subtly but crucially distort events.

The meat man

Zhang Huan offers one of the exhibit's most visually compelling works
with his video and photographs ``My New York'' (2002). Zhang, whose work
focuses on pain and sensitivity in social groups, moved from Beijing to
New York City in the 1990s.

Struck by the self-assuredness and strength that New Yorkers project, he
crafted a suit made of slabs of beef that made him look like an
excoriated superhero. Zhang walked through the city wearing the suit,
releasing doves as he went. His point extends beyond New Yorkers to all
Americans, suggesting, among other things, that they must be sensitive
to their strength in the world and urging them to seek peace.

Hong Hao crafts maps distorted to reflect cultural and political
realities, while other work in this section explores espionage between
West and East and the use of China as a dumping ground for discarded
computer components.

The ``Cultural Mélange'' section addresses the accelerated collision of
cultures between the West and the Middle Kingdom. It's a point made most
rudely, and hilariously, in Xu Bing's video ``A Case Study in
Transference'' (1994).

Xu covered the skins of two pigs with text, one in nonsensical Chinese
characters, the other in nonsensical Western text. Xu says he intended
to explore the disjuncture between humans and the rest of the animal
kingdom. But when these pigs' thoughts turned to physical love, viewers
saw a parable on the nature of relations between East and West.

Qiu Zhijie's interactive CD-ROM ``The West'' (2000), projected on a
gallery wall and navigable by computer mouse, is as much a sociological
exploration of Chinese myths and attitudes toward the West as it is an
aesthetic experience.

The open-ended, non-linear presentation lets viewers see images and read
interviews with contemporary Chinese men (and women) -- to explore
attitudes and misconceptions. Not surprising for someone who has lived
through China's many propaganda campaigns, Qiu also is interested in
exploring the ways people's views are manipulated without their knowledge.

More poetic is Qiu's ``Grinding the Stele'' (2001). In this video, Qiu
rubs the tombstone of a U.S. child who died in 1915 against another
marking the death of someone who lived during the Qing Dynasty, which
ruled for roughly 250 years ending in 1911, until the inscriptions on
both are obliterated. A bit of so-called process art, it captures the
metaphor of friction and the obliteration of cultural differences in the
continuing encounters of China and the West.

In an exercise in reverse cultural appropriation, Zhang Hongtu, part of
what is known as the Political Pop movement, has repainted the work of
Chinese artists in the styles of Western artists, as in ``Shitao -- Van
Gogh #7'' (2004). Closer to a classic Pop sensibility is his ``Long Life
Chairman Mao'' (1987-1995), which gives the Great Helmsman new
immortality as the face on a Quaker Oats carton.

Finally, the ``Joining the Game'' section of the exhibit finds Chinese
artists exploring their resentment of the unfair power relationship
between them and Western curators, whose approval they need to gain
recognition outside of China and, hence, legitimacy in the international
art community.

Contemporary Chinese artists have a term for visits with Western
curators to review their portfolios: ``going to see the doctor.'' For
Yan Lei, the scene was reminiscent of a group photograph he came across
of the Western inventors of the spy camera. In ``May I See Your Work?,''
Yan appropriates the photo of the dour bunch, adding the crucial question.

But I suspect it will be less than a decade before China's growing
wealth allows the emergence of a large class of its own contemporary art
collectors. If Western artists decide that they, like Microsoft and
General Motors before them, want better access to China's market, the
time may come when the artists in the Cantor show are judging Western
artists.

There may be no clearer sign than commerce dictating art to indicate
that they've arrived on the international stage.

On the Edge - Contemporary Chinese Artists Encounter the West
Where: Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, Lomita
Drive and Museum Way, Palo Alto
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays, Friday-Sundays, 11 a.m. 8 p.m. Thursdays
Through: May 1
Admission: Free

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/10890042.htm

***************************

crienglish (2005-2-14 13:28:42 China Daily)
Love Story with a Twist Inspires Actress-director
Here comes young actress-director Xu Jinglei's "Letter from an Unknown
Woman".

Young director Xu Jinglei has offered her new film "Letter from an
Unknown Woman" as a Valentine's Day gift to the nation's lovers.
The movie hit cinema screens across China yesterday and runs until early
next month.

Unlike the fare normally offered up to the nation's cinemagoers, this is
no cheesy comedy or regular romance. Rather, it deals with an
unforgettable, heart-breaking story and may offer the viewers much food
for thought about love - love cared for, love ignored and love
forgotten, critics say.

Adapting a masterpiece

After her directorial debut in 2003 with "My Father and I," Xu decided
to adapt renowned Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's short story "Letter
from an Unknown Woman."

"Every time I read the story, I am moved to tears. But as time goes by,
I read it very differently," said Xu.

"When I was a freshman at Beijing Film Academy in 1994, I read it as a
love story about a love-crazed woman and a heartless man. But when I
read it time and again in later years, I have come to see it as a story
about pure love. It is a story about a respectable woman who leads a
passionate, meaningful life and whose last letter shatters the heartless
man's false sense of superiority towards women and love," she said.

Xu knows that there already exists a splendid adaptation of Austrian
author Zweig's masterpiece by Max Ophuls in 1948.

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) published the story in 1936.

But Xu insists that her interpretation will be very different.

"I am not trying to moralize or to educate the viewers with my film.
What I am trying to do is to depict the story with passion and bring to
life a moving tale," Xu told China Daily.

"As I see it, today's women in love care only about their own feelings.
My film tells a story that caters to the tastes of contemporary
audiences. It portrays a woman who loves with dignity, who takes control
and achieves her independence in love," Xu explained, quoting Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe's famous line "If I love you, what business is it of
yours?"

Xu Jinglei says the film is really fused with her own experience and
understanding of love.

Depicting pure love

A Poly Asian Union Film and Media production, "Letter from an Unknown
Woman" cost 20 million yuan (US$2.4 million) to make.

Starring Xu and veteran actor/director Jiang Wen, Xu's film is set in
Beijing of the late 1940s.

On a bleak winter night, a man rides through the war-torn city and
returns home. He finds a letter awaiting him. It is the last letter
written by a woman before her death.

In the letter, she reveals to him for the first and last time the story
of her life-long passion for him that has not diminished over time, but
one that he has never known. Shaken by the letter, the man searches his
memory for the nameless woman.

Superb camerawork by veteran cinematographer Pin Bing Lee from Taiwan,
music by Kubota Osamu and Lin Hai, and vivid revival of old Beijing by
production designer Cao Jiuping add to the inner strength of Xu's
well-crafted script.

However, from the very beginning, Xu knows that it is a challenging job
to adapt Zweig's work into a good film.

"The big problem was how to translate the meticulously described inner
feelings of the heroine from words into visual sequences," Xu recalled.

The film story turned out to be moving experience, at least for
audiences at the 52nd Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival
held in Spain last September and to a handful of Chinese viewers who
attended closed-door test screenings in Beijing and Nanjing in recent
months.

At the festival, Xu took home the coveted Altadis-Best New Director
Silver Shell award.

Actress-turned director

"Winning the award and accolades from industry insiders gives me a great
deal of encouragement. But I am also looking forward to receiving
confirmation from Chinese audiences who go to watch it during the Spring
Festival holiday," said the actress-director.

Born in Beijing and trained as an actress at Beijing Film Academy, Xu
has been one of the hottest pop idols for TV and big screen fans for
years on the Chinese mainland. Upon graduation in 1997, she shot to
stardom for her roles in several TV drama serials.

In 1999, she won the prestigious Chinese Filmmakers Association's Best
Performance Award for her first major film role in "Spicy Love Soup"
(Aiqing Malatang).

Her recent films include "Far from Home" (Wode Meili Xiangchou) (Golden
Rooster "Best Supporting Actress" award in 2001), "Dazzling" (Huayan),
and "Spring Subway" (Kaiwang Chuntian De Ditie) ("Most Popular Actress"
award at the Beijing University Students Film Festival in 2002, ), "I
Love You" (Wo Ai Ni) (Golden Rooster "Best Actress Award" in 2002).

In 2003, Xu pushed her career in a different direction by writing,
directing and producing her first feature film, "My Father and I"
starring Ye Daying and herself.

The film won her a Golden Rooster and a Hundred Flowers "Best Directing
Debut Award" in her homeland. The film also attracted international
attention at major international film festivals including ones held in
Toronto and Tokyo.

"Letter from an Unknown Woman" is her second feature as a director and
screenwriter.

Now a teacher at the Performing Department of Beijing Film Academy, this
up-and-coming director is busy making new plans for more films.

"Film directing is fresh and exciting for me at this stage of my life.
But that does not mean I will easily give up acting. I have no set plans
for my future life. You see, I am also interested in photography. Maybe
some day, I will work as a photographer travelling worldwide," she said
with a smile.

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2242/2005-2-14/14@206290.htm

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BBC world, FEBRUARY 14, 2005 22:40
Korean Arts: Young Artists on the Rise
by Mun-Myung Huh

Artists’ patronage-President of the Arario Group Kim Chang-il (45), who
is also running the Arario Gallery in Cheonan, Chungnam, recently made a
contract with eight young artists in their thirties and pledged to
provide full-fledged support to them. Kim, an artwork collector and an
artist himself, announced that he had selected eight young promising
artists and promised them support financially for studio rent and work
costs, and to mediate exhibition opportunities in domestic areas and
abroad. The contractors are the following: Jeong Soo-jin, Park Se-jin
(paintings), Jeon Joon-ho, Gu Dong-hee (video arts), Kwon Oh-sang
(picture setting), Lee Hyeong-gu (art establishment), Baek Hyeon-jin and
Lee Dong-wook (sculpture). The designated artists will individually
receive more than 50 million won in patronage per year from Kim.
“Considering the fact that artists need a quiet, inspiring space for
work, far from the crowded urban towns, I planned to purchase some land
in Jeju Island and provide them with a studio,” said Kim.

The art world was startled by the unprecedented patronage of the Arario
Gallery. It is reported that some young artists, who belong to other
galleries, also expressed amazement to the astounding contract conditions.

On the other hand, the Geumho Museum in Sagan-dong, Jongno, Seoul, which
discontinued patronizing artists for the past three years, is resuming
the practice of supporting young, promising artists starting this year.
The gallery invited artists for the contest, and opted for 16 young
artists including Woo Jong-taek, Choi Joon-gyeong, Jeong Jae-ho, Im
Ja-hyeok, and Jeong Gyu-ri. The selected artists will be provided
exhibition spaces and patronage for an art brochure and art creation
from this March to 2006. Also, the gallery is searching for a spot for a
studio where up to 10 artists can work together.

In the same context, the auction agency “Seoul Auction” is projecting to
hold a “Cutting Edge” auction event two or three times a year, targeting
contemporary art works of young artists, who have been recommended by
galleries and art critiques. The agency explains that it will introduce
100 young promising artists and exhibit their potential.

An increasing number of exhibitions -

The worst season for art galleries usually falls every January and
February. However, galleries are facing a different situation this year.
A series of young artists’ exhibitions are going jovially on several
galleries and museums. As its first special exhibition, “Space C,”
located in Shinsa-dong, Gangnam, Seoul is holding a special exhibition
titled “Remake Korea”, prepared by a group of young artists. At this
show, they are exhibiting art works featuring shapes and images used in
Korean traditional arts. The exhibition will continue to March 26. The
exhibition “Visual Epic” will run through February 26, which shows young
artists’ experimental art works that combine movies and arts together in
the Gallery Sabina in Anguk-dong, Jongno, Seoul. At the Gana Art Gallery
in Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul an exhibition called “Nine One Man Show” will
meet the audience from February 16 to 27. The show will present nine
young artists` art world, who have worked one year at the Gana Art
Gallery: Kim A-ta, Yang Mahn-gi, Park Eun-seon, Goh Nak-beom, and more.

Why are young artists in the spotlight?-

First of all, the demand for arts has increased. Foreign art fairs have
contributed the most to expanding the demand. The CEO of Kukje Gallery,
Lee Hyeon-sook, explained, “Although Korea is now facing an economic
recession, young Korean artists have been proving their competitive
powers in the world market, which is in a prosperous condition.”
According to painting traders, Korean art works are competitive in terms
of price, so many domestic art collectors are turning their eyes to
domestic art works. “Nowadays, collectors are experiencing a challenge
from a limited group of mainstay artists and are trying to look for
fresh works of new artists as an alternative,” said Lee Ok-gyeong,
representative of the Gana Art Center.

Also, the demands for modern paintings have played a part; as high
apartment buildings are on the rise, plenty of residents are trying to
change the decor of their interior spaces with modern works in a move
away from classical, plain paintings. “When I moved to a new apartment,
I thought of hanging my collections of mainstay painters, but it felt
boring. So, I hung young artists’ fresh paintings and photos that I
recently purchased,” said homeowner Lee Seong-shil (57 years old,
Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul).

http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=130000&biid=2005021585848

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The Japan Times: Feb. 9, 2005
Chimeras and shadows
Onodera's photos and the unconscious
By MATTHEW LARKING

In the service of the imagination of photographer Yuki Onodera, familiar
objects become dreamily unsettled by memories and movements and, by
degrees, disengage to the point of of unreality.
[image] "Birds"(1994)

Yuki Onodera was born in Tokyo in 1962 and has risen to critical acclaim
in the photographic world, winning France's 21st Kodak Prize of Critical
Photography in 1996 and, more recently, the 28th Kimura Ihei Memorial
Award of Photography for her collection of photographs, "cameraChimera,"
in 2003.

Since 1993, Paris has been the base for her operations, though this time
around, the exhibiting venue is the National Museum of Art, Osaka, under
the title of her given name.

The "Transvest" series depicts clearly delineated silhouettes of figures
that have been cut from magazines, manipulated, affixed to glass panes
and subsequently photographed. The seductive quality of the diffuse
light that radiates from behind the silhouettes hints at the title,
which refers to the wearing of the clothes of the opposite sex as a kind
of erotic stimulus.

Onodera has said that she wanted these images to be evocative of the
experience of deja vu -- the unnerving event of experiencing a novel
moment that has seemingly occurred before.

Perhaps Onodera's characterization of her aims for the work and its
title can be elucidated by Sigmund Freud's explanation of the
experience, which is said to occur when suddenly an event that gives
rise to an unconscious fantasy leaks through into consciousness,
resulting in a disconcerting sense of familiarity.
[image] "Portrait of secondhand clothes" (1997)

This sense of familiarity is still at some distance from the
comprehension of the observer, maybe like how scanning these silhouettes
at close range reveals not a uniform shadow, but half-hidden objects and
architectures that have been imprinted onto the blackness of figures.

"Portrait of secondhand clothes" is a series of photographs that makes a
leap of abstraction from the body that wears them, to picturing just the
garments themselves, stiffened into shape and posed before an open window.

These singlets, coats and blouses in little girls' sizes that float in
the sky have an intriguing history. They were acquired from an
exhibition entitled "Dispersion" by Christian Boltanski, who had
arranged a mass of secondhand clothing in an empty room.

For 10 francs, Onodera and other visitors were encouraged to take one of
the plastic bags at the entrance and fill it with the discarded clothing
and disperse it as they saw fit.

Another history is that of the garments severed from their original
sources. These clothes monumentally rise up and resemble headstones in a
graveyard, alluding to missing bodies, lives passed, or single moments
in the eroded memories of anonymous little girls, long since grown up.

The "C.V.N.I." series picks up on a similar theme. The letters in the
title are a play on the French equivalent of U.F.O. -- the O.V.N.I objet
volant non identifie. Onodera replaces the "O" for objet with a "C" from
the French "conserve" and makes photographs of exactly that -- tin cans
stripped of their labels and containing unidentifiable contents,
hovering in mid-air above horizons.

"P.N.I." or Portrait non-identifie is in like manner translated as
"unidentified portrait." For these works the artist cut eyes, noses and
mouths from newspapers and affixed them to a crude model of a head
fashioned from clay, and then she took their picture. These portraits
are distorted composite creatures reconstituted as the sometimes
grotesque faces of people who never existed.

Three other series in the exhibition focus on the strangeness of
"movements" stilled by the camera.

"Birds" was shot from the same Montmartre window as "Portrait of
secondhand clothes," and takes issue with the scattering of pigeons as
they take flight after being disturbed from their roost.

"Watch your joint" zooms in on soccer players and catches figures in
unnatural motions ill-at-ease with the conventional way we expect the
game to evolve. One picture, for example, has three players crumpling up
as if cowering from the soccer ball, like an action shot catching an
uncanny and distinctly odd moment.

In "The bee the mirror" Onodera tells us in the exhibition catalog that
the camera has become equivalent to the point of view of a bee that has
become trapped in an apartment. The subsequent camera stills are
supposed to evoke the exploratory movements within an unaccustomed
setting. In making this series, Onodera had in fact broken into an
apartment at night while the tenant was away, although she also tells us
that she had received permission from the occupant beforehand.

The enigmatic quality in Onodera's photographs arises through subtlety
and variety. Clarity blurs in the grainy black-and-white images and in
the hints of narratives.

Her chosen subjects are stripped of their identities and made seemingly
different from themselves. All of this is like the half-remembered ideas
of a not-yet-woken state, caught somewhere between knowing the rules of
the game and reveling in the stray thoughts of imaginary spheres.

"Yuki Onodera" runs till April 17 at The National Museum of Art, Osaka.
10 p.m. - 5 p.m., closed Mondays, www.nmao.go.jp tel: (06) 6447-4680.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fa20050209a1.htm

***************************

2005-1-6 15:30:44 CRIENGLISH.com
Three Major Archaeological Discoveries

The Temple of Duke Zhou: “One of the Most Significant Archaeological
Discoveries after the Founding of People’s Republic of China”

Shaanxi Province, located in northwest China, was under the
administration of the capital of four ancient dynasties of Zhou, Qin,
Han and Tang, ranging from 10th century B.C. to 10th century A.D. In
April and May 2004, an archaeological team from Beijing University and
Shaanxi Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology Research Institute
excavated large-scale tombs with the highest level during the Western
Zhou Dynasty (770 B.C.—221 B.C.).
This discovery is equivalent to that of Yin Ruins at the beginning of
20th century. It is said to be one of the most significant
archaeological discoveries after the founding of People’s Republic of China.

Erlitou: The Earliest Palace ever Found in China

The archaeological discovery at Erlitou in central China’s Henan
Province in 1959 revealed the world the Erlitou Culture, which plays an
important role in the culture of the Xia Dynasty, and influenced social
aspects like the origin of a state in China. In July 2004,
archaeologists announced they discovered remains of a palace at Erlitou,
which is at least 3,600 years old. It claims to be the earliest palace
ever found in the country.
The discovery of the ruts pushed the history of the application of the
chart in China back to 3,700 years ago. It is another step towards
better understanding Chinese civilization.

Tomb of Kangye: A New Evidence of Silk Road

The Silk Road is the common cultural heritage of east and west. In
November 2004, Shaanxi Xi’a Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeology
Research Institute announced that after a tomb of a Sogdian from central
Asia was discovered in 2003, another tomb of the Sogdian, which is 1,400
years old was excavated in northern Xi’an, the capital city of northwest
China’s Shaanxi Province.
This discovery is believed to have far-reaching meaning to the research
of ethnic minorities and foreign religions along the Silk Road.

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/1857/2005-1-12/121@191775.htm

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2005-1-29 11:29:40 China Daily
Debut Director as Proud as a Peacock

Books recounting personal histories of Chinese, high ranking officials
and common folks alike, sit atop the best-seller lists; songs and smash
hits over the past few decades are revived and reinterpreted by new
voices for today's music fans; TV drama series depicting historical
figures and events are well received, too, by huge audiences across the
country.

Now comes a major nostalgic film that is hailed by many critics as "an
epic depicting the inner world of the Chinese."

Weeks away from its massive release on the Chinese mainland, Gu
Changwei's color feature film Peacock (Kongque) has attracted intense
attention from film circles, the media and the public.

Beijing-based writer Wang Shuo described Peacock as "the swan song of
the Fifth Generation" in a local media after he watched it at a
close-door test screening.

Tian Zhuangzhuang, a Fifth Generation director, says Peacock is one of
the two best movies of 2004, with Lu Chuan's Kekexili: Mountain Patrol.

Although a regular screening once a week has been going on in the Sun
Dong An Cinema in downtown Beijing since last December, Peacock, an
official selection in competition in the 55th Berlin International Film
Festival in Germany, is scheduled to hit most Chinese movie theaters on
February 18, one day before the revelation of the final winners of the
Golden and Silver bears.

Directorial debut

However, Gu, a cinematographer-turned film director, claims that he does
not make films for awards but for audience's enjoyment.

"Peacock is a quality film. I have absolute confidence in it. But it
needs a stroke of luck to win film awards," Gu, 46, said of his
directorial debut during a China Daily interview.

He said the film did not mean to cater to the stereotypical Western view
of Chinese people and Chinese society.

"It is shot from the perspective of the Chinese and deals with the
easily ignored subject of the uneventful and mundane life of ordinary
citizens," said Gu.

The internationally renowned cinematographer has long collaborated with
film directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige for such acclaimed films as
Red Sorghum (Hong Gaoliang), King of the Children (Haizi Wang), Ju Dou
and Farewell My Concubine (Bawang Bieji) since the late 1980s.

Moved by a script of young writer Li Qiang, who writes mainly on the
basis of his own personal stories, Gu soon began preparations for the
shooting of the film in October 2002.

He took up the role of a film director rather than director of
photography, hoping "to see if I can get a better chance to film ideas
of my own and to further push ahead my creative potential."

The shooting of Peacock was completed within four months in early 2003
in Anyang, central China's Henan Province, where writer Li Qiang was
born. But the final version of the film was not completed until last May.

Gu deliberately made the film as a departure point from most Fifth
Generation filmmakers whose works are characterized by bright costumes
and settings, contrasting colors, and heavy ideological underpinnings.

"When I worked as a cinematographer, I racked my brains to help the
directors bring out their best films. Now, as a director, I want to make
a film according to my own film aesthetics," said Gu.

Realism

So he depicts the film story with a reserved, realistic approach.

Peacock tells the story of three children in an ordinary family in an
obscure, remote, post-industrial city in Central China in the 1970s and
1980s.

"It is a subtle investigation of human conditions in those changing
years," Gu said.

Without any spectacular scenes or use of flashy film techniques, the
film captures the separately told personal stories of the three children
in a matter-of-fact manner.

Ttypical sounds, music, slogans and noise were among the major vehicles
to regenerate the atmosphere of a certain historical periods such as the
"culture revolution" (1966-76).

"The story is set in a certain time frame. But its theme is universal.
It is a film about growing up, about young people's dreams and ideals.
some shattered and some fulfilled; and their regrets, sorrows, and drops
of happiness. Young people of today will also relate to the story," Gu
explains.

And he chose a bunch of new faces for leading roles.

The film stars Zhang Jingchu (as the sister), a Beijing Film Academy
graduate little known to most film audience before Peacock, Feng Le (as
the eldest brother) and Lu Yulai (as the younger brother) fresh from the
Central Academy of Drama.

And he gave a full play to the potential of the long shots. Generally
speaking, a 90-minute film contains about 700 scenes. But this longer
film, about 130 minutes, has less than 300 scenes.

Even so, said Gu: "The viewers are not going to feel bored when watching
it as the long shots are much more informative and visually exciting
than those in many other films."

Gu believes that the use of long shots also adds to the strength of the
realist film. "Just let life flow as naturally as it is and that is the
ideal effect I wanted in my film."

Gu is largely satisfied with the outcome of his toils. He believes that
the film has a large fan base though it has no stellar cast, no kung fu
sequences and no computer-morphed special effects.

Watching the film is just like looking at a family album of common
Chinese, some critics say.

"Peacock is a touching, heart-warming, but also heart-wrenching movie,"
said Gu. "No matter if you are an idealist, a realist, or a pragmatist,
or whatever, you will find traces of your own youthful years in the
amiable characters of my film.

"The audience will not be shocked but rather moved. They are not
expected to burst into tears in the cinema. But they will later recall
certain moments in the films again and again," he adds, as was the case
for many movie-goers who went for the test screening.

Gu would rather not say too much about the details and specific meanings
of scenes and hopes the audience will watch first and then pass judgment.

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/2242/2005-1-29/14@201554.htm

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