Yomiuri Shimbun, 2005-03-09
Kiyomiharanomiya palace was asymmetrical

A main building of the Asuka Kiyomiharanomiya Palace in Asukamura, Nara
Prefecture, believed to have been used by Emperor Tenmu and his
successor Empress Jito in the late seventh century, has been found to be
asymmetrical in structure, the Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archeological
Institute announced Tuesday.

The remains, believed to be those of the palace's main building, were
discovered in March last year. The palace dates to 672-694.

The remains of the palace showed that the main building was connected to
a subsidiary building via a corridor, while a roofed corridor ran from
the main building toward the west.

Fujiwaranomiya and Heijokyu palaces in the prefecture, which were built
after the Asuka Kiyomiharanomiya Palace, were built using a symmetrical
architectural style from China.

The Asuka Kiyomiharanomiya Palace is reminiscent of Shinden-style
buildings erected in the Heian period (794-1192). The institute believes
the architectural style in which corridors connected the palace to
subsidiary buildings was the model for aristocratic residences in the
mid-Heian period.

The main building measured 23.5 meters from east to west and 12.4 meters
from south to north. It is believed to have been one of the largest
structures in the Asuka period (593-710) and was a gabled building with
eaves on the north and south sides.

Stairways were found at two locations, on the north and south sides of
the building. Holes for poles used to display flags were discovered at
each corner of the building.

The subsidiary building measured 12.4 meters from south to north and 6
meters from east to west. The passageway is believed to have been 5.4
meters long and 6.2 meters wide. The roofed passageway measured 9 meters
long and 3 meters wide, and is believed to have been used by people
gazing at the pond, which was discovered last March, from the north.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20050309wo61.htm

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Xinhua/Renmin wang, March 06, 2005
More cliff paintings found in NW China

Seventy-two cliff paintings were recently discovered at Helan Mountain
in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region during a general
survey on cliff paintings in the region.

The paintings, in 28 groups, are of sheep, deer, horse, tiger, donkey
and human faces. They spread over a 15-km area between Helankou and
Chaqikou.

"This is the largest group of cliff paintings discovered in thepast
three years," said He Jide, director of the Helan Mountain Cliff
Painting Administrative Section in Yinchuan, the regional capital.

The cliff paintings at Helan Mountain are pre-historic cultural relics
carved with stone and metal tools by nomads in northern China. They are
scattered over an area stretching several hundred kilometers.

The paintings displayed scenes of herding, hunting, offering sacrifices
and life episodes some 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. Animals dominate the
cliff paintings, followed by figures, vehicles, plants, planets,
fingerprints, written characters and abstract signs.

Prior to the recent discovery, 19,752 cliff paintings in 5,098 groups
have been found at Helan Mountain, once a nomadic area. The paintings
provide valuable evidence for the study of the history of human
development, ethnic religion and primitive painting, He Jide said.

Source: Xinhua

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200503/06/eng20050306_175755.html

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NYT, March 5, 2005
The Peacock Princess of China
By DAVID BARBOZA

KUNMING, China - Ever since Yang Liping won first prize in a national
dance competition in 1986, she has been delighting Chinese audiences
with her signature dance, "Spirit of the Peacock."

Now, Ms. Yang, one of China's best-known dancers, is the director,
choreographer and star of a new show that is drawing sellout crowds all
over the country.

The show, "Dynamic Yunnan," which is expected to travel to Europe and
the United States later this year, features Ms. Yang and about 70 other
performers from Yunnan Province, in southwestern China, staging
ritualistic folk dances, beating drums, stomping, singing and floating
elegantly across the stage like butterflies.

The show is the latest coming-out party for Ms. Yang, who, though not
well known outside of China, is known here as a stern but creative and
independent force in Chinese dance. And even at 47, she can dance like a
spirited youth, contorting her slender frame and whipping her arms, legs
and fingers in vivid representations of animals and other aspects of the
natural world.

"I just love to dance," Ms. Yang said over dinner after a performance
here in Kunming, Yunnan's provincial capital. "My nature is to dance all
the time. After I eat, I want to start dancing all over again."

To prepare the show, Ms. Yang said she spent more than a year traveling
to remote villages in her native Yunnan, studying local dances,
recording disappearing folk songs and recruiting dozens of young people
from ethnic minority groups. Yunnan is China's most ethnically diverse
province.

Many of the villages she visited were wedged between mountains and
seemingly lost to the modern world. There she encountered the folk
rhythms of farmers and villagers who seemed to have a natural aptitude
for song and dance.

"In these villages, people have songs and dances for every event - when
they're happy, at harvest time, when they're getting married or
mourning," she said. "It's not a choice, it's a lifestyle."

Ms. Yang is also a dancer by nature. She was born about 100 miles
northwest of here, in the town of Dali, the eldest of four children. Her
parents and grandparents, members of the Bai ethnic minority, were
farmers in a nearby village. As was true for everyone in their village,
she said, singing and dancing were a part of their lives.

"My grandmother was the best singer in the village," Ms. Yang said,
grabbing a bowl of rice at a restaurant near Kunming's performing arts
center. "I clearly remember, when I was 6 years old, waking up and
hearing my grandmother's voice. My grandfather had died and she sang all
day long - all the details of their life together. This was our life. My
family loved to sing and dance."

From an early age, Ms. Yang loved to dance, too. At 11, after the
family had moved to Xishuangbanna, a region in southern Yunnan, she
joined a local dance troupe and fell in love with a popular dance that
imitates the movements of the peacock, a totem of the Bai people.

In her early 20's, after she moved to Beijing to dance with the Central
Nationalities Song and Dance Ensemble, she made the peacock dance her
own, recasting parts of it with deft arm and finger movements. In 1986,
that choreography and dance won her first prize in a national
competition. Ever since, she has been dubbed the Peacock Princess.

Experts say Ms. Yang has not only developed a highly personal style, but
has popularized Yunnan's folk dances as well.

"She's in the first rank of dancers here in China," said Zhang Jianmin,
a leading choreographer in Beijing who devised the dance sequences in
Zhang Yimou's film "House of Flying Daggers." "She's a folk dancer, but
she's also come up with a lot of original movements, particularly with
her arms and fingers."

Ms. Yang said she had little formal training and prefers folk dancing to
modern dance, which she associates with the expression of anguish and
pain. "My dances are just showing the beautiful side of life," she said.

Indeed, her dances are infused with grace, emphasizing the intricacies
of expression possible with the hands and arms. Abruptly, she will
freeze in place. Then her body snaps to life. She is by turns robotic,
then fluid. Her long, slender arms and fingers - capped by extremely
long fingernails that accentuate her moves - are the wings of a bird,
the branches of a tree, sparks bursting into a raging fire.

"Nature is simply the best teacher," she said. "I watch the motions of
the peacock, birds, animals, anything that moves. That's how I've taught
myself."

Now, after years of performing solo and appearing on television as the
nation's leading lady of dance, Ms. Yang is returning to her roots,
seeking to preserve and promote folk dances with her new show, which she
financed almost entirely herself.

So many beautiful ethnic dances are being lost or are disappearing with
the advance of commerce and modernization, she said. And so she has
devoted years to re-enacting or evoking the dances she grew up with or
discovered during her travels.

"Dynamic Yunnan" is filled with songs and dances that celebrate the sun,
the moon and the region's folk legends. Ms. Yang said part of the show's
popularity stems from its authenticity: nearly all the performers are
young people from Yunnan's ethnic minorities. And like her, few have had
formal training.

One young man, she said, was selected after she heard him crying out for
his runaway cow. A young girl was chosen after pleading for the
opportunity to dance so she could earn the $48 it would cost her family
to buy a cow. Ms. Yang said the girl's story moved her to tears. "I
picked her even though I thought she was too short," Ms. Yang said,
laughing. "But she works hard. I can always hear her singing in the
back. She puts all her energy into it. You see, this show is nothing but
real life."

As for her own life, Ms. Yang is far more circumspect. Though she
acknowledges being married but without children, she prefers to talk
about dance, and the prospect of performing in Europe and the United States.

And when asked whether her dances offer any messages, she snaps: "I
don't think about messages. I just love to dance. It's my nature."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/05/arts/dance/05danc.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1110398640-VdIXdEdtajhvL25rk0b2tQ

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china.org.cn, February 4, 2005
Forbidden City Welcomes Votes for a New Logo

China's biggest museum is accepting online votes to help choose its new
logo.

The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, began its search
for a new design last June, and 2,788 submissions were received from
around the world by the closing date of September 30.

Six, short listed by designers, specialists and architects in an
appraisal meeting on January 19, were published on the museum's website,
www.dpm.org.cn, on January 25 and visitors can vote for their favorite
until February 15.

"It's important to have a logo to celebrate the museum's 80th birthday,
as it is one of the greatest ancient imperial palaces in the world,"
said Feng Nai'en, from the museum's administration.

Prize money worth 80,000 yuan (US$9,760) is being offered by the
organizing committee.

"The active feedback from home and abroad has been beyond all
expectation," said Feng.

The majority of ideas have come from professional and amateur designers
living on the Chinese mainland, said Feng. "A clear focus and impressive
presentation with a good historical sense were required."

The final result is expected to be revealed in March or April. The
winning design will be used in celebrations for the museum's 80th
anniversary on October 10.

The Palace Museum was built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) between 1406
and 1420. Covering an area of 720,000 square meters, it accommodated two
dozen or so emperors until 1924, when the deposed Qing (1644-1911)
Emperor Pu Yi was expelled from it.
[6 images]

(China Daily February 4, 2005)

http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=119823&p_qry=palace%20and%20museum

++++++++++++++

china.org.cn, February 20, 2005
Online Forbidden City Badge Design Selected

The number one on-line design for the Forbidden City Badge has been
selected.

The design, featuring the Wumen Gate, will be used for 80th birthday
celebrations of the Imperial Palace Museum this year.

More than 10,000 online votes for the six candidates were received for
the competition which started on January 25.

The selected badge design features the Wumen Gate image and the seal
with five Chinese characters meaning the Imperial Palace Museum on it.
The red color of the badge symbolizes the color of the wall of the
Forbidden City.

However, the staff of the Imperial Palace Museum confessed that it's a
pity that the candidate works were not provided with detailed
explanations about their designs, to help netizens pick their favorite.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 20, 2005)

http://service.china.org.cn/link/wcm/Show_Text?info_id=120732&p_qry=palace%20and%20museum

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

Inter Press Service, 3-12-2005
Antiques, Now the Craze of New Rich
Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Mar 12 (IPS) - Panjiayuan, the notorious ''dirt'' market of
Beijing, is an unlikely place for China's new rich to flash their
wealth. Famous for its tacky trinkets, Mao memorabilia and piles of junk
carted from all over the country, this jumble-sale place has resisted
numerous attempts by city officials to smarten it up.

Many of the peasants-turned-dealers in art still arrive from
neighbouring villages in horse- driven carts where teapots and Buddha's
statues are buried under piles of ragged blankets. In winter, the
open-air market is still dotted with ancient coal stoves - some sold as
exhibits, others put to more utilitarian use by vendors to warm their
hands and heat water for tea.

On crispy weekend mornings when business begins as early as 4 a.m., the
market is bustling but mostly full of artfully forged paintings,
porcelain and bronzes. More than 3,000 stalls, often laid straight on
the ground, sell everything from jade bracelets to richly coloured
Tibetan chests. There are heaps of Chinese scrolls and Cultural
Revolution posters, piles of snuff bottles, stone cups laid with silver
and hand-painted porcelain.

It is the hunt for treasures - still surprisingly found among the heaps
of junk -- that brings heaps of people here every weekend. And often,
many flea market enthusiasts have walked away with delightful
discoveries of precious Ming vases and miniature Qing statues of opium
smokers.

Vendors claim that as authentic pieces become more rare, the crowds get
bigger.

China's new rich have joined junk collectors and bewildered foreigners
wandering through the stalls in search for that precious scroll or
ancient piece of bronze. Even in big weekend crowds where Tibetan and
Mongolian vendors stand out in their exotic outfits, these wealthy
urbanities are easy to spot - they wear diamond-studded gold watches
(genuine more often than not) and sport the latest models of mobile phones.

''There are more Chinese people coming to look and buy than five years
ago,'' says Hu Chunhua, a red-cheek woman from central Henan who
presides over piles of Chinese wood boxes and baskets. ”And they are not
that bad customers - they haggle but they have money.”

Antiques markets like Panjiayuan are just some of the places where
China's rapidly growing class of brash tycoons is spending money on
buying art and relics that two decades ago were regarded as useless
remains from a feudal past.

In art centers like London and New York, antique dealers report an
increasing number of collectors from China travelling abroad to purchase
precious Chinese porcelain and art and returning home with them.

The buying spree is fuelled by nostalgia for China's cultural heritage,
scattered abroad, looted and vastly diminished in numerous campaigns
aimed at obliterating the past. For more than 30 years since its
ascendance to power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party had confiscated
and destroyed what was left of China's unique heritage, stocking public
disregard for traditional culture.

But awakening at last to their cultural heritage and aware of the West's
long-time fascination with it, China's middle classes are nowadays
willing to spend fortunes on spontaneous buys of antiques whose
provenance cannot be properly documented.

There is also an impulse to look for ways to diversify out of China's
inflated asset bubble. With China's state banks reported to have at
least half of their portfolios as non-performing loans and the property
sector in main cities overheated, China's new rich are investing in
private collections of art and antiques. Many of them see this as a safe
heaven for their money.

The same group of new rich Chinese are packing the art auctions in
Beijing, fuelling an art boom and sending prices soaring. Auctions which
in London would attract no more than 50 people, now draw crowds of 500
in Beijing -- some of them coming just to look.

''It is like a gold rush,'' says Gan Xuejun, one of the top traders with
the Beijing-based Huachen International Auction Company. ''There are
more and more people that want to buy antiques and works of art but very
few of them have any real understanding about its authenticity.''

In their quest to satisfy their customers, some unscrupulous dealers are
also coming up with forgeries that can easily deceive the inexperienced
collector. But even dealers themselves admit that the hunt for quality
antiques is getting tougher by the day.

''Every second month I have to go to a different place, further and
further away from Beijing to find things that my customers would want to
buy,'' says Rebecca Xu who runs a downtown antique shop and stocks a
Chinese classical furniture warehouse in the suburbs. ''Nowadays the
antiques we can find are often so badly damaged that we would have to
repair them in our warehouse before we can sell them.''

While few years back Rebecca would stumble upon antiques in villages
near Beijing and history-rich towns of neighbouring Shanxi province,
these days she has to travel to far-flung provinces like Anhui to look
for artifacts.

The money invested in antiques has grown so rapidly in the last five
years that government officials are beginning to worry about an
investment bubble.

Last year, legal sales of cultural relics at auctions in China topped
3.9 billion yuan (470 million U.S. dollars) -- more than triple the
amount of 1.2 billion yuan (144 million U.S. dollars) the auction houses
took in 2003.

''In the past two or three years, Chinese art pieces have really shot
up,'' says an art trader with China Guardian Auctions, one of the
country's well-established auction companies. ''Prices here are now
higher than in New York or London. So art is coming here too.''

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=27766

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korea times,03-08-2005 18:16
Foundation Promotes Nation's Image Abroad Through Book Series
By Joon Soh
Culture Editor

The Korea Foundation is continuing its drive to promote Korea
internationally by publishing a series of books on Korean culture.

The foundation, affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
supported by public funding and private donations, earlier this year
published a book of terms used in Korean traditional art and culture.
The ``Dictionary of Korean Art and Archeology’’ neatly summarizes over
2,800 Korean traditional items and concepts in English, providing the
romanization of the Korean word and, if applicable, the Chinese characters.

The book covers a broad range of topics and terminology, including words
familiar to anyone residing in the country and terms that might only be
known to people well-versed in Korean arts and tradition.

The subjects covered include archeology, architecture, art history and
folklore.

While the book can serve as a reference tool for serious students of
Korean culture, it is also simple enough manner for anyone wishing to
augment their knowledge on a trip to museums and historical sites.

The dictionary is the result of five years of work. The process was
overseen by its chief editor, Roderick Whitfield, a professor of Chinese
art and archeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in
London. Numerous experts within the field of traditional art, crafts and
archeology also took part.

The dictionary is also a perfect companion piece to the ``Korean Food
Guide in English’’ published in 2003. In a similar format to the
``Dictionary of Korean Art and Archeology,’’ the guide provides
information on 807 Korean dishes, being a very useful tool on visits to
restaurants around the country. The information for each dish includes
the name in both English and French, as well as a brief description.

Some entries also include dialect variations of the name, as well as
information on the origins of the dish.

The book starts with a short introductory essay on the characteristics
of Korean food and the philosophy behind Korean cuisine. It also
includes a section briefly describing preparation and cooking methods.

The foundation plans to publish a series of books focusing on other
aspects of Korean culture, including a book on Korean contemporary art
to be released in the coming months.

For more information, visit the foundation’s Web site at www.fk.or.kr.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200503/kt2005030818145711710.htm

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BBC news, 3 March, 2005
China's New Faces: Ai Weiwei
China's economic reforms have transformed the country's cities and the
lifestyles of many residents.

It has the world's fastest growing economy, with millions moving to the
country's rapidly expanding cities.

As part of the BBC's China Week, BBC World Service spoke to some of the
new generation of Chinese experiencing rapid change.

Chen Luyu:
Talk show host
"Chinese people want a peaceful, stable and better life"

Ai Weiwei:
Artist
"Certain areas, certain taboos can't be touched."

Jimmy Ye:
Successful businessman
Is bringing Formula Three to China

Zhang Xin:
Property developer
Has helped transform Beijing's skyline

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is one of the stars of China's art world.

Over the past decades, although he's trod carefully along, he has
occasionally stepped across the boundaries of the permissible.

But despite his soaring reputation overseas, he has not yet held a solo
show in China - saying the country is "not yet ready." Five years ago he
was the curator of a show that was shut down by the police which
included self-mutilation, human corpses and body parts.

Recently Ai Weiwei's been working with the Swiss architects, Jacques
Herzog and Pierre de Meuron to design China's national Olympic stadium
for the 2008 Olympic games.

"I think China as a society has been closed up for half a century. In
the past twenty years it's started to open up.

The economic change and political change has really created a very
strong interest in what's going on in this very big society, whose
population is one-fifth of the whole world.

Everything is changing and happening in such a dramatic way, and it's
all reflected in Chinese art.

Ai Weiwei standing next to 'guancai', the Chinese word for coffin
The Chinese coffin - a subtle comment on official corruption
This artwork represents a traditional Chinese coffin, twisted out of
shape - a subtle comment on official corruption.

In Chinese, a coffin is called a guancai. Chinese words have a double
meaning - "guan" also means "high official" and "cai" means "money" or
"prosperity." So this (work) deals with today's values and situation.

On the one hand, there's much freedom. Almost anything can go, almost
anything is possible. On the other hand, there's still a system there.

Certain areas, certain taboos can't be touched. There's still censorship
there.

You really have to be very alert about where is the fine line, the border.

You don't know exactly where it is, you have to be intelligent."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/4298689.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4299019.stm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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