Chinese
My blog posts always seem to be delayed now due to my spontaneous laziness. I should change this bad habit.
On Friday I was down at the Metro Convention centre for a Chinese art exhibition which displayed many precious and super valuable contemporary Chinese paintings that are rarely seen by the public. Qi Baishi’s (齐白石) shrimps, Xu Beihong’s (徐悲鸿) horse, Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) and Zhang Daqian’s (张大千) master pieces and even the infamous well-known Chinese empress Cixi’s (慈禧) painting mounted with twelve dragons… it was a visual and spiritual feast. I think my $5 ticket was really well worth it. The exhibition guide also explained some techiniques of Chinese paintings and some content that’s far beyond the surface of the rice paper. Seeing each brush stokes done by the masters was really fantastic and marvelous, and not to mention how proud I feel to be Chinese after getting to know more about the rich and extraordinary culture behind the mere name.
Just a little anecdote my dad told me about Zhang Shuqi. Zhang is another very renowned Chinese artist and when he was having his personal exhibition in the States, a Westerner was very enthralled by the art and the culture and so he approached Zhang to ask how long it’d take to learn to paint like that. Zhang extended out his hand and gave him five fingers indicating the number “5″. The Westerner said: “Five months?” Zhang shook his head. “Five years?” Zhang shook his head. “It can’t be.. fifty years, can it?” Zhang again shook his head. Then he told the Westerner: “Five thousands years.” I always smile when I think about this. Five thousands years is the the time period which Chinese culture took to develope, and for a person who doesn’t possess the Chinese blood, it is very difficult for him/her to grasp the deep culture behind the beauty. So don’t be proud as a Chinese because you don’t get ‘discriminated’ agasint in the Pmall; be proud because you possess something that is so wondrous and beautiful.
The second part of the exhibition was a downer though - because it was all paintings done by and for the Fa Lun Gong practitioners and also to advocate their belief and to demonized Jiang Zemin - the previous chairman of China - and the current Chinese government. ( It’s funny how the Chinese gov. and Fa Lun Gong mutually demonize each other by using practically the same method) The paintings were not bad from the artistic perspective, but what I found most ridiculously ludicrous is the fact that they always put figures from different religions on the same canvas - so you’d see a Buddha on the top, lower left a Daoist sage, lower right a Christian angel and the Fa Lun Gong practitioners with a halo at the bottom. I personally don’t really know much about Fa Lun Gong because the founder of Fa Lun Gong - Li Hongzhi is basically a simpleton. It’s stupid how people would believe in something totally created by a person who hasn’t even gone to university/college who worked as a warehouse guard and waiter to gain a living. My view on this subject is that Fa Lun Gong practitioners aren’t ‘bad’ people, and Chinese gov. shouldn’t prosecute them that severely. Westerners who joined the force of Fa Lun Gong mostly, in my opinion, just wanted to use this as a means to oppose the Chinese communist government and the punishment Chinese gov. used against the Fa Lun Gong supporters is a way to show those who are opposed to the gov.. It’s merely a war between two political standpoint - as it has always been.
So much for some personal opinion. After the exhibition, I went to AGO to subscribe to the membership. I’m elated that I can just walk in anytime I want without paying. Muahaha. Then, I went to Kensington, saw some super cute skirts at the Indian store. I reeeaally liked them and think that I’ll probably go back sometime.
- just a day, thoughts | Time: 3:42 pm (UTC+8)
You’re right, that ticket was well worth it. And on top of that I learned some Chinese. It’s only a matter of time now.
Comment by Ivan — June 18, 2005 @ 5:21 pm
you come teach me next year jvan.
well soph can =D. go pinyin -_-”. i need to bone up on chinese this summer.
Comment by juff — June 18, 2005 @ 8:56 pm
Some serious boning.
Comment by Ivan — June 18, 2005 @ 11:18 pm
eh… Chinese is not hard, but is hard.
Comment by Sof — June 18, 2005 @ 11:58 pm
I imagine it’ll just take lots of time. Youcan’t learn phonetics and figure everything out like you can with other languages. Just have to memorise everything.
Also, pronunciation will probably take a while.
Comment by Ivan — June 19, 2005 @ 5:16 pm
hahah. im actually more of an illiterate peasant. i can speak it quite fluently but most of the time i have no idea how to write or read what i am saying. yo jvan, pin yin is phonetics for chinese so you can actually start to pick it up nicely. the funniest/most surprising/humbling is when a western person speaks chinese better than you
Comment by juff — June 19, 2005 @ 6:29 pm
haha, that happens here in Canada all the time, no? (a non-English-background person speaks and writes better than a English-background person).
Chinese charaters go by meanings rather than pronunciation. So yes, if you see a character you don’t know and is consisted of two characters you do know the meaning and the pronunciation, it’s easier to figure out the meaning of this new character than its pronunciation.
And that does reflect the Chinese philosophy, somewhat. don’t you think?
Comment by Sof — June 19, 2005 @ 7:40 pm
“So don’t be proud as a Chinese because you don’t get ‘discriminated’ agasint in the Pmall”
LOL
Chinese culture really is beautiful. It’s just a huge shame that so much of it was lost before and during the Mao regime; I think that loss of identity is what’s responsible for the obnoxiousness and closed-mindedness of the current older generations.
Comment by Justin — June 19, 2005 @ 8:22 pm
Also happens the other way. Those young Mormon guys you see on the bus all the time all read, write and speak fluent Chinese. They have to. Apparently, Chinese people easily fall prey to Mormons…
Comment by Ivan — June 19, 2005 @ 11:26 pm
they fall because those Mormons know Chinese in the first place. not vice versa. I bet if a lot of Hindus spoke Chinese, “Chinese people would easily fall prey to Hindus” too.
Comment by Sof — June 19, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
哦， 我只是喜欢赵无极。
Comment by i.s. — June 20, 2005 @ 7:16 pm
Chinese people are impressed when non-Chinese people can speak Chinese. Just like they’d be more likely to hire a non-Chinese person over a Chinese one to teach them English, even if they’re terrible at it, because they LOOK like they would speak English better.
As for you, Sophie, I am missing you muchly.
Comment by tiff — June 21, 2005 @ 3:00 pm
Oh yes, I so agree. It’s funny, just because piano is a Western instrument, so when Chinese hotels/restaurants are hiring pianist in China, blond hair and blue eyes make more money and are more often hired than those Chinese pianist, even if the Chinese pianist are so much better than the Caucasian ones.
Guess what Tiff? I MISS YOU TOO! Man, school is out just like this…
Comment by Sof — June 21, 2005 @ 4:23 pm
testcomment773
Comment by testanchor890 — October 16, 2005 @ 12:14 am