Ministry of Culture Launches Its First Bilingual Cultural Website

On the first day of January, 2004 Beijing, the Bureau for External Cultural Relations of the Ministry of Culture of China will launch itsofficial website in English, www.chinaculture.org, in celebration of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.It is the Ministry of Culture‘s first comprehensive English cultural website. Mr. Ding Wei, Director General of the Bureau speaks in an interview to mark the event.     

CULTURAL HERITAGE CONSERVATION CALLS FOR GREATER PUBLIC AWARENESS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

A 36-person delegation from the US President＇s Committee on the Arts and the Humanity paid an official visit to China from June 5 to 13 at the invitation of Chinese Cultural Ministry. On June 10, the delegation attended a seminar on the conservation of world heritage sites in Suitcase House in Commune by the Great Wall,a resort hotel in the suburb of Beijing.At the seminar Shan Jixiang,Director-General of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China,delivered a presentation on the trends of cultural heritage conservation in China as wall as China-US exchange and cooperation in the field of cultural heritage conservation.     

Passion and Greatness： Miao Mo＇s Traditional Chinese Painting

Miao Mo is an accomplished painter nurtured in the time-honored artistic, tradition of Xi＇an, an ancient capital which witnessed heydays of the Chinese civilization. He showed strong interest in painting in his childhood and received academic training in fine arts in his teen years. In 1962, Miao pursued further training in the advanced course offered by the studio of traditional Chinese painting under the Artists Association of Shaanxi Province. In this three-year training program, Miao made remarkable progress in painting skills and deepened his understanding of the traditions and principles of Chinese painting, thanks to the mentorship of master Zhao Wangyun, founder of Chang＇an School of Painting, as well as the guidance of other prestigious artists like Shi Lu, He Haixia and Fang Jizhong.     

Cai Guoqiang： I Want to Believe

For Cai Guoqiang, August 2008 means a time full of not only challenge but also grace. As the chief designer of fire display for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Cai demonstrated his aesthetics of gun powder in front of more than 4 billion viewers from across the world. Also in this month, his solo exhibition Cai Guoqiang： I Want To Believe＂ was opened in Beijing, which was co-presented by the National Art Museum of China, Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Center of International Cultural Exchange. Beijing was the second leg of this globa tour. Its exhibition tn Guggenheim in the first half of this year was acclaimed as one of the important cultural events in the world. From February to May,Gugcjenheim moved out all the exhibits, including Picasso＇s, and all its three storeys of exhibition space were used to display Cai＇s works created over the past two decades.     

Chinese Lacquer Art （III）

The Chinese lacquer techniques in the Three Kingdoms Period： rhinoceros skin lacquer and inlayed golden line
The lacquerwares made during the Three Kingdoms Period are rarely unearthed. In 1984, 60 pieces of lacquerware were unearthed in a tomb of the Three Kingdoms Period in Ma＇anshan of Anhui Province. The lacquerwares which contain plates, cups, pots, spoons, rulers and so on show the highest art of lacquer-making of that time, and prove that the lacquer techniques in the Three Kingdoms Period gained its own progress on the basis of the achievement in the Han Dynasty. In the Three Kingdoms Period, the noble people were enthusiastic in the lacquerware, which is proved by the ＂lacquer plate about the life of the noble＂.     

National Arts Museum Gets Complete Makeover

China National Museum of Fine Arts is one of the ten landmark buildings in Beijing built in the 1950s in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the founding of New China. This Chinese gardenstyle structure was built at the proposal of the country‘s first generation of leaders and integrated many original architectural concepts of the late premier Zhou Enlai.     

CHINESE CULTURE SHINES IN RUSSIA

Editor＇s words： Co-initiated by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Putin, the Year of Russia and the Year of China were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively. This is the largest cultural event ever held in each other＇s country in the history of China-Russia exchange. In September, the staff reporter had an exclusive interview with Mr. Li Dongwen, Director-General of the Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture of China, who gave a comprehensive review of the Year of China in Russia.[第一段]     

A Rising Star： Chinese Soprano Shen Na

On the evening of October 28, 2008, China Central Opera Theatre presented ＂Turandot＂, a classic production by Italian composer Puccini, in Cairo Opera House at the bank of the Nile River. To the surprise of the staffs from Egypt National TV who were broadcasting this show, the heroin was not the one who performed in the previous two performances, but a Chinese soprano. She is Shen Na, a young opera singer who won this role in an intense competition held in the National Performing Arts Center of China in the early 2009. Egyptian friends told me that Shen Na is the youngest and most beaufful Turandot in the history of Cairo Opera House.     

Rong Tie and His Paintings

Rong Tie was educated in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in calligraphy, in 1996, he began his postgraduate study in calligraphy at Capital Normal University. He studied in the “elite class” at China Institution of Arts Studies in 2002 and became a visiting scholar at Peking University in 2003. His titles include: National First-Class Artist, academician of the China Artists Association, deputy secretarygeneral of the Traveling and Friendship Center of the China Artist Association,     

83 Museums Awarded National First-Class Title

＂Today marks the International Museum Day. Before the events officially begin, please first stand in silent salute for our compatriots who died in Sichuan Earthquake.＂ At 9 am on May 18, all the participants in the events of the International Museum Day at the Capital Museum of Beijing stood in silent homage to mourn the dead in the May 12 earthquake calamity. After the mourning, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China granted 83 museums from across the country the title of ＂national first-class museum＂.     

West Lake in Mid-Autumn

The city of Hangzhou in the southeast province of Zhejiang, known as ＂paradise in the earth＂, is full of fragrance of sweet osmanthus in the golden season of autumn. Walking on city streets, you will be immersed in flower scents of osmanthus trees whose leaves turn golden yellow, feeling refreshed and relaxed.     

Flowery Flour Buns （Huamo）

Shanxi, located in the Loess Plateau of North China, is one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization. Over the sweep of history, local people used their wisdom and creativity to make flower-shaped steamed buns in various designs. Today, dough figurines in Dingxiang and flowery flour buns in Jinnan have been inscribed on China＇s national list for the protection of intangible cultural heritage.     

SUNKEN ANCIENT SHIP SALVAGED

Editor＇s words：Over the sweep of history,Chinese people have paid heavy price in their struggles with the ocean.A large number of sunken ships are evidence that testifies to the history of South China Sea as an important maritime passage linking the mainland to the outside world since the Song Dynesty dating back to more than 1000 years.In 1987 the discovery of the sunken Song-Dynasty ship＂South China Sea No.1＂in the border area between Yangjiang and Taishan counties in Guangdong Province is the landmark event for China＇s underwater archeologists.20 years from then on,surveys and excavations done to this ancient ship have witnessed the development of Chinese underwater archeology.With decades of efforts by experts from various fields,the sunken ship was eventually salvaged out of water in 2007 and will be housed in the newly-built Maritime Silk Road Museum in Guangdong...     

A Brief Review of Chinese Print

Chinese print can date back 1100 years. For example, carved bricks and stones in the Han Dynasty are actually ear, forms of woodprint. As a type of print art, wood board printing invented in the Tang Dynasty was closely related to life of ordinary people and helped to spread arts in ancient China. Buddhist sutra Vajracchedika printed in 868 AD is the important evidence testifying to the wood board printing of the Tang Dynasty and the world＇s earliest complete printed book still preserved today. Thus it is generally recognized as the peak of print art of the Tang Dynasty.     

“Under the Hawthorn Tree” Features Yang Caiqi

In August 2007, a romance novel entitled The Love of the Hawthorn Tree swept the country, and became a super-selling book with sales volume of four million, which was hailed as “the purest romance novel in history” by readers. Adapted into a movie of the same name in 2010, The Love of the Hawthorn Tree was directed by famous director Zhang Yimou. It set a new box office record for domestic romance movies in one ,fell swoop, which was the most sensational cultural event in 2010. In 2013, the production of drama Under the Hawthorn Tree was on the list of National Theatre of China. During July 8-16, 2014, its world tour of was unveiled at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.     

Historic County of Wu’an

County has played an important role in the history of China since it was first established as a basic administrative unit in 00the Qin Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago. Historic counties have not only performed administrative and economic functions but also carried and preserved basic information about culture and traditions of China. Not long ago, the Photographic Exhibition on the Cultural Heritage of Historic Counties of China, organized by China Cultural Relics Protection Foundation in partnership with the Palace Museum and China Institute of Toponymy, was held at the Forbidden City, displaying photographs on the cultures and traditions of the first 16 Historic Counties of China, with an objective to enhance the public’s awareness of the conservation of cultural heritage in these historic counties.Our magazine will cover each of these chosen historic counties in each issue.     

Zhaoxian County:Bridge Architecture and Buddhist Heritage

County has played an important role in the history of China since it was first established as a basic administrative unit in the Qin Dynasty more than 2000 years ago.Historic counties have not only performed administrative and economic functions but also carried and preserved basic information about culture and traditions of China.Not long ago,the Photographic Exhibition on the Cultural Heritage of Historic Counties of China,organized by China Cultural Relics Protection Foundation in partnership with the Palace Museum and China Institute of Toponymy,was held at the Forbidden City,displaying photographs on the cultures and traditions of the first 16 Historic Counties of China, with an objective to enhance the public’s awareness of the conservation of cultural heritage in these historic counties.Our magazine will cover each of these chosen historic counties in each issue.     

Hetian: the Hometown of Jade and Stone

Hetian, also known as "Yutian" in ancient times, means "a place producing jadestone". It is located in the southernmost tip of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region,neighboring Taklimakan Desert in the north and Mt. Kunlun in the south. For hundreds of years in history, it was a strategically important town along the southern route of the Silk Roads.In Chinese culture, jade is a symbol of virtue, dignityand goodness. Jade produced in Hetian is generally     

Sculpture of Tang-Dynasty Polo Adds Oriental Charm to Olympic Green

The group sculpture of Tang-Dynasty polo, located in the No. 7 square in the sunken courtyard in the central section of the Olympic Green in Beijing adds flavor of Chinese classical art to the public space featuring Chinese elements, thanks to its realistic style, spectacular size and refined artistry Standing on the axis line of the Olympic Green, the group sculpture is considered an outstanding public artwork depicting ancient sport.     

Costa rica international arts festival highlights chinese culture

The Republic of Costa Rica is a country. situated in the southern part of Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east-southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east. Costa Rica means a rich and fertile coast in the Spanish language. In fact, it is one of the leading economies in Central America.