798： Beijing＇s Soho Art Village

In Dashanzi outside the northeast 4th loop road in Beijing, there is a factory numbered 798. Old residents in Beijing perhaps know that it was a secret factory in the past. But now it has become a world famous Soho art village.     

THE STORY OF LIN HWAI-MIN AND HIS CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE

The Forum of Chinese Modern Dance took place in Beijing in July, attracting cultural celebrities, scholars and dancers from Mainland China, Hong Kong and     

OLD SHOPS IN QIANMEN EMBRACES NEW LIFE

Qianmen, located on the southern section of the north-south axis line of Beijing, is known as the most traditional shopping street with the richness of street culture in Beijing. It is the pool of many century-old shops and restaurants which have survived and prospered over the sweep of history with their excellence in quality and service.     

A Fascinating Journey to the Old Town of Yuzhou

Yuxian County, called Yuzhou in ancient times, enjoys unique terrains and old traditions. As it borders with the northern province of Shanxi, it shares many cultural and business similarities with Pingyao, an old town of Shanxi inscribed in the World Heritage List. Since it is not far from Beijing, Yuxian has become a frequent destination for travelers from Beijing. The Extraordinary Art of Paper Cut In a paper cut workshop of Yuxian County, I was fortunate to see the whole production …     

Beijing Stages Olympic Cultural Festival

Ten Olympic songs were premiered on July 16 at a grand ceremony at Beijing Olympic Sports Centre, marking the end of the third Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival. According to the organizers, the collecting campaign for Olympic songs will be held annually until 2007, from which the final theme songs for 2008 Games may be chosen. The third Beijing 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival, which was launched on June 23 with the theme of "Civilization of Beijing, Passion for the Olympic Games",…     

Beijing,a garden of violence

Abstract

This paper examines the history of Beijing in relation to gardens — imperial, princely, public and private — and the impetus of the ‘gardener’, in particular in the twentieth‐century. Engaging with the theme of ‘violence in the garden’ as articulated by such scholars as Zygmunt Bauman and Martin Jay, I reflect on Beijing as a ‘garden of violence’, both before the rise of the socialist state in 1949, and during the years leading up to the 2008 Olympics.     

One world, One dream? Intergroup consequences of the 2008 Beijing Olympics

Despite deliberate efforts to promote the ideal of “One world, One dream,” the 2008 Beijing Olympics appears to have exaggerated Mainland Chinese’ perception of Chinese and Western cultural differences and increased low ingroup identifiers’ ingroup favoring emotions and perceptions. In Study 1, we measured Beijing Chinese's perceptions of Chinese and Western values before and after the Olympics. The results showed that, after the Olympics, encountering the Beijing Olympic icon increased perceived value differences between Western and Chinese cultures. Study 2 showed that in Mainland China, individuals who identified strongly with Chinese culture favored Chinese (vs. American) commercial brands more both at the beginning and toward the end of the Olympics. Moreover, although individuals with low levels of Chinese cultural identification did not display significant ingroup favoritism at the beginning of the Olympics, they did so toward the end of the Games. Together, the results suggest that the Olympics had widened the cultural divide between China and the Western world.     

Collection ＆ Auction

Double-sided Embroidered Screen appears in Suzhou A double-sided embroidered screen copying landscape paintings by Tang Yan, a talented painter of the Ming Dynasty, was put on shelf in an embroidery shop in Suzhou, with a price of RMB 260,000 yuan. It was completed by several highly skilled embroiderers from Zhenhu known as the “hometown of Suzhou-style embroidery”. The extraordinary works cost these embroiderers more than 1800 hours. Xu Beihong’s Oil Painting Expected to Set Record…     

Historic Town of Xuanhua

Driving northwestward from Beijing and after crossing over the Great Wall at Badaling Pass, you will soon arrive at Xuanhua, a historic town nestling in a valley in the eastern part of Yinshan Mountain Range in the northeast of Hebei Province.[第一段]     

Rare Ru Kiln Porcelain Sets Record High Auction Price

According to CCTV’s report, “This Song Dynasty porcelain made in Ru kiln appears like a slim-shaped goddess when viewed in a distance. Agate mixed in the enamel during the baking process makes the whole bottle shine with gem-like gloss. According to experts, it is generally believed that no big-sized porcelains have been ever produced in Ru kiln. That is why this porcelain bottle in the height of 37 cm is considered a rare treasure.” There were ve major imperial kilns in the Song Dynas…     

CURIO MARKETS IN BEIJING

Beijing enjoys a long history as the capital of six dynasties in ancient China. Historical and cultural legacies accumulated over the sweep of history have made it possible to develop a booming private collection market. So far the city. sees the largest number of curio and antique markets in China,     

The controversy over ' Fire ': a select dossier (Part II)

Abstract

Structured as a series of personal reflections on the relations between two Asian countries, this article moves between personal anecdotes during a visit to Beijing and musings on historical exchanges between India and China in the 20th century. Beginning with Tagore’s visit in 1924, the author includes Dr Kotnis’s heroic efforts at working with the wounded during the Sino‐Japanese War in 1938, Dr Bhabha’s invitation to S.S. Chern in the 1940s and moves on to a visit by a leftist folksinger, Hemanga Biswas in the 1950s. The present‐day expansion of tourism in a globalised Beijing provokes thoughts that contrast to the present with the past and also reflects on Indian perceptions of communism and the Cultural Revolution. A visit to a Biomembrane laboratory becomes the occasion for surveying the development of modern science in China. Finally, the article raises questions about the nature of cross‐cultural interactions that operate beyond linguistic and ideological barriers.     

Cultural clusters and cultural industries in China

Through examining the development and the nature of the new cultural districts in China, namely, “clusters of Beijing,” this paper attempts to identify the characteristics of, and critically evaluate, the existing models of culture clusters in China. Obviously, these cultural clusters are seen as a united and state effort to assist, develop and boost the so-called cultural industries, including game, animation, comic, software, science and technology and so forth. However, with the clusters of Beijing as a case study, in this paper we argue that in the course of development, the state interests and the authorities' local (e.g. district) interest are often prioritized over the culture or the local interest. There are also tensions and contradictions among various interest groups on different levels of operations of these cultural clusters. In sum, apart from enhancing the private creative industries, developing the national cultural economy, or revitalizing the old industries as in the cluster models of many western countries, economic interests, political powers of the districts and soft power of the nation can be the overriding interests behind the booming cultural clusters in China.     

Old Colonial Architectures in Tianjin

Tianjin is a low-profile city in the coastal area in north China. Its Western-style mansions in past colonial cessions have long lost glamour and vitality as the North Sea Warlord rule ended in the early 20th century. The city has no grandeur and solemnity as Beijing, no metropolitan prosperity or hubbub as Shanghai, and no hilly and riverside charms as Chongqing. But when you really incorporate yourself into it, you can taste a truly different flavor of the city. On the Five Avenues or J…     

The Artistic Journey of a Chinese Painter

Hepingli, a working-class residential district developed in the 1950s in Beijing. At 9 am everyday, Duan Xiaoying appears in a first-floor apartment in the district after driving his daughter to school and his wife to office respectively. This small apartment is the legacy of his diplomat father who liked doing woodwork for leisure. Duan recalls that his first oil painting box was made by his father. Now the apartment becomes his studio where he spends the whole day for oil creation. Duan us…     

The temporal pocket: 1990s Beijing artist colonies

In recent years, a small but growing body of scholarship has emerged on the category of the Chinese art district, particularly its institutionalisation amidst twenty-first century creative industries polices. Such research presents important stories of Chinese artists’ negotiations with urban and political authority, thus nuancing paradigms for the comprehension of political work within contemporary China. This current article contributes to this growing research area by considering the spatial conditions for these socio-spatial categories’ emergence, namely, the urban structures in which they first took shape in 1990s Beijing. First occupying traditional villages (cunzi) and later ex-socialist work units (danwei), these arts colonies appropriated existing communal architecture, and turned their designs and physical buildings to their own communal ends. Importantly, these sites were made available by the dramatic reconstruction of the city, and in this sense these occupations were limited to the temporal realm. To describe the nature of occupations, and their eventual impact upon the shape of the city, this paper proposes the category of “the temporal pocket”: a cellular and temporary inhabitance, defined by the shared investments of its participants, and one that is both discrete (in the sense of its spaces) and discreet (in the sense that this can be understood as a non-oppositional politics). The article is informed by spatial and cultural theory, literature on Chinese urban planning and art history, as well as primary documents (such as documentaries, art works and archival material) and interviews conducted by the researcher in Beijing.     

NOTHING SHINES AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

The 52nd edition of the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition opened its doors for previews on June 7, drawing artists, collectors, curators, dealers, critics and art patrons to     

Choir Brings Friendship and Love An Interview with Beijing Hand to Hand Choir Conductor Katya llyakhina

In Beijing, a dynamic amateur choir is gaining a growing profile in the music circle and beyond. Twice a week, rain or shine, 38 choir members come from different comers of the city for rehearsal to the middle school at the East Second Ring Road. With a short history of less than three years, the choir has presented dozens of performances for charity or public good purposes, These music amateurs have transmitted their energy to dying old people and handicapped children with their encouraging singing, bringing them love, joy and hope. It is not a professional choir, but its well-trained performers have captivated many people and won several international awards with their melodious singing. From the concert in honor of doctors and nurses fighting against the SARS epidemic to the TV competition for Chinese singing foreign songs, the choir members have demonstrated the charms and passions of their art and brought lyrical serenity and purity back to city dwellers who live in urban hurly-burly all day long.     

The way our generation imagined the world

Abstract

This paper tells the worldview of a generation that grew up in the Communist revolutionary ideology. For the people of this generation, the world was always divided into two worlds, the East and the West. Throughout China’s modern national history, the West, led by the United States, has been the imperialist aggressor and invader; on a global scale, it has been the hegemonic power that rejected and blockaded China; in social structure and ideology, it was capitalist, countering socialist China, and ever ready to subvert the New China. According to Mao Zedong’s three‐pronged theory of ‘enemy, friends and us,’ the West belonged to the ‘enemy’ side. The Bandung Conference in 1955, and prior to it, the Peace Conference for Asia and the Pacific Region held in Beijing, had a great impact on high‐school students in Mainland China. We viewed these conferences as promising signs that the New China would rid itself of isolation, and felt very close to those countries of ‘neighbors and friends.’     

Pi Village,with occasional music: notes on the New Workers Art Troupe

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on music practice of the New Workers Art Troupe (NWAT, xingongrenyishutuan) that is based in Pi Village (picun), Beijing. During last 3–4 years, the troupe has gradually attracted the attention of young scholars and college students due to their public advocacy for the rights and benefits of migrant workers in Mainland China. Given structural marginalization of workers and peasants that ironically contradicts with the officially claimed principles of socialism, the NWAT should not be ignored as far as cultural activism in nowadays Mainland China is concerned. Many researchers have investigated NWAT’s practices according to approaches of various discipline, however, the cultural meanings and social-historical condition of its core art form, music, have been largely neglected. Whereas this neglect acts both as cause and consequence, discourses about the NWAT have gradually been overwhelmed by moral commitment or sympathy to “disadvantaged groups,” which eventually proves nothing more than the coming-being of a moral order dominated by the new-born Chinese middle-class. In order to comprehend the affects the NWAT’s music articulated, what need to be illuminated are not only what they are singing, but also where and how they sing, as well as the cultural mechanism behind their practice.