KITCHEN RANGE PAINTING OF JIAXING

Every household in Jiaxing＇s villages has a two-stove opening or three-stove opening kitchen range. Dazzling arrays of patterns and designs with text captions are painted on the surface of ldtchen ranges, which are called ＂kitchen range painting＂ by local villagers.     

CLASSIC PORCELAIN PANEL PAINTING OF JINGDEZHEN

Porcelain panel painting is known as a unique genre of Chinese porcelain art which dates back to ancient times and bears profound aesthetic richness.     

A PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL OF DIVERSITY AND HARMONY

With the theme of ＂diversity and harmony＂, the Sixth Pingyao International Photography Festival took place from Sept. 16 to 22, 2006. More than 1000 photographers from 41 countries displayed their works there, triggering a collision between Oriental and Western cultures in this 2800- year-old city.     

CONTEMPORARY PEASANT PAINTING OF JIAXING COUNTY

Jiaxing County, located in the Yangtze Delta in southeast China, is a land of abundance and home of silk. For many local peasants in Jiaxing, painting is an important means of artistic expression.Most of the artists labor in the field during daylight and paint at night. Their paintings are known for rustic styles, bright colors and plain designs, drawing extensive attention and praise of the art circle nationwide.     

CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL

The fifteenth of the first lunar month is the lantern festival in China.The lantern festival was called the prime festival in ancient times,because it falls at the first fullmoon night of a new year.The tradition of hanging and appreciating lanterns started in the Eastern Han Dynasty （25-220AD） when Buddhism was imported into inland China form India.     

ACROBATIC FESTIVAL ATTRACTS WORLD-CLASS ACTS

The 1 lth China Wuqiao International Circus Festival （CWICF） took place from October 27 to November 4 in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, attracting 25 world-class acrobatic troupes from 16 countries and regions around the world. Major activities during the annual event included an international competition, a trade fair, an international forum on circus industry and diverse performances for communities.     

AN EXHIBITION OF CARVED STONE PIERS TO WELCOME CHINESE NEW YEAR

From January 24 to February 14, 2009, an exhibition on carved stone piers from Beiiing and Tianjin was held in Beijing International Sculpture Park, displaying nearly 300 pairs of traditional carved stone piers of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties from the collection of Zhang Lianzhi, director of Tianiin Porcelain House Museum. It is the first time that an exhibition on carved stone piers has ever bean held during Spring Festival temple fairs. This largest ever exhibition on stone piers, together with the photo exhibition on stone piers by renowned photographer Cao Lijun attracted local viewers to appreciate folk traditions as a way to celebrate Chinese New Year.     

CAO NIAN＇S PAINTING

Cao Nian graduated from the Department of Painting, Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1976 and received quidance from art educators Wei Chuanyi, Huang Yuan and Zhang Shenxian, In 1984 he graduated with BA degree from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Southwest Normal University. In 1994 he completed an advanced graduate program on art theories from China Arts Academy.     

CHINESE ARTS SPARKS FEVER AT CERVANTES FESTIVAL

Cervantes International Festival, the largest cultural event in Latin America, embraced its 35th session on October 3 in the historic city of Guanajuato, Mexico. China was invited as the guest country of the annual festival this year and regaled the audience with diverse performances and exhibitions. At the opening evening gala taking place in the city＇s Frog Plaza singers and dancers from the Chinese province of Jilin staged fascinating programs, all with distinctive Chinese flavors and winning lots of ovations. Chinese assistant cultural minister Ding Wei, senior officials from Guanajuato as well as many other distinguished guests watched opening performances.[第一段]     

SILK EXHIBITION PROMOTES CHINA-RUSSIA FRIENDSHIP

“Road of the Silk Kingdom： 5000 Years of Chinese Silk”, an important event in the Year of China, was on display from July 2 in Khabarovsk, Kazan and Moscow respectively.     

TIBETAN TANGKA PAINTING GOES TRENDY IN COLLECTION MARKET

Tangka, a Tibetan term, is a type of scroll painting considered one of the two most valuable traditions of Tibetan painting, together with Tibetan mural painting, In 2006, Tangka was inscribed on the first National List for Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. Since then, this time-honored art expression has been gaining increasing attention of art collectors. In recent years, quite a number of tangka paintings from the Ming and Qing dynasties have been sold with exorbitant prices at auction fairs; many contemporarytangka masterpieces were also purchased with hundreds of thousands of RMB yuan.     

DRAWING FROM NATURE： XU ZHIGUANG＇S PAINTING

Xu Zhiguang, a Shandong-born painter, has a typical character of Shandong people--simple and guileless. His personality has had visible impacts on his artistic creation. ＂1 put much values on sketching, because I believe that sketching can not only improve expressiveness of my painting works, but also help me to have a better understanding of what is happening today,＂ said Xu.     

ORIGINAL PRINT PAINTING RISES WITH POTENTIAL VALUES FOR COLLECTION

Printing painting usually refers to varieties of painting printed on wood, stone, linoleum, copper and zinc blocks carved by knife or etched by chemicals. China is generally recognized as the inventor of printing painting, but for quite a long time, it has had a poor market for print painting trade, with only few collectors dedicated to for this type of painting. In recent years, with print paintings by master artists gaining outstanding performance in the international market, values of original print painting have begun to be recognized in China＇s collection market.     

CHARM OF SUZHOU EMBROIDERY

On a sunny day in the end of 2007 I was invited for a visit to Suzhou Embroidery. Research Institute. Led by Ms. Zhang, the institute＇s artistic director, I entered through a moon-shaped gate in a traditional style and an elegant classical Suzhou-style garden was unfolded in front of me. Quiet paths, luxuriant plants, winding corridors, all are filled with fascinating charm, like a scene in a traditional Chinese ink painting. The garden is called ＂Huanxiu Resort＂ where the embroidery institute is based. At that moment,     

MUSEUM OF ANCIENT ARCHITECTURE

Innumerable ancient buildings used to stand within the vast territory of China. With the passage of time, however, many grand wooden structures faded away. Shanxi Province, though, thanks to its unique geographic conditions, is still home to many ancient buildings representing a wide variety of styles. Architecture from each dynasty and era can still be found in Shanxi, and therefore the province is known as the ＂Museum of Ancient Chinese Architecture＂.     

HISTORIC TOWN OF HUANGYAO

The historic town of Huangyao is located in the eastern part of southwest Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region at the lower stream of the Lijiang River. The town took shape in 968 and thrived during the 17th century.     

HISTORIC BRONZE TREASURES OF SHANXI

Shanxi Province, located in north China, is known as a major birthplace of Chinese civilization, where human activities has begun and continued from the pre-history Old Stone Age. With a huge reserve of coal and metal resources, S hanxi has witnessed the prosperous development of metal forging and casting, in particular, its creation of bronze objects.     

CONSERVATION OF URBAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Over the sweep of human history, various types of cultural landscape have been created and developed in light of different natural and ecological conditions. These cultural landscapes go beyond the scope of cultural heritage as we originally defined and evolve in greater natural and geographic contexts, with more dynamic combination of elements and more sophisticated cultural richness. Urban cultural landscapes, as one category, were developed through several centuries or even longer spans of time. They thus feature more distinctive local characteristics and reflect the harmonious relationship between culture and nature, with significant aesthetic values.     

THE MYSTERY OF SANXINGOUI CULTURE

Stories about Sanxingdui Culture published in the magazine before have caught readers＇ great interest. So far there are three major viewpoints about the origin of this mysterious culture. Some experts note that unearthed artifacts in Sanxingdui were legacies of the ancient Shu Kingdom and have nothing to do with foreign cultures. But since no written records have been left about this culture existing more than three thousand years ago, those who support this hypothesis have to resort to a smattering of clues in ancient documents of ensuing periods as well as legendary stories. A rivaling opinion argues that this culture has some relation with the ancient civilizations of Western Asia, Central Asia as well as Aegean Sea. It is believed that Ancient Egyptians already knew how to produce bronzes in the period between 3 800 and 3 500 BC and it is quite possible that the technology was imported to China in some way. In recent years, however, some scholars, based on extensive studies, assert that Sanxingdui is a result of cultural exchange and assimilation. They hold that some tribe lost its way during the great migration of the ancient India-lran tribes and misled itself to Sanxingdui. The tribe settled there and developed a culture that blends elements from both ancient central China and ancient India-lran areas.[第一段]     

URBAN SCULPTURE WORKS OF FAN WEN

Fan Wen, born in Linfen, Shanxi Provicc and graduated from the Sculpting Department of Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, is currently member of China Sculpture Society and a professional artist working in the Institute of Sculpting Art of Sichuan Province. She holds such academic qualifications as the first-grade national level artist and the national registered artist for urban sculpture. Shc is also a resident artist in the art area of He Tang Yue Se （lotus pond in moonlight）.