Hu Youyi and His Piano Museum

Born in 1936 in Gulangyu, an island at a stone's throw from the downtown Xiamen, Fujian Province, Hu Youyi has an unusual passion for piano. However, it is not unusual for residents of the island to have a passion for piano. Foreign missionaries, who first brought pianos to the island, sowed this passion on the small island. Probably the island was born for piano. The grand and graceful musical instrument became so popular that they were a common sight and sound in churches, hospitals and schools on the island. Even back in the 1950s, the small island with a population less than 10,000 boasted more than 500 pianos. There are more pianos now. Today, the island is synonymous with piano music.     

A painter Depicts Australian Landscape and History

The Soul of Australia, a 100-meter-long painting, is on display in Hangzhou in fall 2001. The artwork, created by Yao Dixiong, an Australian painter of Chinese origin, is a result of 20 year's passion and inspirations. It opens a spectacular world of fables and landscape and romance. In this colorful epic, the wanton clouds and surging sea waves become a girl's long hair; the snow peak under the brilliant moon light is a naked body of a young woman; an eagle's head merges with a huge rock overlooking a serene lake; horses gallop on a     

Paper-Cut Artist Creates Miracles

Xie Caihua is recognized as Chinas mostprolific paper-cut master. Born in a farmersfamily in a village in Xiangshan County,Zhejiang province, Xie inherited a passion forpaper-cut art from his mother. One of his earliestchildhood memories was admiring themiraculous paper-cutting masterpieces made byhis mother and Gao Miaolan, another villagewoman reputed as a paper-cut artist and farmerpainter. Fascinated, Xie made up his mind tocreate similar paper-cut masterpieces when hegrew up.So paper-…     

Lhasa Creates a Cultural Trend

Lhasa is a sacred city for Tibetans. The city, created by pilgrims, first grew as a center of religious activities. Today, it is more than a sacred city for Tibetan pilgrims. It magnetizes the cultured people from all over the country. The trend started in the early 1980s. For a moment, cultured people poured into Tibet and the sacred city. The remote place inspired their passion and enthusiasm. These cultured people included authors, poets, scholars, scientists, painters, photographers, musicians, and film and     

New Culture Changes Shanghai

A Shanghai native like millions of my cityfellows,I was born with a burning passion forthe great hometown.But unlike those who havenever been away from their roots for long,I leftthe hometown in my youth and spent 21 yearsaway in a rural area in the southwestern China.This experience not only enables me to feel theyawning difference between the modernizedmetropolis and the remote mountainous areas,but also allows my imagination to maneuverfreely.I often eye the countryside with a modern     

Tiger Dancing Shows History and Mystery

Nuo Opera is a very ancient Chinese tradition that can still be seen today in some parts of the country. It is regarded as a living fossil of the early human civilization and folk arts. The tiger dance, still held every winter in Nianduhu Village, Tongren County in western China's Qinghai Province, is a colorful version of the ancient Nuo Opera. It is a very small village where about 230 Tu ethnic families live. The ancient village is situated in an ancient compound, which leans against a cliff with high walls on the other three sides. Houses cluster there and narrow streets and lanes are entangled. The tiger dance is to exorcise devils and ghosts and pray for luck and fortune in the upcoming year. Paying homage to their immemorial totem is a very old tradition in the village. A village legend explains how the dance got started and descended to out day. In the ancient Huo'er Kingdom, one of the king's concubines was stricken down with a serious illness and went into a coma. Doctors were unable to do     

Back to Books, Memories, Opera

Author Bai Xianyong visited Guilin fromMay 11 through 14 this year. Whenever he went,he appeared somehow different from peoplearound him and he looked as if he had been in athings on his mind.Though his father was a high-ranking generalin the Kuomintang government before 1949, BaiXianyong had a passion for literature very earlyBai Xianyong becomes excited when it comes to Peony Pavilion.wrong place at a wrong time.But he was neither in a wrong place nor at awrong time. He came for a festi…     

Father Tells Daughter''''s Story

Chen Hong, a film star, is extremely popular with her roles in more than 30 films and TV series. The following is what her father says about her in her childhood and stardom.She is a good daughter. Despite her busy work schedule and great popularity in China, Chen always stays in close touch with her parents and her teachers.     

Academician of Mei Blossoms

Professor Chen Junyu became an academicianof China Engineering Academy in 1997 whenhe was already 80 years old. The honorrecognized his unique contribution to his 50-plus-year study of Mei blossoms*.Born into a government official's family in1917, Chen spent most of his childhood yearsin a big garden behind the house, where he, tostay away from the family fracas, worked as anapprentice to a gardener and learned to take careof flowers. This young hobby gradually grewinto a passion. After gra…     

A Chinese Weekly in UAE

Maybe it is no big news that a Chinese weekly is published every Thursday in Dubai.But it is a big deal for three publishers from Zhejiang.The tabloid-format Chinese Times Weekly may look quite simple and unadorned in white and black,but it is a goldmine of     

An Actress-Tender and Tough

Yuan Li in a TV play called A Romance of Laughters and TearsYuan Li, a young movie supernova with a brilliant record of performances in a series of movies and TV plays in the last few years, is now the latest national idol. Her rapid rise to stardom is due to the roles she interprets in the movies and TV dramas she has played: straightforward and charming, frank in words and deeds. She simply touches the right chords of the audience.     

A Chinese Visitor Views the Way Parisians Live

If Hong Kong resembles a huge departmentstore, then Paris is like a giant museum.Thousands of artists live there and their creativeefforts to generate masterpieces and breakground in new fields bring glittering vitality tothe city. Numerous galleries and museums display agreat range of arts in various genres, styles,shapes, and colors that could, among otherthings, drive visitors mad. It is said that a foreignpoet suddenly lost his mind in front of a portraitof Van Gogh. All buildings in …     

Tea Drinking in Taiwan

I have long since learned that people in Taiwan and Fujian provinces have a special passion for tea. The recent visit to the treasure island has enabled me to gain a first-hand taste of their penchant for the traditional beverage.When I asked friends there what kind of gift I could bring back home for my friends during my stay there, tea was mostly recommended. The gifts I received there from friends were also largely tea in magnificent packages. My curiosity grew about the local people's drinking preference. As I had worked in a big tea company for years before, I     

Scholar Visits Leifeng Pagoda

Wen Huaisha is a great scholar versed in Chinese literature and especially in Chu Ci(Song of Chu), a literary formpopular in southern China more than 2,000 years ago.The scholar is respected not only for     

A Beauty and Her Dreams

Everyone says Zhang Minghui is a beauty. It's not exaggerating. When Zhang Minghui and her husband walked into the hall of the International Jewelry Exhibition in September 2001 in Beijing, everybody said what a "golden boy and a jade girl" they were. When Zhang Minghui appears on a theater stage as a leading actress, the audience says she is a beauty.     

Teahouse in Lakeview Hotel

The Lakeview Teahouse is a favorite hangoutfor tea drinkers. It is popular for its uniquelocation right by the West Lake, and for its greatvariety of tea and top-class service. In March2000, the Lakeview Teahouse opened its branchteahouse in the Lakeview Hotel, a four-starlakeside hotel.Zhu Jiaji, founder and CEO of the LakeviewTeahouse, knew he faced new challenges in theunprecedented venture. It was unprecedentedbecause there had never been such a teahouse ina star-rated hotel in Hang…     

Tea Fragrance in Zhaozhou

Zhaozhou is not very far from Beijing.Aftera journey of four hours by train and one hour bybus,I arrived at Zhaozhou in Hebei province inMay 2004 to take part in a pen conferenceorganized and sponsored by a dotcom companywhich runs an essay website. Zhaozhou is famed for two ancient relics.Oneis the Zhaozhou Bridge,the largest and oldeststone arch bridge in the world built in the SuiDynasty(581—618),and the other the Bailin ZenTemple(Cypress Grove Temple).     

IZUMO MARU RESCUED 250 YEARS AGO IN ZHEJIANG

Peach Blossom Isle is a tiny isle on the edge of Zhoushan Archipelago in East China Sea. The isle enjoys a national reputation for the fictitious legends of martial art masters described in Jin Yong's novel. However, the isle is remembered by a special group of Japanese sailors for another legend. This legend is not a fiction.In 1752, Izumo Maru, a freight ship based in Kesennnuma, Japan, set out on its way to Choshi port. The ship, fully loaded with seafood and tobacco, ran into a storm and got lost on     

A Photo Triggers Off an Industry

A lotus with twin blossoms on one stalk isnot only a rare phenomenon in nature, but also asign of luck in Chinese culture, for it is regardedas symbol of a harmonious marriage sharinglove, fortune, life, and death.Though the twin lotus flowers are auspicious,few people in history have ever seen such aflower. However, a man in Guangdong Provincecaptured the flowers on the same stalk on hiscamera in 2001 and, using it as a medium, hashelped many businesses to develop.The lucky photographer is …