"A snake swallowing an elephant" is how the Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong described himself. The snake was the Chinese artist in him, and the elephant was Western art. The stylistic fusion that made him one of China's leading modern artists is on view at the Asia Society Museum here in "Revolutionary Ink: The Paintings of Wu Guanzhong," which also reflects the artist's long life amid the turmoil of China's 20th century.
Record-breaking Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi looks back on his time at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts and explains his obsession with calligraphy in this short by Hong Kong-based filmmaker Ringo Tang. Propelled onto the global stage after one work from his seminal Masks series sold for $9.7 millions dollars at a Christie’s auction in 2008, a record for contemporary Asian art, the thoughtful Zeng was captured in his studio over three days of shooting.
From their website:
Over the past three decades, China has dazzled the rest of the world with its stunning, high-speed economic growth. However, rapid urbanization, poverty reduction and transformation of city skylines have come at a grave price: air and water pollution, degraded forests, pasturelands and marine habitats, growing greenhouse gas emissions and a host of other environmental problems.
China Green, a multimedia enterprise, will document China’s environmental issues now and for years to come and will strive to serve as a web forum where people with an interest in China and its environmental challenges can find interesting visual stories and share critical information about the most populous nation in the world whose participation in the solution to global environmental problems, such as climate change, will be indispensable.
Shot by photographer Jake Stengel against the backdrop of San Francisco’s famous Chinatown, Hou Hanru discusses the artists and themes guiding China’s contemporary art boom. The largest manifestation of Chinese visual culture outside of Asia, San Francisco’s Chinatown is a perfect example of the curator’s concept of “super reality”—the difference between reality as we experience it and as it is represented—and the globalized hybrid-world that inspires his socially progressive approach. The leading authority on Chinese contemporary art, Hou was one of the earliest curators to tackle the ideas of diaspora, globalization and nomadism central to the 21st-century environment of art fairs, biennials and multinational galleries.
From theri website:
NOWNESS is a movement for creative excellence in storytelling celebrating the extraordinary of every day. Launched in 2010, NOWNESS’ unique programming strategy has established it as the go to source of inspiration and influence across art, design, fashion, beauty, music, food, and travel. Our curatorial expertise and award-winning approach to storytelling is unparalleled. We work with exceptional talent, and both established and emerging filmmakers which connect our audience to emotional and sensorial stories designed to provoke inspiration and debate.
NOWNESS launched a Chinese-language site in 2012 and since 2013 videos are available in up to 10 languages including English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian (just turn on Subtitles on our player).
There’s a map of China in the Sackler lobby. It won’t strike you as a map if you look at it. It’s a structure made of big, dark, wooden beams pinned together with smaller wooden posts, looping around a central area at improbable, disjointed angles, like something a giant child might build with a set of Tinkertoys.</p.
The mass-planting of trees might not seem like a controversial project for a city government. In the port city of Qingdao, however, it has stirred up debate. Complaints abound that newly transplanted catalpa and ginkgo trees are blocking views of the sea, that black pines on pavements are leaving no room for pedestrians, and that trees are being planted in absurd places such as underneath flyovers.
China's biggest English-language newspaper is to publish a weekly African edition with bureaux in at least two countries on the continent. The African operation of the state-run China Daily will generate a range of Africa-specific content.
Popular Beijing spots for foreigners, such as Sanlitun and university areas, will be targeted by police in a fresh drive against visitors who commit crimes, outstay their visas or gain illegal employment, authorities said on Monday. The 100-day campaign will start on Tuesday, according to the public security bureau.
The United States consulate in Shanghai has begun issuing its own pollution statistics, giving a much more pessimistic assessment of the city's air quality than official Chinese data.
