The Telegraph has posted a set of amazing pictures by a Chinese artist, Liu Bolin, who has the ability to making himself totally "disappear" into the background of the pictures. Go check out the rest of the pictures.
Look at the table again, it's a piece of tofu!!! And Jesus and the Apostles are made up of mushrooms and green leaves and whatnot.
Turns out an artist from Chongqing has reproduced a dozen or so masterpieces in the image of different vegetables and her art collection is now displayed in Beijing's 798 Art District. Go ahead and prepare to be amused by Mona Tofu and The Scream of the Sweet Potatoes.
Okay, this is a very early notice, but world-renowned pianist Li Yundi (李云迪), youngest winner of the International Chopin Competition, is coming to perform at the Flint Theater for the Performing Arts in Cupertino on Jan 18, 2009, performing music by by Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Mussorgsky.
Here's a Youtube video of him playing Liszt's La Campanella:
This is an amazing animation short coming out from a Chinese studio. While the techniques are all copied from cutting-edge Japanese anime, it is nonetheless exciting to see Chinese animation artists capable of producing such high quality work, with a social message subtly embedded. According to its website, it has been picked up to be showcase in a few international film festivals.
A little warning: the short can get a little creepy, depending on how friendly you are with the insects in the title.
China's stock market is not the only one that's booming. The contemporary art market is red hot, too. Yue Minjun's "Execution" has been sold at Sotheby's for a record-breaking 2.9 million pounds, making it the most expensive contemporary Chinese art that is being sold yet. And the subject of the painting touches on a topic that is still sensitive in China today.
Amazing! All the painstaking works that have gone into making them. My nerdiness in me can't help but to blog about them right away.
But at the same time, this post is not unrelated to the previous post, I think it is also toys like Lego that inadvertently lead to the decline of traditional arts like paper-cutting. Most kids will opt for the Lego bricks than paper and scissors if they are given a choice, and that is a little sad. Not that Lego-building doesn't require creativity and skills, but still, the less raw materials to work with, the greater the imagination it affords.
Paper-cutting is a traditional art in China with a history as long as paper itself. But as with anything we called traditional, such as shadow puppet plays, local operas, even calligraphy, they face a danger of extinction. Children nowadays will just not do anything that is considered old-fashioned when they can watch tv, play videogames and get hooked on the Internet. And the old masters are passing away.
"Paper cutting as a folk art form is closely associated with the farm lifestyle. It is more fragile than the art that is somehow independent from social soils. Folk arts, though popular, tend to pass out of existence unconsciously," said Jin Zhilin, a researcher on folk arts in northwestern Shaanxi Province. "It is even harder to rescue and protect intangible heritage than tangible cultural heritage," he added.
'Chinese audiences are to be given world renowned musicals, including "Les Miserables," "Cats," and "The Phantom of the Opera" from next year, in Mandarin by a new Sino-British joint venture, China Musical Theater Company.'
Finally a solid proof that the middle class exists in China. The bohemians now have the same thing as their counterparts in the rest of the world to look forward to; and the snobs to sneer at.
Just found this Youtube clip of Peony Pavilion, the stage show of the DVDs that we carry. While the clip is not taken directly from the DVDs, it gives you an idea about what the show looks like, if you have been wondering what is captured on the discs hidden in this beautifully packaged box.
Kunqu, or operas from the Kun area, is one of the oldest forms of Chinese stage shows, boasting a 600-year history. While having almost gone disappeared by the turn of the 20th century, it is now listed as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.
This new stage performance of the show updates the centuries-old love story between love and death with contemporary design elements such as lightings, sets, and movements while retains the core of Kunqu. It is a huge hit even with the young crowds when the show plays in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, not to mention the time when it played here in Berkeley.
I thought it was a cute 3d animated short about dancing pandas, but the whole video turns out to be quite secretly subversive.
From the youtube description: "The practices implanted the mechanical mentality as basic social morals for a fitting society. In time, the signature style/messages come in waves and individuals either willingly conform or are forced to follow the so-called trend. The RE-PANDE [sic] squad has used the cyclic narrative to demonstrate the state of public trance; using the mass to demonstrate the hidden rebellious nature, and rebellion, at times, was the only way back to our natural form."
Sometimes, listening to cross-over music just blows your mind. Er-hu, a traditional Chinese string instrument that is usually used to play sad and depressing music, is now used to play Carmen here in this semi-charming music video. Who'd have thought?
More er-hu music and video podcasts are available on the performer's website.
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