Team update

During the past two weeks of our residency our group has discovered many new insights into the art and culture of China.  Focusing on two villages, our group (Nan, Jeanette, and Megan) have focused on two cultural elements that we would like to share with Vine Online.  The first is our exploration into red tourism in JianGou where we visited a former communist communication station that is now a museum.  We also had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Zhao, who grew up in the village and gave us insight into the importance of this site for the communist party.

The radio used at the communication station

Our team at work

 

While visiting Song Zhaung, we profiled the artist Zhang Jianhua, a sculptor who works in the village.  He is currently working on his fourth series “City Monument” when we interviewed him at his studio which creates a landscape of human and architectural features that comments on modernization, wealth, and belief systems.  What is striking about his work is the level of research he puts into each of he sculpture series, an idea we hope to covey further in our Vine Online post.

Mr. Zhang's Unfinished 4th Series - City Monument (Ai Weiwei)

Preview of Mr. Zhang's 2nd Series - The Coal Miners

 

Check Vine Online soon for more information on these topics and more.

Buy and grumble

Today’s NY Times includes an article that considers the economic ties between China and the United States. Included with the article is an infographic that puts these ties in perspective with the ties the US has with other nations. You can access the article here.

Upcoming work from the field school….

Our group from the field school, which includes Sam, Jo, Yuting and Rosalynn, will focus one of our upcoming posts on cultural tourism. We will examine cultural tourism through a restaurant in JianGao which severs traditional farmer’s food from the area to cultural tourists. Jiangao is a tourist site due to its religious significance, associations with red tourism and rose tea production. The increased popularity in these types of tourism is evident in the village, especially since the number of restaurants in the village serving food from the area to tourists has increased from three to twelve in the past ten years. We will specifically focus on an interview with the restaurant owner Mr. Wu. Our interview with Mr. Wu, the owner of the restaurant the field school visited and had lunch at, will offer some insights into the role cultural tourism is playing in this community and the relationship community members have to visiting tourists. We will also produce a video portrait of the artist Wei Ligang, a contemporary calligraphy artist. We interviewed the artist in his studio in Songzhuang. an artist’s community outside of Beijing. We will pull out excerpts from an lengthy interview with Mr. Wei where he develops his personal practice of calligraphy in the context of the contemporary art world, his relationship to Western artistic practices and his relationship to the fast developing Songzhuang area. Through this portrait of an individual artist’s practice we can examine the role of traditional Chinese art forms in the international contemporary art market. If you want to see some more of Mr. Wei’s work, start with this link to a gallery which represents him.

Finished work at Mr. Wei’s studio.

Materials in Mr. Wei’s studio including calligraphy inks and spray paint.

A group of tourists approaches Mr. Wu’s restaurant.

ChinaVine featured in CultureWork

The new issue of CultureWork explores the evolution of the ChinaVine project and its online interface, ChinaVine.org. ChinaVine.org site is an interpretive online space allowing for contributors from around the world to present ideas, images, and interpretations of China’s cultural heritage. In this article, faculty and former graduate students at the University of Oregon, coordinators of the site’s development, introduce the visioning behind the process and the ways in which challenges have been met for transferring a diverse and vibrant culture to an online medium.

Noodles and Ambition

Today was our second day of doing field work in Song Zhuang. Activities focused on Mr. Her making us noodles like those that are made in his home region and interviewing/artists in Mr. Her’s neighborhoods. I admire the way in which Mr. Her looks out for his friends and shares any benefit that is associated with our visit. On our way to Song Zhuang we discussed our impressions of what is occurring / projected for the region. Our thoughts are in marked contrast to what I heard today from the interviews and conversations I participated in. While we are hesitant to believe the rhetoric, like yesterday the talk by the artists was enthusiastic, positive, and ambitious. What is the reason that it is difficult for us to believe that what people are engaged with in Song Zhuang will result in a positive outcome for all involved – farmers, artists, gallery owners, commercial enterprises, and the like?

A Walk in…

Today our fieldwork focused on observing and documenting the way people experience Beijing’s pubic spaces. Individually or in groups people struck out on their own. The gallery below represents some of what I observed in Beihai Park. This park, located near the Forbidden City, was built in the tenth century. The park consists of temples, gardens, a large lake, and a stupa situated on an island hill. Intermingling within this landscape are hikers, boaters, calligraphers, dancers, lovers, martial artists, strollers, photographers, and dancers among others.