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A traditional Chinese painter and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has made an appeal for a concerted effort to capture a complete representation of contemporary China - a country in transition - in the quality of the masterpieces of the past. Shi Dawei asks, "How else will we remember today well and accurately?"
"If painters today cannot produce the great works of the past such as the Riverside Scenes at the Qingming Festival (Zhang Zeduan, Northern Song Dynasty, 960-1127), how will today be remembered in 500 years time?" asks the painter and executive director of the Chinese Painting Institute of Shanghai, Shi Dawei, who is concerned that local cultural practices like traditional painting will lose its recognition worldwide if is not practiced with the same determination and quality as in the past.
In more than 20 years of reform and greater openness, Chinese culture has found a wider interest as expressed in popular market appeal. However, according to Shi, this is not necessarily a good thing for artists as they can often be driven by the market rather than a pursuit of excellence and dedication to subject matter. Shi has called on cultural institutions to pay attention and to guide cultural representation.
"The fact that we sell some pictures, or host hundreds of performances doesn't matter if the representation is poor," he says.
Shanghai possesses a world-class theater and has staged such success stories as Les Miserable and the ballet, Swan Lake, but seldom are Chinese works appreciated and liked by local people in the same way.
"There should not only be quality representations of traditional subjects like the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, or even beautiful women and handsome men, but there should be images of today and the some of the successes of change. What about the building of the Lupu Bridge or the Maglev Train? What about our images of immigrant workers?" the artist said.
Shi has called for greater support of the "theme picture" and advocates that a topic system be established, much as in the sciences, to allow the allocation of funds to be handled by appropriate departments that could supervise the artists. It would be possible, he said, for the state to make a collection of superb "theme" subjects as a true representation and historical record.
Shi has also proposed a contract system for art institutions, where under formal contract conditions, an artist would be commissioned only after a period of two years when he/she had proved their considerable ability. Only in this way should the representation of Chinese culture go out into the world, the artist said.
(China.org.cn, March 9, 2003)
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