‘Different Chinas:’ New Fall Semester Program Launched

Different Chinas – a fall semester program featuring an array of films, lectures, discussions, and an art exhibition gets under way Monday, Sept. 29, with the Fifth-Generation Chinese film To Live, by Zhang Yimou. The movie will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Somers Room of the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery. There is no charge for admission.

Mao Chen, director of the College’s Asian Studies program and associate professor of Chinese, explained that Different Chinas focuses “on questions of national identity and international relations set in the context of China studies.” With a varied schedule of events and contributors from throughout the campus, Different Chinas provides information about the diverse cultural realties of contemporary China and raises awareness about the offerings available on the Skidmore campus. Chen hopes that faculty and students “will utilize this series in their courses and research agenda as much as possible – as a way to integrate China into the curriculum.”

Chen will introduce the two Fifth-Generation Chinese films that open the program on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1. Birgit Linder, visiting assistant professor of foreign languages, will introduce two Sixth-Generation films: Platform, by Jia Zhangke, and Quitting, by Zhang Yang. The movies were selected to highlight the contrast between post-Mao and avant-garde vision by contemporary Chinese filmmakers. Fifth-generation Chinese film emphasizes style and the importance of aesthetics, and also develops new approaches to narrative in a post-Mao world. Sixth-generation film started out as highly experimental, but integrates naturalism.

An exhibition of contemporary Chinese brush painting curated by Professor of Art Doretta Miller opens at the Tang Museum Oct. 17 and runs through December. Brushing the Present: Contemporary Academy Painting from China, features work by painters who are affiliated with Chinese academic institutions and who routinely exhibit in state-sponsored venues.

The show features 35 artworks created within the past three years by 27 artists who have used either ink and brush on paper or oil on canvas. Miller, who has been organizing the exhibition for two years, is herself a veteran of teaching in China. She spent part of her sabbatical year there in 1996, an experience that sparked her curiosity about art education in that country. She wondered, “How is the next generation of Chinese artists learning to draw and paint for the Chinese audience?” In subsequent visits to China she learned more about how advanced technology and global culture have affected Chinese artists. Among the questions she wanted to answer were “What’s on their minds now? What do they feel comfortable painting? What liberties, subjects, and levels of tolerance are permitted?”

As the show came together a number of themes emerged, including artists’ responses to globalization; portraits, models, and still-life as subjects of the academy painter; the artists’ affinities to the Chinese landscape; and traditional and new expressions of Buddhism. “The group represents an alternative view to Western audiences with regard to the degree of artistic acceptance and cultural change taking place in China today,” explained Miller. The upcoming exhibition is “a snapshot of where China is in terms of Chinese who paint for a Chinese audience. I want to show how a Chinese painter can be true to tradition, yet thrive in a contemporary world.” She readily acknowledges that the exhibition is “a moment in time. All this will be different in six years.” A catalogue featuring essays by Miller and by Joan Lebold Cohen (who will give a lecture titled “From Mao to Now” Nov. 4 at the Tang) will accompany the exhibition.

In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be a number of special events at the Tang, including a brush painting demonstration by Skidmore’s Jack Ling, director of diversity and affirmative action, and exhibition artist Xu Zheng on Oct. 21.

Other Different Chinas highlights include an Oct. 2 lecture titled “Chinese Foreign Relations” by Harry Harding of George Washington University; an Oct. 22 dialogue titled “Different Chinas” by Princeton University scholar Perry Link and East Asian expert Ian Buruma, Luce Professor of Humanities and Democracies at Bard College; and the Nov. 14 premiere of a new film, Chuang Tzu’s Powwow Drum.

For up-to-date information on the entire Different Chinas program, visit http://hudson2.skidmore.edu/tang/diff_chinas/

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