Journal
Oct. 8, 2003
Mike Steely
Report on article "Chinese Artists Look Homeward," by Kai-Yin Lo, appearing at IHT. Com (International Herald Tribune) on Oct. 7, 2003.
Since most of the material we have discussed in class has related to the legacy of a tyrant, I'd like to leave the gulag for a moment to bring attention to a cultural event which took place recently in Shanghai.
The International Artists' Festival was held at the Shanghai Grand Theater on its fifth anniversary, featuring those Chinese musicians and dancers who, after winning acclaim outside China, could return to the "father"land to "reconnect with audiences and performers and revisit the sources of their inspiration," as Lo reports. The reporter adds, "It offered dramatic evidence of how far Chinese art and culture have progressed in the two decades since china opened its doors to the outside world. It demonstrated how eager Chinese artists are to come back when called."
Highlighted at the gala: composer-conductor Tan Dun, pianist Lang Lang, Metropolitan Opera's bass-baritone Tian Hou Jiang, dancer Tan Yuan Yuan, and dancer choreographer Huang Dou Dou.
The one-week festival, as Lo points out, was not only successful for the entertainment it provided. The city of Shanghai cooperated with US-based Committee of 100 Institute (Yo Yo Ma, I.M. Pei), which hoped to show that "cultural exchange is the best means to furthering understanding," and to make Shanghai government officials aware that in order for Shanghai to become a worldclass cultural and economic capital, more international coordination among local venues was paramount.
According to Lo, it has only been in the past two years that China has sufficiently opened the doors wide enough that China's artists, students, academics and professionals have felt welcome enough to come home. Lo mentions two artists, Tian and composer Tan Dun ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), who left for the US in the 80s and came of age during the "ten years of chaos."
Lo ends the article with several interesting accounts of the process by which a young prodigy's talent is developed in the PRC through the almost insane efforts of the parents: Hanging upside down from the ceiling? Using qi gong? Well, whatever gets you there, I suppose.
Could it be that China is finally realizing the loss of a generation of talent to those times, and, since the reopening of academic schools in 1977, is trying to resume its role in properly nurturing its creative talent?
