This week: Exhibition openings, films by Taiwanese female filmmakers, music from the Dong people, an artist talk, documentary about a calligrapher, and new (avant-garde) music from composers from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
Please let us know about events and art exhibitions so we can share them with others interested in Chinese culture.
The one-time and short term event calendar and the ongoing exhibition calendar are updated with events from this week and other events as they come up. Upcoming events will appear in the calendar on the right side of the page.
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Upcoming Events
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1) Wenxing Ding: Trust Yourself (丁文星：相信自己) Opening Reception – Relativity Project presents Wenxing Ding’s solo exhibition Trust Yourself which features her Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) thesis project (Colored xerox work, 96 pages) You are not Really Happy, and watercolor on paper and oil on canvas. Her works uses simple visuals “to create a diary that is accessible to all, allowing free roaming explorations and random dialogues with themselves”.
The exhibition runs from June 20 – 27.
Friday, June 20, 6 – 9 PM, Artist speech at 7:30
Relativity Project, Apt #703, 560 Main Street (Roosevelt Island)
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2) Traditional Chorus of the Dong Dimen – The a cappella and polyphonic choral folk singing the Dong people (侗族) showcases their culture with songs of historical narratives, courtship rituals, and drinking songs. This form of singing from one of China’s 55 ethnic minorities is part of UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Pre-performance discussion at 7:00 pm, with Ren Hexin, Director, Dimen Dong Culture Eco-Museum and Joanna Lee, (musicologist), and Ken Smith (arts critic, Financial Times), co-Founders of Western China Cultural Ecology
Saturday, June 21, 8 – 9:30 PM; Free live video webcast is available at AsiaSociety.org/Live at 7:00 PM EDT
Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue
Free, but tickets should be reserved online in advance
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3) Mise-en Music Festival 2014 – This four-day new music festival includes works by Taiwanese composers Fang-Wei Luo, Tsenfan Lin, and Annie Hui-Hsin Hsieh, Hong Kong composer Chun Ting Pang, and Chinese composer Bofan Ma performed by various musicians at different venues.
Tsenfan Lin (林岑芳) “Live Long and Prosper” (生生不息):
The Momenta Quartet
Includes Fang-Wei Luo and Annie Hsieh
Saturday, June 21, 5 PM
Taipei Cultural Center, 1 E. 42nd Street
Free, but RSVP required
New Music Marathon
Includes TsenFang Lin and Bofan Ma at 6:30 – 7:20 PM
Includes Chun Ting Pang at 7:30 – 8:20 PM
Saturday, June 22, 4 – 10 PM
Tenri Cultural Center, 43 E. 13th Street
Free/mise-en music Festival pass holders; $10/students; $20/general admission
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4) 老古講茶 – Tea expert 老古 talks about tea in Chinese culture. Hosted by the Renwen Society
Saturday, June 21, 2 – 4 PM
China Institute, 125 E. 65th Steet
Free, but RSVP required
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5) Ripples of Desire (花漾) – The second film presented as part of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO’s Highlights from Taiwan’s Women Make Waves Film Festival series is Zero Chou’s (周美玲) period romance about two sisters who are training to become courtesans but in the process follow very opposite paths as one becomes jealous of the other. See a review here.
Sunday, June 21, 2:30 PM
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Free
Saturday, June 22, 2 PM
6th floor, Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue
Free
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6) Somewhere Else (别外/別外) Opening Reception – This group show organized by the Fine Arts Department of Pratt Institute and Fou Gallery presents works by young Chinese artists living and working in New York that defies expectations of a “Chinese” cultural, social, or national identity and highlight the artists as individuals with diverse artistic interests. Artists featured: Chang Yuchen (常羽辰), Han Bing (韩冰), Liu Chang (刘唱) & Miao Jing (苗晶), Pan Ge (潘戈), Yi Xin Tong (童义欣), Zhe Zhu (朱喆).
The exhibition runs from June 21 – July 5, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 5 – 8 PM
DeKalb Gallery, Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn
Free
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7) The Golden Child (金孫) – The third film presented as part of the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO’s Highlights from Taiwan’s Women Make Waves Film Festival series is She-wei Chou’s (周旭薇) black and absurd comedy about a Vietnamese woman who marries into a Taiwanese family and tries to fit the role of a traditional female in a Hoklo village.
Thursday, June 26, 6 PM
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Free
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8) Calligraphy from the Soul – Chang Kuang-Pin (戲筆行墨 任自然 – 張光賓) -Closing the Salute to the Masters: National Cultural Award Laureate Documentary film series, this documentary has been honored with Special Jury Remi Award in 44th Annual World Fest- Houston International Film Festival, 2011. Professor Chang Kuang-Pin is one of the prominent barriers of Chinese calligraphy and paintings. He has spent almost a century in studying, creating and teaching, the 100-year-old professor still moves forward in his settlement in Chinese calligraphy and painting. His insights in life and open-minded attitude are all reflected in his pursuit of line, texture and metaphors. Very much different from that of most modern artists who stress to represent partial visual world, his works always try to cast lights upon his admiration toward landscapes in calligraphy and painting.
Thursday, June 26, 6:30 PM
Taipei Cultural Center, 1 E. 42nd Street
Free
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9) Zhang Dali: Square Opening Reception – A solo exhibition of new sculptures, cyanotypes, and paintings by Zhang Dali (张大力 / 張大力). The title references Tiananmen Square. It highlights the energy, significance, and power of a place that Zhang Dali refers to as “holy” and “brimming with bright light.” Widely known throughout The People’s Republic, the Square stands as one of the most significant landmarks in the country. In this exhibition, Zhang Dali’s abstraction of Tiananmen acts as a capturing of the holiness he finds there.
The exhibition runs from June 26 – August 30, 2014.
Thursday, June 26, 6 – 8 PM
Klein Sun Gallery, 525 W. 22nd Street
Free
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10) MOCATALKS: The Art of Straddling Boundaries with Artist Zhang Hongtu – Zhang Hongtu (张宏图 / 張宏圖) presents a talk and leads a gallery tour of the Museum of Chinese in America’s current Oil & Water: Reinterpreting Ink exhibition in which his work is shown.
Thursday, June 26, 7 – 8 PM
Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street
Free, but reservation required
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Ongoing Films and Shows
The Story of Yu-Huan – May 30 – June 22
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Exhibitions
Closing soon:
Jiang Pengyi: Glimpses (Klein Sun Gallery, 6/21)
Love Story by Liu Chuang ( 刘窗 / 劉窗) (Salon 94 Freemans, 6/21)
Maples in the Mist: Chinese Poems for Children Illustrated by Jean & Mou-sien Tseng (Zimmerli Art Museum, 6/22)
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Opening and newly added:
Wenxing Ding: Trust Yourself (丁文星：相信自己) (Relativity Project, 6/20 – 6/27)
Somewhere Else (别外/別外) (Pratt Institute and Fou Gallery, 6/21 – 7/5)
Zhang Dali: Square (Klein Sun Gallery 6/16 – 8/30)
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Visit the exhibition calendar (http://ow.ly/pxe9o) for details for the following shows below. As always, check the museum or gallery’s website for hours of operation.
Jiang Pengyi: Glimpses (Klein Sun Gallery, 6/21)
Love Story by Liu Chuang ( 刘窗 / 劉窗) (Salon 94 Freemans, 6/21)
Maples in the Mist: Chinese Poems for Children Illustrated by Jean & Mou-sien Tseng (Zimmerli Art Museum, 6/22)
Wenxing Ding: Trust Yourself (丁文星：相信自己) (Relativity Project, 6/27)
Somewhere Else (别外/別外) (Pratt Institute and Fou Gallery,7/5)
Modernity 3.0 (80 WSE Gallery, 7/12)
Ai Weiwei: According to What? (Brooklyn Museum, 8/10)
Tales of Two Cities: Beijing and New York (Bruce Museum, 8/14)
Flotsam Jetsam (MoMA, 8/15)
One Kind of Behavior (Bronx Museum of Art, 8/17)
Zhang Dali: Square (Klein Sun Gallery, 8/30)
Oil and Water: Reinterpreting Ink (MoCA, 9/14)
Zhang Huan: Evoking Tradition (Storm King Art Center, 11/9)
Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2015)
Image: Which Way to Pismo Beach?, Andrew Shiue