You may have noticed that the calendar is missing from the right side of the page. Something happened when we switched to a new hosting srvice. We hope to have it fixed this weekend. Until then, you can always look at our one-time and short term event calendar for events.
Don’t forget that Concrete Flux‘s open call for submissions on the topic of suzhi (素质 /素質) has been extended to March 8.
Looking ahead….
Asia Society begins a small retrospective of the films of Myanmar-Taiwan director Midi Z on March 6 with his film Ice Poison (冰毒).
Momenta Quartet performs Tan Dun’s Ghost Opera at Flushing Town Hall on March 8.
Cathy Erway, author of the new cookbook The Food of Taiwan, will lead a panel discussion that includes some of the biggest name in Asian cuisine on March 24. There will be a book release party and a pop-up dinner as well. Stay tuned for our post on the book and events.
We add listings to our one-time and short term event and ongoing exhibition calendars as we learn of them. If you know of anything or would like to contribute photos or an article, shoot us an email at beyondchinatown@gmail.com.
Upcoming Events
1) i.Mirror by China Tracy (aka: Cao Fei) Second Life Documentary Film / Haze and Fog
i.Mirror by China Tracy (aka: Cao Fei) Second Life Documentary Film
2007. China. Directed by Cao Fei. Artist and documentarian Cao Fei recorded her experiences within the online social platform Second Life. 28 min.
Haze and Fog
2013. China. Directed by Cao Fei. Beijing-based artist and filmmaker Cao Fei mixes pop aesthetics, fantasy, and surrealistic references with documentary and social commentary to reflect on China’s rapidly changing economy and how it transforms the everyday lives and imaginations of its citizens. Her latest film features nouveau riche businessmen, musicians, security guards, maids, manicurists, and sex workers who cross paths in the confines of a compartmentalized and alienating apartment complex. They are all, ultimately, seeking human contact—and they are ripe for the emergence of the undead. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 47 min.
Post-screening discussion with Xin Wang, Associate Curator, Asian Contemporary Art Week
i.Mirror, Part 1
Haze and Fog Trailer:
Friday, February 27, 4 PM
MoMA, 11 W. 53rd Street
$12/General Admission; $10/Seniors; $8/Students; Free/Members
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2) Art and Chinese New Year – 2nd Annual Lecture and Festive Reception – In celebration of the Year of the Ram, Dr. Jerome Silbergeld, Professor of Chinese Art at Princeton University and the director of the university’s Tang Center for East Asian art, presents a lecture about the role of the ram in Chinese art and history. (China Institute) Followed by a reception.
Friday, February 27, 6:30 PM
China Institute, 125 E. 65th St.
$15/non-members; Free/members; See event page for RSVP details.
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3) TECO Spring Concert – Taiwanese classical musicians and singers from some of the most prestigious music programs in the world perform works by Robert Schumann, Astor Piazolla, and Taiwanese composers Gordon Chin (金希文), Ya-Chu Yang, and Tyzen Hsiao (蕭泰然 / 萧泰然), known as the “Taiwanese Rachmaninoff”. See our post for the performers and program.
Ya-Jhu Yang (楊雅筑 / 杨雅筑): A Tiny Crab and a Butterfly (螃蟹, 蝴蝶), one of the works being performed:
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4) Lecture – Jessica Pi-Hua Hsu (徐畢華 / 徐毕华): In Search of Arcadia – Artist Jessica Pi-Hua Hsu talks about her exhibition at Hwang Gallery which opens on March 3.
Saturday, February 28, 2 PM
Hwang Gallery, 39-10 Main Street, Suite 303, Flushing
Free, but RSVP requested
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5) EastRiver Ensemble Captivating Chinese Music & Dance Performance – Interplaying sounds and movements in traditional Chinese stagecraft, EastRiver Ensemble presents a program of folk dance, acrobatics stunts and a range of traditional and folk music with focus on the Dongbei and Hebei regions of north China, featuring the yangqin (dulcimer), the pipa (lute), flutes, fiddles and percussion. (Flushing Town Hall)
Saturday, February 28, 2:15 PM
Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing
$13/Admission; $10/Members; $8/Children; $6Member Children
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6) Gu Zhongsheng Open Studio – Photographer Gu Zhongsheng’s Gradually Fog Up has moved to The Schoolhouse in Brooklyn, and the artist and Jing Arts Project is hosting an open studio. We were intrigued by the ambiguous realities of the photographs when we saw them at the Ouchi Gallery a few weeks ago. Come meet the artist and other friends of Beyond Chinatown.
Saturday, February 28, 6 – 9 PM
The Schoolhouse, 330 Ellery St, Brooklyn
Free
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7) Calligraphy Workshops: Chinese – Welcome in the Year of the Ram with calligraphy workshops led by Chinese calligraphers, Mr. Chao-Lin Ting and Mr. James Shau (1PM) and Korean calligrapher Dr. Yoo Sung Lee (3PM). Learn basic calligraphy to write your New Year’s wishes in Chinese and Korean. (Flushing Town Hall)
Sunday, March 1, 1 PM
Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing
$10/Admission; $18/Members and Children
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8) Lecture “Engraving” by Raymond Verdaguer, Artist and Engraver – The New York Chinese Opera Society invites Raymond Verdaguer, an artist and engraver to give a lecture on his interpretation of the art of “engraving”.
Raymond will share his own experience on engraving and introduce as well the relationship between “overall” calligraphy and engraving.
Raymond wishes his presentation to be an introduction for a near future workshop–an open door to bridge his “engraving” experience with his beginning Chinese calligraphy learning. He also hopes the presentation will stimulate the creation of “seals” and help NYCOS Chinese calligraphy members to investigate beyond the technic of using paper, brush and ink only! (NYCOS)
Sunday, March 1, 2 PM
New York Chinese Opera Society Office, 120 Broadway, Suite 3650
Free
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9) 35th Anniversary Celebration: “Waves of Identity” Publication Launch – MOCA is proud to announce the release of our new exhibition publication, Waves of Identity: 35 Years of Archiving. Please join MOCA for an engaging night with special guests and contributors to the publication: Charles Lai, MOCA co-founder; Fay Chew Matsuda, former Executive Director; Cynthia Lee, former Vice President of Exhibitions, Programs and Collections; and exhibition curators, Herb Tam and Yue Ma.
Along with a complete documentation of Waves of Identity, the catalog features a collection of essays and oral history interviews that reflect on the guiding forces and defining milestones of the Museum since it was founded 35 years ago. (MOCA)
Sunday, March 1, 4 – 6 PM
Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street
Free with museum admission
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10) The Golden Era (黄金时代) – Ever-surprising Hong Kong New Wave axiom Ann Hui forges a fractured, modernist epic on the life of Manchurian essayist and novelist Xiao Hong (萧红 /蕭紅) belatedly regarded as one of 20th-century Chinese literature’s most important figures. The film recounts her brief and tragedy-filled life—she died in 1941 at age 32—as one of constant struggle: to lead an independent life, fleeing from an abusive father and an arranged marriage; to survive, after she’s left destitute, pregnant, and in debt by a lover, until an essay finally catches the attention of the editors of a literary journal; and to overcome being regarded as merely another rather talented wife of a great writer once she marries novelist Xiao Jun (萧军/蕭軍). All of this unfolds during an era of monumental upheaval in Chinese social and political life. Xiao’s prose, in contrast to the politically charged fashions and needs of the day to which her husband catered, was intimate, often melancholic, bordering on bitter, and strongly autobiographical. Her story is told, sometimes direct to camera, from a variety of perspectives by those who knew her, creating a weave of recollections and reminiscences that refuse to neatly add up. Xiao remains an enigma to the illustrious literary peers who crossed paths with her—and probably to herself as well. In its grandeur and formal self-reflexiveness, The Golden Era is a true UFO in contemporary Chinese cinema, and represents Hui’s crowning achievement. (Film Society of Lincoln Center)
Part of the 15th Film Comment Selects festival
Sunday, March 1, 6:30 PM
Walter Reade Theater, 144 W. 65th St.
$14/General Public; $10/Film Comment Subscribers; $9/Students and Seniors; $8/Film Society members
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11) Economic and Social Transformations in the Making of Present-Day Taiwan – Jonathan Brookfield, Associate Professor of Strategic Management and International Business at the Fletcher School, Tufts University discusses economic and social transformations that made modern-day Taiwan as part of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Modern Taiwan Lecture Series
Tuesday, March 3, 4:10 – 6 PM
Schermerhorn Hall, Room 963, Columbia University
Free
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12) The Elizabeth Foundation for Arts Open House – Open house includes artists Fei Cui, Xin Song, and Cecile Chong
Tuesday, March 3, 5 – 9 PM
The Elizabeth Foundation for Arts, Floors 2 – 10, 323 West 39th Street
Free
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13) Confucius and the World He Created – Join New America NYC for a conversation with journalist and author Michael Shuman, along with Hua Hsu and John Bussey, on the steps it will take for Americans to contend with China in an ever-shifting world.
As China rises to superpower status, the country is challenging the United States not just economically and politically– but also ideologically. Its leadership is asserting its own political and economic model as an alternative to American-style democracy and capitalism– one Beijing believes is based on its own non-Western traditions.
The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius is, according to Michael Schuman’s new book, Confucius and the World He Created, critical to China’s political agenda today. The Chinese Communist Party is reviving Confucius as an attempt to legitimize its authoritarian rule by linking it to the country’s political history. Confucius, they believe, can also act as a bulwark against dangerous democratic ideals from the West. Whether or not this Confucian campaign succeeds will have huge implications for China’s political future, its role in the world, and Beijing-Washington relations. (New America NYC)
Wednesday, March 4, 6:30 – 8:15 PM
New America NYC, 199 Lafeyette Street, Suite 3B
Free, but RSVP required
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14) Brunch Viewing: The Chinese Photobook Exhibition – Start your day in Chelsea with a brunch viewing of the exhibition The Chinese Photobook, curated by Martin Parr and WassinkLundgren. The selection of books on view includes key volumes published as early as 1900, as well as contemporary volumes by emerging Chinese photographers. Each featured photobook offers a new perspective on the complicated history of China, from the beginning of the twentieth century onward. (Aperture)
Thursday, March 5, 10 AM – 12 PM
Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27th Street
Free, but RSVP requested
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15) Anicka Yi: You Can Call Me F – Opening Reception – The Kitchen’s gallery will function as a forensic site in which the artist aligns society’s growing paranoia around contagion and hygiene (both public and private) with the enduring patriarchal fear of feminism and potency of female networks. Anicka Yi’s new works will gather biological information from one hundred women to cultivate the idea of the female figure as a viral pathogen, which undergoes external attempts to be contained and neutralized. Employing the visual language of quarantine tents, which allow limited transparency and access while aiming to protect their fragile ecosystems within, Yi’s humanist approach foregrounds the politics and subjectivities of smell, and its impact on our empathic understanding of each other.
Exhibition runs from March 5 – April 11.
Thursday, March 5, 6 -8 PM
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street
Free
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16) Mao Yan at Pace Gallery – Opening Reception – The exhibition features fourteen new paintings by one of China’s most revered portrait artists and will be the first time his work has been exhibited publicly in New York.
Mao Yan contends with the history of portraiture in his work, interpreting figures and faces through a subjective language steeped in the technical formalism he developed while studying in Beijing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mao Yan’s paintings exhibit tropes of portraiture such as the seated nude and oval frames, but cede deliberate representation to style and mood. (Pace Gallery)
Read the complete press release here.
Thursday, March 5, 6 – 8 PM
Pace Gallery, 534 W. 25th Street
Free
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17) MOCAREADS: Island Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-40 – In the early 20th century, most Chinese immigrants coming to the United States were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. There, they were subject to physical exams, interrogations, and long detentions aimed at upholding the exclusion laws that kept Chinese out of the country. Many detainees recorded their anger and frustrations, hopes and despair in poetry written and carved on the barrack walls.
Join historian Judy Yung for the publication of this updated and expanded edition of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, edited by Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung. An important historical document as well as a significant work of literature, this edition of Island includes a new historical introduction, 150 annotated poems in Chinese and English translation, extensive profiles of immigrants gleaned through oral histories, and dozens of new photographs from public archives and family albums. Followed by book signing. (MOCA)
Thursday, March 5, 7 – 8:30 PM
Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street
Free, but registration required
Ongoing Films and Shows
1) Semele – A centuries-old Ming Dynasty temple shares the stage with an inflatable puppet, debaucherous monks, sumo wrestlers, and one aroused donkey in the Canadian Opera Company’s East-meets-West presentation of Semele, George Frideric Handel’s sublime operatic adaptation of the titular Greek myth. Chinese visual artist Zhang Huan—renowned for his provocative interrogations of eastern culture—makes his directorial debut, transforming the restored 17-ton temple into an altar, palace, crematory, and heaven to tell of the karmic fate of Semele (performed by Jane Archibald), whose attempt to trade sexual favors for divinity goes up in flames. (BAM) Costume Design by Han Feng
March 4 – 10
BAM, Peter Jay Sharp Building, BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Tickets start at $35
2) The Legend of Mulan by The Hong Kong Dance Company – The Legend of Mulan re-tells a tale of the globally recognized and iconic heroine from ancient China, who was originally presented in a Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan dating to the fifth century. Mulan, a peasant girl, disguised herself as a man to join the army in place of her aged father. She fought for a decade and gained much respect. She gave up a position at court and retired to her hometown instead. Traditional Chinese virtues are examplified through the unusual adventures and touching story of Mulan, who shows extraordinary courage when it comes to protecting her country and family. A heroine with moral courage and intelligence, Mulan’s exceptional wisdom and vision transcend fame and fortune. (David H. Koch Theater)
March 5 – 8
David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center (south side of the Lincoln Center Plaza, at Columbus Avenue and 63rd Street)
Tickets start at $22
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3) The Subtle Body – Megan Campisi’s 90-minute historical comedy in English/Mandarin with subtitles. Developed by Gold No Trade in collaboration with artists in Shanghai, the play concerns different interpretations of the human heart. It’s 1707: Charlotte Floyer accompanies her eccentric husband John (a historical British doctor) to China to learn about Chinese medicine’s understanding of the human heart. But when Charlotte falls in love with the couple’s translator and he asks her to join his household as his second wife (an accepted tradition in historical China), she and his first wife must reconsider their own understandings of the human heart.
February 12 – March 1
59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th Street
Performances are sold out, but stand-by tickets may be available.
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4) The World of Extreme Happiness – Unwanted from the moment she’s born, Sunny is determined to escape her life in rural China and forge a new identity in the city. As naïve as she is ambitious, Sunny views her new job in a grueling factory as a stepping stone to untold opportunities. When fate casts her as a company spokeswoman at a sham PR event, Sunny’s bright outlook starts to unravel in a series of harrowing and darkly comic events, as she begins to question a system enriching itself by destroying its own people. By Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, and directed by Eric Ting.
February 3 – March 29
New York City Center Stage I, 131 West 55th Street
$85/Admission
5) A Course on the Uniqueness of Chinese – A three-part course that “explore[s] the musicality of the language and the artistic and ingenious features of the written characters as living images of the Chinese culture. An in-depth understanding of Chinese written characters, their sounds, and the tonal system enables one to grasp the structure of the Chinese language and, through all this learning, come to understand the culture and people of China.” (China Institute)
The lecturer is Ben Wang, Senior Lecturer in Language and Humanities at China Institute, Co-Chair of the Renwen Society of China Institute, and Instructor of Chinese at the United Nations Language Program.
Part 1 – February 17
Part 2 – February 24
Part 3 – March 3
All sessions begin at 6:30 PM
$135/Members; $150/Non-members
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6) Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (钟馗伏魔：雪妖魔灵 /鍾馗伏魔：雪妖魔靈) -Legendary Chinese anti-hero Zhong Kui, a young man endowed with mysterious powers who is forced into a battle among the realms of Heaven, Earth and Hell in the course of his attempt to save his countrymen and the woman he loves. Starring Li BingBing and Chen Kun. Directed by Peter Pau and Zhao Tianyu , 100 min. Hong Kong, 2015
Opens at AMC Empire 25 on February 27
Exhibitions
Closing soon:
Shi Jing & Wu Didi (Chambers Fine Art, 2/28)
Shi Jinsong ‘s Art Fair – Free Download (Klein Sun Gallery, 2/28)
Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral (Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 2/28)
Opening and newly added:
The Chinese Photobook (Aperture Gallery, 2/11 – 4/2)
Yan Shanchun (严善錞): West Lake (西湖) (Chambers Fine Art, 2/26 – 5/9)
Jessica Pi-Hua Hsu (徐畢華 / 徐毕华): In Search of Arcadia (Hwang Gallery, 3/3 – 3/22)
Anicka Yi: You Can Call Me F (The Kitchen, 3/5 – 4/11)
Mao Yan at Pace Gallery (3/6 – 4/4)
Shen Shaomin (沉少民 / 沈少民) : Handle with Care (小心轻放 / 小心輕放) (Klein Sun Gallery, 3/7 – 5/2)
Additionally, Made in Company gallery will be an exhibitor at The Armory Show at Pier 94 and will present the works of Wang Sishun and Xu Zhen (Pier 94, 3/5 – 3/8)
Let us know if there’s something people need to see.
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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. We’ve noted exhibitions for which a review has been published.
Shi Jing & Wu Didi (Chambers Fine Art, 2/28)
Shi Jinsong ‘s Art Fair – Free Download (Klein Sun Gallery, 2/28)
The Art of the Chinese Album (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3/29) (WSJ Review)
Waves of Identity: 35 Years of Archiving (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1)
Memory Prints: The Story World of Philip Chen (Museum of Chinese in America, 3/1)
Polit-Sheer-Form-Office: Polit Sheer Form! (Queens Museum, 3/8)
Jessica Pi-Hua Hsu (徐畢華 / 徐毕华): In Search of Arcadia (Hwang Gallery, 3/3 – 3/22)
Dynamic Writing: A Century of Calligraphy (Flushing Town Hall, 2/22 – 3/22)
Gu Zhongsheng: Gradually Fog Up (Schoolhouse Art Gallery, 2/12 – 3/28)
Lan Zhenghui (蓝正辉 / 藍正輝): Re-thINK (Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, 2/13 – 3/28)
The Chinese Photobook (Aperture Gallery, 2/11 – 4/2)
Mao Yan at Pace Gallery (3/6 – 4/4)
Anicka Yi: You Can Call Me F (The Kitchen, 512 W 19th St, 3/5 – 4/11)
Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion (New York Historical Society, 4/19)
Mao’s Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution (China Institute, 4/26) (review)
Shen Shaomin (沉少民 / 沈少民) : Handle with Care (小心轻放 / 小心輕放) (Klein Sun Gallery, 3/7 – 5/2)
Yan Shanchun (严善錞): West Lake (西湖) (Chambers Fine Art, 2/26 – 5/9)
Image: Xu Bing Phoenix by Andrew Shiue (see the complete set here)