Vocabulary of Column Articles:

798
798 Art Zone, or Dashanzi Art District, is a part of Dashanzi in the Chaoyang District of Beijing that houses a thriving artist community, among 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings of unique architectural style. The Dashanzi factory complex began as an extension of the "Socialist Unification Plan" of military-industrial cooperation between the Soviet Union, the East Germany and the newly-formed People's Republic of China. The architectural plans were left to the Germans, who chose a functional Bauhaus-influenced design. In around 2001, with the Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) looking for cheap, ample workshop space away from downtown, some artists located their own studios in those spare workshops in 798 area. Now it’s an art district with more than 100 galleries, art studios, bars and restaurants. 

Guo Degang (1973~)
Guo Degang is a Chinese Xiangsheng (相声, Chinese traditional talkshow of jokes telling) actor. He was born in Tianjin in 1973 and began to learn Pingshu (评书, Chinese traditional talkshow of story telling) when he was 8 years old. His teachers include famous Pingshu master Gao Qinghai and Xiangsheng master Chang Baofeng. At the same time he learned traditional operas such as Beijing opera, Pingju opera, and Hebei Bangzi opera. Guo Degang established his own style from his study and his show business. Guo went to Beijing in 1995 and established Deyun She (德云社), a Xiangsheng organization, in 1996. In 2004, he became a student of Xiangsheng master Hou Yaowen. Guo Degang and Deyun She rediscovered some traditional Xiangshengs and performanced more than 600 of them, which make them very popular in Beijing and Tianjin.

Wang Fu Jing
Wang Fu Jing Street is a famous commercial area in Beijing. It used to be the most prosperous erea in this city.

Red Gate Gallery
Red Gate was founded in 1991 by Australian Brian Wallace. With two galleries located at Dongbianmen Watchtower, Chongwenmen and 798 art distric, the Red Gate Gallery is one of the oldest galleries in Beijing.  

Post ‘89
Taking the 1989 Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition catalogue to define new artistic trends in Mainland China during the 1980s, this new artistic phenomenon with rebellious tendencies is known as “Post ‘89”.

Xu Bing (1955~)
Xu Bing is a Chinese-born artist, resident in the United States since 1990. Born in Chongqing, Xu grew up in Beijing. In 1977, he enrolled at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, receiving an MFA in 1987. In 1990 he moved to New York, where he lives today. Since then he started getting international recognition. He received a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in July 1999, became the first Chinese who won this honor.

Wei Dong (1968~)
As one of the most representative Chinese contemporary ink and wash painters, Wei Dong is good at figure painting of meticulous brushwork. He was born in 1968 in Inner Mongolia and graduated from the Fine Arts department at Beijing Normal Institute (Renamed in 1993 Capital Normal University) in 1991. Now Wei Dong lives in the United States and Beijing. 

Beckham (1975~)
Born on May 2 1975 in Leytonstone, Greater London, UK, David Robert Joseph Beckham is a professional footballer, who plays as a midfielder. He excels at free kick and corner kick, and has twice been runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year, and in 2004 was the world's highest-paid footballer. His talented football skill and his handsome looking won him global recognition amd has made him a top fashion icon.

Schumacher (1969~)
Born in Germany, Michael Schumacher is a former Formula One driver, and seven-time world champion. According to the official Formula One website, he is “statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen”.

J Bastien ART Gallery
The J Bastien ART gallery was launched in October 1988 by Jeane Bastien. The artists offered by the gallery include Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Gaston Chaissac, and Olivier Debré, etc.

Cheng Xindong
Ethnically Chinese and a  French national, Cheng is an internationally recognized curator, art dealer and publisher with years of experience in the international art arena as the chief representative for the France Gallery in Asia. His art dealing and curatorial practice began in the 1980s in France. In  1993, he began to curate Sino-French art exchange events, which produced over a dozen exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xi’an and Hangzhou.  In addition he has organized ten exhibitions of various artistic forms in Europe and other major cities in China, leaving a  significant impact on the art and cultural field scenes. In 2001, he founded Cheng Xindong International Contemporary Art Studio as well as International Art Space (a gallery and publishing company).

Bergman (1918~2007)
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a film, stage, and opera director. He found bleakness and despair as well as comedy and hope in his explorations of the human condition. He directed 62 films, most of which he wrote, and directed over 170 plays. Most of his films were set in the landscape of his native Sweden. The themes were often bleak, dealing with illness, betrayal, and insanity. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of modern cinema.

Antonioni (1912~2007)
Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics. In 1972, Antonioni was invited by the Government of the People's Republic of China in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution to visit China. He made the three-and-half-hours-long documentary Chung Kuo/Cina (《中国》), but it was severely denounced by the Chinese authorities as "anti-Chinese" and "anti-communist" and caused a great sensation at that time.

Yang Dechang (Edward Yang, 1947~2007)
Edward Yang was one of the leading filmmakers of the Taiwanese New Wave and Taiwanese Cinema. Yang attempts to examine the struggle between the modern and the traditional in his films, as well as the relationship between business and art, and how greed may corrupt, influence, or affect art. Also, Yang always sets his works in the cities of Taiwan. As a result, Yang's films, different from Hou Xiaoxian’s rural sensation, are commentaries on Taiwanese urban life and insightful explorations of Taiwanese urban society.

Hou Yaowen (1948~2007)
Famous Chinese Xiangsheng writer and performer, actor. The son of Hou Baolin, a master of Guo Degang, Hou Yaowen became a xiangsheng actor in 1960. He was also the vice chairman of the Chinese Balld Singers Association.

Wen Xingyu (1941~2007)
Actor. Wen won the hearts of many viewers with his humorous portrayal of the grandfather, a retired cadre, in "I Love My Home," in the early 1990s. The TV series was regarded as a landmark in domestic soap operas.

Immendorff (1945~2007)
J?rg Immendorff was one of the best known contemporary German painters; he was also a sculptor, stage designer and art professor. His paintings are sometimes reminiscent of surrealism, and often use heavy symbolism to convey political ideas. He was a member of the German art movement Neue Wilde. And he was skillful in using the media for self-promotion.

Olympic
The Olympic Games (often referred to simply as The Olympics or The Games is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years. The original Olympic Games began in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and was celebrated until AD 393. The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894 on the initiative of a French nobleman, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. The first of the IOC's Olympic Games were the 1896 Summer Olympics, held in Athens, Greece. Participation in the Olympic Games has increased to include athletes from nearly all nations worldwide. With the improvement of satellite communications and global telecasts of the events, the Olympics are consistently gaining supporters.

Coubertin (1863~1937)
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin was a French pedagogue and historian who is best known as the founder of the International Olympic Committee. Born in Paris into an aristocratic family, De Coubertin developed Dr Brookes' ideas for an international athletics competition. He recognized a growing international interest in the modern revivals of the Olympic Games and decided to found an International Olympic Committee. He organized an international congress on 23 June 1894 at the Sorbonne in Paris. There he proposed a revival of the ancient Olympic Games. The congress led to the establishing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which De Coubertin became the general secretary. It was also decided that the first of these IOC-organized Olympics would take place in Athens, Greece and that they would be held every four years. These Games proved a success, and De Coubertin took over the IOC presidency from 1896 to 1925.

Chinese Cabbage
Chinese cabbage (Da Bai Cai, in Chinese which means Large White Vegetable) is a Chinese leaf vegetable commonly used in Chinese cuisine. Chinese cabbage has been cultivated for over six thousand years in China. They were introduced to Korea, where it became the staple vegetable for making kimchi. In the early 20th century, it was taken to Japan by returning soldiers who had fought in China during the Russo-Japanese War. At present, the Chinese cabbage is quite commonly found in markets throughout the world.

Ai Jing (1969~)
Born in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Ai Jing entered Singing and Dancing Group of ShenYang when she was 17. In 1987 she passed the entrace exam and joined the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble in Beijing. Her first album My 1997 (《我的1997》) was published in 1992, which became popular in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan later. Since then Ai Jing has been recognized as one of the premier pop singer/songwriters in mainland China. Till now she has 5 albums published.

Hanart TZ Gallery
Hanart TZ Gallery, established by Hong Konger-- Chang Tsong-zung in 1983, is located in Hong Kong and Taipei. It specializes in promoting and exhibiting contemporary Chinese art and has promoted many famous Chinese artists. Artists whom the gallery represents include: Taiwanese artist: Zhu Ming; mainland artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Chen Xiaotong, Fang Lijun, Zeng Fanzhi, Li Shan and Hong Kong artist: Luis Chan.

Schoeni Art Gallery
Schoeni Art Gallery, established by the Swiss Hotel owner—Schoeni and John Cowperthwaite, son of the former financial secretary-- Sir John James Cowperthwaite, began by selling antique and later, contemporary Chinese oil paintings.  The gallery is very well-managed.  Artists whom they have promoted include Wang Yidong, Li Guijun, Cao Li, Qi Zhilong, Yue minjun, Yang Shaobin, Chen Yu, Zhang Linhai, Liu Ye and so on, who also contributed the gallery with the fame of being one the most important galleries in selling contemporary Chinese oil paintings in Hong Kong.

Chang Tsong-zung
Chang Tsong-zung is the founder of Hanart TZ Gallery and an important promoter for contemporary Chinese art. Born in Hong Kong and graduated from Roger Williams University in America, he is the founder of The International Art Critics Association (AICA) in Hong Kong and Asia Art Archive, and an advisor on Asian Art at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, who also has been selected twice by world-renowned magazine Art Review as one of the 100 influential powerful persons.  For the past twenty years, Hanart and Chang has participated in and curated “Chinese New Art: Post 1989”, Sao Paulo International Biennale and Venice Biennale, the “Power of the Word’ series of exhibitions, “Open Asia International Sculpture Exhibition” in Venice 2005, “Strange Heaven: Chinese Contemporary Photography”, and projects related to the “revival of Chinese visual and material culture”. 

Zhang Xiaogang (1958~)
Born in 1958 in Yunnan province, Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter with international recognition. He has made a “Bloodline: the Big Family”series of paintings from the 1990s, which are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits during the Culture Revolution period. Of his “Bloodline: the Big Family” series, the artist said, in a big family means “how to protect ourselves and keep our experiences locked up in an inner chamber away from the prying eyes of others”.

Liu Ye (1964~)
Born in Beijing in 1964, Liu Ye studied industrial design and mural painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts before moving to Germany to pursue an MFA at the Fine Arts University in Berlin. From 1994 till now he is a independent painter. The cast of characters in Liu Ye's work often find themselves standing in front of a Mondrian painting, an object which the artist identifies as 'a balanced, graceful and pure picture that projects a sense of serenity. These characters themselves are usually with a round, childish and even cartoon-like face. They are mysterious and calm, looked as if they are somewhere between real and unreal.

Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (Italian: Biennale di Venezia; also called in English the "Venice Biennial") is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years (in odd years) in Venice, Italy. The first Biennale was held in 1895. With a history more than a hundred years, the Venice Biennale has become one of the three most influential art festivals in the world. The other two are: the Sao Paulo International Biennale in Brazil and the Kassel Documenta in Germany.

C. C. Wang (1907~2003)
C. C. Wang (Wang Jiqian) is an accomplished artist and collector who has collected paintings since he began practicing his art more than 70 years ago. Born in 1907 in Suzhou, Wang graduated from Dongwu University in Shanghai in 1931. He used to be a professor in Suzhou Art School and Shanghai Art School, and co-authored the Seals of Chinese Painters and Collectors of Ming and Qing Dynasties (《 明清画家印鉴 》) with German art historian Dr. Victoria Contag. From 1949 he settled in the United States. C. C. Wang is regarded as the most important Chinese art collector in the 20th century. The famous “Zhaoyuan Xianzhang Tu” (《朝元仙杖图》, Chaoyuan Celestial Cane), painted by Wu Zongyuan in the Northern Song dynasty, was Wang’s collection. C. C. Wang's collection has long been known to Western scholars and collectors, and today works from his collection are in many important public and university collections in America.

Zhu Ming (1938~)
Famous Taiwanese sculpturor.

Guggenheim Museum
The Guggenheim Museum refers to any of several museums worldwide created and run by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Solomon Robert Guggenheim (1861~1949) was an American art collector and philanthropist. He was born in the United States into a famly who were known for their successes in mining and smelting. The Guggenheim family was Swiss emigrant family of Jewish ancestry to United States. Solomon Robert Guggenheim worked in the family mining business before his retirement in 1919. He became an art collector and had collected many ancient masterpieces. The nature of his collection, however, changed radically in 1927, when he met Hilla Rebay (1890-1967), who introduced him to the work of the European avant-garde. In 1937 he established the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to foster the appreciation of modern art. This step led to the opening in 1939 of the first Guggenheim museum in midtown Manhattan, New York. There are five Gugenheim museums now and more are in construction around the world in a rapid speed. The museums exhibit primarily "high" modern and postmodern art. Amongst them the most famous Guggenheim museums are the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Bilbao, Spain.

Ullens
Myriam and Guy Ullens, a couple from Belgian, are two of the most important and earliest collectors of Chinese contemporary art in the world. The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation was set up in 2002, and is an active supporter of the Chinese art world.  In their collection of more than 1700 pieces of Chinese artworks, 80% are contemporary ones. They also have collected more than 200 pieces of ancient Chinese artworks, in which the most famous is the “Xiesheng Zhenqin Tu” (《写生珍禽图》, Studies from Nature: Birds and Insects) by Huang Quan.

Van Gogh (1853~1890)
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive pieces. Van Gogh did not embark upon a career as an artist until 1880. In 1886 he went to Paris to meet his brother Theo, who continually and selflessly provided financial support. In Paris he encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, in the same period he also discovered Rubens, Japanese prints and Paul Gauguin. He incorporated their brighter colours and style of painting into a uniquely recognizable style to express his strong and powerful emotion. In the final two years of his life he broke the friendship with Gauguin and suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness, which led to his suicide at Auvers in 1890. Van Gogh is a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism. He had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists.

David Hockney (1937~)
David Hockney is a British painter, draughtsman, printmaker, photographer, and designer based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Hockney was born in Bradford and educated at Bradford Grammar School, Bradford College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. From 1963 Hockney was represented by the influential art dealer John Kasmin. A visit to California inspired Hockney to make a series of oil paintings of swimming pools in Los Angeles. He also made prints, portraits of friends, and stage designs for many theatres. An important contributor to the British Pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

Mirage
A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirare, meaning 'to appear, to seem'. This is the same root as for mirror. Like a mirror, a mirage shows images of things which are elsewhere. The principal physical cause of a mirage, however, is refraction rather than reflection. A mirage is not an optical illusion. It is a real phenomenon, and one can take photographs of it.

‘85 New Wave
The‘85 New Wave Movement was one of most important art movements in twentieth century Chinese art history. It marked the beginning of a new historical era that broke through instrumentalism and homogenous state of art, and symbolizes a first step for Contemporary Chinese art. It was also a period in which many outstanding artworks were produced. The ‘85 New Wave Movement shook the mainstream concept of art and over the past thirty years has played a major role in presenting Chinese art internationally. It reflected on the fundamental questions in art, and Chinese art irreversibly stepped into another era. Contemporary Chinese art thereafter found its basic structure during the ‘85 New Wave Movement.

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