Xiao Yao , Kristin

The Age of Innocence

2009-10-23T01:09:00.000-07:00

Just coming back from an exhibition named Innocence and Experience.

I love the motto said by William Blake,true innocence was impossible without experience~

Nothing to be said more.Enjoy the words.

The Life and Times of Louis i.Kahn

2009-10-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I made a face-to-face interview for Mathias Woo with the theme of AIAF 2009 last month, and today is the last day of the festival.I went to Hong Kong Cultural Center to enjoy the multi-media performance directed by him.

Nothing needed to be said more, after I enjoyed the fantastic show acted by Kam Kwok Leung.Completely immersed myself into the monologue of Louis i.Kahn, I felt brightness and inspiration coming from the whole theatre.

Maybe it was called Aura.

Louis i.Kahn was a piscean man and architect with intelligence and humor , he died of heart attack on March 17,1974 in New York.He left a lot of debts after death~~~Twelve years later ,I was born on the same day.Just like a coincidence, funny and unforgettable.

Just remember his words: Wonder precedes knowing and knowledge.

A Dialogue on Stories of Collective Memory

2009-08-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

Topic : Imaged Cities, Written Record
-- A Dialogue on Stories of Collective Memory
Time: 4:30pm-6:00pm, July 26,2009
Venue: Joint Publishing, Wan Chai
Lecturer: Leung Man Tao(Cultural Critic),
Jia Zhangke(Film Director)

In recent years, collective memory is a hotspot cultural and social phenomenon widely discussed in China Mainland and Hong Kong. On July 26,2009, Director Jiang Zhangke brought his latest book A Collective Memory of Chinese Working Class which was the written record of his film 24 City to Hong Kong. Cultural Critic Leung Man Tao held the live exchange between Director Jia and readers at Joint Publishing, Wan Chai. Director Jia shared his feeling of making his works on the collective memory theme with us.

24 City is an independent documentary film represented the great changes from establishment to disaggregation happened at a state-run ordnance factory in Chengdu, Sichuan during the half century. By face-to-face interviewing hundreds of workers with his video, Director Jia described common people’s dramatically economic and psychological transformation during the reform of state-owned enterprise. While the book A Collective Memory of Chinese Working Class offered readers another manner to know the forgotten history from literal texts.

“At the age of planned economy, working class was the mainstream in Chinese society, collectivism was their ineradicable perception, they all treated their factory as their own family .” said Director Jia. However, When China came into the period of market economy since 1990s, the working class has been marginalized and ignorant obviously. The traditional lifestyle and living environment were challenged and middle-aged workers desperately found that they couldn’t face the competition in the ever-changing new world. Laid-off employees cherished their past even though they felt being sacrificed by the cruel time. When factories were pulled down, the former public space disappeared completely. However, psychological trauma remained and became their sentimental collective memories.

Besides discussing the working class, Director Jia also talked about their children. Those one born after 1980s have grown up at the new period, collective memories was far away from them. But it was no doubt that parents prepared to devote everything to the young generation.

“Those factories have become disappeared historic sites, while the collective memories need a long time to be cured.” a passionate reader said at the end of the discussion.

A movie view on UP

2009-08-18T22:57:00.001-07:00

Director：Pete Doctor
Writer: Bob Peterson , Pete Doctor
Release Date：July 30,2009 (Hong Kong)
Genre: Animation / Action / Adventure / Comedy/Family

The cinema is a place which can create another space away from our reality. As well as watching the film Up was a wonderful experience. I appreciated a fantastic adventure launched by an old man and a little boy to a lost world through the huge screen at UA Cinema.

Based on Bob Peterson and Pete Docter’ s original creation, the adventure story began with colorful balloons.“We came up with this image of a floating house held aloft by balloons, and it just seemed to capture what we were after in terms of escaping the world. We quickly realized that the world is really about relationships, and that’s what Carl come to discover.” said Pete Docter.

Carl Fredricksen whose face and gruff personality based on Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau was the protagonist of Up. Choosing an retired man who used to sell balloons as a leading role probably blew someone’s expectations. Nevertheless, the first 5 minutes of the screening describing his dream of adventure and sweet life with Ellie has already attracted our visions and emotions. In comparison with Old Carl’s surprising apprearance, Little Russell was a persistent and enthusiastic boy could be easily found in our daily life. During the adventure to the wilds of South America, their dramatic cooperation represented a harmonious affective interaction between different generations.

Besides the affecting storyline and vivid characters, being the very first animated film, as well as the first 3D film and ever to open the Cannes Film Festival 2009 are Up’s special advantages and selling points. Undoubtedly, we were fascinated by its splendid visual effect and successful commercial operation. The use of state-of-the-art 3D technique for its stereoscopic production has already brought an unbelievable visual pleasure to audiences. Amazing visual effect ,breath-taking action and humorous Cantonese audio dubbing enhanced Up’s unique features of cinematic narration and expression. Whatever techniques being used were committed to convey essential spirits of the movie perfectly, which were sincere love and the warmth of humanity.
At the end of the film, We were so pleasantly surprised to see Carl and Ellie’s little house finally was located on the top of Angel Falls. However, neither of them couldn’t be there. Staring at the screen, a virtual image of Chinese Ideal State named Tao Hua Yuan came into my mind simultaneously. The peaceful scene suggested lots of inspirations for me to understand the film profoundly.
The result was touching and thoughtful. It post several significant questions to us in an euphemistic manner:

Who are the ones we should care for a life time?
What kinds of life do we really want?
How can we get a happy life?
……..
Indeed, the greatest blessedness in the world is to sincerely love and cherish our families and friends.
No matter in the virtual movie world or in the real life, just preserve our warm humanity and childlike innocence from our inner hearts forever.

Film Review-Perpetual Motion

2009-07-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

I believe in the words: films should be watched at cinemas. Just like a youth writer Law Pun said, if you watch a film at a cinema, not only you just watch it, but also you have experienced the event with other persons.

Perpetual Motion, an independent feminist film directed by Ning Ying and acted by four famous women in China was a big attraction made me to enjoy it at Hong Kong Science Museum during the 33th Hong Kong International Film Festival. Indeed, I came to cinema to watch it by reason of its alternative technique of expression and narration rather than the simple story context.

The movie talked about four successful mid-age women’s love, marriage and destiny at a small traditional Chinese Courtyard in Beijing during a Spring Festival Eve 2005. Famous fashion magazine publisher Niuniu (acted by Hong Huang) invited three girlfriends for dinner in order to find out which one slept with her husband and betrayed her. After the one day’s in-depth chat and open sexual experience sharing, a call from police station told Niuniu’s husband’s death in a car accident helped her find out the right one through their various reaction to the news.

Unlike other commercial films, Perpetual Motion didn’t plan to tell a complete story but aimed to deliver a straightforward Chinese feminist thought to audiences directly and obviously. The absence of male protagonists, fully sexual topics, rebellious feminine images and nonprofessional actresses made Perpetual Motion become special and classical.

Who stole Niuniu’s husband was not important in the end, the spirit that the film wanted to express on feminism and social transformation in China Mainland has already come into our mind by appreciating four characteristic women’s funny dialogues and impressive behaviors. It is obviously that the storyline of Perpetual Motion was related on some real-life facts, especially on Hong Huang’s marriage with famous Director Chen Kaige. Just like Ning Ying said, Hong Huang and other women acted themselves rather than designed characters. No matter in real life or in the movie, all of them were contradictory individuals under the pressure of tradition and rebellion. Their dramatic destinies had a closed relationship with Chinese political and economic changes.

After screening on that day, the face to face communication with Director Ning Ying was another pleasant surprise. The charming middle-aged female intellectual who spoke sterling Mandarin shared her happy feeling of shooting such a film with her friends. “It is our amusement rather than work, although the market of Chinese independent films is in recession. We want to express the ideological change during the great development in China though the half century.” said by Ning Ying.

A Lonely Spectacle--Langham Place

2009-04-18T07:57:00.001-07:00

A Lonely Spectacle

---Langham Place

Rochelle says this one is her favorite, so do I.

Hong Kong International Film Festival--In the Name of Love

2009-04-12T20:42:00.000-07:00

In the Name of Love--The Films of Evan Yang
Time:28.3-7.6.2009
Venue:Hong Kong Film Archive (Sai Wan Ho)

The exhibition of famous Screenwriter Evan Yang located at Hong Kong Film Archive is the nearest exhibition I have experienced in Hong Kong.It was so joyous that it took only five minutes for me from home to Hong Kong Film Archive on foot.

As a girl grown up in China Mainland, a lot of Hong Kong located culture is not familiar to me.By enjoying the multi-media exhibition, I gradually know something of the handsome and brilliant scriptwright in early Shanghai and Hong Kong.Just like his temperament, most Evan Yang's works are romantic love stories owning a special personal style.

In The Name Of Love: The Film Of Evan Yang

Evan Yang was a man of letters. He was raised on the classics of China but later studied Western literature and acquired a fondness for Hollywood films. He became well versed in the cultures of both East and West, first making a living as a writer and journalist and later as scriptwriter and lyricist. Then he became a director.

His early films are somber and melancholic, moods that resonate with the weariness of the post-war years. Later, he found a new voice in the modern city style at MP & GI, directing and writing a series of charming musicals and romantic comedies that embody the optimism of the 1950s. His capacity as a man of letters had equipped him well to keep pace with his times.

Yang's early training in Chinese classics also ingrained in him a yearning for idyllic romanticism. Always professional but never perfectionist, he was an artist of moments. He was in love with being in love and most of his memorable moments are those of a man and a woman engaging each other in the name of love. His films often suffer from loose structure and sloppy direction, yet their best moments are either so endearing or so touching that his better works can be profoundly affecting. Those moments also coalesce into a distinctive narrative voice. Evan Yang is not a master, nor is he a great film artist, but he is a filmmaker with a personal style, one of understated drama but stirring emotions.

(Evan Yang's Notebooks in 1960s, as a scriptwritter, each notebook is a valuable collection for him)

Hong Kong International Film Festival--Perpetual Motion

2009-04-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

HKIFF—Perpetual Motion

Time: 2:30pm,Apr 12,2009
Venue: Lecture Hall, Hong Kong Science Museum

Perpetual Motion is a well-sold artistic film directed by famous female director Ning Ying and acted by Hong Huang, Liu Suola ,Li Qinqin ,Ping Yanni and Zhang Hanzhi. I watched the movie when I was junior college student in Zhuhai but today is my first watching it at a cinema and Director Ning Ying came to Hong Kong for the celebration of the 33th HKIFF.

The movie talked about a simple story on four successful mid-age women’s love, marriage and destiny at a small traditional Chinese Courtyard in Beijing on Spring Festival Eve 2005.Famous fashion magazine editor Niuniu(acted by Hong Huang) invited three girlfriends to her home for a dinner in order to find out which one slept with her husband and betrayed her, during the one day’s chatting and playing ,a call from police station told her husband’s death in a car accident helped her find out the right one.
But as spectators, we knew that the consequence was not important in the end, the spirit the film wanted to express has already come into our mind with the four women’s funny dialogues and impressive acting.

After screening, Ning Ying had a face to face communication with audiences.

As well as I expect, she was a charming woman like a female intellectual. She said that filming artistic and independent film in China Mainland has little commercial market these years. No matter her works or Jia Zhangke’s. Perpetual Motion has already created a box-office legend. Losing audiences and market is a desperate reality. Although less and less people will go into cinema to enjoy an artistic film that talking profound life theme, Ning Ying said she enjoyed the process when filming it with her friends.

Obviously, Perpetual Motion based on the true experience of four successful women , we can easily related the story to their real life. In fact, they just acted themselves rather than designed characters. Ning Ying said they want to express the ideological change during the great development in China though half the century. Chatting love affair and sexual experience, actually they described the change of women’s status in China and expressed their desire and unsafety.
Just like a spectator said, after we rebel our social and family tradition, who we are is another confused question in front of us..

Ten Principles of Creativity

2009-04-08T01:12:00.000-07:00

Ten Principles of Creativity

Venue :CKB UG04 ,Chung Chi Campus

Time: April 8,2009 14:ooPM

Lecturer:Mathias Woo (Architect)

1.Creativity is supply creating demand.

2.Creativity is coming from knowledge,technology and experience.

3.Creativity is not always profitable.

4.Creative culture is nurtured by communicty.

5.Creativity industry is made up of suppliers, managers, creators ,agents and consumers.

6.Creative Education---Creative Community--Creative Industry--Creative Economy

7.Art nurtures culture, culture nurtures creativity.

8.Art is the root of creativity.

9.Art is the future built up on the past.

10.The government is the biggest user of creativity industry.

Eileen Chang's Little Reunion

2009-04-07T21:49:00.001-07:00

It is no doubt that Eileen Chang who had a legendary life is the most famous female writer in contemporary Chinese Literature.

Although her works and she used to be not welcomed to Mainland China's Govenment because of some political reasons, in her fans' eyes, she is a renowned and sarcastic woman.Her love fictions such as Lust, Caution and Love in a fall city have already become classical works no matter in Hong Kong ,Taiwan and China Mainland.

I first read Eileen Chang's works when I was thirteen years old.The novel named Half-Life Fate attracted me for long.The tragedy story and classical Shanghai modern style made the fiction and its movie popular.I noticed that Eileen Chang enjoyed using a simple and chilly way to write some excited stories.Readers can gradually feel the desperation and deeply understanding of life after a wonderful reading.

In 2009, Eileen Chang's novel Little Reunion was published in Hong Kong and Taiwan.It is obvious that the whole story has a closed relationship with her own love experience with Hu Lancheng. And she wrote the fiction for long in her later years and consider whether to publish it.Maybe the hesitation is her real feeling.

Love story is just an affair between two persons ,once it becomes public, something must change out of imagination.

However, others wouldn't think like this, especially those publishers and mass readers.We always want to know more of someone we like. Nevertheless, a mystery to be told too much will become a common reality, and the satisfation we expect will disappear with it.

Little Reunion is Chang's latest fiction published but also is her last work used to can be privated for herself. But her wish has already be destroyed when we treat the fiction as a best-seller.

I like the words written on the cover of the book.

It is a passionate love story,talking about the fantastic circuitousness of love, even it ends, we can see something is still there.

Indeed, a love affection don't need too much spectators to share the story.

From Venice to Harbour City

2009-04-04T06:49:00.001-07:00

Venue: Gallery by the Harbour, Shop 207, Level 2, Ocean Centre, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Time: period: 3-7 April 2009, 11 am-9 pm daily

The Exhibition named From Venice to Harbour City is curated by several architects and professors from HKU and CUHK. And it was made up of several parts including Object, Building, Landscape, City , Media and Text.

The exhibition which has been partly exhibited in Venice last year shared the same theme on architecture and culture. When I came into the gallery in Harbour City , I am attracted by its location and inner environment. Standing at the glass house full of colorful images, I surprisedly enjoyed the spectacle outside the window. The White big ship and beautiful blue sea…..

Just like Desmond Hui said the fundamental similarity between Venice and Hong Kong is the relationship of the city with water: the former its canals and the latter its harbor. They are the cradles of cultural imaginations, the most expressive of which is the architecture of the city.

Leo Oufan Lee who is a famous cultural scholar and professor is one of curators of the architectural exhibition. He is a well-known and prolific writer and commentator on culture. Besides literature and architecture, his research interests include cinema , music and painting. Living in Hong Kong more than seven months, I spent a lot of leisure time in reading his books and attending his classes. He is a handsome and gentle scholar, quite interesting and romantic. However, when he did an interview on Phoenix TV a few years ago, he said that he was optimistic, but felt pessimistic on the whole future of our human-being. By facing the contamination of the world, financial crisis and political corruption, he concluded that our development is limited and limited.

The exhibition reminded of me his words again.Maybe we should better appreciate the coastal spectacle in Venice and Hong Kong before they disappear in the world. All the fantasy we can see today will become memory and relic on our mind.

Sometimes, architecture spectacles and artists share a same destiny---always be appreciated after death.

One Square Foot

2009-04-01T08:44:00.001-07:00

One Square Foot

Photography by John Fung

Time:Mar 31,2009

Venue: Hong Kong Arts Center

John Fung's photography expressed his sadness and desperation of the living environment in Hong Kong.

By using excellent digital photography technique of the metropolitan city's architectures, we could easily feel his lyric and nostaglic emotion.

When I went step by step at HKAc to enjoy his artistic works at that special gallery, the exquisite design of the exhibition surprised me.Putting those photos around lifts and steps rather than at a gallery presented the author's attitude directly and exactly.

If I am Mona Lisa....

2009-03-30T19:39:00.001-07:00

Kubrick

2009-03-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

David Bordwell's Lecture

2009-03-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

David Bordwell’s Lecture :
Is the digital revolution in Hollywood a Revolution?

Time: Mar 26,2009 5:00pm

Venue:HKBU

Before going to attend the lecture in HKBU,I borrowed David Bordwell’ s books from library. Just like other critics commending, reading his books on film theory is a colorful interest rather than a boring learning experience.

As well as the colorful description of his books, the old gentleman from the U.S is much more interesting than handsome. With his white beard and small glasses, he is a quite standard Santa Claus if he wears in red.

The lecture’s title is the digital revolution in Hollywood a Revolution?
David gave the lecture for us by telling the technical history and tradition in Hollywood as the beginning. Through depicting the great change during the century, he pointed out that the technique not only changes the work routine in Hollywood but also the storytelling system and devices. With the new technique, the filming became much more fast and the cost got lower, and brought much more vivid aesthetic visual effects.

By using several examples, David said that technical change has brought spillover effect both on silent films and early sound movies.

And in the lecture, David posted a crucial point that new technologies do not revolutionize film production. They are inserted into the existing pattern of work routines. They create new specialties and refinements within Hollywood’s traditional division of labor and phases of production.

What is more the technical change can serve for the intensified continuity of movies in a Hollywood way better in the digital time.

My China Now-The 14th ifva Festival

2009-03-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

My China Now—The 14th ifva Festival

Time: Mar 21,2009 8pm
Venue: HKAC

“My China Now” is an eclectic mix of images, varying in subjects and styles, from realistic documentaries, to relaxed music videos, poetic but silent video montages, to fantastic animation. Having but a glimpse of the new China, there is no doubt that explosive creativity and infinite subject matters will be generated from this culture.

I want to repeat the sentence: Films should be watched at cinemas. Just like a young writer in Hong Kong Law Pun said, if you watch a film at a cinema, not only you just watch it, but also you have experienced the event with other persons at the dark room.

My China Now is the only movie I watched during the 14th IFVA festival, and the watching experience last night left me a wonderful memory in my mind.

The 88 minutes movie is a collection of ten short independent films showed the multicultural China in 21st Century. Unlike those commercial films such as The Promise and The Curse of Golden Flowers whose goals are gaining much more box-office, those made by independent filmmakers give us another way to know a real developing country with cultural diversity.

One of them talks about youngsters’ urban life in Beijing and one records a governor election happened at a small village in the Northeast of China, and the fourth story was talking about the future of contemporary Chinese art by several artists in Beijing on the phone.

Each of them is made by different directors and enjoys their own characteristics. But I easily got used to the various genres in the one and half hour. Maybe what I felt just the fact I once saw and experienced in China Mainland in 21st century. Infinite culture can be seen and generate.Maybe just like the fact we are facing, you can see the poorest peasants and you can also come across the most luxurious BMW and Benz at a same city.

Before the film started, I noticed that most spectators are from western countries and Africa, little of them spoke Mandarin. Absolutely, I was a minority last night. When the film was shown, some foreigners couldn’t help laughing because of funny scenes and actors’ lines, so did I. Those short films can be better texts for foreigners to know a real China. Indeed, they are not best produced but they express the reality without decorating.

The Reader

2009-03-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

I went to Broadway Cinema to watch The Reader, the Oscar winner film attracted me for months. I believe in films should be watched at a cinema, especially for those you deeply expect and love.

Broadway Cinema is a good choice for spectators to enjoy some artistic films rather than commercial ones. And the quiet environment of its bookstore can encourage you to have more thinking and deeper digest of what you just have seen.

The Story talking about an affair between a teenage boy and his first lover, a woman twice his age. The woman named Hanna attracted the young boy with her passion ,mature beauty and kindness, however she kept silence and asked him to read for her before making love.
Then she disappeared suddenly.
The next time they met, Hanna was on trial for a hideous crime and refused to defend herself. Michael gradually found that Hanna kept a secret which she felt more shameful than murder…….

When watching the movie, I cried for the third time at cinemas in Hong Kong. Just like other removing movies made me burn into tears, The Reader expressed the important theme of the warmth of humanity.

In the movie, there are a lot of sexual scenes of Hanna and Michael. But I was attracted by the reading scene when they made love. It was quite clear and fantastic that the reading was as important as the love when they dated.

This is the best relationship between a man and a woman, the harmony was from the physical body to the spiritual mind. Without any promises, they influenced each other for a whole life in such an incredulous way.

When Hanna was in prison, Michael recorded his reading voices and sent cassettes to her. She learnt how to read and write.
Without meeting and talking, the connection in an invisible way gave their the greatest and peaceful treasure in heart and mind.

At the end of the movie, Hanna committed suicide before getting out of prison. I assumed that it was the only way she could refuse Michael’s help and kept her dignity.

And Michael donated her money following her wish and then took himself and his daughter to Hanna’s grave. He told the secret to her at the last sense of the film.When the secret was told ,they both set free from pain and gained much more love and peace from heart.

Love can be shorter than your imagination when your lover suddenly disappears.

Love can be much longer than your know when you realize she influence all your life.

A love fiction

2009-03-17T04:21:00.000-07:00

I read a novel talking about love and destiny, it is a book holding both artistic and commercial factors.

The following is some understandings of the book:

The Best love always end at its zenith.

The more I love you , the further I will leave you.

The more I have know about you, The little I want to know more.

Love may return but never lover.

Legend means both unforgettable and unaccountable.

Murmuring your name when I am dying , but I don’t need to see you any more.

Love you doesn’t mean I will keep on touching with you.

Studio at JCCAC--Hoi Chiu's Mask and Puppet

2009-03-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Time :Feb 28,2009

Venue: JCCAC

Nobee wrote that every mask has a unique soul, and it wakes up only on the face of great performers. Indeed, when we were amused by Hoi Chiu’s fantastic short performance, I couldn’t separate the mask and he out, the spiritual convergence of artist and his works came to the climax. While enjoying his cute and vivid mask and puppet show, his childlike and easy-going character affected all of us.

Touching and playing with masks and puppets made by Hoi Chiu, all those handmade creations gave me such an intimate feeling , I could easily treated them as my little friends. Unlike the phantom’s solitude, they were quite welcome and expressed various emotions, not only sadness but also joy and cuteness.

However, I also concluded it was a creative but vulnerable artistic form which is too tenuous to spread over better. The craftsmanship and performance have already become a cultural heritage in China Mainland.

Maybe the best way to protect them not to disappear is just enjoying them.

Studio at JCCAC--Aggression and Sorrow

2009-03-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

“You can see the aggression from my works and No Photos.” said the artist who created the work(left).This was the only picture I took at his studio.

Coming into such a private and aggressive studio where presented so much simple-colored and eccentric-shaped sculptures, I felt attracted and frightened when the first second stepping into it.

Most of sculptures and paintings expressed an explicit fury and brutality to our reality by depicting disable persons’ bodies and gestures. And one creation which left me a deep expression was a woman’s breast made by nails and steels. Definitely, it shaped the special organ in a deformed way. “The more aggressive, the more you want to know and touch.” said the artist whose appearance was a visual representation of brutalism, even though his voice was gentle. And I noticed that the vision and tactile sense we felt have a deeply relationship with the installation he used.

The materials he chose such as steels, nails, glass could create a cold and sad emotional environment. Even though the rebellion was full of strength, I smelt the chilly sorrow and pain from the fierce look.

When taking the above picture, it reminded of me a movie named The Phantom of Opera. The talented music genius phantom wearing mask during the whole drama experienced his miserable childhood with numbers of vagrants and thieves.

When I left the studio, that phantom was still in my mind.

The Age of Innocence

2009-03-09T23:57:00.001-07:00

The novel and the film named The Age of Innocence.I first knew the fiction and listened to the theme music of it when I was fifteen.The untold sadness and desperation was easily felt from scenes and words.

Ellen had a tenuous and elegant apprearance, just like her look, she has been always in Archer's memory but we can't find some one like her anymore.

Archer was vulnerable gentleman.Rebellion was never suitable for him.The tragedy of them was doomed.

The end of the story was the saddest and most peaceful moment attracted me for years.

Twenty-five years later, after May's death, Newland and his son are in Paris. The son, learning that his mother's cousin lives there, has arranged to visit Ellen in her Paris apartment. Newland is stunned at the prospect of seeing Ellen again. On arriving outside the apartment building, Newland, still reeling emotionally, sends up his son alone to meet Ellen, while he waits outside, watching her apartment's balcony. Newland considers going up, but decides that his dream and memory of Ellen are more real than anything else in his life has been; he walks back to his hotel without meeting her.

Indeed, love may return but never lover.

the 37th French Film Festival--The second life of a sugar bowl

2009-03-08T04:05:00.000-07:00

I saw the Live Action movie named The Second life of a sugar bowl last December during the 37th French Cinepanorama. It is a so short motion picture only last for 13 minutes, however, the story is warming and true and gave you a colorful imagination of the old man’s kindness.

The story told us that it is a very early morning, a flea market in the Parisian suburbs is busy preparing itself for a long day. All before dawn, an eclectic mix of objects are sorted and organized, ready to be bartered. There, an old man assembles a collection of odd objects that he carefully puts in his bag. What is he concocting with this array of recycled junk? The answer might be waiting for us in an anonymous suburban house, where his granddaughter is asleep.

When I saw the old man collecting odd junks I felt curious about his status, maybe he was a bagger. He drank coffee in a cafeteria and took a sugar bowl away, he bought a tiny bear from flea market…….Everything happened showed he was weird. In fact, those he collected were equipment he used when he told stories to wake up his granddaughter who was blind. And the bear finally became a forever friend with his granddaughter at the end of the movie.

Smile , satisfaction and imagination impressed on the girl’s pink face.She couldn’t see the colorful world around her, but only she could feel the fascination of her grandfather’s fairy tale and the warmth from that Second-hand teddy bear.

The happiness of a movie brought me was sitting in darkness and enjoying the fascinating screen in front of us without any interruption. Without our eyes, the experience was just a day-dream. Nevertheless, the blonde girl’s closed eyes brought warmth and innocence to us even though she could only listen and feel. There was a wonderful world that only she can fully grasp.

I watched many movies each year, commerical or artistic, only a few ones became unforgettable.

Indeed, thirteen minutes is long enough if the director has conscience and compassion to the world.

Osage-Some Rooms

2009-03-05T21:11:00.001-08:00

Osage-Some Rooms

Time: Feb 27,2009
Venue: Osage, Kwun Tong

Some Rooms is an annual series of exhibitions that explore collaboration and curatorial process. On the opening reception day on Feb 27,2009, I enjoyed some artistic works from Hong Kong, China, Indonesia ,Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Diversity on styles and mediums is the mainly characteristics of the exhibition.

During the more than one hour excursion on the white-painted gallery, not only I enjoyed some artistic installation made by passports from hundreds of countries, but also felt noisy and surprised at a dark and tiny room where several earphones hung from the ceiling above my head.
It is no doubt that based on the big location that can installed a lot of artistic and technologic installations, Osage certainly can present dozens of huge art exhibitions that other smaller galleries can’t.

Lure

Author: Tintin Wulia (Indonesia)
Lure is a spatial installation using handmade miniature and real-size passports from different areas to create a colorful long line from the floor to the wall in Osage. When I walked through the lobby, I are always so cared that in order not to hit the installation.

Besides the long and wiggled passport-made line, a vending machine is a part of the installation.Just put one dollar coin into , you will have three chances to catch a passport from it. Which one will you get, it depends on your opportunity in the game.

Just like the introduction said, Lure examines the relationship between citizenship and chance in a re-imagined world.

And my question is living in such a post-modern world, does it mean a senior passport can bring better life for each individual?Indeed, an identity that a passport gives you can never change your background and blood.Maybe based on the idea the work presents, Chinese people don’t have to take Gong Li’s Singaporean nationality too seriously.

No matter how widely you can choose your passport, you can't choose your birth.When we played the game in Osage, I realized that, the more choices, the less I want to choose.

Maybe Tintin wanted to tell us, the choice itself is futile.

Studio at JCCAC--Baby Portrait

2009-02-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

When visiting Chris Cheung’s Studio at JCCAC, he told us each baby he painted has a face-to-face connection with him. The happy and gentle young artist uses hundreds of oil paintings to express cute babies’ impressions.

“I never draw those ones I don’t know , all of them are children of my friends. And their parents gave their photos to me.” Said Cheung. Most of Cheung’s works are depicted the facial expressions of one-year old baby. We could see their crying, smiling and thinking.

When we looked around his small studio where fill with oil paintings and instruments, we can easily felt the joy he enjoyed. Cheung told us that he planned to draw forty or fifty pieces and combine them together. However, he already to do more. The more he paints, the more observation he does.

Before getting know about Cheung’s painting characteristics, I have observed a lot of relationships between artists and their works. What they like and what they want will be presented on works completely. Even though different people use various mediums and materials, the final goals are same: expressing my own theme.

The theme of Chris Cheung’s baby portraits is so clear and optimistic : love and warmth.

Charming Experience

2009-02-27T06:30:00.001-08:00

2009.02.20 – 04.19
Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery (2/F)

This is the third time I went to Museum of Art to enjoy art exhibition. Friday is not holiday or weekend , but I saw a lot of children playing happily in the gallery.

This time, the theme is Charming Experience, organized by Grace Cheng, a famous curator. Just like curator’s wish: participation and experience, roaming there for more than half an hour, I could easily enjoy different participative artistic installation, from DIY drawing to reading books on shelves. Not only it offered multi-media equipment for disable persons and a lot of printed-introductions for normal people to understand those works, but also the artistic works themselves were quite easy to understand and appreciate compared with those ones present on private galleries.

The more audiences you want, you can't be too radical It is no doubt that no matter in China Mainland or in Hong Kong, too abstract cultural ideas and avant-garde artistic works are not suitable to be presented at such a public space. Just like Gao Minglu suggested, in The Art Museum Age, avant-garde nature comes to an end.Some sensitive themes not only can be accepted by governors, but also mass audiences.What they want is a hopeful mood ,not too much critical thinking.

In my opinion, the theme of an art exhibition has a closed relationship with the place where it presents and who the sponsors they are. Obviously, enjoyment and participation are quite optimistic for the exhibition that presents at The Museum of Art.

Even though most of spectators can’t know the exact meanings of artistic works, they can enjoy the happy mood during the short time visiting. Maybe they won’t have too much thinking, they won’t feel unhappy either.

What we want from an art exhibition? It is a question I keep on thinking during several art excursions. Just for entertainment or for a leisure interest, or for improving my artistic knowledge, or for enjoying a cultural event? In all, If it can’t encourage my thinking, there must be something wrong.

Art excurisions can't be charming and wonderful every time. Just like a lot of people asked when they left galleries, what are they want to present?What are the themes and purposes?

Maybe you can say artists don't express clearly and creatively ,you can also say :"I don't know what I want to view exactly." Sometimes, make others feel confused is somemones' goal.

A book named The Wall

2009-02-26T21:38:00.001-08:00

The Wall :Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art

I began to read a book written by Gao Minglu who was a famous curator and artist present the first Chinese Contemporary /Avant - Garde exhibition in China 1989.The author preferred to treat the book not merely an exhibition catalogue ,but also a concise history of contemporary Chinese Art. What attracted me deeply is it seeks to provide description and interpretation of the development of that art from the twin perspectives of history and context.

The book consists of two main portions. The first portion entails historical description, and the second part discusses the issues of the wall exhibition.

In the outline of the book, Gao gave us the periodization and Chinese Contemporary Art which are built upon a foundation of historical periodization.

1. 1976-1984 The Post-Cultural Revolution Era.
2. 1985-1989 The ’85 Movement.
3. 1990-1999 The “Multipolar Avant –Garde”
4. 2000-Present “The Art Museum Age”.

Obviously, we live in the fourth era that the author supposed. In his view, the emergence of official exhibition of contemporary art ( including the Shanghai Biennial, Guangzhou Triennial, Beijing Biennial ) make the museums have become the major arenas for Chinese contemporary art. Systemically and conceptually,” experimental art” and the museum have been unified. Owing to the museums’ “international” vision and practice, ”Experimental Art” in China has been thoroughly “internationalized” and diversified in terms of both its forms and display. However, as a result ,its avant-garde nature comes to an end.

Gao Minglu’s words reminds of me the travel in Guangzhou Triennial last year. I clearly remember the scene those days. More and more people came into Guangzhou Art Museum and it was so noisy and crowed. In fact, there were little people really watched and appreciated those art works by using their knowledge and cultural background. The event was a big show and happy tour for most people.

You could easily see the diversity and quantity of spectators, it was like a carnival sharing by different classes. However, by the end of the art exhibition, how many people really understand the key theme of Guangzhou Triennial 2008 ? How did the exhibition encourage people to do some critical and deep thinking of contemporary art and culture in China?

Maybe just like the Gao Minglu concluded : Experimental art in China, its avant-garde nature comes to an end.

Travel at Shin Hwa Gallery

2009-02-22T22:28:00.001-08:00

Shin Hwa Gallery

Venue: Shin Hwa Gallery G/F 32 Aberdeen Street Central
Time: Feb 21, 2009

The visiting to Shin Hwa Gallery in Central is an occasion that I haven’t planned yet before. Roaming at Gough Street and Aberdeen Street where local so many tiny galleries and art studios, Shin Hwa Gallery is my new discovery.

The owner of the gallery was a beautiful Korean lady who was so gentle ,if she didn’t speak English I would treat her as a local citizen as usual. And most of works including oil paintings and sculptures in Shin Hwa Gallery are from Korea.

In fact, once I came into a gallery, what I see and what I feel is important.Not only I just go to enjoy some paintings and beautiful looks, but also I want to know the background of the gallery and the cultural value they present.

The temperament of the gallery was quite bright and fresh. White painted walls maintained the main color of it. Some pictures on walls are talked about themes of dreams and fair tales. Most of paintings used blue sky and green lands to show the authors’ love to life.I quickly immersed into the fantastic environment created by those romantic paintings.

The Painting on the right is named Morning Together.

Artist: Kim Ji Eh
Medium: Oil, Ink on Hanji on Canvas
Year:2005

It described two young girls sleeping together and hugged closely in the morning. By using red to enhance the warm and tranquil mood on the work, the author clearly described their invisible happiness and beauty in a visual way. It is said that the truest one in our lives is the one just be awaked from sleeping in the morning. What is more, the most beautiful girls in our minds are those immersed in dreams and imagination. Morning is the special time during a day that you can enjoy your fancy in dream and true life in reality.
Close your eyes like them on the picture, enjoy the fragrant moment~

Artist: KIM Ji Eh
Artwork: Sorrowful Kiss (Standing)
Year: 2005
Medium: Oil, Ink on Hanji on Canvas
Dimension: H45.5 x W27.5 cm

Sorrowful Kiss was another painting done by Kim Ji Eh. However, unlike the fragrant happiness I could feel from Morning Together, The mood was a little painful.
It is obvious that Kim Ji Eh tried to use gesture and color to express the theme she want to tell rather than depicting facial details. You couldn’t see much expressions on those characters’ faces, what they left us just their standing shadow in the light red tint.
In fact, red is a special color in painting, not only it can show happiness and fortune, but also can express our pain and sorrow fiercely and dramatically. Maybe the lovers kissing on the painting just ending their quarrel or a long-time separation.
A kiss is the most simple manner to express your love and communicate with lover.
When you are kissing, just close your eyes and enjoy the fancy moment you can’t miss.

Box of Revelation

2009-02-19T01:54:00.001-08:00

New Media Arts Exhibition Project:
Intermedia Experiment at Hong Kong Art Center
Box of Revelation

Time :Feb 14,2009(Valentine Day)

Venue:HKAS

On Feb 14,Laurel and I enjoyed our Valentine Day Celebration at HKAS.The following New Media Arts Exhibition Project was the fantastic event we experienced on that romantic day.

About the Project

"New Media Arts Exhibition Project-Intermedia Experiment at HKAS" is a multi-facted project that consist of a series of workshops on the implementation of technology in immersive time-based experiences,a week -long exhibition, and a series of performances that showcase students work along side with those from professional visualand performing artists.

Installation Exhibition:Box of Revelation

When I read the introduction of Installation: Box of Revelation printed on the pamphlet before coming the studio at HKAS, I felt confused and couldn’t understand the concept they preached clearly ,but I could feel the theme they presented: universal connectivity and global omniscience.
Watching the four screen around us at McAulay Studio, I was attracted by various pictures ,numbers and words that moving quickly on the digital vents. They caught your mind but you didn’t know what will you see at next scene. Mystery was my first impression of the workshop.
Several young performers playing laptops as a part of performance of the workshop caused my curiosity. I wondered what kinds of sound they wound make. In fact, they were not formal performers, they were creating a transient soundscape for pre-set before the musical performance.

Special Performance:Quartet for the end of time

The special performance of Olivier Missiaen’ s work is an important part of the new media arts project. Enjoying the wonderful music with my friend Laurel is a great pleasure at our Valentine’s Day.
The musical performance was last for more than one hour and half ,and the mystical music made up of eight short chapters gave us a fantastic and vivid feeling. When we listened to the music by sitting around those musicians at McAulay Studio, we easily immersed into the illusory environment the composer created, which was a mystical, colorful and fantastic. Just like the introduction said, the Quartet was to be a kind of musical extension of the Biblical account , and Mr Missiaen tried to tell the concept of the end of Time as the end of past and future and the beginning of eternity from his music. For Oliver Missiaen, his work was also a musical sense to the angel’s announcement from heaven.
When I listened those different chapters that presented complicated and romantic impressions, I can’t stop looking at the digital vents above my head.
By enjoying those black-and-white animations on the screen that expressed the musical theme in a visual way, I felt that I came into a dreamland where full of elves and angels. What is more, four musicians who played the piano, violin, cello and clarinet in dark black were so attractive under the silver light at the stage center. The expressions on their faces were also quiet remarkable and seduced me much more visual imagination of the music.

Vivienne Westwood-A Life in Fashion

2009-02-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

I can never be as fashionable as her when I was teenage girl.

Will I be as ugly as her when I am an old woman?

Vivienne Westwood-A Life in Fashion

Venue: ArtisTree,3/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place
Time: Dec 1,2008-Jan 31,2009

You have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes.

--Vivienne Westwood

I can’t remember when the first time I heard of the name:Vivienne Westwood was, maybe it was at my fifteen or sixteen. But I can clearly remember her first impression coming to my mind from CCTV-4, which was a vivid and fashionable old lady wearing colorful dress made you supposed that she was quite special and different from other women at her age.

I use rebellion to describe the outstanding fashion designer who created a real legend.

The fantastic fashion exhibition about Vivienne Westwood has been a big attraction in Hong Kong Island since last year.I enjoyed my happy Christmas Eve there with Winnie.

She is the most famous fashion designer I knew.The show was a little wierd and nostaglic.After viewing VIvienne's successful works through the past fifty years, I wanna to say ,simpleness is a fashion trend forever.

Former Central School Envisioning Days

2009-02-11T19:46:00.000-08:00

Time: Feb 21,2009

Venue: Sheung Wan

When I came to Shi Hwa Gallery in Sheung Wan, the beautiful Korean lady gave me the ticket of the exhibition of Former Central School Envisioning Days.And the location was just near the gallery.

I came into that ground that used to be a famous school and went up stairs to enjoy some studios' works that.I didn't know why during the whole excursion I kept on thinking of Yu Hua's novels and proses talking about his childhood in a big ground full of bloody clothes from his father's hospital.The open ground now in front of me on Feb 21 gave me a remote and vivid imagination of the avant-garde writer at contemporary Chinese literature field.

It was no secret that the atmosphere at the former school in Sheung Wan was full of myth and memory.When I walked across its rooms one by one, I could feel the aura its owners left for years.The real feeling was untold and quite weird, but you could note that it was just there and around you.I couldn't concerete my mind on artistic works appreciation, I still thought of Yu Hua and that eccentric world he built by his pen.

Most of his works shared a brutally sad experience of reality, while his expression was simple and calm.It was the same feeling the exhibition and the big ground gave me that day.By watching the peaceful environment full of relic,I seriouly enjoyed the history with special emotion.

Elective Affinities

2009-01-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

After Lunar New Year Holidays, I began to read a novel written by Goethe named Elective Affinities. It is Goethe's third novel work, and its theme is not only on love and marriage, but also our destinies.
Finding ourselves by facing the confliction with the social's laws and our consciousnesses.Those words are written as a recommendation for the book.
It is a fantastic work describes a moving story of love and affection, the very human feeling of a genius.
Walter Benjamin wrote an article named Goethe's Elective Affinities. He compared Ottilie with one of his girlfriends beyond marriage, a real and dreamful angel in his short and legendary life.

Osage-Miao Xiaochun's Microcosm

2009-01-22T06:10:00.000-08:00

Fotanian:Fotan Artists Open Studios-1023

2009-01-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

The studio located in Unit 23,10/F ,Wah Luen Industrial Center is the one that gives me the most deeply memory during the excursion. Not only because those paintings are based on some true stories and historical tales ,but also the characteristics of the gallery itself.

The Picture above is based on famous female painter Pan Yuliang's story. She was a painter that had drawn a lot of fantastic pictures in 1930s both in China and France, most of them described female's naked beauties. She experienced a legendary life and never had her own child. The above picture describes her happy family life with her husband Pan Zhanhua and his son. It was completed when she came back from Paris to China. And her husband named it My Family.

Besides this one, the painters in the gallery also used other themes such as Shaolin Soccer and Rides on a Solitary Journey to do further visual recreations.

I knew the picture of Pan Yuliang from a movie named La Peintre(1994), acted by Gong Li and directed by famous female director Huang Shuqin.

Literature, Movie and Humanism

2009-01-10T01:38:00.000-08:00

Lecture: Literature ,Movie and Humanism

Venue: Hong Kong Central Library

Time: Jan 9,2009

Famous Professor Leo Oufan gave the interesting lecture to celebrate the 45th anniversary of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.Tiecheng,Zero and I enjoyed the lecture together at that night.

I like read Leo's articles talking about Pan-Chinese movies and Hong Kong metropolitan culture.Besides attending the lecture, I used to go to his courses on modernism and post-modernism.

At the lecture, Leo shared his interest and taste of movie and literature to us, and combining with the fact of Hong Kong 's situation.

Leo is a quite romantic and gentle old man,he shared his love story with his wife on his books, very impressive and peaceful love story.That night, I first saw his wife who wearing beautifully and elegantly.She is a special woman having the lasting charm.

Welcome to Little Kristin's Crossroad

2009-01-09T00:57:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Little Kristin's Crossroad