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7/20 Snapshots of Rural China, Talk by Ignatius Ding

A Kung Fu Night

On May 4^th 20 young performers from Fremont’s Legend Kung Fu Academy demonstrated traditional Wushu, from the Longfist to the Southern Broadsword to the Drunken Fist to the Eagle. The performers, ranging in age from six to twenty jumped, twirled, flipped and split, making us feel as though we were on the set of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Legend Kung Fu Performs May 4th

Member John Marienthal Writes From Shanghai

John Marienthal writes from Shanghai:

Hello from the second biggest city in world--now 24 million people—where I am doing some volunteer lecturing.  The weather has just broken 70 degrees here. 

I recently went to Zhejiang, to visit a family I know in Wuyi county.  It is something I’ve done almost every year for the past ten years, and is a real joy. I have watched their children grow up. I sit down with them at a meal and become "invisible" no fretting or fawning over the wai guo ren (foreigner).  I am treated as just part of the family.  

Wuyi Xian (county) is located halfway between Hangzhou and Wenzhou (the shoe capital of China).  The town's claim to fame is a 700-year-old wooden bridge that crosses a river in the middle of the town.  The landscape is like Guilin only prettier because they get rain year round.  There are karst-like hills, volcanic lava flows, mountains to 2000 to 3000 feet.  In some ways many of the things that you can see in Wuyi mirror positive things for China's future. 

When I first went to Wuyi County in 2002 it had about 35000 people and six taxis.  Now it has 50,000 people and they are even building  a Walmart. They still have the KFC there from ten years ago,  but still no McDonald's or Starbucks. In 2002 it was a farming center. Now, like many other small Chinese cities, it is a specialized industrial center. The town is the hub for the steel door, safety door and security door capital of China.  High growth has forced up housing prices. In 2002 prices were about 1000 rmb per square meter. Now they are reaching 12000 rmb per sq. meter. 

I sat in on a ninth-grade English class. As part of their lesson they read a passage about credit cards, ATM's, and a cashless future via virtual money online.  In 2002 all those things would have seemed like science fiction. Yet today ALL three are now available in Wuyi. 

It used to take seven hours on the slow train to reach this town. Now it takes 1 1/2 hours to get to nearby Jinhua by fast train. The high speed train to Jinhua can travel at 175 miles per hour, but because of the 2011 accident on this same track it is restricted to 130 mph.

There are high speed rail connections to most of the highly-populated cities in eastern China . There is even a new connection that runs between Hong Kong/Canton  to Beijing. Here in Shanghai the trains are formidable competition to airplane travel to Beijing. You can get on the fastest train and go from the subway in  Shanghai  to downtown Beijing in five hours. No long airport security lines, waiting for baggage, trying to find transport at the other end.

I hope to do more traveling while I am here.   
Good health to you all,

John

Upcoming Brush Painting Demonstration

Shirley Lin Kinoshita will be demonstrating sumi-e (Japanese ink painting) Sat. April 26th ,10 am-4 pm at the Annual Cupertino Cherry Blossom Festival at Quinlan Community Center. The Festival is free and open to the public. Parking is available at Quinlan lot or DeAnza college.

Re-Cap of April Meeting with Artist Shirley Lin Kinoshita

According to artist Shirley Lin Kinoshita, Chinese Ink Painting is not only the oldest art form in the world, dating back 2-4,000 years, but is one of the highest art forms in China. Despite this, she joked, no Asian parent wants his/her child to be an artist. “Study to be a doctor. Or lawyer!”

Kinoshita studied library science on full scholarship at UC Berkeley. For years she was a full-time Medical Library Manager at Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital. It was only when she cut back on her hours as she neared retirement that she decided to explore something different. A Chinese brush painting class was on offer, so she gave that a try. She was immediately hooked, not only painting for profit but also teaching others the form.

Ink Painting consists of Four Treasures:

Ink (pine soot mixed with glue molded into sticks),

Inkstone,

Brush (made with animal hair and invented around 250B.C),

and paper (invented by Chinese court official Ts’ai Lun around 105AD).

There are also Six Canons of Chinese painting that every student learns, rules that were created in 500AD by the painter Hsieh Ho.

1.      Chi’I sheng-tung: Create spirit/life/vitality in art

2.      Ku-fa Yung-Pi: Use the brush to create structure

3.      Ying-wu hsiang-hsing: Draw its likeness

4.      Sui-lei fu-ts’ai: Apply color in accordance with nature (i.e.no purple sunflowers)

5.      Ching-ying wei-chi: Plan the design with each element in its proper place

6.      Ch’uan-I mo-hseih: Study by copying the old masters

Of these six rules, Kinoshita said, the first—qi/spirit-- is the most important. In fact, “Asian brush painting is more spiritual than physical. It is believed that the best painters are pure of spirit.” Underlying the philosophy of ink painting is the unifying pattern of life in all its natural forms. She pointed out, “Man is a humble, insignificant part in this scheme.”

Kinoshita held up paintings she had done of bunnies representing life, and a rooster, hen and chicks representing family, and three goldfish representing abundant wealth. She explained that there were four plants most typically depicted, also known as “the four gentlemen.” 

She drew each one of the Four Gentlemen for us:

Bamboo (representing strength and resilience.),

Chrysanthemum (representing fidelity and friendship),

Plum Blossoms (representing endurance)

and the Orchid (representing humility.).  

As she said, “Chinese painting is much more than meets the eye. The composition can easily be read, but unless its inner and symbolic meanings are recognized, the whole painting will only be partially enjoyed.”

While Kinoshita still paints, it is mostly for herself and to teach her grandchildren. These days her days are filled as President of the Silicon Valley United Nations Association. However, for those interested in pursuing their artistic side, Kinoshita recommended two artists in the area. Ming Lee at the Cupertino Senior Center and Judy Chu at the Sunnyvale Community Center.

(Photos courtesy of Billy Lee)