THE TRIP TO THE NANJING BROCADE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

I went to the Nanjing Brocade Research Institute on Feb. 5th with a foreign family which was travelling to China at that time. They family was very interested in the Cloud Brocades and asked me that where they could buy some of the Cloud Brocades. I suggested them to go to this museum and joined their trip to the museum as well.
The Nanjing Brocade Research Institute was a museum where people could see many beautiful Cloud Brocades. The museum was located on East Cha Ting Road. There were four floors in the institute. The first floor displayed the production technology for Brocade The second floor displayed beautiful silk fabrics duplications of ancient dynasties and different Brocade patterns, including both loyal and folk clothes, their dynasties span from Warring States to Ming, Qing Dynasties and to modern times. The third floor exhibited Chinese minorities’ various looms, fabrics articles, nationality trappings, etc. The fourth floor displayed Brocade garments and minority trappings.
I like the artwork “On the Beach” very much. I showed the picture on the blog too. This was a very beautiful Cloud Brocade, and it took 1 year to make. On the Cloud Brocade, there was a woman holding a green bottle, and it seemed that she was finding something around. I like this artwork very much because it gave me a sense of relaxes and peace.
I like to go to this museum very much. Although I have been there before, I feel very excited. I think this museum represents a culture of Nanjing. As a person who lived in Nanjing for a long time, I believe it is my responsibility to learn the culture about China. Also, I think I will develop myself during the process of leaning the culture.

AN EXCURSION TO THE EXHIBITION

At the art class on Dec. 4th, our class,10-C and class 10-A went to an exhibition together. The exhibition was held in Nanjing University, and it was an exhibition mainly for famous sculptures. I saw a lot of sculptures which were made by Professor Wu Weishan at the exhibition. Professor Wu is a techer in Nanjing University, and he is a very famous sculptor too. There were also some artworks from other artists. There were both traditional artworks and contemporary artwoks at the exhibition.

I took many photos at the exhibition. Attached photo was the picture of me with my favourite sculpture which was called “A Bing” and made by Professor Wu Weishan in 2002. This artwork was a sculpture about one of the Chinese most famous musicians, A Bing. The sculpture were made by copper with brown color. The lines were exquisite and quite complicated. The subject is the person “A Bing ” in the artwork. The artist designed a special pose for “A Bing” which seemed like he was thinking about a music.

This artwork makes me feel harmonious and changes my thought toward a famous people. In my mind, a famouse person is usually serious and glassy-eyed. However, in the artwork “A Bing”, there was a nice smile on A Bing’s face. With that smile, A Bing seemed very friendly and happy. The smile on his face was not only warm, but also powerful. From his smile, I could know that he was a person who was not afraid of bad people and corrupt government. He would try his best to brought other people in the society a happy life. This artwork reminds me a lot of heros’ name from the past. There were a lot of heros just like A Bing, who were always affirmative and never gave up. Without them, we won’t get such a great life today. I think the artist wants to tell us, no matter what a bad condition we are in, we can’t give up. We need to study from A Bing, always bring a smile on our face, and try our best to go over all the problems.

I like this artwork very much because from this artwork, I realize that the most useful way to go over a problem, is keep going, and never give up. I feel this way from A Bing’s smile which gives me confidence. I think that other people might appreciate this artwork because they will realize the same thing as I do. After seeing this artwork, they might strart trying their best to do everything.

I like this exhibition very much. I think the exhibition is quite interesting. In the exhibition, I saw a lot of beautiful and meaningful sculptures which made by Professor Wu Weishan and many other sculptors. These greatful artists used their artwork to show Chinese culture and spirit to the whole world. From those artworks, I knew more about the Chinese statuary which I thought was very useful for me too. On the other hand, I learnt from the artists as well. It was hard for an artist to creat a sculpture, they would meet a lot of problems, but they would not give up. That is the most valuable thing I learnt from the exhibition.

I really enjoyed this exhibition and learnt a lot from it.

GUEST ARTIST

On Dec. 1st, Professor Zhao Bing （the man in the photo on the left side of the article）came to our school and gave us a speech. Mr. Zhao Bing is a landscape architect, and he is a teacher in Nanjing Forestry University. As an expert on landscaping, Professor Zhao Bing had many works. His artwork was located in many famous places, like Confucius Temple and Suzhou Classical Gardens. Mr. Zhao introduced us something about the design of the Suzhou Classical Gardens.

During the presentation, Mr. Zhao told us how the people designed the Suzhou Classical Gardens. There were two important way to design a garden. Planting was a very important part for a garden. Different types of planting might create different senses of feeling to people. Suzhou Classical Gardens used a very special way to build up the plantations. The designers planted different kinds of trees around the houses. People would think that the houses were hidden behind the forests.

The second way of designing was using water to separate the houses. Many people thought water was the best thing in the world. Water was very clean, when you looked down into the water, it would show yourself truly. That’s the reason why people in ancient China loved water very much. In the Suzhou Classical Gardens, many houses were separated by different sizes of lake or pounds. During the summer time, these lakes could provide people a cool environment. Also, the lakes around the house could make the person calm down. The designers wanted to use the lakes to create a sense of serenity to the people who lived there.

Mr. Zhao Bing also mentioned that a garden might be influenced by the designer’s emotion. For example, an active designer might made a garden which could make people felt energetic. On the other hand, a designer which is not very emotional might create a garden which could let people felt calmness.

Actually, I don’t like this presentation very much. I think this presentation was a little bit boring. Professor Zhao Bing used very nice pictures of Suzhou Classical Gardens to show us how the people decorated the gardens while he was saying. I like the way he used very much. However, Mr. Zhao Bing used many professional words which were very hard for me to understand. It was boring for me to sit there for more than 1 hour and just seeing the pictures without understanding the most of the speech.