Not "All Business and No Art"
CEIBS’ first Annual Culture & Arts Festival attracted six star performers and experts during two months of performances introducing alumni, students and faculty to the different faces of modern art.
"Life without art is imperfect". So the saying goes. But while we all know that art makes our lives richer, fuller, and more interesting, it is often overlooked. For those of us working 70 hours a week in China’s go-go business environment, who has time to take in a new painting exhibition, classical music concert, or modern dance performances?
To give CEIBS alumni easy access to some of China’s finest artists and performers, the school organized a series of performances and talks from August 31 to October 20, 2007. The CEIBS EMBA First Annual Culture & Arts Festival, held at the Shanghai campus, invited artists from across a broad spectrum of genres to share their insights into the present and future of art in China, from modern dance to literature, painting to pop music.
Featured artists included the popular Taiwan-based a cappella group O-Kai Singers, internationally renowned modern dancer/choreographer Jin Xing, China Writers’ Association President Tie Ning, “Godfather of Chinese Pop Music” singer/songwriter Luo Dayou, and Tunghai University Creative and Arts College Dean Ni Zaiqin.
To follow are highlights of the festival.
World’s most beautiful music
What instrument makes the most beautiful music in the world? Is it the piano, violin, saxophone or a full symphony orchestra? Surprisingly, the instrument known as the world’s “first musical instrument” and widely considered most versatile and moving is the human voice. A capella singing (singing without musical accompaniment) can produce a richness of expression and a purity of emotion that is hard to imagine unless you hear it for yourself.
Bringing the CEIBS campus a taste of world-class a capella, the O-Kai Singers opened the Cultural & Arts Festival with their August 31 performance. This Taiwan-based singing troupe, formed in 2004, has won Taiwan’s annual a cappella competition repeatedly since then, and collected a silver medal in the 2005 “Ward Swingle Award” in Graz, Austria. Classical conductor and tenor Günther Theuring, describes the O-Kai Singers in this way: “Their voices are so special - such talent is rarely found even in Vienna.” In 2007, the group was nominated as the “International a cappella ambassador” for the Taiwan Choral Music Center.
During their breathtaking performance at CEIBS, the audience was particularly taken with the bright, penetrating vocal talents of the troupe’s soprano singer, and with the group’s uncanny talent for imitating musical instruments as accompaniment. During the concert, the troupe showed their full range of talent by performing more than 20 songs across a repertoire including fast-paced jazz and solemn gospel, lively Taiwanese folk songs and classical music. All those present at the concert experienced the singers’ power to transport audiences away from the hassles of modern life.
Everyone can dance
"Modern dance is much more than the mastery of technique in order to create aesthetically pleasing expressions: Instead, this performing art allows dancers - and audiences - to wriggle free of the strict rules of classical ballet, resulting in the liberation of a dancer’s body and thought.”
So explained choreographer Jin Xing, a former army colonel who is now one of China’s best known dance experts, at her intimate talk during the festival. Jin has been described by U.S. reviewers as being gifted with “a thrilling and sensual dance vocabulary.” During her talk at CEIBS, she explained that each modern dancer should perform as an independent person - made of flesh and blood - instead of performing as merely a "prop" or “decoration.” She also stressed that individual dancers should not perform mechanically, under the guidance of a director, but should listen to their own emotions and follow their soul.
Jin looks for “life experience and maturity” in her dancers, in order to deliver the necessary expressiveness of modern dance. Based on this principle, Jin Xing told audiences that the best age for a dancer is between 28 and 38 years of age, and stressed that, with the principles of self expression and pure emotions in mind, "everyone can dance."
With those principles in mind, Jin showed the CEIBS audience videos of four of the best known dances of the Jinxing Dancing Troupe. The first, 502, named after a famous super-glue sold in China, tells the story of a couple who fall deeply in love and cannot live apart; the second, Red Wine expresses a woman’s need for variety in her life; and the third, Sea Tango, depicts a love triangle adapted from the famous 1930s Chinese play Thunderstorm. Finally, Chinese Dream in the Park depicts a woman protagonist who sets her emotions and creative spirit into motion. Through these works, Jin explained that choreography is an integral part of her personal and professional growth and development. “It is a kind of growth process for me, rather than a dance creation,” she told CEIBS alumni and students. She concluded by urging audiences not to try to understand modern dance, but to” feel" the performances, experiencing the attitudes and expressions. “You can open your imagination completely, and feel what the artist presents,” she said. “For my dances, 1000 audience members will have 1000 different viewpoints - but that is normal”.
Smart collecting
Should buyers collect art as an investment? No, said Christies’ Asia Area Vice President Ye Zhengyuan, in his address to CEIBS. While Ye warned against taking a mercenary approach to purchasing art, he also supplied practical advice for art buyers in his September 14 talk.
"We shouldn't regard art as investment. We should collect art for love,” he said. “If you are interested in a particular type of art work, you will feel your way forward in educating and training yourself to recognize quality. Eventually, when you finally begin purchasing, your purchases will repay you well. But the real reward in buying art is the fun gained from the whole process.”
Ye went on to introduce three channels for collecting artwork. The first method - purchasing through an art gallery - offers the benefits of flexible time (buyers can purchase on their own time, at their own pace), while the challenge is that prices are often not publicly stated, but require negotiation. Ye warned collectors to purchase through a gallery only if they are fully familiar with the market and with current prices. He also warned newcomers to the industry that general art galleries cannot distinguish fact from fiction concerning the artworks they sell - meaning that buyers should purchase artwork only from established and respected galleries.
Purchasing through an art auction, on the other hand, offers buyers a wide selection of artworks but only during a fixed time period in either the spring or autumn. Meanwhile, buying through private collectors, and auction agents offers the advantage of guaranteeing the value of the artwork.
How do you know if your artwork is valuable? Ye urged would-be collectors to investigate five key factors when determining artwork value: quality; history of ownership; condition of work, rarity, and current collecting trends.
Importance of reading
Living, as we do, in the midst of a global information explosion has made reading a book - and devoting one’s full attention, heart and mind - an extravagant luxury. However, despite having become a rarity, reading remains an extremely important and effective means of gaining knowledge. These were the key points made by China Writers’ Association President Tie Ning, at her September 16 presentation to CEIBS.
In her lecture, Tie divided reading mindsets into three categories that have evolved in China due to events of recent history. First, she described “influential reading,” in which the books or works have a significant impact on the thinking of an individual or a whole society. Pointing to herself as an example, she told how the heroic story Jean Christophe, by famed French author Romain Rolland, taught her an important lesson as a young woman. The tale of a flawed but ultimately good and noble hero taught her to value the good in herself and others, rather than focusing on the inevitable weak points in any individual. This message strengthened her sense of self-worth, which had been diminished during the Cultural Revolution. “Such reading is weighty, it carries a force that really affects you. But it is a sweet and rewarding kind of burden,” she says.
A second kind of reading mode emerged in China in the 1980s, when the country opened its gates to the world after four decades of isolation. At the time, hunger for the written word spread throughout the nation, and reading changed from being an unpopular (and even dangerous) pastime to a welcomed activity that people could schedule into their free time. “In 1980s, reading became open and above-board - people began to think highly of reading again rather than devaluing or discouraging it.”
Today, a third and negative type of reading has emerged. Influenced by rapid economic development, Chinese have come to over-emphasize the financial or economic value of reading.
Ideally, Tie says the goal of reading should be not to learn to make more money but to enrich yourself and “liberate your heart.” This type of reading, she says, allows people to relax and experience the pure joy of reading itself. It also inspires people to gain cultural knowledge and to improve communication between different peoples and societies.
"This kind of reading can enrich your soul, develop your opinion of the world and enhance your appreciation of other people,” says Tie. Thus the humble act of “ideal” reading, can positively impact modern society.
Beautiful scene
One of the best features of the First Annual CEIBS EMBA Culture & Arts Festival was that the event spread an artistic environment onto the campus for seven weeks this fall. On September 14, CEIBS launched an exhibition of EMBA student art. Eight classmates and alumni submitted paintings, photos or other works of art for the exhibition.
The final exhibition featured 15 selected photographs by Deng Hua (EMBA 2006), Li Zhanying (EMBA 2007) and four other EMBA students, seven gift samples for CEIBS designed by Xu Weidong (EMBA 2006) and 30 paintings by Huang Ruifang (EMBA 2007).
All told, the inaugural annual EMBA Culture & Arts Festival attracted more than 1,500 participants in two months, each enjoying the opportunity to escape the rigors of business and academia to enter the world of art.
