Reviews
Art
Masterful mind games
Wang Qingsong, an innovative Chinese artist, is holding a solo show entitled Thinker at the China Blue Gallery in southern Beijing. The exhibition runs until June 6. Known among art fans for his mind-boggling images in his photographic works, Wang presents at least 30 of his latest pictures and video art at the exhibition.
Since the 1990s, Wang has tried to express his observations of modern life, such as rampant consumerism in his funny-looking and thought-provoking works of oil paintings, video works and rehearsed photos. The pieces usually juxtapose commercial posters, slogans, signs of money notes and symbolic images in art history with trivial details in daily life.
Zhu Linyong
Auction
Spring auctions
Beijing Forever Auctions is to hold its spring sales today at the Sheraton Great Wall Hotel (Beijing) where 410 lots will go under the hammer with an estimated total sales volume of 38 million yuan ($4.90 million). A special sale this morning features 130 smaller ink paintings by master painters such as Fu Baoshi, Qi Baishi and Xu Beihong, on silk or paper fans.
Two collections of 48 ink paintings created during the 1950s-70s by 23 Chinese ink painting artists will also go on sale. These works cover almost all the leading painting schools in modern China. The two painting album is expected to fetch up to 2-2.5 million yuan ($260,000-325,000).
Other highlights include master Chinese ink painter Li Kuchan's 1961 huge hanging scroll entitled Eagles and Pine Trees (pictured); Cloudy Mountains, a majestic landscape painting by innovative master painter Li Keran; and Hermits at the Lake by internationally renowned Chinese ink artist Zhang Daqian.
ZLY
DVD
Freedom Writers
Directed by Richard LaGravenese, starring Hilary Swank, Patrick Dempsey
On the heels of the riots following the Rodney King verdict, the Long Beach school system began voluntary integration in hopes of creating a more tolerant and unified community. Instead, the situation deteriorated, and classrooms became hotbeds of racial tension and gang violence.
This film is based on the true story of Room 203 - a microcosm of Los Angeles at the time, and perhaps the world today. Into this walks Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) who naively believes her arsenal of ideals can disarm the wars on the streets.
But when she finds she can't get through to these troubled teens, she gives them journals - ultimately, giving them a voice. Gruwell ultimately inspires this class of nobodies-going-nowhere-fast to become somebodies with goals beyond surviving to age 18.
Swank's performance proves truly inspiring, and her students' stories are conveyed in ways that successfully yank at the heartstrings. However, the way the storyline unfolds leaves viewers wondering how much liberty was taken with the script.
It seems that Hollywood's handling of the plotline accounts for the cheesier and melodramatic tenets of this film.
The portrayed administration, for example, seems a little too determined to keep these promising-but-underprivileged students down. And Swank's students' sudden and dramatic turnarounds seem a little too, well, sudden and dramatic.
But all liberties aside, the story remains inspirational, and is something more than a spin-off of Dangerous Minds, because it reminds us that people like Gruwell and her students are real, and sometimes, they even win their battles. And so can we.
Erik Nilsson
(China Daily 05/15/2007 page20)
