Cultural interactions

Peking University will host a two-day workshop titled, Historical and Cultural Interactions between China and India, to mark the 100th birth anniversary of the renowned Indologist, professor Ji Xianlin (1911-2009).

Professor Ji founded the department of Eastern languages at Peking University, becoming dean of the department and pioneering the field of Eastern studies in China. The workshop is organized by Peking University, India's Nalanda University, and Singapore's Nalanda-Sriwijaya Center.

The keynote speakers are Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his contributions to welfare economics, and George Yeo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore.

While Sen will talk on Higher Education in History: Asia and Europe, Yeo will focus on Nalanda and the Asian Renaissance.

10:30 am, Oct 15, 16. Multifunctional Hall, Peking University Hall, inside Peking University, Haidian district. 010-6275-2278

A city lights up

Italian company, Flos, is holding an exhibition of modern lights at the National Museum of China, which will end on Oct 17. As part of Beijing Design Week (Sept 26-Oct 3), Flos' designs also lit up the popular commercial area of Jinbao Street, Wangfujing, to show that design is an inseparable part of everyday life. The exhibition showcases the works of Italian Marcel Wanders and Frenchman Philippe Starck.

Flos was founded in 1962 in Merano by Dino Gavina and Cesare Cassina.

Calligraphy is art

The Palace Museum is holding a special exhibition on Chinese calligraphy.

It will have vintage copies of ancient calligraphy masterpieces such as the running script work Lantingji Xu (Preface to Poems Composed Near the Orchid Pavilion) by Wang Xizhi (AD 321-379) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420).

The original work is lost. In the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) many copies were made of Wang's famous work, which describes the beauty of the Orchid Pavilion and a get-together of Wang and his friends.

Some believe the original was buried with Tang Emperor Taizong. The Tang copy by Feng Chengsu, widely considered the best of the subsequent copies, is in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

9 am-5 pm, until Dec 5. 4 Jingshan Qianjie, Dongcheng district. 010-6513-2255/1892