Plenty of good art - if you can find it

Reporter's Log | Mu Qian

In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games included not only athletes, but artists, too.

The modern Olympic Games have inherited that tradition, and culture has always been an important part of the Games.

During the 2012 Olympics, thousands of performances and cultural events are being held in the UK, presenting artists from all around the world.

Among them are Chinese artists, who are involved in a number of serial events to promote Chinese culture, including Beijing Culture Week, Discover Jiangsu Culture Week and The Night of China at the London 2012 Fine Arts Exhibition.

These events showcase some of the most established Chinese artists at some of the most prestigious venues in London.

China's Three Tenors, for instance, put on a concert at the Barbican Center and the Olympic City Development Forum at the Museum of London, and the Jinling Figurative Paintings of China had an exhibition at the Central Hall Westminster.

The Games are now the world's focus and can be a great platform for promoting Chinese culture.

But, unfortunately, most of the Chinese cultural events in London seem to have not received due attention.

There has been little coverage by the UK media, and there's scarcely any online information about them in English.

Beijing Culture Week had planned a news conference in London but canceled it at the last minute. At the opening ceremony of the Discover Jiangsu Culture Week, the organizer provided a news release in Chinese, but not in English.

Some performances did not sell tickets but only invited guests through the Chinese embassy. When I went to a performance at the Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, I noticed that more than 90 percent of the audience was Chinese.

"There are very few performances of Chinese theater in London, and this is quite a unique opportunity for us to see Kunqu," says Robin Haller, a London banker and one of the few English audience members.

"Unfortunately, the show received such a small exposure. It could have been better publicized."

A more successful example is the Beijing Symphony Orchestra's joint concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

About 90 percent of the Royal Festival Hall's 2,900 seats were full for the concert, which combined the London Philharmonic Orchestra's marketing power with the freshness of two new Chinese works performed by the Beijing Symphony Orchestra.

It was a well-curated concert and a win-win plan for both orchestras.

There is a Chinese saying, that "good wine needs no bush".

That's not entirely true, especially when the wine is being exported.

Better promotion and marketing would do no harm, even for the high arts.

Contact the writer at muqian@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 08/04/2012 page7)