Beijing

Echoes of the Silk Road

Yo-Yo Ma will lead his Silk Road Ensemble in concert in Beijing. The ensemble was founded by Ma in 1998. Its performance combines musical instruments of different countries and the program takes inspiration from the historic Silk Road trading routes, seeing it as metaphor in a multicultural modern society.

7:30 pm, March 10. National Center for Performing Arts, east of Tian'anmen Square. 010-6655-0000

French flute

French flutist Julien Beaudiment from Orchestre National de Lyon will give his solo concert in Beijing. The 34-year-old has performed around the world as a soloist and with many orchestras. He is famous for his creative performances of classical operas. His repertoire in Beijing will include pieces of Debussy, Faur, Franck and Ravel. Chinese pianist Cui Honggen from the Central Conservatory of Music will be his pianist in the concert.

7:30 pm, Feb 25. National Center for Performing Arts Concert Hall, east of Tian'anmen Square. 010-6655-0000

Historian's collection

All 140 pieces of ancient Chinese paintings donated by historian Deng Tuo (1912-66) in 1964 will go public for the first time in an exhibition that commemorates the centenary of Deng's birth. Many of the pieces are created by celebrated painters throughout several Chinese dynasties, including Su Shi and Tang Yin. It takes three years to repair the paintings.

9 am-5 pm, until April 10. National Arts Museum of China, 1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district. 010-6401-7076

Shanghai

Phil's love songs

Veteran pop singer from Taiwan, Phil Chang (Zhang Yu), will give a concert. The 45-year-old singer and songwriter is famous for his unique interpretation of sad love songs and has many golden hits in his career span of the past 20 years.

7:30 pm, March 3. Mercedes-Benz Arena, 1200 Expo Avenue. 021-6217-2426

Nostalgia workshop

Fourteen artists from China, South Korea and Japan are featured in the exhibition Nostalgia - East Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition, a show organized by MoCA Shanghai and the Korean Foundation. According to curator Kim Sunhee, the show expresses nostalgia for traditional art that has been lost in East Asian contemporary art during its growth under the influence of Western modern art.

10 am-9:30 pm, Feb 18-May 1. Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, Gate 7, People's Park, 231 Nanjing West Road. 021-6327-9900

Eclectic collection

The ongoing exhibition highlights many of the artists who have shown in solo or group exhibitions at the gallery during the past year, and will also include two new artists, Wang Xieda and Shi Zhiying. The landscape and natural world will be evident in the paintings by Joan Nelson, Karen Seapker, Shi Zhiying and Yuko Murata, whereas Ji Yunfei's major three-meter scroll work Floating Weed #3, populated with displaced, migrating inhabitants around The Three Gorges Dam region, reveals another story about the landscape undergoing traumatic manmade changes affecting the lives of thousands.

10 am-6 pm, Tue-Sat; 12-6 pm, Sun and Mon by appointment; until Feb 29. James Cohan Gallery, 1F, Building 1, 1 Lane 170 Yueyang Road. 021-5466-0825

His other talent ...

Fang Wei, 42, has been an antique dealer, restaurant owner and studio director active in the Shanghai art scene for the past eight years, but few people are aware of his role as an original artist. Shanghai Gallery of Art is presenting a debut exhibition of Fang, showcasing his watercolor and oil paintings of still life and portraits.

11 am-9 pm, Feb 18-March 18. Shanghai Gallery of Art, 3F, 3 on the Bund. 021-6323-3355

Hong Kong

Artistic characters

Sin Sin's love for art extends beyond the boundaries of country and medium, and her current exhibition showcases an international array of contemporary artists. Lee Man-sang is a reclusive Hong Kong native whose work combines Chinese oil, paper and natural wood. New York-based Rick Lewis uses mixed media to carve upon canvases his interpretations of historical and fictional events. French artist Herv Maury's mixed media paintings are inspired by animals and display a highly textural New Brush technique. And Tokyo-based French-Columbian artist Pablo Posada Pernikoff's abstract works are rendered through metallic lines upon paper.

9:30 am-6:30 pm, Tue-Sat; 1:30 -6:30 pm, Sun; until March 2. Sin Sin Fine Art, 53-54 Sai Street, Sheung Wan. 852-2858-5072

Hear no evil

We often use the phase "watch a movie" - yet for the deaf, that is exactly what they are doing. At the Second Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival, films made for the hearing impaired will be showcased in six categories. Asian Spectacles offer the best of Asian films designed for the deaf; Panaroma of Deafhood covers films about being deaf; Resisting Discrimination encompasses movies about deaf people fighting against prejudice in society; Signs of Romance explore romantic comedies and tragedies made by the hearing impaired; Animated Visions is a showcase of animation created by deaf artists; and Deaf, Blind and Deaf Athletics are films about the hearing and visually impaired in sports.

Feb 24-26. Agns b. Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Center, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai. 852-2891-8488

Macao

Cirque's leaving town

After a more than three-year run, the curtains will close for the last time upon the city's first long-running Las Vegas-style spectacle. Today is your last chance to catch Zaia, Cirque du Soleil's fantasy of a young girl exploring the planets and finding true love along with a host of talented acrobatic creatures in her quest. The show was designed by the Montreal-based performance troupe for the purpose-built theater in The Venetian Macao and pioneered how large-scale spectacles are now staged in Macao.

5 pm & 8 pm, Feb 19. Zaia Theater, Venetian Macao, Estrada da Baia de N. Senhora da Esperanca, Cotai Strip. 853-2882-8818

China Daily

(China Daily 02/19/2012 page15)