EYE ON CHINA: Looking east

As China intensifies its efforts to reach out to the rest of the world, more and more people in the West are developing an interest in Chinese culture. At the China Institute in New York, a place that specializes in Chinese cultural exhibitions, visitor numbers have been steadily rising in the last few years. But this increasing passion is not only local to New York, it is quickly spreading across the country.

Fifty miles south of the Institute delegates from all around the country gather at Princeton University's Tang Centre to spend a day discussing the current exhibition at the Institute. Established nine years ago The Tang centre was set up to advance the understanding of East Asian art and culture and has been a growing success.

Professor Jerome Silbergeld, Director of Princeton's Tang Centre for East Asian Art explains what the event is all about.

"This is a symposium that is being held in conjunction with an exhibition that is currently being held in New York, at the China Institute in America and the exhibition is Humanism in China a photographic record. That is an exhibition of 100 photographs that come from the Guangdong Museum of Fine Art. Because they do not regularly hold symposium there we are holding it here at Princeton in conjunction with that exhibition and so that brings together participants from all over the United States and Asia and an audience that comes from New York and Princeton and people coming in from all over the East Coast especially."

"We put on eight to ten major events in any given year many of which turn into publications. We currently have about seven or eight publications in production at this time."

Back in New York the Humanism photographic exhibition is open to the public and once again visitor numbers are strong. Local visitor Brett Wright explains what brought him to the Institute.

"I was attracted to the exhibit through an article in the New York Times talking about the recent photography exhibition that is being delivered here. My first reaction in terms of my drive to be here is that my wife is from China and we are planning our first trip back to visit in-laws in Xi’an, Shanghai and Beijing and we wanted to get an overview of life as it has developed in the last 20 years in China."

With over 2,000 active members and growing interest in the Institute’s activities the staff are now worried that the premises can no longer cope with the increasing demand.