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• 2012 party of “Take 5” in studio / Take5画室再聚会-关于秋季DE WIJK地区艺术周的画展

  3 mei 2012

  After being busy over the two exhibitions at the beginning of this month, I started my usual work again and had been working attentively in my studio for days. My creation for a few pieces of paintings booked by a friend from Shanxi China had also been carried out smoothly. The “culture factory” was quite as usual. Whenever I felt tired, I would get out of my studio to have either a cigarette or a can of beer under the cherry tree while enjoying some sunshine. By then I would probably think about the tea time shared together not long before with that calligrapher Mr. Liu Hongwei in his "cottage" during my stay in China…

   

  One Tuesday, my friend Jan told me that the members of “Take 5” would come to my studio on the following Friday night to have a party again, so as to discuss some details about the exhibition for autumn art week of 2012 in DE WIJK. By then everybody would bring some beer which was always indispensable for our parties.

   

  “Take 5” is actually just a group of our young and old guys who wish to hold exhibitions together for the friendship of ours. Nevertheless with the increase of such a kind of activities, this combination has been gradually recognized by public. This spring before I returned to the Netherlands from China, our group had already received several invitations for exhibitions in the future from CBK Drenthe and the Kunsthuis Secretarie 
   Meppel.

   

  Our party started at around 7:00 in the evening that day, during which everyone was assigned some preparatory work for the coming exhibition. Nearly 30 cans of beer that we brought for the party were all finished by 3:00 in the early morning. Then I locked the door and went back home for sleep.

   

   

   

  The party environment is always such a mess. 

   

   

  Mark is very proud of this photo, saying that his gesture appears to have a leadership style. 

   

   

  Our “chairman” Peter van der Veen was making a summary for our meeting.  

   

   

  Jan - Our Senior spokesman     

   

   

  It is not that I'm obsessed with my back figure, but this is the only photo in which I could find my image. 

   

   

  At the warmest moment of the meeting, a cigarette butt was habitually thrown into a newly opened can of beer.  

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• "Van het hoge land" - Solo exhibition in Museums Vledder 2012 / 佛莱德尔美术博物馆的个人画展

  3 mei 2012

  After my extremely hard holiday in China, I selected 23 pieces of my painting work and sent them to the art company in Beijing, with which I had a good communication regarding to our future cooperation. Then on April 5^th after a journey of 15 hours via Munich and Amsterdam, I got home at 1:30 on the early morning of the 6th in the local time of the Netherlands.

   

  As worried about the opening ceremony of my personal exhibition in the Museums  Vledder the next day on the 7^th, I slept only a few hours after my arrival and then hurried to the museum, where I found everything was in good order already, which made me feel at ease at once. I remember at the beginning of this month when I was still in China, I asked my friend to check about the weather forecast for the following days, just in a fear that I might fail to return back before the opening date if there was a squally heavy rain on the 5^th that might probably delay my journey. After all this personal exhibition is quite an important one to me.

   

  The Museums Vledder consists of three separated small museums: a glass art museum, a modern painting art museum and a museum for painting masterpiece fakes as well. Last year the art museum had a renovation funded by the local government and some private investors. Since my exhibition was the first one held in the museum after the renovation, therefore the opening ceremonies both for the renovated museum and for my exhibition were put together. At 4:00 PM on 7^th, the mayor and the museum curator made their brief speeches for the museum opening ceremony. And afterwards, comments for my work as well as a speech for the opening ceremony for my exhibition were made separately by Dr. Frans van der Veen.

   

  My personal exhibition would last for three months till the end of June. 

   

   rep

  Paper

   

   

  Poster

   

   

  Board for posters outside the museum 

   

   

  A corridor inside the museum, leading to the showroom for the collected art works.  

   

   

  One of the museum exhibition halls after the renovation 

   

   

  My friends in the opening of the exhibition 

   

   

  the museum exhibition halls 

   

   

  Participants in the opening of the exhibition 

   

  

  Participants in the opening of the exhibition 

   

   

  This guy … is also a participant in the opening of the exhibition. The pretty girl beside named Anna Roos, is the daughter of his friend, who is now studying medical profession in the University Leiden of the Netherlands.

   

   

  Dr. Frans van der Veen was making his opening speech.  

   

   

  At exhibition - my back figure   

   

   

  Two beauties were smoking outside  

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• A Tiring holiday of mine / 挺累的假期

  9 maart 2012

  My holiday for 2012 in China is both the busiest and the most tired one for me so far in my memory. For the first two weeks at the beginning, I suffered a lot from a severe cold. Although I got recovered later on, I still have to suffer from slight bronchitis and occasional low-grade fever even till now.

  Since I will sign with an art company in Beijing an agency agreement regarding to the domestic sales of my works, I need to prepare about more than 20 pieces of works for future sales during my stay in China, which is also a part of the agreement. Therefore before coming back to China I contacted a bosom friend of mine Xu Zhi who works in the Art Photography Dept. of Liaoning Art Museum, to find me a secret studio where no acquaintances could be seen for weeks. Then soon after my returning back home, I was arranged to work in a place named as Liaoning Painting Base (situated in the courtyard of the veteran bureau in Dongling District). Afterwards on the 16th of the first lunar month, I started my work when the last bottle of infusion was finished.

  But just after two days’ working there, I was told that the two-layered building of the “Base” had been sold off by the local government of Dongling District, which meant the “Base” had to be temporarily moved to the abandoned Dongling District Library. Abandoned and a little worn as it was, the library was quite good and very quiet. Besides me who worked in the building from morning till night, there was also a calligrapher named Liu Hongwei, and then an old night watchman as well. As the library was situated in downtown lots of Quanyuan area, it was quite convenient both for dinner and traffic. My lunch was usually a take away sent to my studio, so I did not even have to get out of the building. Each day after lunch, I would sit for a while together with that calligrapher Mr.Liu Weihong in his cottage next door to me, chatting freely while having a cup of tea, and then we would continue to work separately. Time like this had lasted for about three weeks till the end of Feb. And then I was informed one day that the “Base” was going to be moved again in a couple of days to a newly built cultural center in the new area of Hunnan. Being an outsider as I was, I had no other choice but to move together with the “Base”.

  The new cultural center is very clean and bright. The calligrapher and I are the only residents there on the floor belonging to the “Base”. Our tea time remains the same as before in his studio each day after lunch. And the only difference is that no take away could be served there as it is a new area and there are almost no commercial streets by now. So lunch could only be taken in a cafeteria belonging to the cultural bureau of Hunnan new area, which is a few hundred meters away from our studios, where foods for hundreds of people are served each day. And that cafeteria always provides with variety of foods from which you may make your choice among 6 kinds of dishes, 2kinds of soup, 3 kinds of stable food and 4 kinds of kimchi as well as fruit you like with a cost of only one chinese yuan for each person, and moreover there is no limit to how much you eat….Only till now do I realize that why is it there are always so many people attending the tests for civil service each year, even to the extent of breaking their heads. The reason is simple because of the outstanding welfare and treatment which is far beyond people’s imagination.

  So hard as I have been working continuously like this till now, I really feel tired. In fact I have never worked in this mad way before even in my studio in the Netherlands. Nevertheless my work has to be completed, and will be completed soon.

  

  studio of the "base" in the abandoned library

   

  my studio in the abandoned library 

  

  the cottage of the calligrapher in the abandoned library

   

  working in my studio without shaving for half a month by then, did I look an "ai-qaeda" member?

  

  The clean and empty corridors inside the culture center. There seems to be no persons engaged in culture work besides Liu Hongwei and I. 

  

  my studio in the culture center of the new area

   

  tea time at Liu’s studio ( my beard had been shaved )

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• Gathering Again In Studio /2012 画室再聚会

  15 januari 2012

  Jan.7^th was the last day for the exhibition of “Take 5” in studios. A TV interview by the local television station RTV-MEPPEL was arranged to be started around 2:00 pm that day. And in the evening those friends who had failed to attend the opening ceremony of the exhibition would get together in my studio, during which we would enjoy drinks while chatting leisurely.

   

  Since I had been working at night for several days till then, or perhaps I was too tired, and maybe it was also because I went to bed too late that day, my alarm clock couldn't wake me up at 12:30 noontime. By time when I woke up, it was already more than 1:30 pm. So I quickly got up, and hastily wiped my face. There was no time to shave and let alone to do any grooming or dressing. Thinking to myself that a painter needn’t care so much about his image, I drove to my studio in a rush with a slovenly and untidy state. During the period while the TV people were doing their preparations, I took out a banana and two sandwiches I brought with me, and then with a cup of coffee I had my breakfast in a hurry. Later the shooting started, but no one reminded me to tidy my hair. I thought I might look like a vagrant. Oh, forget it! Tossing in that way with day and night reversal, I really felt myself like a vagrant.

   

  By time of around 4:00 pm after the TV interview, my friends came one after another. There were totally more than a dozen of men and women, who stayed up late and kept on talking till midnight. And by time when they took leave, all drinks had been drunk thoroughly. 

   

   

   

  The coffee time before the interview 

   

   

  I pretended to work seriously in the program recording period 

   

   

  It was not getting dark yet, but people had come already

    

   

  It was no need to be polite, just sat down and started to drink right away 

   

   

  The smoking and drinking women were not necessarily bad ones  

   

   

  While the smoking and drinking men were not necessarily good ones either 

   

   

  Ria, a famous poetess  

   

   

   

  The sounds of chatting plus the music of Doors…that formed a mess which seemed to be a market   :):     :

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• “take 5+” in the studios / 画室里的“take 5+”

  27 december 2011

  My nocturnal work in the studio had lasted for quite a few days, in a wish to work out several pieces of decent works as I don’t like to show the same works of mine that had been put on display several times before on different exhibitions. Although the year of 2012 has not yet begun, my preparation for the scheduled exhibitions for the coming year has started already. So far as it goes, there will be several exhibitions organized by the galleries in Groningen, Echten, Zwolle as well as in other cities in the north. Besides I have also been invited to hold an individual exhibition at Art museum Vledder and Rabobank ...... I dare not neglect a little.

   

  Christmas and the New Year comes again, as those of us who work in the cultural factory have been considered to be cared by the local government, we think we ought to do something as a return. So during our last gathering in my studio, we discussed this topic and decided to hold a winter exhibition for “take 5” just in our studio area. Then on the 17^th of this month, a mini opening ceremony organized by every one of us was held in our cultural factory. By then everyone’s studio and the corridor outside had become the exhibition space. To us this could be considered as a nice ending for the year of 2011.  

   

   

  newspaper reports

   

  posters  

   

  busy with cleaning before the opening  

   

  a break for a coffee or a cigarette 

   

  visitors 

   

  Visitors

   

  our chairman Peter Van Der Veen made a brief opening statement

   

  friends at exhibition 

  

  The invited musicians were singing in front of the stacked paintings covered with cloth 
   

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• Kunstcentrum Pand Paulus Schiedam / Pand Paulus 艺术中心的作品交流展

  17 november 2011

  An art exhibition titled as “China – Refletie, moed en identieteit” opened at Pand Paulus Art Center of Schiedam Holland on Nov.13^th 2011. This exhibition was organized by Ms.Liao Zhanhong and would last for 20days. During the exhibition, about 50 pieces of art works of Chinese artists living in the Netherlands as well as the local Dutch artists were on display. A printing album for the works of the participating artists was also published during the exhibition.

   

  The opening ceremony started at 4:00PM. Ms. Liao Zhanhong and a Dutch-born Chinese women artist conducted together a performance art with their body language and the props of potato and rice. They expressed in an exploratory way the contradictions of awareness, recognition, acceptance and rejection resulting from the collisions of two different cultures between East and West in the hearts of the overseas Chinese. During their performance, I sang two songs and my singing lasted until the performance ended. 

   

   

   

  Some artists of the exhibition

   

   

  Kaye and Zhanhong are doing a performance art 

   

  Seriously they performed while seriously I sang. 

   

   

   

   

  My works on the exhibition

   

  

  My companion for the exhibition, Artist Anna Mercker 

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• Vou para Lisboa / 去里斯本

  14 november 2011

  As I had something regarding to my social security and tax affairs needed to be addressed, I came to Lisbon in mid-September, in a wish to take this opportunity to give myself a nice vacation as well.

   

  Knowing that I would go to Lisbon, my friends in Holland named Norman and Venny wanted to join me in Lisbon for their vacations too. (These two guys became my friends in the time when I learned Dutch language in Friesland College in earlier years). Since both of them were usually busy with their work, especially Noman who had always been working very hard and had almost no chance to travel anywhere during his vacation for years，so this time they vowed to get out of Holland and travel around freely just as what I had been doing for years. So on 22cnd, I picked them up at Lisbon airport and arranged accommodation for them. Then in the following 7 days later, I gave almost all of my spare time to them. Time seemed to return to the years before. Together we strolled around, we had dinners and we enjoyed big-bottled Portuguese beers in streets as well. Together we lamented that we were all getting old. And even more, together we watched beautiful women in streets, we talked in foul language and we teased fun of each other too…  

   

   

  Praça do Comércio 

   

  Rua Agusta

   

  Santa Justa

   

  Lisboa cidade de Fado

   

  Praia Cascais

   

  Chiado

   

  Em Cristo Rei

   

  Uma senhora Brasileira bonita 

   

  Cristo Rei

   

  Dois homens estúpidos 

   

  Comer um pão Turco 

   

  Praça do Duque da Terceira 

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• After the exhibition in Belgium / 比利时画展之后

  14 november 2011

  May.22cnd was the opening day for the exhibition in Tongeren Belgium, but my plan to attend the ceremony arranged long before with the organizer had to be cancelled finally, for my father suddenly passed away just two days before the scheduled date. I was told that in the early morning of that day, my father suddenly fell to the ground when he was doing his washing, and did not wake up again. So sad as I was I booked immediately the earliest air ticket that I could get for 22cnd, and then arrived at Shenyang international airport in northern China around midnight of 23^rd local time. Afterwards I woke to the dawn for my father according to the Tungusic Chinese traditions, and then held for him a funeral in the early morning on 24^th.

   

  Perhaps there really exists some hint in the natural behavior of people that might not be realized or felt by people themselves. So far as I remember in the past, each time when I took leave after visiting him, my father would usually stand on the balcony and wave me goodbye without saying too many words, or at the most he would just remind me to take care of myself on the trip. But  months ago, when I left for Europe after my holidays with him, just by the time when I reached the parking lot which was quite far away from my home, suddenly I heard my father calling my name loudly. I turned back and saw him wiping tears on the balcony. To me that was really an unusual scene I’ve never seen but regret I didn’t think too much about it…

   

    After my returning to the Netherlands by the end of June, I could hardly calm down to work   as usual. So I simply would not go to the studio, but stayed at home to modify the stairs leading to the attic as well as to clean up the attic and transform it into a large room. Perhaps in a couple of years, my son Mukdembu may like that place. 

   

   

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• Exhibition in Gallery Alkmaar 14.05.2011 / 奶酪之城Alkmaar画廊的展览

  19 mei 2011

  Two months ago I was invited by Gallery Alkmaar for a 6 weeks’ exhibition. Alkmaar is a world famous and historic city. It is rich in tulips and cheese too.

  The gallery owner is a pretty young lady named Tanja. Her boyfriend Erik is also a hard working artist. Nine years ago we participated in a same group exhibition together.

  Because of the economic and marketing reasons, many of the local galleries have closed up during the last few years. But their gallery is still working well. Exhibitions in this gallery have been continuing day after day .

   

   

  gallery ownerTanja, artist Erik ( man in coloured shirt ) and their gallery

   

  chatting with my best friend Santosh in a corner at the exhibition. 9 years ago we came together to the vicinity of Alkmarr for an exhibition.  

   

  young people were playing music outside

   

   

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• Busy with two exhibitions / 5 月的两个画展

  19 mei 2011

  I’d been busy for two coming exhibitions for days already, sometimes even had to sleep in the studio. These two exhibitions would open separately on 14^th and 15^th of May, one was in Alkmaar, a city in west Holland while the other in Tongeren which situated in the middle part of Belgium.

  My preparation work started from selecting exhibits, which meant I had to get them back from different places where they were on display. Then I had to do some cleaning, finishing and packing job before sending them to the galleries for exhibitions. On 9^th and 10^th I drove a hanging trolley to send those exhibits separately to Belgium and Alkmaar in west Holland.

  The speed limit for trolleys was 80 kilometers. It seemed to me that I was driving an ox-cart. I felt more and more sleepy on the way. When I arrived at the resting area in Afsluitdijk, I bought a popsicle in a supper market and then laid on the grass to eat it while looking at the sky above. Afterwars I got up again to continue my trip to the destination…

   

   

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• 01.05.2011 / 2011年05月01日

  19 mei 2011

  Sometimes, I feel that my life went wrong. 

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• Hylas and the Nymphs / 修拉斯和水妖

  19 mei 2011

  The temperature was 23 degrees then.

   

  Never have I had any interests in gardening, but the little yards in front and at back of my house of about 100 square meters had to be filled with something. Although there were not too many flowers, I still could not just stand to watch them wilt under the hot sun. So one day I linked up water pipes and started to act as a gardener. Meanwhile our next door neighbor, an old Dutch couple was also doing the same thing in their garden. So we greeted each other and chatted for a while.

   

  Sunny days always made people feel comfortable and relaxed. To breath the transparent and non-polluted air under the sun light, and to smell the scent of flowers, I felt like living in paradise.

  So I stood there leisurely in carefree trance, while listened to the sound of sprinkle water on leafs and flowers… At that moment I felt myself like an old man with the same age as my neighbors. Just imagine the scene, in the sunlight a guy wearing a pair of shorts busy with weeding and watering in the garden, wasn’t it a funny thing?

   

  The spring here was too beautiful and too fragrant. During the daytime I could hardly paint anything attentively for I was always attracted by things outside the studio. From time to time, I’d wish to go out to turn around as I loved so much to stay in nature. Therefore during the beautiful season like this, I had to change my working time to night and worked till dawn. Only in this way could I resist the temptation outside.

   

  I remembered an ancient Greek myth, it said a young man could not resist the temptation of the girls in water, and followed them into the lake then disappeared. The British classical artist Waterhouse described this scene of the myth in his painting named as Hylas and the Nymphs. I had seen the printed copy of his work during my school time. At that time I though I understood why Hylas had been tempted, for the girls in water were so beautiful that one could hardly resist the temptation. In fact I was tempted too at the very moment when I saw the beauties in the painting and I’d even wished to walk into the painting, then kick that young man away and follow the girls into the lake…

   

  Beautiful things might make people intoxicated and cultivate people’s mind and feelings, beautiful things might make people nostalgic infinitely and beautiful things might also make people stuck and unable to extricate themselves or even lose themselves as well as to lose the momentum of marching forward.  

   

   

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• 3 Xibo young fellows / 3 个锡伯族年轻人

  18 mei 2011

  During my holidays at my hometown in China, an intimate friend of mine Chengzhi also came back from Japan for his holidays. Chengzhi had been doing his researching work for Manchu studies for years in Kyoto University, and we hadn’t seen each other for 13 years already. So we arranged to meet each other in Shenyang in mid March after the Chinese New Year, to review our 13 years’ brotherhood together with our common friend Pi (an expert in Manchu language of Liaoning Archives)

  Many years ago, on old coach threw me in a narrow street of a small town named as Chapchal. It was an autonomous county of Xibo, locating in the far west of China. From where about dozen kilometers westward was the Republic of Kazakhstan. Walking in the streets, I could find no one looked like a Xibo. Some locals came across and turned away quickly as if to avoid me deliberately. I felt my passion cooled down at once for I had expected beforehand that I might be welcome with open arms by my Xibo compatriots.

  Soon it was getting dark, so I went into the only one hostel in the county. There was a young guy at the front desk. He asked me for my certificate of identity. When he saw my student ID, he seemed to be quite happy and said: “oh, you are a Xibo! So you are at home now”. Then I asked if he was a Xibo too, he said he was not but he knew all Xibo people in the county.

  The hostel charged 2 yuan for each day. In the room there was just a desk and a bed. Besides, there was a basin, a thermos, a cup and beddings as well. That night I was the only guest of the hostel. After having a bowl of noodles in a small restaurant nearby, I went to bed immediately and soon got sleep. The whole night I covered my head with the quilt because I saw a big hole on the roof that always caused me to think something horrible.

  I remembered I had a dream that night. In the dream I finally found my Xibo fellows with the same ancestors. And there were so many Xibo brothers sitting together with me in the dream, asking me about the things of my hometown. They also told me that they had been living here for generations in Chapchal for hundreds of years already, but they were eager to visit their native land in northeast China so as to achieve the aspirations of their ancestors…

  Early the next morning, someone knocked at my door. I opened the door and found a burly man in middle-age together with a young man behind. “Are you the student from Shenyang Academy of Fine Arts?” The middle-aged man asked. “Yes, I am.” I replied “And I’m here to look for my Xibo fellows and relatives”. Then he said: “we learnt from the young guy on duty here last night that a Xibo student had come from Shenyang. My name is Bo Feng. I’m in charge for the culture management of the county, and I like to paint water color paintings too. This young man is Yinda, he has just graduated from the fine art dept. of the Northwest Nationalities Institute”. After this introduction he hugged me warmly and said: “come with us please, don’t stay here anymore…”

  So far as I knew my father went to Chapchal once at his twentieth, accompanied by one of his Xibo friends, to search for the traces of our ancestors. He was told that several generations before some of our ancestors had been moved to Ili, but more than 280 years had pasted, nothing had been heard from them ever since. My father told me that originally he planned to look for his relatives first, and then he would marry a Xibo girl so as to settle down there afterwards. But later since it was really uneasy for him either to find any of his relatives or to settle down in that multi-ethnic mixed place, he had to give up his idea and returned home without anything. To me it was lucky that he failed, otherwise there would have be no me in this world. Thinking about this, I really felt that the occurrence of life was somewhat quite interesting, hehe!

  My first visited to Chapchal had left me a deep impression. By then I was a just a student with strong interests in the culture as well as in the history of my nation. By chance of visiting Dunhuang for inspection and painting, I went further west to a place called Chapchal, where as my father had said full of my Xibo fellows… Even up to now I could not forget my traveling experience that time: two days on train during which I had to sleep on the floor of the train under the seats, and two days on coach where I could not even straighten my legs…

  During the years later, I had been to Chapchal again for a couple of times. And the longest time of my staying there was about half a year in 1995. Soon after my first visit to Chapchal, I gradually acquainted with Chengzhi and Pi, my two Xibo young fellows who were both passionately devoted to the nation as well as the culture of Xibo. Over the past ten years more, we always cared and encouraged each other, like brothers

   

   

  friend

   

  friend

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• Singing the Sibo songs / Sibo Ucun 锡伯歌曲

  18 mei 2011

  Never had I learnt before how to sing but I did like singing ever since I was young. The songs I sang by then were just a couple of those of Mongolian and xibo nationalities in northern China. Sang with my feelings and sang with my love to the nation, gradually I had my own way of singing.

  I remember in my life I sang only twice on normal occasions, and both of them were on the openings of my personal exhibitions. Last weekend my friend Ann’s exhibition opened at Giethoorn Library in the famous resort nearby. She invited me to sing a few Xibo songs for the opening. For me this was the first time to be invited to sing on such an occasion. Then I sang and had received good response. My friend Jan even suggested me to produce a CD-Rom and to sell them on exhibitions later on. It was a joke of course but sounded well…

   

   

   My friend Anna was reciting a poem on her opening  

   

   

  singing the Sibo songs with strong emotion

  
     

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• An official opening of the Cultuur Fabriek / 文化工厂

  18 mei 2011

  The idle primary school now called as “Cultuur Fabriek” opened now.  

   

  

  factory - in a quiet corner of the city

   

  all factory workers at the opening ceremony 

   

  the curious audiences 

   

  wethouder Myfiam Jansen presided over the official opening  

   

  friend Jaco Baas and me

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• 2011 - work, play, love

  18 mei 2011

  Bid farewells to my beloved ones at homeland, I was back again with a restless heart to the other side of the earth. Got off the plane, went through the customs then I walked out of Amsterdam Schiphol international airport. By that moment I saw from a large screen far away on the wall of a building saying like this: work, play, love…

  Sincerely wish that my life in 2011 could be as simple as this.

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• A new studio in Meppel / Meppel 的新画室

  18 mei 2011

  Early in Jan. 2011, the municipal government of the city I live Meppel decided to lease the classrooms of an idle primary school to local artists with an extremely low rent.

   

  Since my wife is busy with her work and study and my child is too young, in the year of 2010, I did not work much in my studio in Tuk. Sometimes when I got there after half an hour’s driving and just started painting, I had to put away my brush and hurried back again as my wife was too busy to look after the child. Annoyed as I was, I had to take care of the child.

   

  Actually I had been longing for a time to find a suitable place near my home but failed to get it for years. So I was very happy to hear the news as the school was just nearby and it took only 10 minutes by bicycle. On the 5^th of Jan. I had a meeting with the man in charge for the lease and then selected a room of about 80 square meters with a high roof. The room was big enough with good lighting as well. All of these had made me excited for days. To me the studio was simply a big pie sent by heaven. Ha ha!

   

  Afterwards I did some cleaning and whitened the walls, then with some of the materials and works put in properly, I started my work right away.  

  

  new studio

  

  new studio

   

  new studio

   

  new studio

   

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• < Take 5+ 〉First exhibition in 2011 / 2011年第一个画展《Take 5 》

  18 mei 2011

   

  poster of the exhibition

   

   

  Before the exhibition, we had a meeting at Peter’s home. We agreed with all the details regarding the invitation and the description about the exhibition. We also discussed about the introduction of the artists and the way of communication with media and newspapers. It was also in this meeting we decided that from then on, 5% of the incomes for sells of our works would to be put together as a fund for the group of Take 5 in order to cover all expenses for our drinks for meetings, website building or advocacy and some other costs for various art events. All of us agreed that the money should be managed or took care by Peter van der Veer who had the highest degree of integrity.
   

   

  Raadhuis Hoogeveen

   

  Raadhuis Hoogeveen

   

  our leader Peter van de Veen was busy at work  

   

  slipped out to have a cigarette 

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• Art event 2010 in Assen / Assen 的艺术博览会 2010

  18 mei 2011

  Once a friend said that an artist’s work was to show or describe his dreams with his paintings. People who saw and liked the dreams would buy these dreams back and taste them slowly. Then by this way the artist could get the materials to sustain his life so that he could continue his dreams… ha ha!

  In mid November each year, there were always two different art fairs in Assen, the capital city of Drenthe in center of Netherlands. Artists and galleries from Netherlands, as well as from Germany and Belgium nearby would participate in this event.

  Elisbet, one of the organizers for the fairs who had bought my works before was a familiar colleague of mine. In the years before, I received twice the invitations for the fairs, but regret I was happened to be away in Lisbon by then. I was told that the artists who had participated in the fairs had all gained a lot (which meant they had some works sold). In spring of 2010, once again I received an invitation. This time I didn’t wish to miss it anymore, because I’d like to gain something too.

  During the days of Dec.13rd and 14^th, there were a lot of visitors in the fairs and I was rather busy. But indeed I did gain something, which meant I had not worked for nothing

   

   

   三sunnHof van saksen

   

  warm night - Hof van saksen

   

  entrance of the artfire

   

  nice to see some painters I know

   

  nice to see some painters I know

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• Meeting in the weekends - About exhibition < Take 5 > Jan. 2011 / 周末小聚，关于2011年1月的画展 - Take 5

  18 mei 2011

  An exhibition for works of Peter van der Veen, Jan van Os, Mark van der Stay, Robert and mine of course, was ready again. This was the first exhibition of our five for this year.
   

  As matter of fact, there existed great difference among the five of us, both in style of work and in artistic point of views. Normally artists could hardly get along with each other well unless they had same or similar ideas on creation or on concept. And to us, it was rather hard to find anything in common professionally that could bind us together to show as an artist group. So the only thing left might probably be the friendship in between.
   

  I remembered that before our summer exhibition last year, we really felt a headache to get a proposition for the exhibition. Finally we accepted Jan’s idea to name it as “Take 5”. Jan loved whiskey and music, and “take 5” was a famous jazz song that Jan remembered.
   

  In English the word of take 5 also meant to rest for 5 minutes. We made such a choice for our exhibition also because we wish that our works might make people relaxed both on spirit and soul.
   

  Since the summer exhibition “Take 5” was quite successful, we soon got an invitation to hold another exhibition for works of our five at Raadhuis Hoogeveen in the city of Hoogeveen , lasting from Jan. to Feb.2011. This exhibition was titled as “Take 5” again.
   

  If possible we all wished that “Take 5” might continue still, for the friendship between us.
   

   

  we met at Robert's home

  

  Four of us were at the meeting except Mark who was always busy with his children 

  keepPe pepetp

  

  The The meeting lasted from 20:00 till midnight, during which we’d spent more time in drinking then discussing details about the exhibition 

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• Sept.2010 opening exhibition in Tuk / 2010年10月Tuk工作室画展开幕式

  15 mei 2011

  This exhibition was organized by friends Welke, Peter and I with the assistance from Pieter and some other friends of mine. Most of the guests invited for the opening ceremony were my colleagues, friends, clients and those who had paid their kind attention on my paintings during the last 10 years. I’d really like to give them my warm and sincere thanks.

   

  

  newspaper reports for exhibitions of my works  

  

  paintings are ready for the opening

  

  drinks for opening

  

  thanks god for the warm sunny day  

  

  There was a room for keeping all the portrait works, because this exhibition was just for my new landscape paintings.

  

  friend Welke was making the opening speech

  

  kept on talking  

  

  not finished yet 

  

  friends in opening

  

  friends in opening

  

  now it was my turn to say something 

  

  Musician I met before was invited to perform on the opening 

  

  friends in opening

  

  friends in opening

  

  fast moving children

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• Hard working for an exhibition in Tuk 23.10.2010 / Tuk 工作室的个人画展2010.10.23

  15 mei 2011

  At about 4:30 early dawn, I finally finished my preparation work for an exhibition. Then standing outside my studio, I had a cigarette and saw for a while the moon hung in the dark sky which was almost full by then.

  Oct.24^th 2010 would be the opening date for my second personal exhibition in Tuk. And my first one was held there two years ago in autumn. To me that was really a wonderful exhibition, successful and remarkable. Many guests had been invited and it was just in that exhibition that my biggest landscape work titled as “March in north” (1600 x 4000) was sold. That piece of work was created on March 2008, just when I was back to Europe after a visit to my hometown in China to sacrifice unto my grandparents.

  As for the second personal exhibition in Tuk, although it was just a small works display, I still prepared approximate 110 pieces of small works of landscapes and figures in different sizes which had been created from the second half of last year till this year. And in the past two days I had kept myself busy day and night with all kinds of preparation works for the exhibition. Whenever felling hungry, I would ate something in the snack bar nearby. One case of Belgian Blond Beer (a kind of Belgian beer with alcohol 6%) accompanied me throughout the whole period. And the last bottle of beer was finished by the time when all work had been done. When it was too late at night, I simply did not go home, putting a sleeping bag in the corner of the studio, I just had a short sleep.

  Tired as I had been, I did not wish to ask any friends for help, because to me the whole process was indeed a kind of enjoyment. I wished to feel silently a farmer’s feeling for harvest. I thought that was a unique thrill in life activities. There was no need to describe anymore, the feeling of harvest could only be understood by those who’d had planted.

   

  

  start working

  

  friends Jose and Welke were the first buyers of those small landscapes

  

  having dinner in Welke' home, two ladise were busy to cook the spaghetti

  

  a wall full of paintings

  

  

  

  4:30 on the morning, finished all works, 

  

  the sleeping corner

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• An afternoon’s entertainment for fado / 听了一下午的fado（10月2010年，里斯本）

  25 oktober 2010

   A Portuguese lady named Luisa bought a piece of my painting work this spring. Since that work was at my home in Holland, so I transported it to her through a courier company. And we agreed to meet each other in autumn during my visit to Lisbon.

   

  After I had reached a relatively satisfactory solution for my troubles in Lisbon, I gave her a call, making an appointment for that afternoon in a coffee bar titled as café do imperio nearby the alemanda square. I got there 10 minutes earlier.  Since we had never met each other before, so I stood outside the coffee bar looking around. At exactly 3:00, I saw two ladies walking out of the coffee bar, straight up me and greeted me. So I went up and shook hand with Ms. Lusia in the front. But when I reached out my hand ready to shake hands with the other lady, I was surprised to find that the lady was actually my teacher Ms.Helena /Maria Helena neto in my Portuguese school one year before. So surprised as I was that I could not help going up to her for a warm hug. She was really a responsible teacher and good at teaching too. Even after I had finished my studies there, she still encouraged me by e-mail to continue my self-studies.

   

  Invited by Helena and her husband, I went to Helena’s home together with the two ladies. There I found that piece of my work was hanging up in the sitting room. Only until then did I get to know that Lusia was actually Helena’s sister in-law, her husband’s sister. Helena asked Luisa to contact me for the purchasing of my work just because she was afraid that I would probably reduce the price for my work because of the relationship between us… I really did not know how to express my feelings then when I got to know all about this, but could only appreciate the way in dealing with things of the Europeans.

   

  In our free chat later on, we talked about fado. And I leaned that her husband was in fact a fan for folk music. He then took out some CDs of fado singer’s from his music collection, and the following 2 hours were spent in fado melodies together with good Porto wine of Portugal… That afternoon was one of my most happy and pleasant afternoon I’d had during my recent visit to Lisbon.
   

  
   

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• A dialogue with my son / 与儿子的对话

  23 oktober 2010

  One day my 5-year-old son Mukdembu was playing his game in the stipulated time, fully immersed in the world of Super Mario, while I was busy with my preparatory work for some small oil paintings as well as the invitation cards and posters ready for a personal exhibition in Oct. Then we had the following dialogue between my son and I :

  I, in Chinese:         Denbu, have you drunk the water on table?

  My son, in Dutch:  Ja (yes)

  I, in Chinese:        Time for fruit now. Help yourself with a banana!

  My son, in Dutch mixed with his broken Chinese:  banana…I not eat …

  I , in Chinese:       Why not ?

  My son, still in his broken Chinese: no good taste

  I, in Chinese :     ok, come over here now!

  My son, in Dutch:  ik eerst doen de mario pause (let me pause the Mario first)

  Then he reluctantly walked towards me.

  I, in Chinese:     You know, dad had no banana to eat when I was at your age. But Dad really wished to have a banana then. And it was until I reached my teenager did I see for my first time a real banana…Do you understand what I said?

  My son, in Chinese: yes, I do.

  I, in Chinese：     look, Denbu. Banana is delicious and nutritious. And how happy you are that

  you can have it everyday! Do you know how many children there are in the world who have no banana or other fruits to eat now?  Those children are too poor that they have no money to buy banana. And for them it is just a dream to have a banana each day …

  My son looked doubted. Then quietly he put the peeled banana into my hand and said in his broken Chinese mixed with Dutch:  I not eat this banana, andere kinderen kunnen eten ( give it to other childred )

  I: … … ( I felt at a loss)

  I, in Chinese:  Enough talking now! Don’t pretend to be innocent, eat this banana!

  My son, in Dutch:  oky~~~~( it sounded helpless and reluctant )

   

  -------When we are back to China next summer, I ought to find him a teacher special for Chinese then. And if it is possible, I intend to let him learn some Tungus language, as after all it is the language of our ancestors.

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• Exhibition of Extopoint in Ruinen 2010 / Ruinen - 荷兰extopoint艺术家群体2010年群展

  23 oktober 2010

  As a member of the artists’ group of Extopoint Holland, I was invited to take a part in the last exhibition for the year of 2010 held in Ruinen.
   

  The opening ceremony was held at 3:00 PM and I was there together with my friend Jan.  Agnes (a member of Extopoint as well as one of the organizers of the exhibition) made a brief opening speech and thereafter the exhibition started in music and wines.

   

  I drank all together 5 glasses of wine, not because that I was keen on drinking, but because that I was attracted and impressed by the music and songs as well as the humorous performance given by an old Dutch musician invited to perform on the exhibition. A friend told me that the old musician used to be a businessman. But since he loved music so much that he started his music life soon after he got retired. Some of the music and songs he performed seemed to be familiar to me, while many of others could only be aware and understood by those who have experienced the changing period of 60’s to 70’s during which the European and the American music changed from classic to popular ones. The amiability, humor and affinity shown by the old man attracted me so much that had made me like him at once. At the same time I had an idea in mind too, that is to invite him to perform on the opening ceremony for my coming personal exhibition late Oct. So I discussed it with his wife for a while, and she was quite pleased to accept. Both of them seemed to be quite happy to be invited.

   

  According to Dutch traffic regulation, drivers can moderate drinking, which means taking one glass of wine or a bottle of beer is allowed.  So for traffic safety, Jan had to act as the driver on our way back home as fortunately he had drunk only two glasses of wine.

  
  

   
  

   
  
   

  

   
  

   
  

   
  

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• After the exhibition ' take 5 ' / 《Take 5》画展之后

  25 juli 2010

  The barbecue version for “ Take 5 ”
  Time: 5:00 PM    24/07/2010.
  Place: In my yard
  Participants:  Jan,  Robert，Mark，Peter and Zhongnai
  Food materials: beer, lamb chops, beef balls, chicken wings, chicken string, pork chops (I don’t eat pork), tomato, fresh mushroom, green pepper, coriander, cucumber, bread, and Qingdao small spring rolls…
  Temperature: 23 – 11 degrees (Sunny with fresh air)Visibility: 100%

  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
  
   
   
   
  

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• The opening ceremony of exhibition ' take 5 ' 2010 / Take 5 画展开幕式 2010

  11 juli 2010

  
  The planned exhibition for “take 5” opened at 4:00 PM on 11th of July. Since it was very hot with a temperature of more than 30 degrees and besides there would be the World Cup final between Netherlands and Spain in the evening, so we did not expect many invited guests could attend the opening ceremony. But the fact was that many of them had come, and among them there were a lot of familiar faces. Therefore we were kept busy indeed. Nevertheless we still couldn’t help running out twice to enjoy cigarettes in the smoking pavilion.

   After this busy day, I need to make a replacement for my lithograph works in a printing museum. Then afterwards I could temporarily relax for some time. I may then start my holiday to enjoy life!
  
   

  

  

  Take a break for five minutes

   
  

   "Wethouder van Cultuur" was presiding over the opening ceremony

   
  
   
  ...

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• Solo exhibition in Drukkerijmuseum 2010 / 印刷博物馆的个人版画展 2010

  8 juli 2010

  

  

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• About exhibition ' take 5 ' 2010 / 关于5人画展 2010

  7 juli 2010

  In the year of 2007, I was invited to hold a solo exhibition on a quite large scale in the art exhibition department of the municipal hospital in Meppel. That exhibition was very successful. Early this year, in trust by Art Committee of the hospital,  an exhibition for ‘ taken 5 ‘ was organized by the artist Peter van der Veen, which would last from summer to autumn this year. I was again pleased to become one of the five invited aritists.

   As a matter of fact, the five of us are quite familiar with each other. And we have had already several co-exhibitions before. But this time since all of us attached great importance to this exhibition, we have had two meetings accordingly. We exchanged opinions on the quantity, the quality as well as the price for the exhibits and also discussed about the plan regarding to the opening ceremony. The first meeting was held at Jan’s home. Since every one had his own viewpoint and opinion, the atmosphere was quite warm. The room was full of the smoke of cigarettes and the smell of beer. During the meeting, Mark took his leave earlier since he had something to do at home. And the meeting had  become later a cocktail party of the remaining four. At last Robert was considered to be drunk as he kept on talking to himself in the toilet and fell down to the ground twice from his chair. I did drink a lot too, maybe about eight or nine cans of beer with half a liter in weight. But I was awake after all. It is said that when Peter, Robert and I had left, Jan opened again another can of beer … 

   Anyway in the time afterwards, many plans had been agreed by all of us.. So we gathered together again at Peter’s home and had a photo taken for the group in the garden. The photo was printed on the invitation card for the exhibition. And in the photo, everyone had a brilliant smile. 

  The opening ceremony of the exhibition is in sunday 11th July .

  
   Planning for an exhibition at Jan’s home  

  
   
  

   Sunny smile -  the invitation 

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• Exhibition in Warmond 2010 / 在 Warmond 的画展 2010

  7 juli 2010

  

  

   
  
   
  ...

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• Chinese Takens 2009 / 国庆60周年中荷画家10人展 2009

  7 juli 2010

  Early in 2009, I took a part in an exhibition of a charity sell organized by Ms. Liao Zhanhong to assist a psychological rehabilitation for the Chinese orphans from the earth quake. After this exhibition, another art exhibition for Chinese national day of the 60^th anniversary was planned by some organizations and the local Chinese newspapers. The preparation work soon started in the efforts of Ms. Liao Zhanhong.  And again I was honored to be invited to participate in the exhibition.

  
   
  
   
  

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• The ' Cat' food '' / 猫食

  6 juli 2010

  One day I churned for a long time in the store room in my garden, looking for something I needed. Finally I failed to find the thing I looked for, but happened to find a pack of “cat’s food” bought for Kitty a long time ago. ( Kitty was a cat I had raised before).

   At the time long before the day, my Dutch was extremely poor. Each time when I went to the super markets, I had to look at the goods first till I made them clear before buying. Of course sometimes I did blind shopping too. Then I had Kitty with me. Watching her growing day by day, I thought I could not always feed her with the milk either remained or expired. So I went to a super market to buy her some cat’s food. There was a zone special for animal food in the market. And there were a lot of boxes and bags there, big or small in various colors with different prices, which had really made me headache. All I felt was that the food for cats was more expensive than that for people. I was afraid that to feed a cat with the cat’s food might probably make me impoverished. Hesitated as I was, I saw a big bag nearby with a picture of a cat on the outside packing. In that picture there was a lovely cat in a status of satisfactory, proud and fully fed. This had made me confident that it was no doubt a kind of cat’s food. The price was only 2 Euros more, with no more consideration, I bought one bag of that, which I was sure would be enough for Kitty in the coming two or three months.

   Soon after I returned home, I put some “cat’s food” in Kitty’s bowl. She came and smelt it, then walked away. I couldn’t make out why she was not interested in the food. Maybe she had no appetite? So I smelt the food too, but really had smelt nothing. No wonder Kitty did not like it, the cheaper food was never good in quality. Thinking like this as I did, I poured some milk into the bowl. Soaked with milk, the “cat’s food” remained unchanged, hard still. Kitty walked towards again, licked a bit of milk then went away. I remembered that in my childhood, I often heard old people saying that cats were greedy. And people also like to call those picky children as “greedy cats”. So I murmured: ok, you don’t eat it now. And I will see if you eat it or not later when you are hungry.

   The next morning when I looked at Kitty’s bowl, I found the milk was drunk while the “cat’s food” remained still, not even a piece of it had been eaten. Well, the “cat’s food” might be too cheap to arouse her appetite I thought.

  That afternoon my friend Geesje came to see me on her way back from a super market. She was very white. So I gave her a nickname as white rabbit. She always wondered why was it that a white thing should be a rabbit but not something else. When we had a free chat, she saw the “cat’s food” in the bowl. She was quite puzzled and asked me what I intended to do with it. I told her that Kitty would not eat the “food” as it was bad in quality. She laughed till squatted down and even could not stand up… As matter of fact, the “cat’s food” were sands for cats. The sands were used by cats to burry their excretion.

  Actually I was misled by the picture on the bag. I had misunderstood the status of that cat on the picture. Maybe that was an expression shown by the cat after defecation.

  Since then, Gessje always calls me jokingly as “a stupid artist from China”.  Of course I don’t think I am stupid.

   
  

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• Back to school for Portuguese 2009 / 回到学校 2009

  2 juli 2010

  In the second half of 2009, I spent nearly half a year in a language school in Lisbon to learn Portuguese. I didn’t expect to be a linguist although I really wished to master a new language. In fact that was a need for life so I had to learn. All I would learn was just some basic Portuguese for daily life, with which I would be no more deaf in this Latin country.

   Lisbon is a city built in mountains. And the school was on the top of a hill. It usually took me about 20 minutes on foot to go up to the school from my residence on foot of the hill. On my way to school, I would pass a slope road everyday. Summer and autumn in Lisbon were usually very hot. Temperature around 40 degree C was common there. Each time when I walked up from the slope road, I’d felt my heart beating fast and blood flowing quickly. I felt extremely hot then with all my clothes soaked by sweat thoroughly. In the first few days, when I arrived at the top of the hill each day, I’d felt myself like a fish thrown ashore, breathing hardly with a wide opened mouth. Thank god I did not vomit blood, otherwise I would fail to attend the class. After a few days there, I got more and more used to it. Walking had become easier for me. At days later I could even walk fast on that slope road.

   Our teacher was a kind Portuguese lady named Helena Neto. Most of our students were immigrants from other countries. Among us there were several Indians, several businessmen from Zhejiang, China, a couple of Africans and a couple of Nepalese as well. There were always funs in our class time. Our teacher taught us in Portuguese.  But since most of us did not understand Portuguese, sometimes she had to make explanations in English. But problem was that not all of the students understood English. Those from Africa could speak French while those from India and Nepal could speak English. But for those from China, they could only speak Chinese (sometimes they even spoke dialects of their hometown. I wondered if they were graduates from primary school although they were shrewd businessmen in fact. It seemed that their material wealth and their knowledge were not in a proper proportion). So at the beginning days, questions in English, French or even in some other languages were often raised up to our teacher, and that was really a big headache for her. She could neither understand the questions nor could make any replies or explanations accordingly.  But she was very patient. She tried to explain the text in Portuguese carefully while using all kinds of body language that she knew. At that time we really felt like pupils in a nursery class.  Each time when we managed to speak a complete sentence in Portuguese, we would become so excited that we would keep on repeating the sentence again and again till our teacher stopped us by shouting loudly.

   In the months later, I was able to order dinners in Portuguese in small restaurants for myself. And I could even guide the way for others with this language. Sometimes I would go to the small bars nearby, and with a glass of beer in hand, I would hear the old men around talking and teasing each other, which often made me burst into laughter unconsciously.  By then I had a sigh, that was no matter what age you were in and how much knowledge you’d had, you were always a piece of paper with blanks. You could write on it whenever you wished to, and the paper would never be filled full.

   
  
  Waiting for the bus

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• Droom （Dream）/ 梦

  2 juli 2010

  During a free talk with friend Jan one weekend, I said that in the face of history and nature, people are just like those grasses that are green in spring and yellow in autumn. But Jan said, he believed that people are rather like the dusts that are blown by wind here and there.

  I have always in mind some boring questions which I could seldom find right answers. What am I doing now? What have I done for others? What am I living for? What kind of life should I have? Is life really something like a dream as people all said?  I know that many people wouldn’t think about these questions while some would not have the desire to think about them, because this kind of thinking may probably bring helpless or negative feelings. 

  I remember in a Dutch website of artists, once someone had raised a common topic like this: what is art? I made an answer as this: Art is something and art is nothing. We know that art comes from the emotional needs of people. It is not a substance, but you can see, can hear and can feel it. The form of arts is only    something like a materialization externalized on the emotional needs of people. The emotion of people would exist or disappear upon the existence and disappearance of people. Most of artists like to over value themselves. They think they are more important then others in this world, as they are dealing with an extraordinary job and considering unusual problems… As a matter of fact, the real difference between artists and ordinary people is only the division of work. In the past I often reminded myself to make efforts, to struggle forward and try to become someone like those great artists. Now I would ask myself why should I act like that? What will I be even if I success?  I did choose the job in my life, and once I made the choice, I would do it well.  To be or not to be so great seems to make no sense to my life. By the time when I am blown away by wind like a dust, recalling my life, I would say it is OK as I have tried my best in my life and the process of my trying is satisfactory. 
  
  Nothing is great or forever in this world. And no one is more important than ordinary people. Everything will eventually turn into dust, blown away by wind, and finally be forgotten. 

  

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• Artists are persons difficult to deal with? ( Artists in action for Voedselbank ) 2008 / 艺术家，很难相处的人吗？（为食物银行捐助绘画作品的活动）2008

  2 juli 2010

  At the end of 2008, an activity of donation was presided over by De Stijl Gallery, during which an auction was held for a painting work completed cooperatively by our 5 artists.  The income of the auction was a donation for Vedselbank. In fact that activity was also a part of our exhibition in Wintersalon that year.  Since I would go to Portugal to have my driving license replaced, I could only managed to be back to Holland two days before the painting was finished. Therefore I asked the other artists to leave me a blank place on the canvas for painting.

   To complete a painting on one piece of canvas by 5 artists was something I had never tried before. I had no idea how to do it. Maybe the other artists might have some experience I guessed. But I was wrong. They knew nothing more than I did. All we had in mind was the impulse and the desire for this co-creation. Then in the following days after I had left for Portugal, things happened were quite funny and theatrical. The 4 artists started their work together for the first day. And the work went on quite smoothly as they’d had a sketch in mind which had already been agreed by them all.  But later for the second day things became different. Since everyone had his own time for a day, it meant only one artist could continue the painting each day. But after one person’s creation for a day, the whole painting had been changed. Then facing the changed painting, the next artist had no idea how to continue the work. So he would lay over the previous painting with his own idea and a new painting thus appeared.  So the four artists took turns day after day to lay over the paintings of the others' till one day of all of them could not bear anymore. They had big difference in creation and none of them wished to cooperate with the others anymore. Moreover someone even suggested to cut the canvas into pieces and then to paint respectively…Finally in an atmosphere of discord they reached agreement as this: leaving the half done painting for zhongnai to finish with when he came back from Lisbon.

   Facing with the brush work in four different styles, I really felt at a loss and helpless. I had noting in mind and even had no idea what to paint and where to start…. All I knew was that I could not lay over the painting again and I must maintain the creating traces of them all. So I worked hardly the whole evening. And the next day five of us sat together and reached an agreement on creation. Actually there were no time for disagreement anymore. The painting was finally completed that evening. Two days later, the painting was successfully sold by auction in a party of a businessman club. 

   It is said that artists are the persons difficult to deal with. But to me, I don’t quite agree with it as perhaps I am not the one difficult to deal with by others.  In fact artists sometimes are the persons really difficult to deal with, as they usually keep their mind or thinking in their world of art.  Only in that world could they find and realize themselves, and they believe they belong to that world only. Their thoughts and their way of thinking might be the only element that constitutes their world of art.  Sometimes they might confuse their world of art with the life in the real world, thus they might from time to time bring their ideas and concepts of the art world to the real society. It is true that some artists fail to change their roles freely between these two worlds, and this might probably be the reason why they usually granted to be the persons who are difficult to deal with.

  

  

  

   
  

  Seems going well / 进行中

   
  

  Totally...

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• Portugal - The land of Fado / 法多的故乡 - 葡萄牙

  1 juli 2010

  Besides the melodious sound of Molinhuur in the northern land of my homeland, Fado is the only music that can really touch my nerve ever since I was born.  I remembered that many years ago I heard for the first time a song which was quite strange to me. The song seemed to be quite sad, just like someone was talking about her dolorous feelings, or someone telling you about her calamitous life. The graceful melody seemed to be a sound of nature ringing around my ears and touching my heart… And that was a Fado sung by Ms. Maria Rodrigues. Up to now I still believe that  to listen to Fado quietly in Lisbon is the only way to feel the real spirit of it.
   Around the corner of the cross road near the statue of Arrois in Lisbon , there was an old bench, same as those dilapidated buildings in the city. Everyday an old Portuguese man would set up a little stall near the bench to sell some small commodities as well as cheap souvenirs. When I was living in Lisbon, I often went there after having a cup of coffee and two egg tarts.  In the sun light and no matter happy or sad I felt , I would shared the bench with a couple of old people and sit there for a while, watching those dilapidated ancient architectures with different colors around.

   To Lisbon, I have a strange love which can not be easily explained. It is maybe because of my love for Fado or maybe because of that the city had brought me some kind of abstract intimacy. I’m sincerely grateful to this city for its special tolerance in accepting a man like me who had been wandering in Europe for years.
   

  

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• Solo exhibition in Diaconessenhuis 2007 / 在Meppel市立医院艺术展览中心的个人画展 2007

  30 juni 2010

  2007 was my lucky year.  In that year I went back to my hometown for the first time ever since I had left there six years before.  Although a short stay for one month there had brought me nothing new or special,  walking along the streets and roads in the city where I used to live and study did have brought me a lot of joy and happiness as well as intimacy, which had really left me a deep impression.

  The first exhibition of my works in 2007 was held in Diaconessenhuis in Meppel. To me that was relatively a big solo exhibition. There were approximately 50 pieces of my paintings and prints on show in this exhibition. The opening ceremony was presided over and a speech was given by Mr. Alexader Pechtold , one of the cabinet minister of Holland as well as the leader of Party D66. The exhibition was successful.
   

  

  

  
  
   
   
     
  
   
   

   

   

   

  
   
   
  
   
  

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• Solo exhibition in Drukerijmuseum 2006 / Meppel 印刷博物馆2006 - 钟鼐个人绘画作品展

  29 juni 2010

  Nurse:  how could your put your finger into the grinder?

  I:      I felt hungry, and all I thought about was the minced meat.

  Nurse:  Your finger is injured now, and your work will be affected for some time.

  I:      It’s ok.  Injury for the left hand finger will not cause too much trouble.

  Nurse:  What kind of job do you do then?

  I:      I’m a free artist.

  Nurse:  ah, so you are an artist…  Then it is understandable why you put your finger into the grinder….

  An interesting but somewhat awkward dialogue, isn’t it?

   (It seems that no matter in which country, artists are usually granted to be an non normal group of persons. But I think I am normal enough)

  In the early summer of 2006, I was invited to hold a solo exhibition in Drukerijmuseum in Meppel. Two days before the opening of the exhibition, at a sultry noon time, I felt rather hungry. So I stopped painting and went into the kitchen. There I found a pack of pasta but regretted to find no minced meat for sauce. Then I saw a piece of beef in the refrigerator, and I intended to mince the meat with a grinder special for nuts. The grinder soon stopped working , and the beef paste inside could not turn around anymore.  Subconsciously I put my finger into the grinder in a wish to dig out the minced meat. The meat was dug out soon and the grinder started to turn fast again, but meanwhile my finger was cut seriously by the grinder…

  In hospital, a young Kurdish woman doctor made a suture for me. She was beautiful and serious too. It took her almost 50 minutes to finish the suture.

  Since the finger was still quite painful after the suture, I had to hold the finger upside for the coming weeks. And two days later, with the same posture, I attended the opening ceremony of my exhibition.
   

  

   

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• Exhibition De Uelenspieghel / 2002 / 森林中的画展

  5 april 2009

   Santosh，a man over 50 years old, is my intimate friend for years despite our difference in age. He came to visit me from time to time, to see if I had new works or just to sit down and chatted with me for hours. Sometimes we also went to the small town of middle ages nearby to had cups of  beer as well. In fact Santosh is a man with talent in painting, but he prefers to write his poems. At the time when I had no car yet, he often helped me to transfer my works to galleries or museums with an old style of Volvo. It seems to me that he is quite keen on this brand of car as he always choose the same brand and the same style each time when he got a new car.  

   
  On a  sunny afternoon in the Autumn of 2002, Santosh and I  came back from Groningen with my works which had just been displayed there. As we drove on the way, Santosh suddenly remembered a place that he had been to a long time before. It was a concealed place hidden deeply in a forest, where lived an lady who was one of the survivals from a concentration camp of Nazi during the second world war. The old lady was quite keen on art works and she had created by herself about a hundred pieces of board printings .  She had a manor in the forest with several traditional houses of Dutch. And her manor was also a place for frequent activities of culture exchanges among the local people. So we decided to pay a short visit there on our way home. The old lady was already more then 90 years old.  Her daughter, a warm hearted lady was in charge of the daily management for the manor.  The ground floor of the biggest house there was the gallery for the art works of the old lady. We took it as a gallery although it had never held any exhibitions for any artists.  While chatting with them, Santosh introduced me to the ladies. Both the mother and the daughter were quite curious about me. And they wished to look at the art works from this Chinese artist. So I took out my works from the car one by one and put them in the forest. The daughter named as Annette seemed to be quite fascinated by the colors of my works. In fact they planned to hold an Autumn activity soon. And it would be a party of tent fans, which means there would be yurts and Indian tents setting up there. In the party time, they would also have displays and shows for dances of different nationalities. So Annette wondered if I could hold an exhibition for my works at that time.  After discussed with her mother for a while, the old lady exceptionally agreed  to move away all her own works from the gallery.
   
  The old lady died the next year. And since then the manor had never accepted any art works from any artists for display. Therefore I became the first and the only one that had showed his works on her private gallery.

  
  Exhibition in De Uelenspieghel 2002

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   Drenthe RTV <Expositie Zhongnai in De Uelenspieghel >

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• Kitty, a cat can not be forgoten / Kitty， 记忆中无法抹去的小猫。

  24 maart 2009

   Kitty was a white female cat with only a few black points on her head and tail. She was so small in my hand when I just got her. Kitty was found in the place where Song worked. Her mother was a wild cat. In fact Kitty was a gift to me, in a wish to drive away my loneliness when I shut up myself in studio for painting, thus she could be a small companion. I like small animals, and therefore she was accepted.  Feeding her on time, teasing her in leisure time and watching her playing had brought me some joy and life seemed to have more fun.

  Kitty was quite stubborn and had a strong temper. She was also good at playing with people.  Whenever I sat in front of my laptop, she would jump up to the keyboard and then looked at the pictures on the screen naively. But I couldn’t type, so I took her down. And then she would jump up again to the same place. Sometimes we had to repeat the same actions several times as I could not do anything with my computer. Oh, it was really a headache! The most reticules thing was that she often secretly lick the pigments on my painting palette. Perhaps she felt that the soft pigments tasted like ice cream. From time to time I could see her running in the room with either a red or a blue face. To the most extent, once in her small house for excretion, I even found some stools in sky-blue colors … It is lucky that the pigments are made of minerals, otherwise she might probably be poisoned.

  In those years, I didn’t know why but just had a sense of urgency in mind. I think many people over 30 years old might have the same feeling.  At that time I often thought about the things that I had done before in my homeland, the things that I had lost and the things that I had acquired. And even more I felt that with the changes in the environment, those of my future planning and academic programs had become more and more unworkable. Facing a new start in everything, I felt at a loss. The only clear thing in mind was to keep on reminding myself not to give up. I told myself I must go on with my painting no matter what the future is… Perhaps I had locked myself in the room too long, facing canvas and pigments all day along, and sometimes even talked with nobody for weeks , that little white cat had become my close friend to some extent. She did not only bring me joy, but also became the object that I could talk to everyday. I knew she couldn’t understand what I was talking about, but all I needed was to talk. 
   
  In 2005, my son Mukdembu was born, and we moved to the city where we are living now. That year Kitty also got four babies. I guess their father should be the wild cat with a fat head that often came to our back garden, we called it as "foolish brother ".  Kittens were very lovely and cute, but they grew very fast and ate more and more. So I took a picture for them and put it on the advertising board in a supermarket, hoping someone could adopt them. Finally these four little guys were sent away. Later my neighbor, a Dutch lady suggested me to send Kitty for a sterilization operation. I accepted the suggestion and spent 60 Euros in an animal hospital. Since then Kitty seemed to lose her vitality, just lazily strolling day after day or just lying in the shade in the garden. One day in a late Spring, a neighbor knocked at my door and told me that a white cat had just been struck to death by a car. I rushed out and found that was my Kitty…
   
  Oh, a big man like me, writing here sadly, just like a soft-hearted lady. You may feel it a bit  ridiculous.  But that white cat did accompany me during that period of hard time. And she shared with me the loneliness and the feelings of lose for those days. It was her who  faithfully listened to those words which I could speak to no one but to myself only.
   
  Up to now the little white cat is still with us, buried in the backyard of my home. My son Mukdembu might not remember her, but he knows there buried a kitten, called Kitty.

  

  

  

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• One person's situational dialogue and my toilet english / 一个人的情景对话和厕所英语

  19 maart 2009

  When I was a student in college, I chose English as my language course. But to tell the truth, the English I’d learnt for many years was just a kind of dumb English, and the result was shameful. I remember at time, in order to get some information beforehand about the testing contents for each annual examination, some students including me from the oil painting department as well as from sculpture department and Chinese painting department would hid ourselves in a corner near the home of our English teacher, just waiting for him to come back home. As soon as he appeared, we would swarm up and kidnapped him without any explanation and then rushed to a restaurant near our school. Foods and wine were already on the table of course. Our teacher surnamed Hao, and his name was always hanging on our lips whenever the time was closed to an examination. He was indeed a very good teacher with a kind heart.  After all for students of art academies, the subjects relating to arts were the main courses. If the students could not graduate successfully just because of a bad result for a language course, that would be a great pity.
  
  "Ok! Take out your books now!" Each time our teacher would start like this, straight to the point. Facing our teacher in such an occasion and in such an atmosphere, we did feel ashamed and embarrassed.
  
  Dutch people certainly speak Dutch. But since the country is small, the education for foreign languages becomes popular here. Most of the people here could speak English and German. Some could even speak French. At the beginning time when I was here, I was so eager to communicate with the people here that I tried my best to use every word I knew in English.  At that time I had only one thing in mind,  that was no matter how poor my English was, I would not be a dumb.
  
  I had then an Instant-Dictionary, an electronic one. It was a gift from my friend. I had not expected it would become later my best friend and my teacher for English. I put it in my pocket every day and turned it on whenever I had time. Each time when I intended to go somewhere to have something to do, I would look for from it the words or sentences that I would probably say later. Then I recited them for several times before I took the leave. Sometimes when I talked with the local people but failed to express myself well, I would take it out and put in the Chinese words or phrases, then showed them the English translation.  Unfortunately that Instant-Dictionary was damaged in 2007 by a spilled a cup of tea.

  It is said that to speak a language well, you must practice more and talk more with people. I knew this was a shortcut for mastering a language. But things were different here. When I was in China, I had a lot of friends to talk with. But here it was difficult to find one to often chat with, since my English was so poor that the words and expressions I knew in English might probably be much less than a British child.  Beside this I felt embarrassed to disturb others for I hated to waste the time of others’ just for practicing my English. After some consideration, I thought the best way for me was to practice by myself. I could imagine a situation, and then I could play different roles in the dialogue. Later on I started to practice in this way for my spare time after painting. The contents of the dialogue varied from posting a letter in a post office to visiting a Dutch painter and even lunching with him. I did really spend all my spare time to learn English at that time. And it seemed just like to prepare for a university entrance examination. Even more, when I went to the toilet, I wouldn’t waste that period of time. In fact I’ve had a habit for a long time, that is to read something in toilet time. I don’t care what kind of books they are as long as they are books. When I started my life in Europe, and the books were naturally replaced by English-language books and that Instant-Dictionary. I remember for many times, I walked out the toilet with numb legs.

  Perhaps only those who have really suffered from the depression caused by failure in communication could have such a willpower.  

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• Tussen Lotus en Lelie 2002 / ( Steenwijk 市立画廊 / 双人展 / 2002 ）

  19 maart 2009

  
  Kunst slaat brug tussen culturen / 2002

  
  
  
  
  

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• Exhibitions in Groningen / 在 Groningen 游逛的日子

  18 maart 2009

  After the exhibition in Hoorn, I took photos of my works and made a thick photo album with them together with a brief self-introduction as well as some relative information.

  In the spare time after creation, I often went to the biggest city in the northern part of Holland named Groningen. It is a city full of young people. There are many cultural and art schools and institutions there. And there are many galleries and museums as well. At first I just took around in those galleries and museums where a lot of expressionist paintings were saved and displayed. Later I simply carried my backpack and my photo album, and with a few slices of bread and a bottle of water in bag, I started to search for the galleries and museums that might be suitable for my works.
   
  The first few galleries and museums tactfully rejected me for they were not sure if they could make money with my works as I am a foreigner there. For me that was quite understandable, as after all these galleries and museums were operated in a commercial way. However, the Dutch people were quite friendly. Although they were not really interested in your works or thought your works might not be suitable for display in their galleries, they still showed their great enthusiasm to your works and curiously asked about your background ,your education and something about your creation.
   
  Wandering without results for sometime, I began to feel a bit discouraged. I did not know where to find a way to go, or better say where to find a door so as to let me squeeze in.
   
  On a rare sunny day, I walked into a gallery. Although there were still no results, I got some information. An old man suggested me to visit the art center in Groningen, which was a municipal arts agency. The center often organized exhibitions for young artists and there existed no commercial operation .
   
  A Dutch woman of about my age received me there. She was responsible for painting exhibition auditing, looked pretty, but a bit stuttering….After looking at the photo album of my works, she asked me directly if I could arrange an exhibition two months later. And then after, with her help, I began to hold a series of exhibitions in Groningen.
   

  
  Exhibition in Kunstencentrum Groningen 2001

  
  Exhibition in gallery Forma Aktua / Groningen 2003

  
  Exhibitions in Humanitas Groningen / 2002 /...

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• Phone cards / 宁愿只啃面包，也要买电话卡 2001

  18 maart 2009

  Not far from my residence, there was a telephone booth. Inserting a special phone card for Asian area，and you could talk with your family or friends there. The phone booth was perfect, just like a small pavilion with a glass door. Standing inside of it you would feel no coldness, no rain and no wind.

   

  In the beginning days of my life in Europe, the most difficult things I faced were loneliness and isolation. I was a stranger here and had difficulties in communicating with the local people in their langue. So buying a phone card and then chatting with my former colleagues or friends in china for minutes had become a big pleasure for me. In that way I felt I could release some loneliness in heart. Since there exists a difference in time, I could only go to the phone booth in midnight time when I was sleepless, accompanied by starlight and sometimes in rain. At that time that phone booth was really a spiritual sustenance to me.

  Depression and loneliness were released while new troubles came.  20 guilders to buy a phone card meant about   40 minutes’ talking by phone. I don't know why it was so expensive at that time for a call to Asia. Probably at that time the phone communications between China and Europe relied on leasing the satellite of other country’s.  Later it had become much cheaper when using its own satellites, even cheaper than local calls.

  Each time to buy a new phone card, I needed to count carefully the money in my wallet before hand. In fact it was an easy job for I did not have much money in it. I did the counting  for I was not sure if the left coins were enough for food and a pack of cigarette for the coming days. I remember once I failed to do so, and I had only two loaves of  bread and jam for the next two days. To buy a piece of meat thus became impossible.

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• I came, I start ...... / 既然来了，就开始吧!

  18 maart 2009

  Hoorn is a beautiful and fascinating city by the lakeshore of Markermeer in northwest of Holland.

   

  The lake was a part of Waddenzee before the dams of Markerwaarddijk and Afsluitdijk built up. It is said that a few centuries ago, just from here the merchant ships of Netherlands started their journey of maritime hegemony.

   

  In January 2001, I came here by train from north of Holland with 12 pieces of my works. On the local newspaper there appeared a photo of one of my paintings as well as the these words ---- a young man from China holds his exhibition in the East Church in Hoorn for 12 pieces of his recent oil paintings in oriental style.----- The exhibition opened without a ceremony. And there were not many visitors either. But the good news was that I sold my first painting in Europe with 550 guilders. Up to now I know nothing about that Dutch lady who bought my painting. . . I was very grateful to her, because by that time I had no idea if my works would be appreciated and accepted there.

   

  Somewhere as if it was arranged, I left my homeland, my friends, my students and all things that I’d had before. I had never thought that I would come to this small country to start my new life. But I was here. Everything here was so strange to me.  It was neither like what the textbooks had described in our political class in China that the capitalist countries and its systems were dark and decadent, nor like what had been imagined among people that as good as the paradise.  It was just a quiet and a peaceful place.

   

  I did not know yet how to find my position here in this country. But since I had come, I would make a start.

  
  It was the first time to have my solo exhibition in Europe, I went to Hoorn with my 12 oil paintings in a sunny day. That was the starting point of my new life in the Western would.
  
  

  

  

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