Dates
Friday, May 9, 2025 - 13:00 to 14:00
Location
Online via MS Teams
Contact
https://confucius-institute.open.ac.uk/about-us
Please join us online for an enlightening talk on visual art from 13:00-14:00 (UK time); 20:00-21:00 (Beijing time) on Friday 9th May 2025 as we share the mythical creatures from the ancient classic Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai Jing) and explore their connections between Chinese history and life today. The talk is hosted by the Online Confucius Institute at The Open University, and it will be delivered in Chinese and assisted by a simultaneous translation tool so you can read the English transcripts at the same time.
Please register here on Eventbrite to attend the talk.
About the talk
Shanhai Jing is an ancient Chinese text rich in mystery and content. Its rich descriptions of mythical creatures and ancient stories provide a treasure trove of material for writers and artists. In this talk, Professor Wang Chuan will briefly introduce his innovative project which integrates the mythical creatures from Shanhai Jing, classical Chinese paintings and modern digital arts. He will talk us through how he integrates the animation’s images of mythical creatures into ancient Chinese paintings and contemporary photographic works, and share with us his creative concepts through the analysis of a few pieces of his work. There will be interactive discussion after the talk.
About the speaker
Professor Wang Chuan graduated from the Central Academy of Craft and Fine Arts and later earned a joint Master’s degree in Visual Arts (Photography) from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Queensland College of Art. He began teaching at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2000 and once served as the Deputy Dean of the School of Design. Professor Wang has long focused on artistic practices themed around “tradition in the present,” spanning painting, digital photography, and text in various forms, with an emphasis on cultural migration and historical transformation. He has received numerous national awards for artistic creation and research. In 2020, Professor Wang began working on a comprehensive art project inspired by the mythical creatures of the Classic of Shanhai Jing.
The talk will be online via Microsoft Teams. The link will be sent out to those who have registered to attend before the talk. A recording will be made available on the OCI events page after the talk.