Gallery Party was a Great Success

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Yin Guang Zhong and Jack

Thanks to everybody who came to the Gallery Party Tuesday, the 27th. We raised over 3,000 RMB for the benefit of the Shirley Gallery. There were 20 door prizes good food and lots of beer and wine. Beer and wine was provided courtesy of The Run Ran Wine Company of Jin Yang, Guizhou Lai Yong Chu White Wine Company, and the Monkey King Brewery. Beka Coffee Business Concern donated the coffee and cakes.

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Left to Right: Jian Ren Yi, his wife, Shirley, Yin Guang Zhong, An Yi Rong, Liu Hai Bin

Special Guest Artists Yin Guang Zhong, An Yu Rong, Jian Ren Yi, Liu Hai Bin, Gao An Xun  shared their feelings about changes in the art world in Guizhou. Yin Shi Long had his art on display in the gallery and joined in the talk. Food was great, donated by the Yuting Xuan Restaurant of 72 Jian Dao Jie. A fine time was had by all.

 

Invitation to our Holiday Party

A message from the Administrator (Jack) of this web site:

The www.tourguizhou.com website is cooperating with Shirley Gallery to create a Holiday Party on behalf of local artists. The cost is 100 RMB per person . This covers all the food, drinks, door prizes, and entertainment. The event is December 27 (Tuesday evening),  6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The location is on the river at Jian Daojie 72.   All proceeds from ticket sales are dedicated to paying the bills of the Gallery, and thereby support the art community of Guiyang. Many artists are permitted to display their work for free, and patrons are permitted to tour the gallery free of charge. The Gallery (second floor) and Restaurant (on the first floor) will be closed to the public on the 27th. This is a private party and is intended to support the artist community of Guizhou.

We will have grape wine, beer, soft drinks, coffee, and tea to drink. Here are some examples of the food to expect:

We are providing a Wechat link so you can buy your tickets online through Wechat. This is new for us, so we need your patience. You will have to scan the Wechat link. This is Diana’s account, so if you are not Diana’s Friend, then you must first become a Friend, then we can compete the transaction.531440729684275769  After you are a Friend, you enter your Name, Phone Number,  and how many tickets, with names of guests. Diana will respond with the amount needed, and then you send the payment. Finally she will respond with “Got”. Then you will be registered.

If anybody has trouble buying tickets online, please send an email to me at tourguizhou@gmail.com, or just call me at 13158092660 . I will find a way to get your payment. We need all tickets sold in advance so we can cover the cost of the event. Please respond by this Friday.

This is going to be the best event of the year for our new little website. There are links below to show something about the Gallery. If you miss this event, you are really going to regret it !  🙂

The Shirley Private Gallery

Art of Yin Shilong

Many Faces of Yin Shilong

 

(If you have already responded and have already bought your ticket, don’t worry, you are already registered.)

 

 

Monkey King: Spirit of the Craftsman

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By: Diana
When I heard of the Monkey King, I thought it was the God of Wars in our Chinese ancient fairy tales. It is, in fact, a “fresh beer bar” name. It is run by a lady and her  family. It’s not common for an older lady to run a beer business in Guizhou and I was moved by her spirit.

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Ms Kang said that when her son introduced her to fresh beer several years ago, she fell in love with it. What great taste. First she tried all kinds of fruits and vegetables to get more flavors. Then she traveled and began to learn how to make fresh beer in other cities outside of Guizhou Province. She was a successful business woman prior to the bar business and she did her own research with her own money.20161215_011719

A Guiyang native, she respected the Spirit of the Craftsman inspired by Japan and Germany in their writings. That’s why I felt so very comfortable when I first went there. Later she explained to me: “Whether you are rich or poor, you are my guest. My first priority is to make good beer and then give good service.” It isn’t about the money. It’s more about family, service and lifestyle.

When I took my friend Jack there, he commented on the nice variety of western music — rock, blues and country.  Jack drank the “wheat” beer and quickly ordered a second glass.

The brewing vats are all behind glass and are impressive to look at.Those vats kind of makes a statement: “We are craftsmen.” You can see it in Ms. Kang’s twinkling eyes. You can call the bar at 18684100081 for reservations or they can talk to your taxi driver.

Monkey King Bar has a variety of delicious foods, always fresh. For example, the Baby Squid is shown in the first picture. It’s fresh and has a special sauce. The Ji Rou Bing (Chicken Meat Pie) is like an improved burrito, with a special sauce. The spaghetti, pizza, and other dishes also have something special about them. Ms. Kang needs reservations for the fresh food because she doesn’t keep fresh product over night. Also shown above is the “Wheat Beer”.

Monkey King Bar
Nanming Area, Shinan Road
Jiu Jia Alley, Number 28
Get off the bus at Yi Tian Chen (ESTEE Shopping Center), continue along the road past the shopping center about 100 meters, turn right down the alley, about 20 meters and take another right. Go down the hill and you will find it by the parking lot.

Many Faces of Yin Shi Long

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Artist Yin Shi Long

Speaking with Artist Yin Shi Long today, December 14, 2016, it was nice to learn about how the Artist(s) think about their work. Artist Yin has been an active artist in Guizhou for many years. Although his work is truly professional quality, he has done many kinds of work to support himself, his wife and six year old daughter. Artist Yin paints murals for people, does photography, and teaches art. Over the years he has done many kinds of work, often with the artist’s eye for design. He comes from a family of working people, not independently wealthy. His father always had some kind of art in the home, especially the lifelike tiny figurines made of bread dough.

Artist Yin’s Uncle Yin Guang Zhong (Uncle Yin ) was an inspiration to him and helped teach him in his teenage years. Today we talked about his thinking behind the paintings and abstract head sculptures. guess-how-many-facesYou may notice that the faces in the paintings have no eyes. Also, there are also no eyes in the sculptures. That is because many people are blind to the beauty of nature around them. It may have something to do with the fact that people are so busy making money. Many people only care about money. Some artists are criticized by their friends because they don’t make very much money. Yet the artists see the beauty around them.

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Angry Stone of the Mountain God

One painting is a called the Angry Stone of the Mountain God. It shows a natural stone in the Guizhou area that Artist Yin passes every day. The painting has a darkness, showing the anger of the Mountain God, which represents Nature. After Yin had completed the painting, his anger about the polluted environment was diminished. The art was a kind of release of emotion. Artist Yin explained that people are angry, but they don’t know how to express this anger. The artist can help create this communication. Like a volcano about to erupt, people have emotions which they do not express. Then sometimes there is an explosion.
where-are-the-eyesThe many faces sculpture visualizes the moods of a person. A person really has many faces depending upon what the surrounding conditions create. A person can be good or bad, often depending on the environment that this person is in. talking-about-one-man-and-many-facesYou may feel that someone is a good person, but from a different angle, or in a different environment he is different. People can be good, bad, kind, frightened, aggressive, happy, or sad. Time and environment creates many faces for one person.
From his father, Artist Yin learned how to use bread dough to make figurines. This work is not displayed this month at the gallery, however, he has given us some pictures of his other work. These particular figurines tell a Chinese story about the punishment of a bad person. Chinese have a long history. This story is one known to many Chinese, from the Qing Dynasty in Guizhou Province: “Mr. Ding Kills Andehai”.

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The Artist creates a mood for each person. Each person can see something different in the Artist’s work. Artist Yin gave us his visualization.

The Art of Yin Shi Long will be on display at Shirley Gallery until the end of the month (Dec 2016).

The View from China . . . 2016 USA Election

It has been one month since the election of 2016. This will be my first blog post that is purely political, something I have steadfastly refused to do on this www.tourguizhou.com website.  So I have waited a month to decide whether this feeling of sharing my ideas to the larger community diminishes. It doesn’t. Fair enough. This subject affects the foreigner in China, particularly Americans.

After being forced (age limit) into retirement from my university teaching job in Guiyang, China, I have spent my time on the internet, tutoring children of friends, and travelling. I’ve spend about eight or nine months a year in China, and am prepared to continue this pattern for the “long term”, whatever the hell that means at age 66 (next month).

I made it a point to return to my home town, Traverse City, to make sure my vote got counted in the Presidential election. Two years ago the express mail lost my ballot. (see http://www.tourguizhou.com/archives/9934 ) Also, I felt an urge to be with “my people” (whatever the hell that means) during this crucial time in the history of my country. When I arrived, I was immediately besieged by my countrymen who told me that I “must” vote for ______ because if ______ wins, it will be the end of the world, or worse. I told everybody that I planned to vote for Jill Stein because I don’t have to vote for anybody I don’t like, and I didn’t like either of the major party candidates. Jill Stein is the leader of the Green Party, and Presidential Candidate.  For the life of me, I don’t know why she couldn’t persuade Bernie to take her place and run for President on the Green Party ticket. Their platforms are almost identical.

So how I voted is really irrelevant to this post, but it exposes my bias for all to know.  I like trees, and flowers, and chirping birds, and I like to swim in clean water with my mouth open, no worries. I grew up in Cadillac (Michigan, USA), an area of clean lakes and rivers, and never had a problem swimming until I swam in the ocean once and realized that I swim with my mouth open . . .

Back to the subject, it was two weeks after the election, and I was at an English Corner in Guiyang. (English Corners are places where Chinese come to practice their English.) It is an exceptional English corner in that it is patronized by young people with an exceptionally high level of English. Many of the 20 or 25 people in the room have lived overseas, or are just good students. The topic for discussion was the US Election, and I had just returned from the US. As a kind of a warm-up, they had a question about who the heads were on Mount Rushmore. Everybody was stumped about who was this Teddy Roosevelt guy. I explained that he was one of the most famous presidents in the US history and that he helped win the Spanish American War. If that hadn’t happened, we (America) probably wouldn’t be “over here” (an Asian power). Winning that war awarded the Philippines to the US. Roosevelt also broke up the big “Trusts” (corporations) that were controlling our economy.

After telling them about my experience in the US, a lot of people said their feelings about the election, and surprisingly there was a lot of Trump support. What I found most surprising was that nobody seemed to care whether anybody was right or wrong. In China the Communist Party is responsible for governing the country, not the people. The people in the English corner really had no incentive to convince each other who was right or wrong. It wasn’t their business. It was an extremely friendly discussion, just about the opposite of what I left in the USA. It was kind of refreshing to have an intelligent discussion about politics without anybody emotionally freaking out.

Then each person was asked who their favorite presidents were in all of history, anywhere in the world. It was a surprising list of very diverse opinions. Everybody seemed to respect each other’s opinions and there were USA Presidents listed, Chinese Presidents, and a few others from around the world.

Everybody seemed curious about who I would name as my favorite two Presidents. I said that I really didn’t remember the guy’s name, but if you saw “Independence Day” my favorite President he was the guy that got in the jet and went up to fight off the aliens.  He actually united the world to fight the aliens . . . They didn’t buy that explanation, but it got a good laugh. I just said that he was the President that I wish we had. I went on to say that my favorite President was Ford. He was the only one that never was elected as President or VP. He pardoned Nixon, which was the right thing to do, and he defied Congress when he wanted to get the American babies out of Vietnam (Babylift).

I had a chance to explain how our system works a little bit. In 1974 Ford was in charge of getting the US out of Vietnam. Congress cut off the funds, saying that no money could be used for Vietnam. Ford was very strong. He said that American soldiers had wives and babies in Vietnam and the babies were American Citizens. It was our duty to bring them home. Congress had a majority of Democrats in both houses and was very happy to embarrass the President. Getting the GI’s babies home was less important to them than embarrassing the President. Instead of whining and complaining, Ford said that he was Commander and Chief of the military and he would get the money to bring those babies home.

Ford went around the country talking to groups of Americans and explaining that we had a duty to the soldiers and those American babies in Vietnam. He got the money privately and brought the babies home. Ford had the guts to do what was right. When Dr. Henry Kissinger, who the Chinese know well, was once asked who he thought was the best President of all that he had worked with, he said that Gerald Ford was the closest thing to a real human that ever occupied the White House.  Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and saved the Union, was my second choice.

 

Yin Shi Long at Shirley Gallery

The art of Yin Shi Long is on display at the Shirley Gallery through the end of this month. The name of the Exhibition is loosely translated as “Frameless”

Shirley gave a big dinner for patrons of her gallery on opening night, Thursday, November 26, 2016.  Artist Yin was present along with his uncle, Artist Yin Guang Zhong, who was early inspiration to Shi Long. Yin Shi Long is both a sculptor and a painter as shown in his works below.

 

The Gallery Hours are 11AM to 6PM, every day. Since Shirley has a restaurant on the first floor of her building, she can host private parties at her gallery upon request.

Shirley Gallery

72 Jian Dao Jie
Guiyang, Guizhou
(0851)86676222/86911000

Shirley’s Private Gallery of Guiyang

shelly1I first came to Shirley’s gallery on November 26 and met the beautiful proprietor, Shirley (Xiao Li). She had an exhibition of the local artist named Yin Shi Long. His art and sculptures were very impressive, and I found myself having dinner with a variety of artists in her restaurant. Shirley’s story is as interesting as Artist Yin’s work. Shirley has opened a second floor gallery in one of the most entanceexclusive locations in Guiyang, downtown on Jian Dao Jie, beside the river. Shirley is able to support the artists of Guizhou because of her successful clothing business and restaurant. The restaurant is on the first floor and the gallery is directly above.
pillowShe is so successful that she has her own pillows with her face on it. She also has T-Shirts, batteries, silk scarves, postcards and my favorite mouse pad.mousepad

Shirley takes her inspiration from her art teacher, Chen HongQi. He has been an established artist in Guiyang many years, and some of his art is shown below, taken from his recently published book.

The gallery is supporting the artist community of Guizhou, having featured the art of seventeen local artists. These artists are not charged any money for this premier location. Shirley is an art collector and often accepts gifts of art from the artists that she helps.

Shirley urges everyone to buy the art to help maintain the artist community. We discussed the art scene extensively over coffee in her gallery on Tuesday (Dec 6, 2016). Interested patrons of Guizhou Art can write tourguizhou@gmail.com for more information.

Shirley Gallery

72 Jian Dao Jie
Guiyang, Guizhou
(0851)86676222/86911000

 

 

 

Natural Beauty of Caohai, Photos by Yu Jiahua

caohai_blackneckedcranes4Yu Jiahua has traveled around the world taking photos. Some of the most beautiful photos are of the natural wetlands of Caohai. This is a lake that is the home of the black necked crane, which migrates to Guizhou in the winter, and then returns to Russia to spend it’s spring and summers.

Minority Villages of Guizhou, Photos by Yu Jiahua

Surrounding Guiyang, of Guizhou Province are minority peoples, whose culture has been preserved by the predominantly Han population of China. Here are some photos showing the “ancient” lifestyle of the local peoples.