前不久,《百年巨匠》国际宣传片启动仪式在北京钓鱼台国宾馆举行。全国政协外事委员会副主任、国家艺术基金理事会理事长、《百年巨匠》总顾问蔡武;全国政协教科文卫体委员会副主任、中国文学艺术基金会理事长、《百年巨匠》总顾问胡振民和《百年巨匠》出品人、总策划杨京岛,向张艺谋颁发了《百年巨匠》国际宣传片总导演的聘书。与此同时,还向诺贝尔文学奖得主莫言颁发了总撰稿的聘书。《百年巨匠》是中宣部和国务院新闻办组织的“记录中国”传播工程项目。国际版将以英语、西班牙语、阿拉伯语、俄语和法语等8种语言出版发行。
百年的历史孕育了灿若星辰的文艺巨匠,时代的风帆引领着民族复兴的伟大梦想。《百年巨匠》是一次史无前例的文献记录,更是一部大气磅礴的文艺史诗。它以文化为媒介,通过亲民易懂的语言、传世珍贵的音影资料,由健在老艺术家们的倾情讲述、向全世界介绍中国20世纪文化艺术成就。
中国国家博物馆馆长吕章申为《书法篇》讲述。 《百年巨匠》国际版将努力把握好中国与世界的文化交汇点;把握好国际舆论的聚焦点;把握好中国人民与世界人民的情感共鸣点,向人类命运共同体的兄弟人民讲好中国故事。让中国文化走向世界,让世界人民了解在新的一百年里,中国人民在文化藝术领域将会有更大的攀登和超越。
Exhibition and Documentary Series Sing of Grand Masters
By Sun Guowei, our special reporter in Beijing
Before the National Day, China National Museum launched an exhibition featuring the 43 grand masters of the 20th-century China in the fields of art, music, literature, calligraphy, Peking Opera, and modern drama. The opening ceremony attracted a large crowd of visitors.
These masters emerged when China tried heroically to fight for its survival and renaissance in the entire 20th century. In the early 20th century, the feudal Qing Dynasty crashed out and the country began to modernize in face of wars and tumult. Meanwhile, western ideas flooded in, shaking the cultural and ideological foundation of the ancient middle kingdom. These masters absorbed the influence from the outside world and carried on the tradition. Their works have helped shape the modernization drive still going on today.
The exhibition is a brief representation of a 100-episode television documentary titled “Century Masters”.
Yang Jingdao, producer of the documentary, said it had taken him twenty years to prepare mentally and artistically for the series of grand masters. Over years, he made friends with artists, and started an advertising firm to accumulate funds for the documentary project. He has helped painters and calligraphers set up solo exhibitions and workshops, and has helped published over 100 collections of artworks and books. All these activities helped him make a large network of people and business channels. To make this film, Yang visited masters and their relatives, descendents and students of masters if masters had passed away. Some masters and relatives died while the documentary was still in the making.
Artists account the biggest share of the documentary series. Some artists were quite active in the first half of the 20th century, such as Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Zhang Daqian. They contributed a great deal to carrying on the tradition of Chinese painting. On the other hand, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Liu Haisu introduced western elements into the traditional Chinese painting and helped broaden the horizon and blaze new trails for young artists. Wu Zuoren, Fu Baoshi, Li Kuchan, Pan Tianshou, Guan Shanyue, Shi Lu, Jiang Zhaohe, Huang Zou, and Wu Guanzhong were quite active in the second half of the 20th century. They made outstanding contribution to the development of art.
Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Shang Xiaoyun, and Xun Huisheng, four masters of Peking Opera, are featured in the documentary and at the exhibition. The fact that Peking Opera is singled out for honorable mentioning in the documentary and the exhibition bespeaks the unique role the opera has played in China’s opera scene.
Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She and Cao Yu, six literary giants of the first half of the 20th century, are featured in the documentary and at the exhibition, although many new writers of national and international renown emerged in the last few decades of the 20th-century China.
In the field of music, six composers and musicians are featured. They represent the best songs China sang during the war years of the country. They are Liu Tianhua, Nie Er, Huang Zi, Xian Xinghai, Xiao Youmei, and He Lyuding. The 20th-century China witnessed huge historical events such as 1911 Revolution, the resistance war against Japanese aggression, and the founding of the People’s Republic. The music they created roused the people to fight for the future of the ancient country and many of their creations are the classics of the nation’s music repertoire.
It took eight years to make the documentary series and it was finished just before the National Day this year.
An international promotional film will be made for the documentary. Zhang Yimou, probably the best known Chinese director, is appointed director of the film and Nobel-Prize novelist Mo Yan is appointed as chief script writer. The promotion film will be dubbed in eight foreign languages and distributed across the world.