CULTURE & ARTS
ARTS & CRAFTS
With its
long history and inward-looking tradition, China has
developed and refined a resplendent catalogue of fine
arts and exquisite crafts.
From very
early times, Chinese artisans dazzled the world with
technical brilliance and innovation, and today, Chinese
arts and crafts are renowned the world over. Since
the 1950's, China has attempted to revive the traditional
and native arts. Research institutes were established
in crafts, as well as to make further technical advancements.
Promising young talent is recruited from around the
country for training in specialized schools.
Calligraphy,
painting, poetry and music are regarded in China as
noble arts, the knowledge of which was required of
any scholar. By contrast, applied arts such as silk
and carving are considered merely honorable crafts,
performed by craftsmen and gentlewomen. All the same,
in the West these skilled crafts have always held
a special fascination.
CHINESE CULTURE
The
complexities of Chinese literature and the music and
motion of Beijing opera are challenging and inspiring.
That's to be expected after 25 centuries of creativity.
It is not
surprising that the written word is more important
to the Chinese than the spoken one. Indeed, given
the numerous dialects to be found in modern China,
the written word - or character, to be precise - is
the common means of communication. Chinese characters
are pictographic and represent concepts; they only
represent sounds very imprecisely.
The
earliest evidence of the Chinese script was found
on the so-called oracle bones - tortoise shells or
shoulder blades of animas onto which questions regarding
the weather, the yield of crops or the outcome of
battles were carved. They were thrown into a fire,
and the oracle was interpreted according to the cracks
that were formed by the heat. This form of writing
is more than 4,000 years old.
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