Rare Chinese art show opens in Washington area

Chi Wang, president of the US-China Policy Foundation, has been collecting Chinese calligraphy and paintings since 1960. A generous sampling from his collection, Ageless Chinese Art, more than half of it calligraphy, just went on display at George Mason University on Thursday.

"This is a rare Chinese art exhibit in Washington, DC," Wang said. "Most American museums exhibit American and European works and have nothing from Asia."

Donald Russell, director of Provisions Library at George Mason University, together with Gao Qing, director the Confucius Institute there, helped organize the exhibition.

Many of the pieces in Wang's collection are by famous Chinese artists. The show includes: a piece of calligraphy that reads "For the nation, for the people (weiguo weimin)" by Hua Guofeng, former premier of China;"Thinking Carefully (shensi)" by Sun Yat-sen, first president and founding father of the Republic of China; couplet written by Chen Duxiu, co-founder of the Chinese communist party; and a painting of a horse by Xu Beihong, a famous Chinese artist.

"It's really wonderful, the details are still on the page," said Maggie Shaw, a student at George Mason. "It's fascinating what you can learn through it. I can't understand them, but as an artist, it's still beautiful for me to appreciate."

Kelsey Johnson, who has a grandparent from Shanghai, studies graphic design at George Mason University. She came to the exhibit to learn more about the history of her family. "I've never seen anything like this. It seems very coincidental, and it doesn't come around very often," she said.

Wang said he thinks it's a pity that there is no national Chinese art gallery in the US. "I wish there was a National Gallery of Chinese Art, so when President Xi Jinping comes to the US, he could go visit it," he said.

"I've been expecting him to come for a long time," Wang added. "It'll be beneficial to US-China relations. Of course there are other voices, but we need to achieve mutual understanding and respect for our differences."

Siqi Lin in Washington contributed to the story.

(China Daily USA 09/11/2015 page2)