7/31/2019 Lien Chien-Hsing

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/lien-chien-hsing 1/1

Prime TimeArt, Live Music, Performances & Movies

Friday,June 22, 2012

The China Post

People in Taiwan have had enough earth-quakes and typhoons over the last ewdays. It is time or something un to mark

the Dragon Boat Festival (端午節) tomorrow. Forsome, the estival means enjoying yummy ricedumplings that are ound in nearly all Chinese-style eateries and restaurants. For others, suchas the members o the Vivat team, it is D-dayo dragon boat races, or which they have beentraining or more than a year.

The origin o the Dragon Boat Festival tracesback to more than 2,000 years ago. People’s e-orts to save a poet they respected have becomea popular modern sport observed not only by theChinese but also by people in Europe, Canada,the U.S., the Caribbean and Arica.

Train with all Their Hearts

The Vivat team is multinational with 25members coming rom Russia, Japan, Iceland,the U.S., Armenia and Taiwan, who either studyor work in Taiwan and are connected by theircuriosity and interest in dragon boat races.Recruited last year by captain Vitaly Andreev, the

 Vivat team will join races both in Taipei and NewTaipei City this weekend.

“I was moved by the spirits o the rowers thefrst time I watched a race in 2010. We neverhad a Russian team participating in the race inTaiwan, so I thought it could be a good instru-ment to connect Russian-speaking people inTaiwan,” Andreev said in a recent interview withThe China Post.

Theteamexpandedquicklythrough socialnetworks and wordo mouth. “We areopen to dierent nationali-ties, and it is very importantor people to be together no matterwhich country they come rom, and nomatter what prejudice they might have,” headded.

 Ater beginning training in March last year,the team participated in the race or the frsttime. However, due to a lack o comprehensiveunderstanding o the rules, the result was what

 Andreev called a “grand ailure.” The team wasdisqualifed or procedural problems. “Theyallowed us to race and we won it, but it didn’tcount,” he said.

The team’s coach Vladimir Yashin has beenparticipating in dragon boat races since 2008

with a team o mainly local people. Although anexperienced rower, coaching a team is a frst or

 Yashin.“They [Vivat team members] are all young

and know they have to break through. You haveto lose a ew times beore you understand howweak you are, and you start training with allyour heart,” he noted, citing the oldest memberon his team, who is more than 80 years old.

“Itcheered us

up. I the oldman can do this, then we can

really do this,” he added.

Bond to the Same Ship

Teamwork is crucial to win a dragon boatrace. For Vivat, a team o such language andcultural diversity, uniting all to become one isnever easy.

 Yuki Kitayama o Japan initially wasn’t in-terested in the race. “The training is exhaustingand it oten gets messy in the water. But I alsothought that while I am in Taiwan, I [might] wantto do something I can only do here, and a dragonboat race is it,” he noted, adding that “my Tai-wanese riends are excited about me joining the

race, because most o them have never tried it.Thereore I enjoy it more and more.”

Ivan Yumin (伊凡尤命) is one o the localparticipants in the team. “For whatever reason,people rom dierent countries have gatheredto row together in one boat. O course we havedisagreements, but I think learning how to listento everyone and let mysel be heard is my biggestgain,” he noted.

Scott Pursner o the U.S. remarked that get-ting to know new people is one o the nice thingsabout being on the team. “Not only do all thepeople rom dierent countries learn about theculture and customs o the place where we nowlive, we add our own personality to it. That’s thebest part,” he said.

Hinrik 'Olason o Iceland enjoys the goodmix o expats and Taiwanese on the team. “Iam glad to be in a group o people which is notexclusively an expat community. In a Taiwanesecommunity I am oten the only oreigner, buthere it’s like hal and hal,” he said.

See for Yourself

This weekend there are a ew locations to goto watch a dragon boat race live. The 2012 Tai-pei International Dragon Boat Championship (台北國際龍舟錦標賽) will be held at Dajia RiversidePark (大佳河濱公園) both tomorrow and Sundayrom 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In New Taipei City (新北

市), the dragon boat races will be held along theBitan River (碧潭) in Xindian (新店) rom 8 a.m.

In Changhua (彰化), the races will be heldat the Ji An Watercourse (吉安水道), Chang-hua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區) in theLugang Township (鹿港) rom 9 a.m. I you are inKaohsiung, go to the Love River (愛河), where theraces are held both today and tomorrow rom 9a.m. ■

Over the past two decades, painterLien Chien-hsing (連建興) has becomenearly synonymous with “magic realism”

among art critics, who compare his work to theLatin American literary style.

 Yet Lien preers to designate his own workas “symbolic realism.” Lien’s 31 newest paint-ings, made over the past our years, are nowbeing shown at the Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊)until July 8; published along with the exhibitionis a catalogue covering his career since 1989.

“I search or material in my experience o growing up in Taiwan,” Lien explained. “Placesthat have become derelict in the process o Taiwan’s industrial transition are important ele-ments in my work; or example actories, mines,various industrial or agricultural acilities datingrom the period o Japanese colonization. Thenatural landscape [is a source o inspiration] aswell,” he continued.

Lien treats each painting as a “mini the-ater.” First, he chooses the setting; then like adirector he chooses the kind o drama that suitsthe scene and places characters in it. Someo his characters are humans, others animals— the latter being more prevalent. Sometimeshe depicts purely landscapes.

Finding an Inner Path

During his university years, Lien ollowedthe mainstream aesthetics emanating rom the

 Western art world, starting with indigenousnaturalism (鄉土寫實), later moving onto pho-torealism and neo-expressionism. “Inormation[back then] was less easily accessed comparedto today. [One learned o artistic trends] rommagazines or rom slide shows given by thosereturning rom studies abroad,” he said.

“It was good training but I elt removedrom [each movement’s original impetus,]” Lienremarked. “By 1989 I was almost 30 years oldand started orming my own belies. Ratherthan chasing outer trends, I wanted to return topersonal experiences and integrate that with myormative training,” he mused.

Searching for Signs of Life

Every now and then, Lien takes a cameraand hops on a motorcycle to search or promis-ing subjects. “Taiwan used to do a lot o manu-acturing or the U.S., making cups and otherknick-knacks. Between Keelung (基隆) andTaipei, in the Xizhi (汐止), Nangang (南港) andSongshan (松山) districts or example, there aremany deunct industrial areas,” he continued.

Lien tends to depict places in NorthernTaiwan also because o his amily origin. “Igrew up in a port city, watching fshing vessels,looking at metal actories and eeling the toucho metal and rust. Later on, when I regurgi-

tated my past emotions, I sought out places likethese,” said Lien.

“I transorm them into theaters, I mightevoke the eeling o a circus, o kids horsingaround, or o romance and lust, or o the eco-logical trauma that ensues when civilization andnature clash,” he went on to say. The depictiono “second nature” i.e. natural orces that returnto a scene (such as plants and animals) when

civilization has exited the stage, is prevalent inhis paintings. The symbolic and oten anthro-pomorphic qualities o these orces urther addambiguity and richness o meaning.

‘Brave’  s bautful but plays t too saf

PMovies | P. 3

Dragon Boat Festival

B y T  ang Hsiang- yi  and s TepHanie su The China Post

(Clockwise from left) Members of the Vivat team train for

the dragon boat race tomorrow. The multinational team

consist of members from Russia, Japan, Iceland, the U.S.,

 Armenia and Taiwan, who are connected by their mutual

interests in the race.

WangChien-yu,TheChinaPost

Exhibition

B y Lin y uTingThe China Post

Painter continues to transform forgotten places into mesmerizing, symbolic scenes 

 A s you’ve probably heard, the DragonBoat Festival (端午節) is coming up to-morrow, and various cultural activities

will be happening this week. The estival allson the fth day o the fth month each yearon the lunar calendar. Besides the epic boatrace, you should also try zongzi (粽子), alsocalled rice dumplings, which are wrappedin bamboo leaves; it is a ceremonial aretraditionally eaten to commemorate Qu Yuan(屈原), a amous poet and political ofcialin ancient China during the Warring Statesperiod (475-211 B.C.).

There are many variations o the storyabout why we eat zongzi, but the main sto-

ryline is something like this: Qu Yuan servedas a minister to the Chu state (楚國) and wasloved by the people or his intelligence andcompassion.

He was an honest man and ought toabolish corruption in the government, whichin turn earned him hate and ear rom theshadier politicians. Persuaded by the lies o those ofcials, the king banished Qu Yuanto a araway state. Later on, when Qu Yuanheard that the government collapsed, hecommitted suicide by drowning himsel inthe Miluo River (汨羅江) o today’s Hunanprovince (湖南省) on the fth day o the fthlunar month.

He was much loved by the people, somuch that they raced out in boats to lookor his body. It was then when zongzi werecreated to be thrown into the river to attractthe fsh so that they wouldn’t eat Qu Yuan’sbody.

Since then, it has been a custom to eatzongzi in memory o the unortunate poet.Furthermore, the Dragon Boat Festival wascreated in commemoration o the frst at-

tempts to fnd Qu Yuan’s body in the river. InTaiwan, there are two main types o zongzi— “northern” and “southern.” Southernzongzi are relatively tetrahedral while north-ern ones are typically cylindrical. There arealso savory zongzi and sweet ones. Countlesshotels and stores compete each year to makethe best zongzi, large or small, savory orsweet, and they can be ound almost every-where. ■

‘Sceneries’ of Lien Chien-hsing’s mind

There are a few locations to go to watch a dragon boat race live this weekend,

including in Taipei, Changhua, Kaohsiung and New Taipei City 

Ready, set,

ROW! 

Continued on Page 4

Dragon Boat Festival

B y sean su Special to The China Post

The dish: 

zongzi 

Zongzi is a must-try staple during the Dragon BoatFestival. DimitriBruyas,TheChinaPost

‘Shiding – Floating Nostalgia’ (石碇之鄉愁停泊), 97cm x 194cm, oil on canvas (2011)

CourtesyofEsliteGallery

Painter Lien Chien-hsing(連建興) is known forwhat he calls ‘symbolicrealism.’  CourtesyofEsliteGallery