11/12/2011 - Photo
2024. Poplar Library. A rainbow ribboned children’s library in Beijing designed by Sako Architects— super cool.
Slang of the day
拉倒吧
Lādǎo baI hear my co-workers say this all the time. Might be a Beijing thing.
Means “Forget about it” or, as I like to say, “Forgedaboudit.”
Example: You want me to lend you how much for that e-bike? 拉倒吧!
I miss Beijing. :(
I’m finding it hard to get back into the groove of things here, but part of me wonders if Beijing was but a dream. A very VIVID dream.
Sigh reality, why did you have to meet up with me soon. T_T
6/12/2011 - Photo
It’s so funny how I was in Guangdong when the Beijing Olympics was just a few weeks away. Ironic how I was in Beijing when the Guangzhou Asian Games was happening.
Such is life.
I am still in awe at how awesome the Beijing Olympics was.
6/3/2011 - Photo
Oh! Tous Les Jours. I wonder where there are other branches of 多乐之日. Every time I will see this in the future, I will think of and remember Beijing.
(Source: heyrainbows, via girlsloveprettything)
6/2/2011 - Photo
Even though I’m quite frustrated and annoyed at how much fatter being in Beijing made me, can I just say, I LOVE AUTUMN. I wish we had Autumn back in the Philippines. Autumn would be awesome. Lovely weather, lovely outfits, lovely colors, lovely photography.
This picture was taken while at the Temple of Heaven (天坛) located in the southern part of the city.
5/30/2011 - Photo
From my November 2010 trip to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. I’d like to go to this part again. And to other sections of the Great Wall. So many dreams, and less than 2 months before I have to say goodbye to Beijing. :(
4/21/2011 - Photo
China’s new Age of Enlightenment.
National Museum in Beijing looks to 18th-century Europe for its grand reopening
By András Szántó via http://www.theartnewspaper.com/
Imagine you are a rising global superpower of 1.3bn people. You have spent three decades ramping up a $5 trillion economy and upgrading your infrastructure. Now you are reopening your national museum—where you tell your story to your citizens and visitors—after a four-year renovation and expansion that has made it the largest museum building in the world. The immense columned edifice overlooks your capital’s historic central square, a hallowed site that echoes with painful memories of the not-so-distant past. What topic do you choose for your first international exhibition?
For the National Museum of China, on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the topic is the European Enlightenment.
The choice is bold, and timely. China’s blazing resurgence since the late 1970s finds an apt precedent in the explosion of social, scientific and cognitive horizons that shook up 18th-century Europe, ushering in cherished institutions of modernity—museums and newspapers included. For China, there are lessons to be learned—good and bad—from the Age of Reason. “This exhibition is profoundly significant for China in furthering its understanding of the international world as well as recognising and embracing its own cultural values,” said Lu Zhangshen, the museum’s director-general.
Occupying almost 30,000 sq. ft in galleries devoted to international culture in the newly renovated building, which opened last month, “The Art of the Enlightenment”, on view for a whole year, is notable not only for its theme, but for the circumstances of its organisation. It is a product of cultural diplomacy writ large.
The heads of state of China and Germany, presidents Hu Jintao and Christian Wulff, are the official patrons. The idea of staging a joint exhibition originated during a government-sponsored tour of China by German museum chiefs. It’s part of a series of cultural exchanges between the two countries since 2005 aimed at fostering mutual understanding. The details were developed in close collaboration between Chinese authorities and the state museum systems of Dresden, Munich, and Berlin. Together, these institutions are loaning 579 works of art, scientific instruments, and costumes. The Chinese side is responsible for expenses and logistics in China, including transport, exhibition facilities, insurance, marketing and PR, and security. “It’s a bit like bringing three or four huge ocean liners on one track,” says Martin Roth, the director-general of the Dresden museums and a prime mover behind the project. “But it’s working.”
Many international museums are clamouring to collaborate with China these days, but the diplomatic fanfare surrounding this exchange puts it in a league of its own. Signing ceremonies for the exhibition contracts took place in 2007 in the Great Hall of the People, home to China’s parliament, opposite the National Museum on Tiananmen Square, and in 2009 at the Berlin Chancellery, in the presence of chancellor Angela Merkel and premier Wen Jiabao. The project was enshrined in the 2010 Sino-German diplomatic communiqué on strategic partnership between the two nations. The German foreign ministry provided around €6.6m and is expected to send vice-chancellor and foreign minister Guido Westerwelle to the opening on 1 April.
The German involvement extends well beyond loaning works of art. The $380m building was designed by Hamburg-based von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects, known as GMP Architects. Car manufacturer BMW is the corporate sponsor. Stiftung Mercator, one of Germany’s largest private foundations, is hosting expert lectures and “salons” at a cost of €1.5m. The Goethe-Institut, the German Federal Republic’s worldwide cultural network, is mounting public educational programmes. Never has there been such ambitious cultural interchange between China and Germany, and for that matter, among the participating German museums.
Continue reading here:
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/China%E2%80%99s+new+Age+of+Enlightenment/23495
