"As far as painting is concerned, imitation is opium. If you want to free yourself from the restrictions of any school, cease to be an opium-eater, and find a way of expression entirely your own."
This is David Kwo's painting philosophy. He demonstrated it with verve and skill in works exhibited at the National Historical Museum, Taipei, in early August.
David Kwo was born in Peiping in 1919. He studied Chinese painting under Ch'i Pai-shih in his 14th to 17th years. Ch'i had a great influence on David Kwo and considered him one of his best pupils. But Kwo never imitated Chi's work. "Don't follow a master too long," he tells young painters, "or you will never be able to pull yourself away. You will never know your real self."
David Kwo was graduated from the Art Institute of Nanking in 1940 and then taught there. He went to the United States from Hongkong in 1954 and studied at the State University of Iowa, Columbia University, and Seton Hall University, where he received his M.A. degree. In the last decade, he has lectured at more than 100 foreign universities and colleges. He has introduced Chinese brush work to Westerners and helped them to appreciate an art form that is 2,000 years old. He is associate 'professor of art at Upsala College in New Jersey.
To those who are fed up with such Chinese subjects as an old man leaning on a stick by a rivulet and looking at faraway mountains, David Kwo's works provide a welcome change. His expression is Oriental but his subject matter is new—two dogs fighting for a bone, a snake moving in on a frog.
Novel subject matter doesn't make a good artist. If that were David Kwo's only talent, he wouldn't be among the elite of Chinese painting.
Much of the appeal of his work is the sensitive use of empty space. The "one-stroke lotus" is an example. There is only a curving lotus stem stretching from nothingness to nothingness. The rest is left to the imagination. Moreover, the end of the brush stroke has left the lower part of the stem a blur.
A week after his arrival in Taiwan, the Central Daily News published his open letter to art students. Asking if there should be changes in Chinese painting, David Kwo enumerates four reasons why contemporary Chinese painting has failed to gain a high place in the world of art:
—Absence of contemporary Chinese painting from the world's art galleries.
—Chinese painting is regarded as watercolor by foreign critics.
—Generally speaking, Chinese painting is weak. It often fails to attract.
—Lack of a market.
Summer of Youth
The setting was Catholic Fu Jen University in suburban Taipei. Some 100 Chinese young people were gathered there on July 25. They wore Chinese name plates but some couldn't read them. They conversed in English.
These U.S. and Canadian Chinese had come to Taiwan for the first time for six weeks of Chinese studies. They were attending a reception given in their honor by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission.
Chairman Kao Hsin urged members of the group to forget English for a while and pick up Chinese word by word and sentence by sentence.
After the month's study, they made a two-week round-the-island trip to see the Chinese way of living and the island's progress. They spent their week-ends as the guests of Chinese families.
Summer is the season of youth activities in Taiwan. Throughout the island about 102,000 young men and women participated in 110 activities sponsored by the China Youth Corps, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission, and other groups.
Most were high school or college students. More than 500 were overseas Chinese from Hongkong, Macao, Laos, South Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the United States, and Canada.
Categories of activities included the scientific and scholastic, physical training and combat drill, recreation and social services.
Shakespeare in Chinese
Taiwan's literati gathered at Liberty House in Taipei August 5 to mark the publication of the complete works of Shakespeare in Prof. Liang Shih-chiu's Chinese translation.
Dr. Liang, 64, a retired professor of English literature, was also celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary. He patted Mrs. Liang on the shoulder and said: "It wouldn't have been possible without her help. She makes the work easy."
He began translating the Bard's works in 1931 with the encouragement of Dr. Hu Shih. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, financial assistance from the China Foundation was cut off. But he never stopped.
The Chinese translation of Shakespeare is published by the Far East Book Company in Taipei and priced at NT$700 (US$17.50) for the ordinary edition and NT$900 (US$22.50) for the de luxe edition.
Prof. Liang, who earned his doctorate in literature at the University of Colorado, is also an essayist. His Sketches of a Cottager have been popular for 25 years.
Prof. Liang is translating Shakespeare's Sonnets into Chinese and hopes to be finished in two more years. He is planning a history of Chinese literature in English and a history of English literature in Chinese. These projects will take from eight to ten years.
Cultural Renaissance
A committee for the promotion of the Chinese cultural renaissance movement was organized July 28 with President Chiang Kai-shek as chairman. Dr. Sun Fo, president of the Examination Yuan, presided at the meeting.
The committee will:
—Assist the government to research, create, and promote cultural reconstruction based on Chinese ethics, democracy and science.
—Encourage cultural institutions at home and abroad and to promote Chinese culture.
—Promote education for Chinese morality.
—Enhance education in the daily life of the people.
—Build a united anti-Mao Tse-tung and national salvation front to save traditional culture from the Peiping regime.
The committee and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission joined in sponsoring the Overseas Chinese Cultural and Educational Conference August 10-14. More than 300 persons attended.
Addressing the opening session, President Chiang Kai-shek said the purpose of the cultural renaissance movement is to establish a happy family, a prosperous society, a strong country, and a peaceful world based on Chinese ethics, democracy, and science.
President Chiang pointed out that the Republic of China is developing science for peaceful purposes and for the advancement of Chinese culture, while the Chinese Communists are using science to destroy Chinese culture and world peace.
The President urged the visitors to take the lead in planning educational and cultural programs in overseas Chinese communities.
The 238 delegates who came from abroad included educators, publishers, and cultural leaders.
Instruments Show
Scientific instruments and equipment were exhibited in Taipei last month. The sponsor was the Chungcheng Institute of Technology of the Chinese Army with the support of the National Taiwan University and the Hitachi Corporation of Japan.
Dr. Wu Ta-yu, chairman of the National Council on Science Development, expressed hope the exhibition would stimulate study of science and technology.
The Chungcheng Institute of Technology signed a contract with the Lockheed Aircraft Company of the United States to supply 39 items of teaching equipment in aeronautics.
English Workshops
Dr. Grace S. Nutley, associate professor of English at Brooklyn College, and her husband Cyril, a watercolorist, arrived in Taipei August 8. She came to lecture and conduct workshops for teachers of English.
Her lectures were given at the English Language Training Center, Taiwan Normal University, and the Audio-Visual Education Center of the Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences. Workshops were held at U.S. Information Service offices in Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung, and Taipei.