Beijing Working People's Culture Palace, also known as Taimiao, the ancestral temple of imperial families in ancient dynasties, is the venue of the exhibition.
Calligraphers from across the world gathered at the Beijing Working People's Culture Palace in Beijing on June 28 to celebrate the upcoming Olympic Games with their masterpieces.
It was part of the opening ceremony for the Eighth International Calligraphy Exchange Exhibition.
The event is co-sponsored by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Calligraphers Association and Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
The exhibition was included in a "Meet in Beijing 2008", campaign to publicize the Games held by the Ministry of Culture and supported by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).
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Hu Zhenmin, managing vice-president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, speaks at the opening ceremony. |
Managing Vice-President of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Hu Zhenming joined Presient of the Chinese Calligraphers Association Zhang Hai and other delegates to deliver speeches marking the event.
The ceremony also included dance performances and Taiji sword and Taiji fan shows.
A highlight of the event was 11 calligraphy scrolls, one fully 100 m long, that were presented to BOCOG as a gift to the Games. Thirty calligraphers from home and abroad also completed works on site about the Olympics.
Echoing the Olympic theme of "One World, One Dream", the exhibition was held to spread the art of calligraphy through exchanges between Chinese calligraphers and those from across the globe and to advocate world peace.
This exhibition is one of the biggest and most influential in today's international calligraphy world.
Calligraphers gathered in Beijing to learn from each other and illustrate the culture and passion of many nations.
A total of 583 calligraphy works from 18 countries including China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, France, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Egypt and Morocco were represented at the exhibition.
Works were executed in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and characters used by Chinese ethnic minorities such as Uygur, Mongolian and Tibetan.
The event has been held seven times since 1990, when the first international exhibition was held at Singapore's National Museum.
Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of CPPCC Li Jinhua (center) visits the exhibition accompanied by China Calligraphers Association President Zhang Hai (right) and secretary-general of the association Zhao Changqing.
Ensuing exhibitions were held in Beijing, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Seoul, and Singapore.
After the opening ceremony, an international conference was held to discuss formation of an international calligraphy organization and other ideas for internationalizing calligraphy.
Guests also visited the National Center for Performing Arts, Olympic stadiums, the National Palace Museum, Great Wall and other places of interest in Beijing.
A total of 1,000 delegates participated in the event, including Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Han Qide, Vice-Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Sun Jiazheng, Li Jinhua and Zheng Wantong, and leaders from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Culture, China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, BOCOG, Chinese Calligraphers Association and Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles and delegates from 18 countries as well as China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
(China Daily July 2, 2008)