International travel is an important part of my usual life.
My first international travel is to take part in the 31st Annual Conference of the World Association of Chinese Newspapers, as a delegate of Chinese Financial Newspapers in Malaysia in 1997. Since then, I have had 16 international travels, such as having a vacation in Europe in 2000, visited family in Australia 5 times, and came to the US 10 times for studying, art exhibitions and teachings 2008 to 2020.
If saying the travel in Europe in 2000 is the start point of my cross-cultural and comprehensive art dream seeking, then the travels in the US 2008 to 2020 is the process of my dream seeking with studying, exploration and theory thought...
The travel in Europe has not only given me a chance to touch some of the greatest arts and human civilizations, to touch Bible and Christianity, and laid a foundation for me to become a Christian in American 13 years, but also it has given me a courage to connect with a group of native-English-speaker graduates of Oregon State University from Paris, then in 2 years, we published a series of publications with 4 books and 4 CDs to talk American arts (mainly movie and music) for helping non-Chinese speakers to learn American language, which is the first experiment on my cross-cultural and comprehensive art dream seeking…
Then the travels in the US 2008 to 2020 have endowed me more opportunities and a wider room to work from an opposite angle, to engage in finding, exploring and creating something unique to help non-Chinese speakers to learn Chinese culture and language with a more natural, an artistic, easier style…
It is said “If you want to give someone a drop of water, you must have a bucket of water,” and I never thought an amateur can stand the duties over, therefore, I have studied in two art colleges in Beijing for 10 years, for the purpose to transfer myself from an amateur to be a professional artist, who has many aspects of self-cultivation…very often, I encourage myself very often, I am not the best now yet, but I will certainly be the best suitable one to stand the duty to create a Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art.
With this idea, I have been keeping the trips between China and US, between Chinese art colleges and American full time schools and art organizations, and try to combine what I have learned in China and what I have seen, practice and felt in the US, write them into my books, practice them into my teaching and creating…
The biggest gains during those international travels, not only have I painted over 1100 paintings, had 6 art exhibitions, taught about 500 hours in 40 American schools and organizations for more than 6300 non-Chinese speakers, published a series of publications with 2 books, 2 DVDs and 2 closed web sites which only open to my readers, but also and more important is that I have found the connecting point between traditional Chinese painting and modern Chinese language, and the relationship of a variety arts on a Chinese painting itself… Base on it, I have created a method to combine them together with a cross-cultural and comprehensive art style.
Anyway, I know very clear that I have just created a simple model which is in its infancy phase now. If I want to improve it on its youth, and adults’ period, it’ll take a longer time and I myself must work harder in the upcoming another decades.
So, I am thinking, since I have majored in Chinese art in two Chinese colleges for 10 years, maybe it is the time to learn western art and cultures in the upcoming 10 years with more international travels?
Do you think so?
Do you enjoy international travels?
Sincerely
Shirley Yiping Zhang
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t 4 pm, 29th Sept. 2000, I crossed the border into Belgium. Before going to the capital, Brussels, I visited the famous ancient battlefield of Waterloo. As soon as Waterloo was mentioned, the first thing that jumped into my mind was a name, and that name was Napoleon, the great and failed hero. The old battlefield is so calm and quiet, no more whinnying war-horses, closely fighting soldiers, war drums or the smoke of gunpowder. There is only vast open countryside and a boundless forest. Areas of bright green and deep green cover the vast plain; the trees of the forest are very tall and straight. The lofty pines and cypresses make the forest seem so solemn and respectful; the silver birches and poplars add a little brightness to the forest. I got the feeling that I was walking into a huge memorial hall, except that there were no walls, no boundaries that I might be quiet and stately. There ...
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My Europe Travel Diary (012): Brussels I arrived in Brussels, the capital of Belgium at dusk on the 29th Sept. 2000. It is said that Brussels is the “capital of Europe” because the headquarters of the European Union are there, and there are about fifteen thousand diplomats permanently resident there. There are more diplomats in Brussels than in any other city in Europe. When travelling from Luxembourg to Belgium there is also a vast plain. The view is very similar to that when travelling from France to Luxembourg except that there are more cows and sheep. The blue sky, the green land, the white cows and the sheep formed a series of beautiful pictures, one after another. My first view of Brussels was of a few modern skyscrapers next to other buildings, mostly of classical architecture; this gave me a feeling of mystery about the place. When I came to what Victor Hugo described as “the most beautiful square in ...
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My European Travel Diary (013): The Low Lying Land, Amsterdam Amsterdam has another name, The Low Lying Land. Water is the most important feature of the city and many things are related to it. Perhaps, because there is more water on the great Dutch plane, it seemed that this plane, which we crossed on the way to Amsterdam from Brussels, was wetter, more oily, greener, and there seemed to be more cows on it. This made me think of the Dutch milk in the supermarkets in China. It is said that the Dutch are the tallest people in the world because they drink the most milk, now in our city more and more young parents like their children to drink milk from Holland, and it can be bought in any supermarket. When I passed through the suburbs of the city I saw more water, and today, when I flipped through my pictures of Amsterdam, I felt that many of them ...
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My European Travel Diary (015): Cologne Capriccio, Ancient Civilisation and Modern Culture Cologne is the first city that I visited in Germany. Cologne University and the great church in Cologne were built in 1388 and 1248 respectively and the city is proud of them. The interesting thing is that it took 532 years to complete the great church, from 1248 to 1880. It is said that this is a world record for the longest time to build a church. Also it is as famous as Notre Dame de Paris for its Gothic architecture. The Great Church in Cologne is so high that I had to go back beyond the gateway to the square, and then back further still to get it all in the picture. It was raining and there was a strong wind, so much so that I couldn’t open my umbrella, so I gave up trying to keep myself dry and just tried to protect the camera lens. ...
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My Europe Travel Diary(016): Sailing on the Rhine Out of all the rivers that I saw in Europe, the Rhine was the longest and the widest. It runs 1320 km from the northern Alps in Switzerland, through Austria, France and Germany and drains into the North Sea near Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It was raining a little when I got on the boat but the weather soon changed, becoming sunny. Perhaps because I had got wet in Cologne, I had caught a slight cold and stayed in the cabin, and only went on deck when I heard people’s excitement when there was a beautiful view. The river was so wide that we could really see only the mountains in the distance; the houses and the castles were so far away that they appeared to be tiny. Most of the castles are on the slopes of the mountains and are khaki in color and have spires. Of all the countries that ...
