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Artistry of fans

A historical bridge in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, is known for being associated with Wang Xizhi, the renowned 4th-century calligrapher. It is said that he often walked across the bridge, and one day he saw an old woman, who sold paper fans there, looking stressed because of poor sales. Wang wrote on the fans and told the woman to tell people he did the calligraphy. The fans then sold out.

Painting and writing calligraphy on round, flat paper fans, or folding ones, was popular among intellectuals and artists in ancient times. They saw it as a way to show their technique, artistic creativity and imagination in a limited space.

The National Art Museum of China is showing fine examples of fan art from its collection until Sunday. These selected painted fans were dated as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), when folding fans became a trend in cultural circles.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays.1 Wusi Dajie, Dongcheng district, Beijing. 010-6400-1476.

Everlasting joy

Huang Binhong, the 20th-century ink artist of repute, created a distinctive style of accentuating the depth and extensiveness of nature and the universe with heavy shades. In the oil works of Ma Yuru, who, like Huang, lives in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, that same feeling has also been conveyed although the two work with different art forms.

Ma, now 93, has held his first one-man exhibition at the art museum of China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the prestigious school where he studied and taught for decades.

An Everlasting Joy Knows No End, running until Sept 15, gathers oil works, watercolors and drawings that navigated Ma's career as an artist and teacher who has witnessed the art development since the 1940s.

At the exhibition opening, Ma donated dozens of his works to his alma mater.

9 am-5 pm, daily. 218 Nanshan Lu, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.0571-8661-1569.

Immortal generalist

Among those who committed themselves to carrying on the cultural traditions in the early 20th century was Yao Hua (1876-1930), who taught Chinese classics at Tsinghua University.

Yao was deemed a "generalist" for being knowledgeable in the various sections of arts and literature.

The Immortal Generalist of an Era, an exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum until Nov 10, sheds light on the width and scope of the man's accomplishments — poetry, education, studies of Chinese characters, classical painting and calligraphy and theory of Chinese operas, to name a few — which were well recognized by leading scholars of different times, such as Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo.

The exhibition introduces this little-known scholar to the wide attention of the public, whose cultural accumulations and personal charisma are vividly illustrated in his works and collections on show.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. Tsinghua University, 30 Shuangqing Lu, Haidian district, Beijing.010-6278-1012.

China Daily