The rich cultural heritage and traditions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are captured in the artistry of its people. Since ancient times, the PRC has always excelled in the arts and the artistry of its people continues to captivate the world to this day.
CWRD’s Liping Zheng brings traditional Chinese art to life with his water-ink paintings, a craft he has painstakingly nurtured since adolescence. Born in Jieyang City, Guangdong Province—the bastion of traditional Chinese art since the Ming Dynasty—Liping was mentored by accomplished art scholars. Many of these scholars graduated in late 1920’s and early 1930’s from Shanghai Fine Art School, the first fine art school in the PRC, and sought refuge in his hometown during the period of resistance. In Jieyang, the artists recreated a world of their own— where college education, advocated by the authorities after 1949, had little influence on the circle; and where traditional art reigned, using ink to create beautiful images of flowers, birds, and landscapes.
He recalls: “Paper was considered a luxury then. Every Sunday, these artists would gather in the backyard of whoever has money to buy paper and they would all paint. Because I knew some of the old painters, I joined the gatherings and learned from them.”
Fortunately for Liping, his parents were supportive of his art and could afford to buy brush and paper for him. He painted when he got home, and then showed his work to the painters the following week. The painters encouraged him and showed him how he could improve his work.
Since then, Liping has been painting in the traditional Chinese way, stopping only for a brief period when he went to engineering school and started to work in a state-owned corporation. In the early 1990s, he picked up his brush again and has not put it down since—not even when he served as a local politician. (From 1999-2004, he was mayor, and from 2004 to 2008, chairman of City Congress of Yunfu, which has a population of 2.8 million. He also served as deputy to the 10th National People’s Congress of the PRC from 2003 to 2008).
Since he joined ADB in 2008, he has been painting every month and exploring new forms and styles. He is very choosy about his materials. He makes his own ink with an ink-bar and ink-maker, and uses only handmade paper from the same suppliers for the last 20 years. He buys very large paper because no machine can make paper of this size. “I am using the same materials and methodologies used for the hundreds of years, but I add my passion to my art,” he says.
Liping likes to paint flowers and birds “because they are very romantic, and I enjoy creating ample room for flights of imagination.” His works are sometimes light and free-flowing, and at times fraught with what he describes as “rugged charm and virility elegance.” Regardless of the form of expression, every piece of his artistic creations is “brimming with passionate verve, uplifting vigor,” he adds.
Classic Chinese painting, he explains, is based on calligraphy and seal-carving, which focuses on the creation of lines. If one is good at calligraphy and seal-carving, then one can be good in Chinese painting. This explains why many of the PRC’s most famous painters were government officials or even monks in ancient times. Since they were literati schooled in calligraphy, they also knew how to paint.