China Cultural Chronicles July 13, 2012
- Explore the Upper Capital of the Yuan Dynasty
File photo taken on July 11, 2011 shows the remains of a palace at the site of the Xanadu (Upper Capital) of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) in Shangdu Township of Xilingol League, north China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Xanadu was inscribed on the World Heritage List during the 36th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in St. Petersburg of Russia on June 29, 2012. [Xinhua/Jia Lijun]
- Spectacular book art show exhibited in Hong Kong
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下载安装Flash播放器Photo taken on July 11, 2012 shows the artworks are being exhibited at Times Square in Hong Kong. (Xinhua/Zhao Yusi)
Recently, a spectacular book art show was held in Hong Kong. With a combined drawing method, American artist Mike Stilkey produced drawings on book covers by ink, colour pens, watercolour and enamel paint. His peculiar artworks have brought the audiences into a magical and mysterious world.
- Replica of 'Zheng He Treasure Ship' under construction
Photo taken on July 12, 2012 shows the interior of the replica of "Zheng He Treasure Ship" under construction in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The replica of "Zheng He Treasure Ship," which is designed to be six-masted, 71.1 meters long and 14 meters wide with a displacement of 1,800 tonnes, is scheduled to complete installation in 2012 and start debut sailing in 2014. Treasure Ships are used by the commander of the fleet during the voyages of Zheng He, who made seven voyages to more than 30 countries and regions in Asia and Africa from 1405 to 1433 in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). [Xinhua/Wan Xiang]
- Library branches out
Visitors enter a library decorated with forty thousand pieces of tree branches over the glass ceiling and outer walls in Jiaojiehe village, Beijing's Huairou district, July 11, 2012. The Liyuan library was designed by Li Xiaodong, a professor at Tsinghua University. About 10,000 volumes of literature, history and other books are displayed for local villagers and tourists to read. People can read while enjoying the sunshine through the sticks in the library. [Photo/Xinhua]
- Fine art of the snapshot
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下载安装Flash播放器Photo journalist Mimi Sun recently opened an exhibition of photos she took over two years with lomo cameras. Photos provided to China Daily
An odd array of framed photographs hangs randomly from the walls of Cafe Corridor. Some images are indistinct, in others the colours are so heavily saturated as to dazzle the eyes. They are undistinguished snapshots in terms of framing, lighting composition, nor, seemingly by the eye of the professional photographer, yet they are reflections of a trend in photography that's caught on in Hong Kong and they are considered art.
The photographic style is lomography and the photographer is a professional. Her name is Mimi Sun.
"They don't surprise you at a first glance, but when you take a closer look, you will be amazed at the colors or the lighting or the focus of the images that are somewhat different from the pictures taken by a conventional digital camera," said Sun, a 24-year-old photo journalist at Terence Pang Photography.
Most of the pictures in her exhibition, at the ground-floor cafe restaurant opposite Times Square, were taken over two years while Sun traveled around the world. She used eight models of lomo camera. Street signs in Poland, old temples in Beijing, sunset on Taiwan beaches, all have become still moments in her camera.
The exhibition named "Lomo", sponsored by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, features the works of Sun and her partner, photographer Molly Zheng.
The pictures are taken by a special kind of analogue camera, which often records over-saturated colors, blurred focus and over-exposed lighting. These effects, normally "frowned upon by conventional photography lovers who use digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras", in Mimi Sun's words. "We call it the 'lomo' style," said the girl from Harbin, a northeastern city on the Chinese mainland.
The "lomo" style derives from "Lomography", an international camera company headquartered in Austria. Lomography restores old analogue cameras, bringing them back to life as tools for a "new style of artistic experimental photography comprising unorthodox snapshots", as the company says on its website. The name Lomography was inspired by the former state-run optics manufacturer LOMOPLC of Saint Petersburg, Russia, the company that created and produced the 35 mm LOMO LC-A Compact Automat camera. It was a fixed lens, leaf shutter, zone focus, compact camera. The Austrian founders of Lomography signed an exclusive distribution agreement with LOMO PLC in 1991. The camera product became the centerpiece of Lomography's marketing and sales ever since. LC-A, along with other models produced by the company, are referred to as "lomo" cameras by fans. Lomography itself has also come into use as the term that defines this style of photography.
- Banliang Village, South Hunam 18 (板梁古村)
- Tibetan dairy-maid milking domesticated Yak.
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Domesticated yaks have been kept for thousands of years, primarily for their milk, fibre and meat, and as beasts of burden. Their dried dung is an important fuel, used all over Tibet, and is often the only fuel available on the high treeless Tibetan plateau. Yaks transport goods across mountain passes for local farmers and traders as well as for climbing and trekking expeditions. "Only one thing makes it hard to use yaks for long journeys in barren regions. They will not eat grain, which could be carried on the journey. They will starve unless they can be brought to a place where there is grass." They also are used to draw ploughs. Yak milk is often processed to a cheese called chhurpi in Tibetan and Nepali languages, and byaslag in Mongolia. Butter made of Yaks' milk is an ingredient of the butter tea that Tibetans consume in large quantities, and is also used in lamps and made into butter sculptures used in religious festivities. Yaks grunt, and unlike cattle are not known to produce the characteristic bovine lowing sound.
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