How are you?

Today is Chinese New Year's Day, so, according to the Chinese customs, I would like to say :

Happy New Year!

With a happy heart, right now, I am in Wuxi City of Jiangsu Province which is near Shanghai to visit my father and have a reunion with my brother and sisters' family members.

We had a good family reunion dinner yesterday -- the New Year's Eve, which was booked ahead about 7 months in June,2017 in a restaurant. During the dinner, every child or young boy or girl of the younger generations got several red pages with some cash inside from the older generations: Great grand-parents, grand parents, parents, uncles or aunts... No matter how much, it was just a heart of the old generations to wish the younger children happy, healthy and make good achievements in the new year. Then with several groups, people watched TV, or played games or played Majiang, or made Jiaozi, until the new year bell rang, people started to shoot off firecrackers or fireworks, or eat Jiaozi -- Chinese dumpling.

On the Chinese New Year's Day, people usually stay at home to accompany our parents, me, too. Then, tomorrow, people start to see relatives. And then on the 3rd day, to start to meet or have reunions with friends or colleagues... Anyway, Tomorrow, I will go to see my deceased mother with flowers.

Before I came to Wuxi, especially, I created two paintings for my father. At the first, I wished to paint a landscape with only Chinese ink, however, when I thought that he is 93 years old, maybe I should paint something with red color for showing luckier for him in the new year, so, I did. However, when he saw the other one with yellow flowers, he wanted both. :-) Also, he chose this one...

Since he is the "old child “ of the family and all of the children would like to made him happy and enjoyable so, we follow his wishes, anything he wants, that's ok. :-)

When I mentioned the two new paintings, there are some new ideas and good news I would like to share with you:

-- When I practiced a Chinese art song about a flower about the 65th time, an idea to create a painting with both of flowers and landscape jumped into my mind. At once, painted it while humming the song. Then until I sang the song about the 70th time next day, I created the second one. Now, I do have an idea to create a series with red, orange, yellow, green, black, blue and violet colors. :- )

-- I am thinking, since I want to create my own cross-culture and comprehensive art with poetry, painting and music, why don’t I combine the landscape and flower and bird paintings in my painting creating process? If I did this, I would not distress myself about the situation that I had majored in Chinese flower and bird paintings for 5 years in the art colleges, but I am majoring in landscape with only Chinese ink, both of them sound like something parallel, so that I have been worrying about what I had learned on flower and bird would be wasted? Right now, it seems like I have found some way to resolve this problem and to create my own style?

-- I have been pursue the specialty of my paintings and wanted to put cultural elements as many as possible inside, so that my paintings for the Chinese class poems a little bit complex to the native English speakers to learn them while singing or reciting a Chinese poem. So, I am thinking, if I can create my paintings for the poems simpler, maybe it can improve my teaching efficiency?

-- I have some new inspiration from music learning: it should be a spiritual activity advanced more than painting, so, in my cross-culture and comprehensive art dream, the relationship of the three main parts may be: Music, Poetry, Painting. Then, when I work with native English speakers, the work order should be: Painting, Music and Poetry. It seems like I have found a new argument for my current research and exploration?

-- A new and good feeling of “Freedom” has come to me during I painted while singing, worked on both of the painting and music at the same time. To paint according to what I had seen and felt from my songs, have brought me an enjoyable emotion.

Since I have paid most attention to the painting for I thought that my cross-cultural and comprehensive art should be based on it, so that I have stayed/would stay in the art collages and major in Chinese painting for 9 years (2010 to 2019), but ignored music study for a long time – just keeping practicing voice for 30 minutes each day and had lessons less and less. Since I realized this, I have adjusted my time on music practicing since Feb 12 and I have sung a Chinese art song about 70 times by following a video of a famous musician who is an Associate Dean of Shanghai Conservatory Of Music to recall what my music professor has taught me... Then I got the unexpected gain, started to work on both of music and painting at the same time.

This way, not only resolve the problem I have no time enough to work on too many things, but also, it has offered me some new idea on creating. About this, I need to think much more. However, I have a feeling that it will certainly bring me an overflying on my art study, help my dissertation and improve my cross-cultural and comprehensive art and its project. Do you think so?

How about you? Do you have anything special to share?


I am just a student on Arts of Painting, Music, English and Management,and work on the web site in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned, to make this little web site to be a little Electronic Bridge of Cross -cultural and Comprehensive Art Study and Chinese Language Learning, to help the others while to improve myself.

I would like to appreciate you for your good understanding, directions, supports and help.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you are welcome to write to shirley@ebridge.cn or leave your message on Message Board.

Shirley Yiping Zhang

Feb 16, 2018 (Beijing Time)