How are you? Have you had a wonderful Easter? I do hope you have and will enjoy your weekend.

On my side, since I wrote to you last time, I have been creating Chinese mountains and water paintings (landscapes) with pure ink which is my current assignments.

In the course of creating, I have realized something with a big smile:

-- My first goal in Beijing– to acquire the capabilities to create professional Chinese paintings to express the artistic conceptions of Chinese poems and the ideas in my mind imaginatively, creatively and smoothly by studying in both of Chinese National Academy of Arts and China Central Academy of Fine Arts ( from Sept, 2010 to July, 2019) has been achieved basically.

Now I can not only create a picture to match a poem with flower and bird painting style, but also landscape and figure together. My Chinese painting dream which is a part of my cross-cultural and comprehensive art has been reached, although I need to improve myself and continue to acquire the creative capabilities for whole of my life.

-- The second goal of mine in Beijing – to get a Master Degree of Fine Arts which is my second master degree from Chinese National Academy of Arts is on the way (Sept, 2016 to July, 2019), which was also something I hadn’t dared to think until Nov 9, 2013, when the wife of the President of Drury University came to the classroom I was working in and asked me: "Do you want to teach? " " Do you want to teach after your finish your study in Beijing?" and then on Feb 27, 2014, the President Smart of Missouri State University came to my art exhibition at Ozarks Technical Community College and asked me "What is your plan...? ", "What is your educational background? "

-- The former second goal has become No. 1 since now to July, 2019. I am going to cherish my luck to have a kind and responsible supervisor Prof. Mu Jiashan who does not only direct me to complete my dissertation which is his responsibility, but also "forces "me to learn to create Chinese Mountains and Water Painting with pure Ink (which is based on Chinese classical philosophy and Yin & Yang), which is not his duties, but offers me a new opportunity to acquire some new capabilities much more than the requirements of the school and helps me to form a better and more reasonable knowledge structure on a higher level, which would support me to realize my cross-cultural and comprehensive art dream better.

-- My long-term goal – to start a formal Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art Course in both fields of Chinese as a Foreign Language and Fine Art or in the Chinese Humanities Field with I have created style and my own publications as one of the main textbooks of the courses have become the second goal.

So, my current goal is to complete my dissertation, write and publish at least two papers for getting my Master degree of Fine Arts.

Do you know? In Chinese National Academy of Arts, a candidate who wants to get a Master degree of Fine Arts, must meet 3 preconditions: Gets credits enough and completes graduate creation; completes a dissertation with 5,000 Chinese characters or 30,000 characters and passes the thesis oral defense ( how many words to write, relies on the student’s study direction, on painting or on theory, mine is the latter); to publish at least 1 paper during the study in the school.

Therefore, although I have published 2 books and 2 DVDs with poetry, music and paintings during I study in the school, still I have to publish at least another one professional paper on arts in a magazine before I take part in the thesis oral defense.

-- My near-term goals (May, 2018 to May, 2019) will be focus on 3 things:

1. To publish 2 papers and complete the assignment double before May, 2019.
2. To complete my dissertation with more than 30,000 Chinese characters and pass the middle-term cheching in Oct, 2018 and the thesis oral defense in May, 2019;
3. To make sure whether I can truly open a Chinese humanities course in an American collage which we have discussed and designed it together since Feb,2014 or whether I can open two courses in two fields: Chinese as A Foreign Language and Fine Arts somewhere else regularly.

For being focus on the near-term targets, I have given up all of the things which may disperse my time and energy, even, I gave up to buy a wonderful apartment on the same floor in the same building I am living in Beijing ahead the transaction for 6 hours on April 3, 2018.

I would really like to do my best to achieve my current 3 goals in the upcoming 1 year (May, 2018 to May, 2019).

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

April 7, 2018 (Beijing Time)