Hi,Dear Friends





Happy New Year!


On the first day of 2025, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude for your invaluable help and support and wish you and your family a happier, luckier, healthier, and more successful new year!




As for me, I have temporarily set aside my own art creation plans and am spending most of my time and energy on teaching jobs and practicing my spoken English during my twelfth trip to America.


Why?

Because the first workshop at an American Chinese Church has completed its fourth lesson, and the good news is that the more I teach, the more participants join us. Even during the Christmas season, many new people joined us. Additionally, the second workshop, which comprises oil artists and poets who are actually university instructors, doctors, and IT professionals, has also convened twice. About 99% of the participants in my first two workshops were Chinese-Americans, and most of the adults held Master's or PhD degrees. They possessed a solid Chinese cultural background and artistic appreciation skills and had higher expectations for my workshops. Then, after January 13, I will start the third workshop at a college for international students. On February 1, I will work with a group of native English speakers at a church. On March 8, I will conduct my fifth workshop with another group of artists who are also native English speakers.



Therefore, my first quarter of 2025 will be devoted to a very busy teaching and learning process. Although the pressure is significant and the work will be more challenging, I am confident in myself and in what I have studied and created since 2003. Especially, I am quite glad because it is really a good opportunity for me to explore at least two new fields based on the past 16-year efforts. Previously, I had only briefly interacted with a few South and East Asian students but mainly worked with American K-12 school students, 99.9% of whom were native English speakers. Now, I am encountering Chinese-American students for the first time and will soon be working with international students.


So, based on the “Four-One Teaching Method” I have created for the primarily Chinese-American beginners in my first workshop, I am now working and thinking harder to develop a new method for the participants in my second workshop, who are also mainly Chinese-American but have a higher educational background and more knowledge and skills in Western art. Additionally, I will be developing different methods for the international adult students in the subsequent third workshop.


My work will be more challenging, but the dawn is just ahead; it is worth putting certain things aside temporarily and trying my best.


When I am writing here, I suddenly realize that creating a unique "Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art" may not only encompass poetry, painting, music, calligraphy, characters, language, literature, and other elements related to poetry which is the core or leader of these arts, but also potentially include the art of teaching – expression methods. In this way, the main activities supporting "Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art"—creating, teaching, researching, and web development—may form a more unified entity.


What I mean is that artistic creation is a form of expression for artists, while teaching is a second level of expression for both artists and third parties. So, if I can articulate this clearly and develop more teaching methods, then my "Cross-cultural and Comprehensive Art" might be shared and taught by more people and teachers. Do you think so?




How about you? Do you have anything special to share? What are your great plans for 2025?


Notes:

Photo 2: A part of my students in the first Art Workshop were practicing their fifth Chinese painting and their first Chinese Xieyi painting.


Photo 3: One of my eight-year-old Chinese-American students was delighted to complete his first Chinese Xieyi painting.



Photo 4: One of my six-year-old Chinese-American students has completed her first Chinese Xieyi painting.


Photo 5: One of my six-year-old Chinese-American students completed her first Chinese Xieyi painting.




Photo 6: One of my ten-year-old Chinese-American students completed her first Chinese Xieyi painting.


Photo 7: A young lecturer from Missouri State University is painting her first Chinese freehand brushwork.


Photo 8: This is the first Plum Blossom picture with Chinese Xieyi Style painted by the Pastor of the Springfield Chinese Church, MO, USA.


Photo 9:This is Miss Ma's first Xieyi painting (freehand brush work).


Photo 10:This is Mr. Zhu Xinyuan's first Xieyi painting (freehand brush work).


Photo 11:This is Dr. Xiao's first Xieyi painting (freehand brush work).


Photo 12:This is Xing Zhe's first Xieyi painting (freehand brush work).

Sincerely, I am just a lifelong learner in the arts of painting, music, English, management and Chinese art teaching, and work on the website in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned and make this website a little electronic bridge for cross-cultural and integrated/comprehensive art and Chinese language studying. This way, I can help others while improving myself.

Thank you always for your understanding, guidance and assistance and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to write to info@ebridge.cn .

Shirley Yiping Zhang
Jan 1, 2025