-
Important news
-
News
-
Shenzhen
-
China
-
World
-
Opinion
-
Sports
-
Kaleidoscope
-
Photos
-
Business
-
Markets
-
Business/Markets
-
World Economy
-
Speak Shenzhen
-
Leisure
-
Culture
-
Travel
-
Entertainment
-
Digital Paper
-
In-Depth
-
Weekend
-
Lifestyle
-
Diversions
-
Movies
-
Hotels and Food
-
Special Report
-
Yes Teens!
-
News Picks
-
Tech and Science
-
Glamour
-
Campus
-
Budding Writers
-
Fun
-
Futian Today
-
Advertorial
-
CHTF Special
-
Focus
-
Guide
-
Nanshan
-
Hit Bravo
-
People
-
Person of the week
-
Majors Forum
-
Shopping
-
Investment
-
Tech and Vogue
-
Junior Journalist Program
-
Currency Focus
-
Food and Drink
-
Restaurants
-
Yearend Review
-
QINGDAO TODAY
在线翻译:
szdaily -> Culture -> 
Eminent artist opens online courses
    2020-03-11  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

AT the beginning of his first livestream show Feb. 20, Han Meilin, the prominent artist and designer, joked about being a typical “zhai nan,” a pop-culture buzzword meaning a man who prefers staying at home. Even though, he said, he feels bored sometimes of being homebound in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.

With time on his hands, Han, 84, who lives in Beijing, has joined in an e-learning boom by opening three painting courses online for children, a venture he had never tried before.

“I hope children, and parents as well, who watch the show, can learn some painting skills and brighten their mood at this moment of difficulty. It is not a bad thing for us,” he says.

The courses are an initiative launched by the Han Meilin Art Foundation and 17zuoye.com, an interactive e-learning platform, not only to enrich the curriculum for children, but also to foster the idea of caring for nature and all living creatures.

In the first class at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 20, Han, sitting in his studio in Beijing, showed viewers how to utilize combinations of circles and rectangular shapes to draw animals. It lasted about 40 minutes.

Han is best known as the chief designer of Fuwa, the mascot for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He is also renowned for creating lively and adorable images of animals in his body of work. He designed the Chinese New Year stamps for 2019 and 2020 which were specially launched by China Post, respectively featuring corresponding zodiac animals, the pig and the rat.

While demonstrating how to paint, Han also discussed how deeply touched he was by the tenacity of different kinds of animals and plants.

“When I visited Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region years ago, I was moved by the diversity of nature such as populus diversifolia trees and how the white camels cope with harsh conditions,” he said. “I wanted to bow to them, as a gesture of sincerity.

“Their ways of survival deserve people’s respect. They are gifts to us from nature, but look at how people have repaid nature for its generosity. We clear forests, slaughter animals and damage their surroundings to meet our greed,” he said.

He told his young audience that a true artist knows how to treat all lives on Earth equally.

Figures from the Han Meilin Art Foundation showed that some 3 million people watched the live broadcast Feb. 20, via 17zuoye.com’s platform. The course can be reviewed on the foundation’s WeChat account and other livestreaming sites.

The other two courses were livestreamed Feb. 27 and March 5, during which Han lectured on design and how to paint horses.

Han graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and taught at Tsinghua University’s Academy of Art and Design for years. He is noted for his productivity. He has four art museums named after him in Beijing, Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, Yinchuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Yixing of Jiangsu Province, displaying his paintings, sculptures and designs.

(China Daily)

深圳报业集团版权所有, 未经授权禁止复制; Copyright 2010, All Rights Reserved.
Shenzhen Daily E-mail:szdaily@szszd.com.cn