Associate Professor I Lo-fen: Xu Beihong's Paintings: "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" and "Put down Your Whip" 

The Division of Chinese and the Centre for Chinese Language & Culture, NTU, cordially welcome you to the following seminar, to be conducted in Mandarin.  Please register your name with Mrs Tan Bee Lian (CLBLTAN@ntu.edu.sg; 67906121).

Seminar of NTU's Division of Chinese and Centre for Chinese Language & Culture

Topic : Xu Beihong's Paintings: "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the
            Mountains" and "Put down Your Whip"

Speaker : I Lo-fen
                Associate Professor, Division of Chinese, 
                Nanyang Technological University

Date and Time: 5 May 2008 (Monday), 2.30pm to 4.00pm

Venue: HSS-SR1 (SS4-1-24)

Seminar Abstract

The painting exhibition of "Xu Beihong in Nanyang" is now talking place in Singapore Arts Museum, with a significant number of works on display.  Some of the works are of personal collections and have not been revealed to the public for decades.  Among them, two most acclaimed works are "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" and "Put Down Your Whip."

Drawn in India in 1940, "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" is the largest-size painting produced by Xu Beihong.  The "Put down Your Whip" was painted in Singapore in 1939, based on the Anti-Japanese drama of the same title which featured the female actress Wang Ying.  It was auctioned at Hong Kong Dollar 7.2 million, breaking the record of the international book and painting market as the most expensive Chinese oil painting.
Why did "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" depict Indian men although it is a story from China?  Who did it demonstrate naked bodies, which are rare in Chinese paintings? Why is the "Put down Your Whip" worth so much money?  What kind of relations has it with the business and art communities in Singapore?  What happened to the real life of the female character in the painting?  This seminar aims to tell the story of Xu Beihong in Nanyang through these two paintings.

About the Speaker

Associate Professor I Lo-fen holds a doctorate in Chinese literature from the National Taiwan University and is currently teaching at the Division of Chinese, Nanyang Technological University.  Her research interests cover Chinese literature, visual arts, and cultural interactions in East Asia. Her academic publications include Guankan, xushu, shenmei – Tang Song tihua wenxue lunji (Observation, Narrative, and Aesthetics: Essays on Literature of Painting Writings in the Tang and Song Dynasties).  She also published literary works.