Fri/Sat/Sun September 8~10, 201706 i culture

poetry, More than poems

Chen Xiaochun654789759@qq.com

POETRY and music have always gone hand in hand. Both art forms have the ability to capture a single experience or moment

in time in a visceral way.On Aug. 12, melodious poems fi lled

Hutaoli Music Restaurant & Bar in Futian District, touching the heartstrings of the audience after they listened to the recitation and dramatic performance of the poems at “The First Reader” event.

As the fi rst cross-boundary poetry pilot project in China, “The First Reader” was sponsored by the Shenzhen Publicity and Cultural Development Special Fund, organized by the Research Center of Chi-nese Poetry, the Publicity Department of Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPC and Shenzhen Federation of Litera-ture and Art Circles, and undertaken by Shenzhen Association of Dramatists.

Themed “Shenzhen Reads for You,” the event, its sixth edition, aimed to explore the interconnection between poetry and drama, poetry and images, and poetry and exhibitions.

A total of seven special activities are now rolling out at Shenzhen Book City and Hutaoli Music Restaurant & Bar between August and October this year. Established poets this year include Wang Yin, Jiang Tao, Tan Chang and You Zijin.

Around 10 young people dressed in long black robes performed with a long black cloth band while they stood up in turn to recite poems such as “Before Time Flies Away” by You Zijin and “Girl’s Diary” by Tan Chang.

Hui Lei, a male Chinese singer who ranked 11th at the national fi nal of the popular “Super Boy” singing competi-tion, presenting the audience with a new sense of the poems.

An exhibition, “The First Reader: First China Contemporary Poets’ Poetry Manuscript Exhibition,” is also on show at Hutaoli Music Restaurant & Bar until Sept. 13, which presents over 200 poetry manuscripts from over 80 poets. Citizens could take a look at the manuscripts to get a glimpse into how poets fi nd inspira-tion and create poems.

“Shenzhen is a city that has gathered the dreams of our generation. Today, I feel really touched because Shenzhen

calls me back with poems. For me, it is not only a place where you can realize your dreams, but also a place that can nourish you spiritually,” said You, who won the best poet award.

For Tan, another best poet award winner, the penetrating power of poetry gets stronger when combined with music, drama and visual presentation. “Music can bring out our sentiments and feelings normally hidden deep. When a poem is adapted into a song, the short and long lines of the poem are high-lighted, which makes the original poem more touching,” said Tan.

THE 2017 Futian CBD Cultural Festival kicked off at Star Plaza in COCO Park in Futian District on Aug. 18. This year’s cultural

festival established a “platform program” which aims to help institutions and orga-nizations to explore the unique culture of Futian District.

Ten cool virtual reality (VR) setups offered citizens free and unique expe-riences. Five sections, namely, music dance shows, urban micro forests, the city day & night, environmental protec-tion public welfare exhibitions and a public welfare activity themed “What Are You Worrying About?” were designed to get visitors involved in interactive activi-

ties and help them fi nd hidden surprises in their lives.

In an interactive VR space named “V House,” various virtual games including skiing, standup roller coaster, sky racer and cycling attracted huge crowds. In the “What Are You Worrying About?” activ-ity, citizens experienced free VR games that may cost 100 or more yuan.

Five hundred free tickets were given out to citizens prior to the activity through an offi cial WeChat account oper-ated by the culture and sports bureau of Futian District.

The“What Are You Worrying About?” activity lasted for three days, aiming to enable people living in the CBD area to

escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life, fi nd new happiness in life and an outlet for life’s troubles in the“V House.” In the activity participants were expected to regain courage and overcome challenges in life.

The festival also focused on the actual needs of people’s lives and prepared a variety of activities for the public.

Jian Dingxiong, head of the culture and sports bureau of Futian, noted that the cultural festival refl ected the vitality of the CBD and aimed to help people release pressure and face challenges in their lives.

(A Ding)

A VIOLIN with wings fl ies through a sky fi lled with spinning moons, while rotat-ing machinery gives way

to strange landscapes and pressure valves. These chimerical images come together in Chinese illustrator and animator Sun Xun’s “Time Spy,” a 3-D animated fi lm created from thousands of individual hand-carved woodcuts which was exhibited at E Museum of Contemporary Art (EMOCA) from Aug. 19 to Sept. 2.

Hundreds of Chinese art students assisted Xun in carving each frame of the fi lm, juxtaposing traditional and analog illustration methods with modern 3-D animation across digital screens in a way that turns a seeingly antithetical combination into some-thing elegant. The fi lm employs images of traditional Chinese themes, like the fi ve elements (metal, wood, water, fi re and earth), in a symbolic exploration of the nature of time and how we try to make sense of it.

Sun said, “‘Time Spy’ has many layers from both Western and Eastern cultural traditions. The focus is on past versus present, on time. You cannot touch yes-terday; you cannot touch tomorrow. All you have is now. Now represents time. Time is invisible and it’s untouchable, but it remains the foundation of our existence.”

One of China’s most prominent young artists, Sun created “Time Spy” for the second Audemars Piguet Art Commission in partnership with Sean Kelly Gallery, Edouard Malingue Gal-lery and Shanghart Gallery as part of a large-scale immersive multimedia installation fi rst presented during Art Basel in Miami Beach in December 2016. Last month, Times Square’s Midnight Moment, an art initiative by Times Square Arts in which all of the billboards in Times Square synchro-nize to show an audio-visual art piece at exactly 11:57 p.m. everyday for three minutes, showcased “Time Spy.”

Sun’s artistic practice combines meticulous craftsmanship with sty-listic experimentation not limited to any one medium. Blurring the lines between drawing, painting, animation and installation, his work incorporates a wide array of materials. Painting, woodcuts, traditional Chinese ink and charcoal drawings are often combined to create the foundation of his expres-sionistic, stop-motion animated fi lms. These fi lms are then presented in immersive settings and fi lled with real-istic and fantastical iconography. His work often uses animals and insects as main characters to explore the themes of global history, culture and memory.

(SD News)

‘Time Spy’ displayed at EMOCA

A woodcut painting from “Time Spy.” SD -Agencies

Melodious poems fi ll Hutaoli Music Restaurant & Bar. Courtesy of Shenzhen Association of Dramatists

Presenters read poems at “The First Reader” event.

Futian CBD Cultural Festival delights citizens