A Window to : Translating Concepts and Culture in Auspicious Chinese

Maria Cheng & Eric Choy City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong) Sight-in Consulting Group (Hong Kong)

Abstract According to a recent survey, China overtook the United States by taking 33 percent of total sales in the global art market with a turnover of US$3 billion in 2010, and 's ‘Eagle Standing on Pine Tree’ with a four-character couplet in seal script was sold at US$65 million. With the robust demand for Chinese art, Chinese with auspicious imagery are apparently well-received, and interpretative references in English are perceived to be important communicative tools for the Western world to understand . Auspicious imagery constitutes a unique element of the Chinese art and culture, and its visual tradition extends from the folk art of the Han dynasty to various media hitherto including advertising nowadays. This paper aims to focus on the understanding of auspicious Chinese painting and explore how an artist externalises his perception of an auspicious and propitious motif through the manipulation of brushstroke and visual representation of the related imagery within the Chinese culture; and to investigate further how a cross-cultural communicator should deconstruct the association embedded in the linguistic connotations and visual representation, and transfer with different approaches the underlying semiotic implication of a related motif. Such elucidation encapsulating the concepts and aesthetics of Chinese painting will exhibit cultural and linguistic insight into Chinese culture and art.

Keywords auspicious painting, propitious motif, visual representation, semiotic implication, Chinese culture

1. Introduction

A modern Chinese painting has been sold at auction in for more than $65m (£40m). The picture by the artist Qi Baishi depicts an eagle on a pine tree, surrounded by two calligraphy scrolls. The high price paid for the painting shows the strength of the art market in the world's second-largest economy. According to one survey China overtook the US last year to become the most valuable art market in the world, accounting for 33% of total sales (BBC news Asia-Pacific, 23 May 2011). The total value of contemporary Chinese art sold at auctions has grown from less than $1m in 2002 to $167.4m in 2010, according to figures from art-market advisory company ArtTactic (BBC news Business, 8 June 2011).

The sale of Qi Baishi’s Eagle Standing on Pine Tree with a four- character couplet in seal script ljᶮ᷿儈・െgㇶᴨഋ䀰㚟NJwas at an

Maria Cheng & Eric Choy astronomical price competing with those more established household names, such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Other Chinese artists like Zhang Daqian, , Fu Baoshi, and Wu Guangzhong are also considered to be market indicators nowadays as they have won global respect (Artprice 2010: 32; English.news.cn 25 May 2011). This is partly attributed to China's booming economy, which has generated a new wealthy generation to pay high prices for their sought-after pieces of art (BBC news Asia-Pacific 23 May 2011); Ehrmann (Artprice 2010) sees this as an effect of two trends of veritable mutation, one is the change of market structure to an “art exchange” model due to the evolution of Internet, and the other one is the “revolution in the geopolitics of the global art market”. Further to the above economic observation, Hsü (2001: 1) draws attention to this phenomenon of demand for Chinese art in the West to several factors in addition to the emergence of China as a significant global market player: firstly, she credits the academic contribution to the training of art specialists in promoting the understanding of Chinese art; secondly, it is the increasing amount of promotional platforms, such as publications, symposia, and exhibitions, that inform the general public and raise their awareness and appreciation of Chinese art. Chang (1999), being a seasoned arts administrator, observes that Chinese paintings of high quality and those which have been rigorously catalogued, exhibited in museums and appeared in serious publications will be more marketable and successfully sold at auction. Essential information and speculative interpretation of an art piece and its background, whether in auction catalogues, brochures, exhibition texts, press releases, websites, or even online social networking, are perceived to be important communication tools for the general public and interested parties to pursue an understanding of the related work of an artist. In addition, handy books provide for beginners and art lovers a good channel to the understanding of great art pieces. Laneyrie-Dagen’s How to Read Paintings (2004) “help readers extend their appreciation of all types of paintings, by identifying and interpreting the elements that make a painting truly memorable”. And Farthing’s 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die (2007) gives the readers a browsable guide to a printed art museum embracing cultures and every style of painting from Ancient Egyptian frescoes to the Renaissance masters, and from French Impressionists to American Abstract Expressionists1.Nowadays, with the emergence of China in the global art market, it is significantly important for the art workers and marketers to make use of linguistic means to bridge the understanding of Chinese art to the Western world and enhance a renewed popularity among the Western collectors. In fact, such a remarkable price of Qi’s work in an auction does not only

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