China: China Art / Culture Profile

China is one of the great cradles of world civilization, and its culture is remarkable for its duration, diversity, and influence on other cultures, particularly those of its East Asian neighbours. Following is a survey of Chinese culture; in-depth discussions of specific cultural aspects are found in the article Chinese literature and in the sections on Chinese visual arts, music, and dance and theatre of the article arts, East Asian.

Cultural milieu

Skeletal remains and stone implements date to the Paleolithic stage of cultural development, from the 29th to the 17th millennium bce. Decorated artifacts, primarily marked pottery vessels, have been found in dozens of Incipient Neolithic and Neolithic sites, dating from the 12th to the 2nd millennium bce. Chinese Neolithic pottery shapes and types are mostly classified into two families: the before Yangshao ware from the central Zhongshan region, characterized by geometric painted decorations, and the later Longshan ware, primarily from the Northeast but as well found in the Zhongshan area. Longshan ware is unpainted and is elevated from the ground on a circular foot or tripod legs.

The Bronze Age includes the initial historically verified dynasty, the Shang (c. 1600–1046 bce), and China’s initial written records. The late Shang is well known from oracle bones recovered from the site of the last Shang capital, near Anyang. The bones are turtle plastrons and ox scapulae with inscribed texts, used by the Shang kings in a highly regularized system of ritual divination and sacrifice aimed at securing the support of the ruler’s deceased ancestors. Through their use, writing became linked to authority in a way that endured throughout premodern Chinese history. During the Shang and Zhou (1046–256 bce) dynasties the art of bronze casting became highly developed. Finely cast and richly decorated pieces included cooking and serving vessels, bells, drums, weapons, and door fittings.

The written language is central to China’s culture. Scholars have identified ideographic inscriptions on pottery dating to about 4000 bce, and written Chinese has developed continuously since the late Shang period. Chinese culture is inextricably bound up with the writing system in three ways. Initial, writing is the medium for the preservation and dissemination of culture. Indeed, the Chinese word for culture (wenhua) means “to become literate.” Second, command of the writing system distinguishes the Chinese and their culture, seen as the centre of the world, from all non-Chinese peoples, categorized by the Chinese as “barbarians.” Third, culture and the writing system are inseparably linked to statecraft in that a command of writing and knowledge of the written tradition were for millennia necessary and requisite skills for holding office. Thus, from the Shang dynasty oracle bones to the products of the modern printing press, culture in the form of written works has been a key instrument in the development of political thought and a tool of governance.

The arts

During the Cultural Revolution an enormous number of cultural treasures of inestimable price were seriously damaged or destroyed, and the practice of a lot of arts and crafts was prohibited. Since the early 1980s, however, official repudiation of those policies has been complemented by vigorous efforts to renew China’s remarkable cultural traditions. Loosening a lot of of the before restrictions has as well rejuvenated a lot of art forms before devoted almost exclusively to propaganda. China’s “Fifth Generation Cinema,” for example, is known for such outstanding film directors as Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, who have highlighted themes of social and political oppression.

Literature

The Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”), an anthology of poetry given definitive form about 500 bce, is one of China’s oldest classics and contains 305 folk songs and ritual psalms. Although the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce) is called the Golden Age of Chinese poetry, having produced the poets Du Fu and Li Bai, poets of renown were present in each dynasty, and the writing of poetry was practiced by most well-educated Chinese for both personal and social reasons.

China’s tradition of historical narrative is as well unsurpassed in the world. Twenty-five dynastic histories preserve a incomparable record from the unverified Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 bce) to the Qing (1644–1911/12 ce), and sprawling historical romances have been a mainstay in the reading of the educated since the spread of printing in the 11th and 12th centuries ce.

The May Fourth Movement (1917–21) attacked much of this great literary and cultural tradition, viewing it as a source of China’s weakness. Students and faculty at Peking University abandoned the literary language and created a new popular fiction, written in a additional-accessible colloquial language on themes from ordinary life. Literary culture continued to be a subject of intense debate. Mao Zedong, who composed poetry in both contemporary and traditional styles, dictated that art must serve politics in his talks at Yan’an in 1942. Throughout the following decades, writers received both admiration and ridicule. Indeed, the fate of most significant writers was closely linked to the vicissitudes of national politics from the 1950s onward. Only in the mid-1980s did writers again begin to enjoy some official tolerance of “art for art’s sake.”

Visual arts

Painting and calligraphy, like poetry, were the domain of the elite, and most educated Chinese traditionally boasted of some competence in them. There are early anonymous and folk-oriented paintings on tomb and cave walls, and a lot of works are known from the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). Fine-art painters are known by name from as early as the 6th century ce from historical records and serially copied versions of their works. Chinese painting is predominantly of landscapes, done in black pine-soot ink on fine paper or silk, occasionally with the addition of faint colour washes. The majority vigorous period for landscape painting spanned the years from the Song (960–1279) to the Ming (1368–1644) dynasty.Calligraphy rivals painting as a fine art in China, and paintings are often captioned with artfully written poems. Calligraphy reveals the great fondness the Chinese have for their written characters, and it ranges in style from meticulously and laboriously scribed “seal” characters to flamboyant and unconstrained “grass” characters. Calligraphy, as painting, is prized for a number of abstract aesthetic qualities, described by such terms as balance, vitality, energy, bones, wind, and strength.

Painting has undergone numerous style changes since the beginning of the 20th century. Before 1949, painters such as Qi Baishi (1863–1957) developed distinct new styles that internationalized traditional Chinese aesthetics. Next 1949, pressure for a form of socialist realism made painters shift their focus to such subjects as factory scenes, peasant villages, and convoys of tour buses. But, with the liberalization of the arts that followed Mao’s death in 1976, additional-traditional values reasserted themselves.

Sculpture and carving date to the Zhou dynasty or before. Tombs frequently contained burial dolls, said to have been made to replace live sacrificial victims, and a lot of early jade carvings are related to burial practices and include body orifice stoppers and bangle bracelets. Of all the arts, sculpture received the greatest boost from the introduction of Buddhism to China during the Han dynasty and from the spread of Buddhism during the Six Dynasties (220–589 ce) and Tang periods. Statues and carved reliefs of buddhas and bodhisattvas were made by the thousands; along with cave paintings, they represent the pinnacle of Chinese religious art. One of the majority notable sites is the Mogao Caves (“Caves of a Thousand Buddhas”) complex near Dunhuang in Gansu province, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Performing arts

The oldest art forms in China are music and dance. A 5,000-year-old pottery bowl from Qinghai province is painted with a ring of 15 dancers adorned in headdresses and sashes and stepping in unison. Music played an significant role in early Chinese ritual and statecraft. Bronze bells were instruments of investiture and reward. A bronze bell set from a tomb in the ancient national of Zeng in Hubei province, interred about 430 bce, contains 64 bells, each of which produces two distinct, tuned strike notes. Additional than 120 instruments were unearthed from the same tomb, inclunding stringed zithers, mouth organs, flutes, drums, and stone chimes. Music and related rituals helped to provide a structure for activities in the courts of rulers at all levels in the feudal hierarchy.

Theatre, once the majority significant popular art form in China, remains significant for some. However, it has been eclipsed in popularity by television dramas, particularly serials. Chinese theatre originated in early religious dances, performed at festivals to exorcise demons, reenact significant historical events, or prepare for harvest, hunting, or warfare. Urban storytelling and theatrical genres are well documented from the Song dynasty but are known to have matured during the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). Yuan dramas—or operas, as they are additional accurately called—consisted of virtuoso song and dance organized around plots on historical or contemporary themes. The operas were performed in appropriate theatres, with elegant costumes and decorated stages. From Yuan drama, later forms developed, inclunding contemporary jingxi (Peking opera) and other regional forms, which feature song and dance, elaborate costumes and props, and displays of martial arts and acrobatics.

Cultural institutions

Beijing remains China’s cultural centre, home to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and numerous major research institutes. Notable repositories there include the National Library of China (housed in the Beijing Library), the Central Archives of China, and the libraries of the academy and of the city’s three major universities; libraries in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Changsha in Hunan province as well have significant collections. Paramount part China’s museums is the Palace Museum, which occupies the former imperial palaces of the Forbidden City in central Beijing.

Chinese art and artifacts have found their way into various collections around the world. The majority significant collection of fine arts is in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan, the bulk of the superb traditional palace collection having been ferried across the Taiwan Strait at the same time as the Nationalists abandoned the mainland in 1948–49. Excellent collections of Chinese painting, calligraphy, and bronzes are as well found in such museums as the Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Significant collections remain in major museums in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan.

Since the 1950s, new archaeological discoveries have filled China’s provincial and local museums with fabulous treasures, and new facilities have been constructed to study and display these artifacts. Particularly notable is the renowned Qin tomb near Xi’an, in Shaanxi province, which preserves the life-size terra-cotta army of the initial Qin emperor, Shihuangdi. The army, complete with soldiers, horses, and chariots, was discovered in 1974. Since again much of the site has been excavated, and a lot of of its figures have been painstakingly removed and placed on public display.

Daily life, sports, and recreation

Chinese culture can as well be understood through the vehicle of food. Chinese cuisine, like Chinese philosophy, is organized along Daoist principles of opposition and change: hot is balanced by cold, spicy by mild, fresh by cured. The cooking of Sichuan province in central China is distinguished by the use of hot peppers. The lush southern interior of the country prizes fresh ingredients; Cantonese cuisine in particular is a symphony of subtle flavours from just-picked vegetables and lightly cooked meats. No matter what the region, foods of all kinds are viewed as an accompaniment to grains, the staple of the Chinese diet.

China observes a number of national holidays, inclunding New Year’s Day, the Spring Festival (lunar new year), Youth Day (May 4), and National Day (October 1). Notable festivals are the Lantern Festival (late winter), Tomb Sweep Day (April 4 or 5), and the Mid-Autumn Festival (October). Scores of local festivals are as well held at various times throughout the country.

Physical exercise is a staple of Chinese culture. Millions gather daily at dawn to practice martial arts (notably tai chi chuan [taijiquan]), wield swords in a graceful ballet, or (part women) perform a synchronized dance of pliés and turns. Acrobatics are particularly popular and have enjoyed a new surge of interest since 1950, at the same time as the China Acrobatic Troupe was organized in Beijing; from it have grown satellite companies in Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenyang, Wuhan, and Dalien (Lüda). Imported sports such as basketball, baseball, and football (soccer) have become hugely popular, drawing millions of participants and spectators. Of China’s indigenous forms of sport, the martial arts have the longest history by far. Their origin dates to at least two thousand years ago, to a period in which contending warlords, bandits, and foreign invaders controlled large portions of China and forbade the populace to own weapons.

China has become one of the dominant nations in international sports competitions since it began participating regularly in the Olympic Games, at the 1980 Winter Games. Since again the country’s finest Olympic moment came at the 2004 Summer Games. Chinese athletes took a total of 63 medals, dominating the badminton, diving, table tennis, and weightlifting events and making strong showings in a variety of others, inclunding shooting and women’s judo. Beijing was chosen to host the 2008 Summer Games.