On March 23rd, visitors visited the Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition
Cultural exchange carriers such as painting, sculpture, books, and drama are returning to the 3D real world from the online space under the guidance of cultural "matchmakers".
Reported by Le Yanna (from Beijing) and Lin Ning (from Hong Kong) from Global Magazine
Editor/Zhang Haixin
Visiting the giant pandas "Baodi" and "Baomei" at the Brugret Paradise Zoo in Belgium, visiting the Chinese Tourism Office in Paris, France, stopping the director who cannot work due to a strike at the Montpellier Art Museum, and searching for a venue to hold an exhibition in Nice... Fang Zixi's March was exceptionally busy and exciting.
The girl who returned from studying abroad in France and founded Sichuan Tamaru Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tamaru Culture) with her peers is trying to introduce the "Black and White" Panda Art Creative Exhibition successfully held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in 2022 to Europe, restart the cooperation projects before the COVID-19 epidemic, and explore the possibility of further holding cultural exchange activities.
After the adjustment and optimization of China's epidemic policies, cultural "matchmakers" like Fang Zixi have returned to their busy lives. Cultural exchange carriers such as painting, sculpture, books, and drama are returning to the 3D real world from the online space under their "threading", presenting more diverse inclusiveness and active communication.
Promote the exhibition to Europe
The "Black and White" Panda Art and Creativity Exhibition features giant pandas as its core element, showcasing traditional art works brought by 8 national art award winners, intangible cultural heritage inheritors, and others such as Xue Kang and Zhou Mengqi. It also includes trendy art works designed by art brands such as Amazing Panda and Wanwuji, as well as related digital artworks and digital creative collections.
How can we let foreign countries understand China's vigorous development in recent years? I think art is a good way. Foreigners, especially Europeans and Americans, believe that art is very noble and can only produce excellent works of art on a large scale in a high-quality environment. The works in the Panda Art Creative Exhibition, I think the creative level is not inferior to foreign artists, which is very indicative. I brought this exhibition to Europe in the hope that foreigners can understand China through these cultural carriers and see that China's development is getting better and better. Chinese culture is highly inclusive, and the quality of Chinese art works is very high, "Fang Zixi told a reporter from Global magazine.
Due to the fact that most museums and art galleries in Europe plan their exhibitions for the following year one year in advance, Fang Zixi did not finalize the location of the exhibition during this trip. Her plan is to bring the exhibition to Europe in the second half of this year or next year, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, through continued visits and communication. Brugret has a giant panda museum, Montpellier is the city that first established an international friendly city with Chengdu, and Nice is the city where I studied abroad. My mentor also supports me very much, and these cities are all places of my intention. Nowadays, when people talk about cultural exchanges with foreign countries, they first think of 'Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou', but Chengdu, an important city in the Western Development Strategy, can actually play a very unique role as a cultural 'lubricant'
On February 6th, the first tour group from Guangzhou Travel International Travel Agency to Thailand departed from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport
This trip to Europe has made Fang Zixi realize the importance of offline communication. The charm of conversation lies in its ability to constantly change based on real-time situations, rather than typing emotionless text across a screen without knowing the other person's expression or emotional changes. Face to face communication may be more enjoyable because the weather is better today, or we exchange a glance and understand each other's feelings. However, due to inflation and some social conflicts leading to rising prices in Europe, "travel expenses are about three times higher than before the pandemic". Fang Zixi said that she is temporarily not considering the issue of profitability. "I don't think it's profitable to hold the first exhibition in Europe, but I believe that if it can continue to be held, it will definitely be profitable in the future
The other founders of Honmaru Culture, like Fang Zixi, also have study abroad experience and have always been enthusiastic about playing the role of cultural "matchmakers". When I was studying, I was immersed in an international context for a long time. If I didn't engage in such a career, I felt a bit sorry for my own experience. If a group of people like us succeed in entrepreneurship in China, we can also let more international students see that China has a good entrepreneurial environment, and there is a promising future for doing international things domestically. And with more people doing this, it will further enhance China's international image, "said Fang Zixi.
Cultural collision at art exhibitions
The founder of Hong Kong gallery Ji Fengxuan, Ji Yunian, led the reporter from Global magazine to two visually striking paintings and pointed to two cloth editions full of red and yellow, telling them in detail: these are the "Fa Nature Series - Flower Blossoms" and "Fa Nature Series - Autumn Harvest" created by Shanghai artist Xue Song this year. In March, Xue Songgang showcased these two paintings at the Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition.
Since its establishment in Hong Kong in 1991, Ji Fengxuan has been committed to promoting artistic exchanges between the East and the West, and enjoys high popularity in Hong Kong. In addition to promoting the works of Chinese painters such as Xue Song and Li Huayi internationally, Ji Fengxuan also introduced a large number of foreign artists to Chinese audiences. From promoting the Paris School of Painting in Hong Kong in 1996 to presenting works by Venezuelan painter Oswaldo Vegas at the Art Basel exhibition this year, Ji Fengxuan's reach has extended to various parts of the world.
Ji Yunian introduced that the gallery plans to hold an exhibition of works by Syrian painter Ziad Dalule in May this year. In October, she will also bring ceramic artist Bai Ming and his blue and white porcelain works to the National Gallery of Italy, and plans to open a gallery in Shenzhen or Shanghai.
She said that she has become very busy, with significantly less free time to read books like during the pandemic. Artists from various countries who want to enter the Asian market are looking for her, and well-known art museums are also looking for her. As a cultural "matchmaker", she self mockingly says that there have been more social events and her life has become noisy. "It's like a motorcycle on a highway, with a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, it can't stop at all
The 2023 Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition brought together 177 art galleries from 32 countries and regions. Here, reporters from Global magazine met many artists and gallery operators like Ji Yunian who have resumed their busy work.
Yu Guoliang is the founder and director of Ink Studio. At the Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition, he met many old friends in the industry. "After a three-year absence, we all gathered together in Hong Kong by chance, and it was very rare to be able to observe paintings up close and communicate face-to-face
Mozhai has a fixed exhibition space in the Caochangdi Art District of Beijing and a studio in New York, USA, where exhibitions are held irregularly. As a gallery showcasing contemporary ink art to audiences in both China and the United States, Ink Studio plans to launch a retrospective exhibition of its 10th anniversary in Beijing in May this year, showcasing the works of 12 ink artists, and holding two solo exhibitions in the autumn.
Yang Jian, Director of Beijing Honeycomb Contemporary Art Center, told Global magazine reporters that as a traditional art form, painting works rely more on offline observation and experience. During the epidemic, many offline projects were forced to be postponed, stranded, and so on due to the inability of audiences to attend. After the policy adjustment, the Honeycomb Contemporary Art Center highly values the opportunity to participate in offline exhibitions, and therefore has requested a larger booth. The artists it represents are also more willing to present their works to complement the exhibition.
Go out and introduce to build the East Asian market
The interview with Han Kun, the founder and chairman of "A Good Play", was conducted during his travels to Thailand and South Korea. In 2020, Hankun launched the first environmental style resident musical "Apollonia" in Shanghai, which quickly gained reputation for its disruptive viewing and performance relationship. Even with daily performances, tickets were still hard to come by. In the following two years, many works such as "Santa Lucia," "Hello, I'm Looking for Smith," and "Big Star of the Universe" were successively released, and environmental style resident theater branches were set up in cities such as Changsha, Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou.
The plan to go to Thailand is to introduce Thai original jukebox musicals to China in September. There is a song in the drama that Chinese audiences are very familiar with, which is "Heartbreak Front Alliance" by Grasshopper Band in the early years. It covers the works of Thai singer Bird Thongcha. This is our first cooperation with the Thai side, and we need to visit and confirm the details face-to-face to sign the contract. "Han Kun told a reporter from Global magazine," There is only one company in Thailand that specializes in musicals, so cooperation is relatively simple. I also talked to some copyright agents in Thailand, and they recommended some of Thailand's excellent film and television content to me because Thailand has performed better in this field. I'm wondering if it's possible to adapt these works into stage plays and present them on the Zhongtai stage
As for going to South Korea, in addition to conducting a "three-year summary" visit to existing partners, Han Kun also inspected South Korea's culture and performance market, searched for new potential producers to collaborate with, enjoyed current popular plays, and saw if there were any suitable content to introduce, and so on. We have selected one or two outstanding works from both the trendy and traditional musicals, and have entered the early stage of communication. We have not yet confirmed their introduction. In addition, due to the many collaborations between 'One Good Play' and South Korea, we also plan to establish a branch in South Korea to develop high-quality original content together with the local creative team while carrying out copyright cooperation business
Han Kun found that during his trip to South Korea, due to severe local inflation and the restart of the tourism industry, people tend to use limited funds for tourism rather than cultural consumption such as performances, which has led to a significant decrease in the activity of the South Korean performance market compared to before the epidemic. Due to the outstanding performance of the Chinese performance market in recent years, more and more Korean creative teams are considering collaborating with Chinese performance companies. From the trend, there will be more signs of integration in the future markets of China, South Korea, and Japan, forming an East Asian market rather than going it alone like before. This time, I watched a play with Chinese martial arts as the theme in South Korea, and the market performance was very good. By working together to develop content and staging it in several countries at the same time, and strengthening communication and cooperation between the creators and behind the scenes, there is hope to make the performance a mass market rather than the current small circle market
Culture+tourism, new routes and designs
February 6th is the first day of China's pilot program to resume outbound group tourism business, marking the "restart button" for Chinese outbound group tourism after three years. In just one month from that day to March 5th, Guangzhou Guangzhilv International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Guangzhilv) organized more than ten outbound tours or the first national tours on new routes. With different types of outbound tourism products and services such as group tours, individual tours, visas, etc., nearly 1000 tourists were organized for outbound tourism.
In addition to reopening outbound tourism, the business team has been actively understanding the changes in foreign suppliers, participating in tourism promotion conferences and exhibitions, and re evaluating key routes... Our 2023 start is indeed very busy, "said Huang Jingru, Vice President of Guangzhitu, in an interview with Global magazine reporters.
Huang Jingru predicts that Guangzhou Travel will be even busier in the second half of this year. In the initial stage of adjusting and optimizing epidemic policies, there was no small holiday, not the traditional peak season for tourism, and foreign tourism resources were not ready to immediately receive Chinese tourists. From the current situation, overseas tourism destinations, including international flights, tourism vehicles, restaurants, tourist attraction reception scale, tour guide services, overseas service providers, and other reception links, are still in the stage of reconstruction and continuous increase in supply. As a tourism service provider, Guangzhou Travel will also re select, reorganize, control, and integrate various links of overseas tourism resources to provide high-quality outbound tourism products with high cost-effectiveness for the market. As we continue to communicate with foreign suppliers, we believe that the preparation of domestic and foreign tourism service providers will become more and more sufficient. I am very optimistic about the next small holiday and the overseas tourism market in the second half of the year. ''
Unlike the suppliers of Guangzhitu, which are mostly large enterprises serving global tourists, Interstellar Cloud Travel, a subsidiary of Beijing Shouhang International Travel Agency, relies more on small and medium-sized ground agencies and local tourism resources that can provide customized services.
Interstellar Cloud Travel mainly plans routes to the Middle East, Africa, South America and Australia. Liu Wen, its chief executive, told the reporter of Globegroup magazine that in January this year he went to Türkiye, Egypt, Morocco and Uganda to visit former partners and seek to expand new tourism routes and cooperation possibilities. Many partners have gone bankrupt due to the pandemic, and factors such as rising oil prices over the past year have also made it difficult for charter companies to guarantee profits, so they can no longer get the previous prices. This requires me to negotiate new cooperation relationships or sign new cooperation contracts
However, Liu Wen discovered many new characteristics of overseas travel during this trip, such as easier to find Chinese tour guides than before. "Before the epidemic, many people were learning Chinese, and during the epidemic, many people also obtained Chinese tour guide certificates. It can be said that they have been preparing for Chinese tourists to come back, and some of them have even opened accounts on domestic social media such as Xiaohongshu to attract Chinese tourists. At the same time, some Chinese investors have also invested in the cultural tourism industry abroad, becoming new tourism service providers that are easier to communicate with. "In the Black and White Desert of Egypt, there is a tent hotel invested by Chinese people, where you can look up at the stars; there is also a hotel invested by Chinese people in Uganda, where all building materials are made of bamboo, which is very distinctive.
During the epidemic, Liu Wen also attempted several study tours in China and accumulated some experience. Next, he plans to combine this form with his expertise in overseas travel and organize some overseas study tours for teenagers. "This involves many new travel methods and contents, so I also need to go abroad multiple times to confirm the relevant details. I expect that by the end of this year, the overseas tourism market will recover to the level before the epidemic, and I will become even busier.
Cultural exchange and mutual learning do not occur naturally, but require numerous cultural "matchmakers" such as Fang Zixi and Han Kun to act as intermediaries and seek new opportunities and meanings from them. It is worth looking forward to what changes they will bring to culture and the cultural market as they become busy again after the epidemic.
Source: Issue 9 of Global Magazine, published on May 3, 2023
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