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Thursday, December 9, 1999 - 19:30

The Walls and Gates of Old Beijing

Professor Sheng

Zheng Fa Da Xue,

University of Politics and Law

Living in Beijing, we cannot live even a single day without hearing the names of the various gates, “---men”, and “---men wai” (outside of gate), etc. Professor Sheng, who is currently teaching history at Zheng Fa Da Xue, the Politics and Law University, will talk about the Walls and Gates of the Old Beijing. When and how were they built? How were they developed and expanded? What was the historical background and significance of those gates and walls? After learning about these gates and walls of old Beijing, the present Beijing may look vivid and different!
Thursday, December 2, 1999 - 19:30

Ancient Chinese Metallurgy

Professor T. Ke

President and Director, Metallurgical & Archaeological University of Beijing

We are delighted to be able to re-schedule this lecture cancelled earlier in the year due to the ill health of our speaker, Professor T. Ke. Happily, he has now recovered and is very pleased to be able to present his lecture to BIS Members. Professor Ke is the President and Director of the Metallurgical & Archaeological University of Beijing and has lectured in the United States. On this occasion, he will trace the use of different metals from the beginning of Chinese culture through the centuries. He will show slides illustrating how the materials progressively developed from the...
Tuesday, November 30, 1999 - 19:30

Tibetan Religion and its Culture

Zha Luo, Scholar

Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

This lecture will be given by Zha Luo, a young scholar from the Institute of Ethnic Studies from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is Tibetan and was born and grew up in Qinghai. At 17 he entered Beijing University. He has published books about Tibetan culture, religion, art, costumes and life style. He will bring with him some old framed tangkas from Tibet and will be available to cast his expert eye over any tangkas brought to the lecture by our members.
Saturday, November 6, 1999 - 08:15

Outing: Boat Ride on Imperial Canal

Michael Crook

Started in the Jin Dynasty (AD 1115-1234), some canals were built as waterways for the imperial family to travel to and from the winter palace of the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace. These routes continued to be used through the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties to the present. Some sections of the canal are now open to the public. Mr. Michael Crook, who has taken us on such wonderful outings such as the Hutong Tour and the New Year Jiaozi-making Tour in the past, will once again be our guide. BIS members will be guided through the scenic portion of the canal on a chartered boat....
Thursday, October 21, 1999 - 19:30

China Remembers: 50 Years of Nation-Building

Zhang Lijia, Journalist, Author

Zhang Lijia, a native of Nanjing and a free-lance journalist, has just published a book, China Remembers, In this compilation of firsthand accounts, she has interviewed a cross-section of Chinese society, which includes a former Red Guard, an imperial family member, a rock star, a businessman and a rubbish collector. Ms. Zhang will share with us some of these profiles in which you will hear some poignant, provocative and entertaining insights and anecdotes into the lives of Chinese whose experiences followed the transformation from a feudal to a communist society.
Saturday, September 25, 1999 - 08:15

Outing: Through Chinese Furniture Warehouses

Professor Chen Zengbi

Although this outing is a follow-up of the lecture on Thursday evening September 23 (see above for more information), those who had to miss the evening lecture are still welcome to join. Guided by Professor Chen Zengbi, this field trip is to provide an excellent opportunity for our members to gain some hands-on experiences in finding desirable pieces of furniture on the local market.
Thursday, September 23, 1999 - 19:30

Chinese Furniture Authenticity

Chen Zengbi

Retired Professor, Central Academy of Art and Design

Over 100 BIS members enjoyed Mr. Chen Zengbi's lecture on Feng Shui last Fall. This time, Mr. Chen, a retired professor of the Central Academy of Art and Design, will show members how to differentiate between furniture of Ming style from that of Qing style using slides and actual sample pieces. He will also help us to identify various types of wood commonly used in furniture making. Time will be left for him to comment on or authenticate wood pieces brought in by members (small please). An outing (see below for details) will follow this lecture.
Saturday, September 18, 1999 - 08:15

Outing: Ancient Porcelain Shards at the Sackler Museum, Peking University

Professor Quan Kui Shan

On this occasion BIS will visit a special exhibition of porcelain shards collected in recent times from various ancient kiln sites in China, on display for a limited time at the Sackler Museum of Peking University. Professor Quan will lead us through the exhibition as a follow-up to his lecture on the 16 September.
Thursday, September 16, 1999 - 19:30

The Capital of Porcelain - Jingdezhen

Professor Quan Kui Shan

Archaeology Department, Peking University

Jing De Zhen, famous for its ancient imperial kilns and numerous folk kilns, was and continues to be an important center for porcelain production in China. Professor Quan Kui Shan from the Archaeology Department of Peking University will talk about porcelain production in Jing DeZhen in ancient Chinese history including the characteristics of porcelain in Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. He will also discuss the methods and procedures of porcelain production.
Saturday, June 19, 1999 - 09:00

Outing: Exhibition of Mendun (Stone Door Sculptures)

Mr. Kimio Iwamoto, Visiting Researcher, Beijing Language and Culture University

It was a simple, unsophisticated stone sculpture posted at the entrance of a Siheyuan (courtyard house) in a Beijing Hutong that first caught Mr. Kimio Iwamoto's attention. He was instantly fascinated, discovered them to be the Mendun, and quickly ascertained they were not well preserved. Racing against time as Siheyuan together with their Mendun were fast disappearing, Mr. Iwamoto spent two years covering Beijing on bicycle and discovered about 6,200 Mendun and took about 4,000 photos, one hundred of which are printed in his book. Last December his collection of Mendun was exhibited at...
Tuesday, June 8, 1999 - 19:30

Snow Mountains, Black Tents

Daniel Miller, Grassland Ecologist, Pastoral Development Specialist

Daniel Miller is an American grassland ecologist and pastoral development specialist who has been working in Tibetan areas of China sine 1988. He has conducted research on the grasslands, wildlife, and Tibetan Nomads in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan Provinces and the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and also worked for numerous agencies on environmental conservation and pastoral development programs. He is the author of a number of scientific papers and books about Tibetan grasslands and nomads. He also worked for many years in Nepal and Bhutan with Tibetan-speaking nomads and speaks...
Thursday, June 3, 1999 - 19:30

The Erhu with a Modern Twist

Cheng Lin, Erhu Musician and Singer

Cheng Lin has been, at times, the most popular singer in China. She was the first pop singer and has had many hits to her credit. In addition, she is also an accomplished erhu musician. She started studying the erhu when she was 6 years old. After studying music composition at UCLA in Los Angeles, she is now trying to blend the classical with the new, and the East with the West. Cheng Lin will introduce the virtuosity of erhu to the West and present a new blend of erhu music to the East. She will play both classical and “modern” erhu to the BIS Membership.
Saturday, May 29, 1999 - 08:15

Outing: Da Hui Si and Zhen Jue Si

Professor Yan Chongnian

Prof. Yan Chongnian, author and lecturer will, on this occasion, lead BIS members to two of the oldest temples in Beijing city. The Da Hui Si was built in 1513 and has some outstanding wall paintings that have survived from the Ming Dynasty. This temple is normally not open to the public. Mentioned in Prof. Yan's book, Beijing – The Treasures of an Ancient Capital, the Zhen Jue Si was built in 1473. The pagoda is the oldest of its kind in China and was made for the Emperor from plans brought over from India by an Indian monk. Of course, in both temples we will be able to...
Thursday, May 27, 1999 - 19:30

Development of Materials in Ancient Chinese Civilization

Professor T. Ko

President and Director, Metallurgical & Archaeological University of Beijing

Professor T. Ko, President and Director of the Metallurgical & Archaeological University of Beijing, will trace the use of different materials from the beginning of Chinese culture through the centuries. He will show slides illustrating how the materials progressively developed from the early use of cereals and ceramics (60 –28c BC); to the decorative metals of copper, silver & gold (28-16c BC); followed by bronzes and jade (23-6c BC); through to the invention and spread of cast iron (6-3c BC) and the birth of steel, the most advanced technology before modern history (2c BC - 3c AD...
Thursday, May 20, 1999 - 19:30

The Manchu Emperors

Professor Yan Chongnian

Prof. Yan Chongnian has done extensive research on the emperors of the Qing Dynasty and published many interesting books on the subject. Among his most renowned publications are The Biography of Nurhachi; Beijing, - The Treasures of an Ancient Capital; A Chronology of Important Events in the Qing Dynasty and Famous Capital Cities in China's History. Prof. Yan has lectured extensively at universities in the US, Taiwan, Japan, as well as Hong Kong, on subjects relating to the Qing Dynasty. On this occasion, Prof. Yan will lecture on a subject covered by his...
Saturday, May 8, 1999 - 09:30

Outing: The Russian Embassy in Beijing

Towards the end of the 17th century, the Chinese Emperor established a small colony of Orthodox prisoners in the north-eastern corner of the Beijing walls (between Dong Zhi Men and the Lama Temple), mainly Russians taken at the siege of Albazin. This little community grew in numbers until the Treaty of Kiakhta (1728) allowed the Russians to send a permanent Orthodox mission to Beijing. This mission had some of the characteristics of a diplomatic mission until 1858 when an official Russian embassy was created in Beijing. After 1956, the Orthodox mission's land was handed over to the Soviet...
Thursday, April 29, 1999 - 19:30

A Personal View of a Matriarchal Tribe Mosuo

Namu Yang Erche

Ms. Namu Yang Erche was born into the Mosuo ethnic minority group in Sichuan. She left her village on foot at age 13, walking several days to get to the nearest town connected to a road. She became a singer, recorded albums and went on to write two books about her life. The first Walking Out of the Daughter's Kingdom and the second Return will soon be joined by a third. Name will talk about her hometown, its customs and culture and the impact of this matriarchal society on the community's organization, its daily life and family relationships. She also will introduce us to...
Thursday, April 22, 1999 - 19:30

Dr. Ye Qi: Reflections on Life in China

Dr. Ye Qi, International Section of the Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital

Dr. Ye Qi, chief doctor at the International Section of the Sino-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing, was an ordinary young Japanese at high school when her father told her it was time to return to Japan. As she had lived in China since the age of six, she decided to remain without her parents. As there was no racism and no discrimination, she felt that the future would be promising. During the 40s it was a time of war, armed struggle and nation-building when men and women were working side by side. After graduating she first worked at the China Daily and eventually joined the...
Saturday, April 10, 1999 - 09:00

Outing: Dongyue Temple (Folk Customs Museum)

Patrice Fave, Sinologist, Ethnologist

Patrice Fava, a French sinologist and ethnologist with 30 years experience in China and a long practice of Taoism, will lead us on a tour of the Dongyue miao, the Taoist temple of the Eastern Peak in Beijing. It has been closed for nearly 50 years until it was reopened this year for the Spring Festival. This large temple, covering six hectares, used to be the seat of the largest Taoist religious meetings (miao hui) in Beijing. Its reopening, albeit as a museum of popular traditions, is a major event. Among the 3,000 divinities of the temple, the main one is the Great Emperor of the...
Thursday, March 25, 1999 - 19:30

The Book of Laozi

Dr. Wong Bo

Associate Professor of Philosophy,

Beijing University

The Book of Laozi (Dao De Jing) is probably the most widely read and celebrated Chinese classic outside of China. (According to one survey, it is, apart from the Christian Bible, the book translated into the most foreign languages). Dr. Wong Bo, an exceptionally bright young Associate Professor of philosophy at Beijing University whose dissertation was on this book, will elucidate for BIS members the aphorisms which display the originality of Laozi's wisdom and ways of thinking.
Tuesday, March 16, 1999 - 19:30

Chinese Fashion

Professor Wang Yarong, Director

Ancient Clothes Research Center

Professor Wang Yarong, director of the Ancient Clothes Research Center and author of books on the subject, will give an overview of the evolution of Chinese fashions dating from the Warring States period (B.C. 770-476) to the present day. She will tell us about her findings on the excavation site of an ancient tomb in Hubei province where a treasure-trove of silk clothing has been discovered. In her slide presentation, she will explain the historical significance and ritualistic use of these often glittering and ornate silk and brocade garments. The program will conclude with a mini...
Thursday, March 11, 1999 - 19:30

Chinese Painting Today: The Contemporary Landscape

Karen Smith, Director

The Courtyard Gallery

Karen Smith is well known to BIS members whom she addressed in April 1997. Director of the Courtyard Gallery, she has a long personal experience with Chinese contemporary art as a writer, a curator, a collector, a consultant and a lecturer. She is presently writing a book on the subject and in 1998 she organized an important exhibition of modern Chinese painters in England (“Representing the People”). Her theme, this time, will be Chinese characteristics in the culture, thought and ideology of modern artists as revealed in their art. She will focus on the genre of landscape painting and...
Tuesday, February 9, 1999 - 19:30

The Renewal of Chinese Literature since 1978

Danille Turc-Crisa, Scholar

Danielle Turc-Crisa has received her training in Chinese history and culture from the Universities of Paris, Beijing, Nanjing and Hong Kong. She has 15 years of experience in China in several fields, including business, journalism and research. She has published articles on Chinese literature and translated Chinese short stories into French and Italian and co-authored guidebooks for Arthaud and "Guide Bleu." She will present in her lecture a large panorama of the renewal of Chinese literature after 1978: the appearance of numerous literary journals and the translation of foreign...
Thursday, January 28, 1999 - 19:30

The Poetic Meaning of Vegetables

Freda Murck, Ph.D.

Freda Murck, who has recently completed a book on the uses of poetry in Song dynasty painting, will talk about some unexpected meanings attributed to vegetables in Chinese literature. Can a humble vegetable actually be poetic? A great Chinese poet of the eighth century thought so. When long-stemmed lettuce was damaged by weeds that were taking over his vegetable patch, he saw an allegory. From the fourteenth century, vegetables became a minor, but highly expressive, subject for Chinese painters. Freda Murck has a Ph.D. in Chinese Art and Archaeology from Princeton University...
Thursday, January 21, 1999 - 19:30

Traditional Chinese Toys

Irina Zakharova, Ph.D.

Irina Zakharova, a Ph.D. from the prestigious Moscow State University (M.G.U.) in the field of “Art History and Theory”, has long worked in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, one of the two main art museums in Russia. During her many stays in Beijing as a diplomat's wife (her husband is currently Cultural and Press Counsellor at the Russian Embassy), she has developed a deep interest in Chinese toys. She organized an exhibition in 1988 at the Pushkin Museum and has just published several articles on this theme. Toys are one of the most interesting forms of folk art in China...
Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 19:30

The Game of "Go"

Zhu Bao Xuan

China Go Society

Wei Qi (Go), a game for two players played with black and white pieces on a board chequered by 19 vertical and 19 horizontal lines, originated in China about 2300 BC and was taken up in Japan about 735 AD. It is now also popular outside of Asia. Its rules, however, are not codified. Go is considered to be by far the most complicated board game. Mr. Zhu Bao Xuan, Vice Chairman of the reference commission of the China Go Society will speak about the origin, the literary references and the philosophical aspect of this game as well as the kind of fun and excitement Go has...