University of Alberta Folio: Drawing on the past and present: Artist plans to chronicle contemporary persecution

Sleeping Beauty may be autobiographical: an artist, saddened by society's greed, escapes by falling asleep. When she began to practice Falun Gong, her worries and pain vanished.

(Clearwisdom.net) It's an interesting bit of history: for as long as she can remember, Zhang Cuiying has considered herself an artist. Born 40 years ago in Shanghai, Zhang began taking art lessons at the age of four. She has trained under four different masters, earning a reputation as a gifted painter in her own right.

Her paintings, water colour on rice paper, depict fact and convey emotion. Her series "Wenji Returns to China," for example, reports on ancient Chinese history. Wenji, a beautiful young woman forced into exile, returns to China, repatriating a wealth of Chinese cultural knowledge. Another series, entitled "Entertainment at Han Xi's," tells the story of a scholar from the South Tang Dynasty. Victimized by the Imperial Court, then pressured to serve it, Han Xizai concocts a Hamlet-like ruse. In order to avoid being part of a government he couldn't tolerate, Han intentionally set out to live an extravagant lifestyle.

But now Zhang, who became an Australian citizen after China's notorious Tiananmen Square massacre, and who was imprisoned and beaten as part of that country's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, intends to put brush to paper to detail contemporary events.

She'll be on campus during an exhibit of her works, Dec. 1, 3. The exhibit will coincide with information sessions on Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese spiritual practice that includes exercise and meditation. [...]

Zhang herself was arrested and beaten in January, 2000. It took the efforts of the Australian consulate to have her freed and returned to Australia.

Speaking through an interpreter in an interview with Folio, Zhang said painting the events of ancient Chinese history helps keep memories of the past alive, and that she is in the process of drawing out stories of the cultivation and persecution of Falun Gong in China.

"I think her story is just typical of a practitioner. She wants the truth about what happened to her to be known, and she makes use of art as a way to speak," said one University of Alberta student and Falun Gong practitioner. The student, here on an exchange from China, says the U of A Falun Gong group meets regularly to conduct exercises and meditations.

http://www.ualberta.ca/FOLIO/0203/1129/back.html