Invitational Exhibition of Works from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Opened in Shantou

As part of the 11th National Art Exhibition sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Culture, China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Chinese Artists Association, the Invitational Exhibition of Works from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan opened in Lim Por-yen International Convention & Exhibition Center in Shantou yesterday morning. With 210 masterpieces of the artists in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, the invitational exhibition has become pageant for Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Shantou to promote art development and strengthen cultural exchanges. It is also one of the programs of Shantou presented in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China.
Present at the meeting were Liu Zhongjun (Deputy Director of Art Department, Ministry of Culture), Wu Changjiang (Secretary of Party Group and Executive Vice Chairman of Chinese Artists Association), Bai Jie (Secretary of Party Group and full-time Vice Chairman of the Provincial Literary Federation), Xu Qinsong (Vice Chairman of Chinese Artists Association and Guangdong Artists Association), Zhang Xiaoguang (Deputy Director of Department of Culture and Education, Liaison Office of Centre Government in Macao), leaders of Shantou including Cai Zongze, Chen Rong, Guo Daqin and Xie Keng, and famous artists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Since its debut in 1949, the National Art Exhibition has accompanied New China for 60 years. In these 60 years, this once-in-five-year event has exhibited in time the achievements in the artistic development in New China at all stages, and become a cradle that gestates excellent artworks and an important channel of introducing outstanding art talents. It has been playing an important role in popularizing, boosting and thriving China's art development, and has become a comprehensive art exhibition of China with widest influences, highest standards and strongest authoritativeness.
In his speech, Wu Changjiang pointed out that the reform and opening-up brought to China scenes characterized by powerful national strength, better-off people and booming development of cultural undertakings. The ties between the artists in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan on one hand the artists in mainland China on the other is getting increasingly closer. Cherishing deep feelings for the Chinese art of the same ancestry and origin, the artists in these four places create masterworks with national and temporal nature in a more conscientious and self-confident way to turn Chinese fine arts into the liveliest and most creative cultural carrier of the world and make positive contributions to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chen Rong (a member of the Standing Committee and Director of Publicity Department of Shantou), noted that the holding of the exhibition in Shantou will produce a positive effect on publicizing the new image of Shantou, facilitating the efforts to turn Shantou into a regional central city, further expanding the economic and cultural exchanges between the 4 places and increasing the kinship, friendliness and nostalgia of the people in these places. Shantou regards the exhibition as a program for celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China and an important carrier for promoting its cultural and ethical progress, and will mobilize all positive factors to make the exhibition a satisfactory, distinctive and high-level one.
After the opening ceremony, the Organizing Committee held the "Seminar on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Area of the 11th National Art Exhibition" for further discussions about and summarization of the participating works.

Source: Shantou Daily September 9, 2009