On May 11, the "Handwriting and Relics Exhibition of Southern Writers" held to welcome the opening of the Hong Kong Museum of Literature was held at the Hong Kong Central Library, and the unveiling ceremony of the portrait sculptures of Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng created by the famous Nanjing sculptor Chen Jianhua was held on the spot. During the interview, Chen Jianhua told reporters about his sculpture "martial arts".
The precious manuscript of "Writers from the South" was unveiled
The Hong Kong Museum of Literature, located at 7 Morra Street, Wan Chai, will open on 27 May and is a new landmark of Hong Kong literature and art, integrating Hong Kong literature collections, literary communication, education and training, and literary salons.
"Writers from the South" refers to a group of writers who moved south from Chinese mainland to settle in Hong Kong from the 1930s to the 1970s. This exhibition displays more than 300 handwritings and objects of 24 "writers from the south", including Zhang Ailing, Xiao Hong, Jin Yong, and Liang Yusheng, of which nearly 200 are originals.
These include the unpublished prose "Straw Oven Cake" and the original manuscript of the afterword, the unpublished documents of Zhang Ailing, the letters from Jin Yong to Pan Yaoming, the letters from Liang Yusheng to Jin Yi, and the letters from Xiao Hong to Huagang, among which there are many national cultural relics and writers' manuscripts that have been unveiled for the first time.
Chen Jianhua, a sculptor who has lived in Nanjing for a long time, is from Dongtai and is the first graduate of the sculpture major of the Academy of Fine Arts of Nanjing University of the Arts. His sculpture works have been selected for many projects such as the National Art Fund, Jiangsu Art Fund, and Jiangsu Province Major Historical Theme Art Creation, and many of his works have been collected by Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing Museum, Jiangsu Art Museum, Jiangsu Grand Theatre and other institutions and units.
Sculpture and the Great Shift of the Universe are connected
Chen Jianhua created a statue of Mr. Jin Yong in 2018, with a sharp style and majestic plastic marks. On the night of Mr. Jin Yong's death, Chen Jianhua stayed up all night and came up with the idea of sculpting a bust of Jin Yong. In the work titled "Smiling at the Wind and Clouds - Jin Yong's Statue", his understanding of Jin Yong's "martial arts" is integrated.
Jin Yong created many martial arts moves in the novel, among which the Great Shift of Qiankun is considered to be the most scientifically thinking among them, because his first priority is to stimulate the potential of the human body itself. The second to sixth layers are even more powerful, it can copy martial arts, draw enemies, and complete the use of strength, as well as the transformation of yin and yang. In Chen Jianhua's view, the art of sculpture is connected with Jin Yong's martial arts, carving is subtracting, plastic is adding, and stimulating one's potential in the trade-offs, "Each layer of advancement is the intuitive embodiment of innovative vitality." ”
"From the inner skeleton to the increase and decrease of the mud, the destruction and virtuality contained in the clay sculpture, from the mud tire to the solidification after the cooling of the high-temperature copper water, everything cannot be unpredictable. We must learn to leave blank spaces, and we must also know how to stop in moderation. He told reporters that like studying martial arts, you must go through nirvana to achieve positive results. The creative process of the work contains a philosophical way of trade-off.
A tribute to the next 100 years of Hong Kong literature
According to pianist Liu Shikun, Chen Jianhua originally wanted to donate the statue of Jin Yong, but at the invitation of the Hong Kong Museum of Literature, he created a statue of Liang Yusheng, the grandmaster of Hong Kong's new martial arts novels.
"When I created it, my mind was full of their heroes, and they all had a common topic, that is, justice, loyalty, and family and country feelings." Chen Jianhua said, "When designing the sculpture of Mr. Jin Yong, I incorporated elements of the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Slayer into the shape of his scarf, making it look more heroic and uninhibited. The image of Mr. Liang Yusheng is characterized by elegance and shows his hermit demeanor. What remains unchanged is that both eyebrows reveal the feelings of family and country and the insight into the various situations of life. ”
On the day of the unveiling, 85-year-old pianist Liu Shikun also came to the scene, and he gently stroked the bronze statue with his slightly trembling fingers. The sculpture is a solidified music, but also an engraved poem, and the time and space have turned into mottled bronze, telling the vicissitudes of a hundred years. With these two sculptures, Chan hopes to pay tribute to the centenary of the birth of the two writers, and even more to the next centenary of Hong Kong literature. He also revealed that he plans to continue to create group portraits of "writers from the south", aiming to show the inheritance of Hong Kong literary history.
Text/Yangtze Evening News Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Nan
Editor/Cui Wei