How should literary and art workers better fulfill their original mission? Let's take a look at the answer of Member Liu Wanming

Spring Festival, a festival to bid farewell to the old and welcome the new. In this moment, we sum up the past, we bless the present, and we pray for the future.

Not long ago, when the Spring Festival was approaching, the calligraphers and painters of the National Museum of Calligraphy and Painting, under the premise of doing a good job in epidemic prevention work, came to Jianyan Village in Miyun District, Beijing, and delivered more than 300 pairs (pieces) of Spring League and Fu characters that we had written in advance to the homes of local villagers.

△ Liu Wanming

I remember that the temperature was very low that day, but the taste of the year was strong. When I see the simple and enthusiastic folks holding the Spring Festival and the word of blessing full of our blessings, I feel warm and warm. What impressed me was that in this small village next to the Miyun Reservoir, we also visited the local village history museum, looked back at the history of local villagers' unity and cooperation, and looked forward to the blueprint for the revitalization of the local countryside.

Such cultural activities in the countryside are our unchanging practices every year during the Spring Festival, and also make my Spring Festival more fulfilling and colorful. Prior to this, I and the calligraphers and painters of the National Museum's Calligraphy and Painting Institute also carried out fixed-point assistance to The Bama Yao Autonomous County in Guangxi Province through cultural initiatives to benefit the people.

The people are the source of creation. To adhere to the people's position is to persist in going deep into life. There is a place that I always go to live for a few days around the spring and autumn every year, that is, Tang County, Hebei Province. It is an old revolutionary area and a place where Bethune's fighting life was sacrificed. Every time I come here, I will chat with the local people, paint pictures, and understand and experience the lives of the local people. In the long period of interaction, I have established a deep friendship with them, and they have also become my inseparable "family". I still remember that one spring, I came to a small farm yard, full of leek aromas poured in, this farmer saw me quite moved, so when I left, quietly stuffed me with two bundles of leeks, and a few eggs of their own. There are so many things like this, and I can feel their sincere and simple enthusiasm. Not long ago, when I was chatting with a local friend, I learned that there are some left-behind elderly people in TangXian Military Town who love to eat rice, but it is not convenient to buy it. So I bought tens of thousands of catties of rice from the northeast and sent hundreds of catties to each household. In the photos sent by friends, I saw the happy faces of the old people when they received rice, and I was touched and warm. They have given me warmth and enthusiasm, and I am doing my best to give back to these lovely "family" with warmth and enthusiasm. That's what I should do and should do more for them.

In recent years, whether it is as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference or as a deputy director of the National Museum, I have begun to really think about what the relationship between artistic creation and the state and the nation should be, and how literary and art workers should better fulfill their original mission; it has also made me truly understand that art is closely related to the destiny of the country and the development of the nation, and the emotions of literary and art workers are related to the fate of the country and the development of the nation.

In the Spring Festival with strong cultural charm, there will always be paintings of flowers and birds full of auspicious and festive celebrations. I am a flower and bird painter. In the past, I always felt that there was always a distance between flower and bird painting and theme creation, whether it was content or pen and ink. However, after several years of tempering, I tried to break the limitations of flower and bird brush and ink and theme, boldly invested in theme creation, and explored a way to use flower and bird brush and ink to create themes.

The "West-to-East Power Transmission West-to-East Gas Transmission Project", created for "Not Forgetting the Original Intention, Continuing to Move Forward -- Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", depicts a grand project spanning thousands of miles with a long scroll of more than 7 meters, and is permanently collected by the History Exhibition Hall of the Communist Party of China. There is also the creation of "Yellow River Ferryman" for the Yellow River cultural theme art, which is my theme creation with flower and bird brush and ink.

Jumping out of small personal sorrows and joys and closely linking their emotions with the country and the nation is the realm that literary and art workers in the new era must achieve. In this way, the works will have the feeling of home and country, and literary and art workers can better implement their original mission.

(Liu Wanming is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a doctoral supervisor of the China Academy of Arts, and the deputy director of the National Museum of China)

Source: People's Political Consultative Conference Daily (January 29, 2022, 05th edition)

Dictation: Liu Wanming

Interview: Zhang Li

Layout Editor: Xie Ying, Yang Xue, Zhang Li, Guo Haijin

New Media Editor: Huang Zhe

Review: Jiajia Zhou