Chinese art resurfaces

Ahmad Solikhan's in-depth reporting about Chinese painting (Chinese art resurfaces after thirty-two years of repression, The Jakarta Post, March 5) deserves high credit.

His remarks that "the visitors (to the exhibition in Yogyakarta), mostly older Chinese Indonesians, crowded in rapt attention before the paintings on display, eagerly trying to communicate with them" is a poignant reminder of the unjustifiable and disreputable actions of the New Order in suppressing the Chinese culture.

Consequently, most Indonesians below 50 have been shielded from the Chinese culture. As Chinese calligraphy constitutes the highest form of Chinese fine arts, no Chinese painting is complete without the painter's fine poetic theme writing on reserved spaces on top of the painting. Therefore, viewers not literate in Chinese cannot comprehend fully a real Chinese painting.

The third requisite that cannot go without is the painter's own seal that represents his or her signature and identity. Because the seal is a form of art itself. (The legendary painter Qi Baishi was himself an accomplished seal engraver).

The viewer is more often than not enraptured by a painting, because he has to relish the thematic writing besides the painting itself. The Bangaos in Pwan Cho's painting should be cranes instead of egrets. Because the clean white crane is the epitome of noble, unblemished, uncorrupted character. In the same vein, bamboo in Chinese painting is the symbol of uprightness and resilience, pine tolerance and endurance, and plum blossom perseverance.

Let us have more pointers from Ahmad Solikhan to enrich our life with knowledge of fine arts.

LIEM SIAN TIE

Jakarta