 |
 |
|||
|
《神州交流》Chinese Cross Currents
“Comparison is no reason”, at least so goes the saying: it has no pretension. This is probably true in heated arguments when involved parties are short of convincing demonstration to prove the valid rationale of their positions. Yet, in intercultural studies, comparative historical research has proven the legitimacy of such an approach just by the fecundity of the results that help in better grasping the original tenets of the object of inquiry. Take for instance pictorial arts. Crowds and crowds of tourists visit each year many museums around the world. It is thanks to such an exposure to different pictorial traditions, Eastern or Western by origin and backgrounds, that people may discover their differences in searching to express what is beyond beauty. What the great writer, adventurer, art critic and statesman André Malraux (1901-1976) called “the imaginary museum” is just like that: through exposure to various styles of art (“style is the life of forms”, writes Malraux1), every one is called to go beyond what has been exhibited. Were it not for admiring the brush strokes of Western artists in their figurative art traditions, the intensity and interiority of what is not depicted but remains blank in Chinese ink sketches would not be grasped or rightly appreciated. The crossing of cultural traditions is certainly fecund and needs no reason to be justified. It must nevertheless involve more than tourism and museums. Mass media have their role to play, but as Rabelais(1494-1553) writes in Pantagruel(1532): Science sans conscience n'est que ruine de l'âme (“Knowing without thinking, this is just the soul's ruin”). Informing, yet not reflecting on what happens in the world and in China would not achieve much. Particularly because what happens is not only matter of information, does not always make news on the front page of a publication, yet remains important in so far as human values or human dignity are concerned. These values, this dignity are more often than not better expressed through art and letters, as some contributions to this issue would explain. In the many events that have happened in this year 2007, some may draw more general attention than the others. The configuration of the world is changing. New powers are rising; lingering conflicts do not die; leaders change, but just for a while; nations awake to new dignity; age old controversies disturb many; the thirst for peace remains unquenched; the poor of the world remain neglected; the Earth itself begins to suffer, etc. Interpretations proposed to make sense of all this in a better perspective may vary: their differences do not matter; they should be a source for thought. This is not a competition for cleverness, just a continuous effort towards a better reading. |
||
Updated Date:2010-06-02 |
