Veteran Chinese artists accept career awards

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 25, 2003

Veteran Chinese artists accept career awards

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"As an artist, I have been lucky to have lived in this era, in which China underwent so many socialand cultural twists and turns," Pan He, a 78-year-old sculptor, said Wednesday, when he accepted an award for his lifetime's work from China's Ministry of Culture.

The annual awards were conferred on 10 prominent artists who are considered to have contributed greatly to China's art heritage.Pan and the other nine specialists in performance and fine arts, who accepted the awards average over 75 years of age.

The awards committee said, "With works reflecting China's memories of the past century, they have influenced a whole era."

Most of the winners were born in the 1920s, a decade when a republic succeeded China's last dynasty. They pursued their artistic careers in the war-racked 1930s and 1940s, and witnessed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Having suffered in China's "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), they won back their reputations along with the opportunity to pursue their careers after China's introduction of the opening-up and reform policies in the late 1970s.

"My biggest ambition is to record in my works the history I have experienced, so that our children can understand what happened." said Pan, whose 105 sculptures are scattered in 63 cities.

Despite the ups and downs of China's cultural world in the pastfew decades, these 10 artists typify a generation of China's art pioneers who explored the possibilities of modernizing China's traditional arts, sometimes by converging with Western practices.

Yuan Xuefen spent over 60 years perfecting one of China's oldest traditional dramas. Wu Guanzhong, who graduated from a fineart school in Paris, has dedicated his life to bringing China's ink painting and Western painting together.

"China's cultural heritage brings inspiration to East Asian countries," said Toshusai Fukami, the Japanese donor of this award,who is committed to Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, "Therefore, these artists are not only treasures of China, they are also treasures of East Asia."

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