Mural-arts in Philadelphia
I have found many interesting mural-arts when I first came to Philadelphia. Honestly speaking, I have never seen mural-arts in China. So this is a big cultural difference. But as for me, I love these pieces of arts because they are coming with artist atmosphere. It is very interesting when you see some paintings on the dumped walls. These arts make this city older and more old-line.
I have seen many mural-arts when I shopping in City Hall and China Town. Most of these arts are painted on the large wall, and they are delivering some inner information to people. Because they are painted on the big wall, so all of them looks very magnificent. They jump out of paper limitation, through a different way to deliver artist feelings. I feel it is a big enjoyment of seeing these. Their existence bring this city more artist atmosphere and cultural diversity.
I love this city when I first time arrived. It is not modern like New York or Shanghai in China, nut is leaves me a unique and absolutely different feeling. Many buildings are really old, they have recorded the flying of time and change of human society. And mural-arts give me a feeling that I can get close to the city, feel it’s breath and even touch it. How amazing they are.
Some mural-arts even have 3D effects. When you see them remotely, you will not see a painting but an object. I find it;s very interesting because you cannot believe your eyes will cheat you. These arts accumulated human wisdom and creativity. They are valuable and still needs us to explore.
To sum up, I really appreciate that I can have the opportunity to study in Philadelphia, a city filled with artist atmosphere. And this course hopes me learn a lot from art and creativity. I will seize the chance to improve my level of appreciate beauty.
First Friday Art
Today is first Friday, I went to the Old Town with my classmates. There are many art displays in the Old Town. and the place is just like its name, old town, filled with old and obsolete atmosphere. I am an art-lover and I always like to enjoy the feelings about various art.
Art are displayed shop by shop. When I enter in, I can see many paintings hung on the wall. These arts are amazing, which include the spirit and feeling of painters. Seeing them, I feel more like to see the person face to face, imagining I’m talking with her, try to understand her motion.
I like this old small town. It is not new, but it fills with romantic flavor, I nearly indulge myself in this beautiful scene. Antiques are also exhibited. I also see something from Chinese culture. I don’t know how cultural background gifts these artists inspiration of drawing, but from there painting, I really feel their strong motion and hope to listen to their story.
I also met a Temple student, she is very talented who through her talent to paint something to sell. I had a conversation with her. Her inspiration all comes from life, every detail in life. I feel it is not easy for a student to make own money by herself. So as to support her, I bought a small piece of her art. It is so cute and I love it so much.
I like this chance to enjoy the art atmosphere from Philadelphia. From this experience, I really get close to the art again. This is a new experience for me, and my interest towards arts is enhancing. Explore the secret of art, I still need to follow and improve my understanding towards arts.
Enjoyment of jazz
Today, I went to see jazz on 2017 Sansom Street. Honestly speaking, I find some difficulty on finding the right place, because it is a very small place, the door is in the shadow. Finally, with the help of people nearby, I found the right place and entered. It is a small house and it can be described as shabby, the stair is very narrow, and on the second floor, there are some instruments displayed on the floor with dark light.
I have waited for about 20 minutes then the show began. This is my first time to see jazz and be so close with the player. i felt excited about enjoying this show. It was really melodious and enthusiasm. Four players played together, they have created the unique rhythm, I can’t control my motion to feel and admire. Violin is very interesting, it is so big which stands on the ground, even there are four instruments, but they are harmonious and excellent.
The four players played very hard and if I close my eyes, I can surely indulge myself in the unprecedented experience, I love quiet music, melodious music, but this jazz is also very nice. Different music has different feelings, and if it coheres the motion of player, it will be very gorgeous.
After the show ends, there is a discussion part. Fours players gave introduction about themselves, and the audience can come up with the questions they have. The memorable one is one person said: ” You play jazz, and jazz plays you. ” Such an interesting evaluation.
There is also some available food for our audience. The atmosphere is very warm, I feel it is more like home, I can say my opinion, I can eat food, talk with the jazz player. Very nice and wonderful show I believe.
St Joan Betrayed
On Tuesday’s class we enjoyed the performance of St Joan Betrayed in Walk Auditorium. This is a very specific performance, I have to say that I have never seen something like this before. The whole performance is just two people, but they successfully created the innovative story and played the very interesting performance. How excellent it is.
i love this performance even it only has two people. First of all. the man played a story for the suitcase which stands on the desk. There are many pieces of animations by paperwork. Applying the two hands, the man performed vividly, just like something really happened. Then the women knocked the door for three times, then she came in. She was so crazy about performing, so you can find she shouting, and what I find interesting is that she acted as many characters at the same time. The mask also caught my eyes, because she can adjust the mask so fast and change to another tone at once. It was one person, but looks like two person in conversation.
And the women also spoke French, I can’t speak French, so I can just guess what she said and performed. She is a very talented women who performed excellent in the whole process, no mistake was made. The most memorable part for me is not the perfect perform, but the culture it brought me, which opens the new sight for my life.
To sum up, I feel the whole perform is excellent as I have never seen something like this before. I hope we can have more opportunities to see something like that.
Memorable film of The Imitation Game
Today I went to see the film The Imitation Game that was recommended as a very amazing one by my friend. The film derived from the biography of Alan Turing, narrating the computer father Alan Turing’s legendary life which emphasizes on the experience of helping crack password of Germany at the World War 2. The talented mathematician Turing have experienced failure and was succeed in the end, this success have saved many people until the British government found his secrets.
The film has a very meaningful and deep history, it is not crazy to say that this film is the reappear of history. The whole film is in the very tight spot-line, there is no repeat and useless scene in the film. Homosexuality is propagated because the main actor Turing is a gay and he is so generous and never take care of it. Turing is so crazy about the code, game and puzzle, so the whole film is just like the riddle, waiting you to explore and find out. 
There is a cognition of Turing through the watching of the whole film. Massive connections of technology and humanity are shown as we can close to Turing and feel his real feelings. As a legendary man, he perfectly represents his talents in math and code-cracking. This is a film filled with victory and tragedy as well. The film is exciting and strong, at the process of watching, I can’t control myself to be shocked by the strong power it owns. The man changes the world, and the world also destroys the man. I am really pride of the method that applied in the film and I am attracted by the dramatic spot in the film.
Turing is a talent and this determines Turing to be a unreadable individual by the world. Talent is always alone, they can’t understand the world and the world also can’t understand them. Even when Turing came up with the method to solve the problem, others don’t trust him and think this is so ridiculous to believe this. He is also the common one that needs other’s understand and and acceptation. At that time, Homosexuality is not accepted by the society, and this secret was exposed by others, contributing to the tragedy life about Turing .
To sum up, I love this film as it helps me to close to Turing, the most famous computer father, and I can deeply touch the feeling that he had at that period. I think this is a really good and meaningful film and I recommend it to all of you.
Enjoyment in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Jianan Qian
Dr. David O’Connor
Theater 0807, Sect: 003
22 February 2015
Enjoyment in the Philadelphia Museum of Art
This Sunday I enjoyed a wonderful time in Philadelphia Museum of Art, the museum is located at the west end of Philadelphia‘s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and it’s a “world-class” museum which not only owns the magnificent building but also various paintings, artifacts, drawings, and decorative arts. Philadelphia Museum of Art is a 2-floor treasure trove of art, each floor has unique themes and exhibits, most of which based on Euro-American arts. As a art-lover, I deeply experienced the rich art-related atmosphere, nearly indulging myself in this gorgeous and amazing art museum.
Before I went to the museum, I was deeply attracted by the magnificent building. Under the blue sky, the museum itself looks like a piece of art. Compare to the museum in China, there is a big difference as the outlook of museum in China is normal and only through the implication you could know this is a museum. I felt excited and cannot wait to come in.
A variety of famous exhibits are collected in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For instance, Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) made by Salvador Dalí in 1936 and Vase with twelve Sunflowers made by Vincent van Gogh in January 1889 are two of the most famed pieces that largely attract the tourists all over the world. When I saw them, I was so excited because I can only see those amazing paintings through magazines or text books. I have never imagined that one day I could have the opportunity to appreciate these arts face to face. These amazing arts have experienced a long time, like an old man, pensively witnessing the growing and developing of human society.
The highlight of this museum is the collection of European, which made up the largest part of the whole arts. Dated from the medieval era to the present, the masterworks encompassed the time of the Indian and early Renaissance, all of which cohere the energy and blood of the old artists, representing the old but vivid scene of history. Asian collections are also impactful, these paintings are most from Japan, China and India, which includes rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as the Chinese palace hall, the Japanese tea house, and the sixteenth-century Indian temple hall.
In addition, there were many amazing porcelains there, some ceramics and dinner-ware made by aluminum and silver were showed one by one with amazing shapes and wonderful colors. I think the reason why these ceramics are famous not just because they are old and there shapes are unique and eye-catching, but also for their histories, which have witnessed their origin, process and the meaningful stories. They represents the human history and the creativity of the old times. Human-beings are talented because of applying the previous technology to create and think. And all of the artifacts are preserved well, just like telling a story about the human history at that period.
Honestly, my favorite art is the sun flower of van Gogh. I always dream of seeing Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower because I love it so much. I hung a picture about sunflower on my wall. Van gogh was influenced by his father who is a missionary, and sunflower always towards sun which represents devout faith. Van gogh is a talent who broke the law of contrasting colors and created sunflower that largely shock the world. I got the information that he finished this picture just for a short time with rarely rational repeated tracing, and after he died, his spirit was also regarded as the spirit of sunflower. He is my favorite artist, I am so crazy about his paintings. I feel why he is famous is that he pays his spirit into the painting, regarding the drawing just as himself. No simulate, no careful carve, he created arts by his talent, spirit and he won the success.
Another impressive art is the painting of Japanese Bridge and Water Lilies made by Claude Monet who was the founder of French Impressionist painting, flavor of presenting the viewpoint towards nature. He emphasized on drawing lotus and have created abundant brilliant paintings. Thanks to the life in countryside, he adopted a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. That is the beginning of his creating the impressionist painting. I like peace and tranquility, from his painting, I can deeply feel the beauty of nature, the one can never be replaced by prosperous and modern landscapes. I feel the application of color about impressionist painting is excellent, they brings you the visual shock and you cannot aware that you are indulging in the unprecedented experience. How deeply feeling they left you.
As a Chinese, surely I explored the pieces of Chinese arts. There are masses masterworks such as Tri-coloured glazed pottery of the Tang Dynasty, sculptures of Qi Dynasty, porcelain pillow of Yuan Dynasty and delicate chairs made by rose wood of Ming Dynasty. All of them are loading the energy and genius of our forefathers, they are narrating a story about the history at that time. And I suppose the most attractive piece of Chinese art is the embossment of nine dragon, so splendid that nearly everyone need to look up at it. These arts are from our Chinese, I deeply appreciate the delicate handwork as well as art and image related artifact, which not only owns awesome outlook, but also records the long history of the development of Chinese.
The meaningful part of this experience is the shock of “diversity”, I felt like swimming in a salad bowl during the visiting, and I was surrounded by cultures all over the world. I have learned that each culture has its unique characteristics, it requires us for multicultural understanding and cross-cultural respect. Put this part into my own academic progress, I believe that, among these things, culture diversity stresses our learning strategies of affirming the right to be different and the need for members of different cultures to respect each other. Additionally, it is diversity that varies the world culture, each nation is unique and has it’s own distinct culture, they cannot be replaced and denied.
Although Philadelphia Museum of Art owns amazing arts, I still wish to see more Chinese culture and arts, as we all know, China has more than 5000 years of history and splendid culture, there are many fantastic artifacts made by both our generation and our ancestors. I sincerely hope that Philadelphia Museum of Art can cooperate with museums or art exhibitions in China , not only spread Western arts but also give American audience the opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture, which will act a positive role in the process of globalization and cultural exchanges.
To sum up, I really enjoy the moments in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is the third biggest art museum in America. Glorious artifacts enrich my taste and feeling about art, and I try to explore more about the beauty coming from nature. This trip brings me a fresh and wonderful experience, for I could have an opportunity to appreciate the arts from famous artists or far history.
Enjoyment of the music show
This week the professor give us a chance to choose one piece of music show. I choose the New Year Celebration about Chinese traditional show as I’m a Chinese who very miss the rooted traditional culture. The theater is located in the University of Pennsylvania and it is really an amazing show, I have felt the strong atmosphere about Chinese new year, like I really come back China.
The lighting effect make the whole theater amazing and gorgeous. Every show relates music, from quiet Chinese traditional music to finger-popping music. A variety types of music show are showing, how awesome to be an audience. The girl showing in the picture plays “guzheng”, a instrument in China, the music sounds quiet, tranquil and ear-catching. I nearly find myself indulge in the splendid music and even can’t think about others. I think there is a big difference between Chinese music and American music, not only in the style, but also for the meaning it represents. I suppose the reason is the difference of two culture. Chinese culture is traditional and the music that presents to us always have this element, but American culture comes with freedom, respect and individual rights, so the music can be finger-popping and enthusiastic.
All of the shows are about Chinese. So you can easily find Chinese costumes, look at the picture, this show is about dance while playing the traditional Chinese music. The girls wearing the colorful cloth and act the most soft and tender perform. The show is called “Han Dance”, and I really enjoy this because I can never imagine I can see the Chinese show when I become a student in America. The music show awakes my missing motion of my family because at this time, Chinese just welcomes the new year and every family can reunite together to eat a New Year’s Eve dinner.
This is my favorite show. The girl sings so excellent and largely catch my eyes. I can’t move my eyes from her. She is a performer of performing Soprano: Mayila, Dance of Spring. I have never experienced such amazing voice, Like a spirit, she gives an unprecedented feeling, from the melodious music, I’m stopping thinking and climb to the top of the mountain. How amazing it is.
To sum up , I really enjoy this music show, especially all of them are Chinese which contains Chinese spirit and culture. Thanks to the professor, I catch up this chance to enjoy myself.
Blackgrace
Today, I am so fortunate to watch the amazing dance show Blackgrace. It is a very big theater, and I have never seen a show like this. It’s gorgeous that far outweigh my imagine.I went there with my classmate, I think I’m so busy with my study these days, and this is a very valuable chance for me to enjoy myself.
The show is about the traditional war dance of New Zealand’s indigenous Maori people, the whole show is about the culture and custom about the indigenous people. The first screen is a group of nearly naked, tattooed men stand with their legs planted wide apart, knees bent, eyes open wide, tongues out. In unison, they stamp their feet and slap their bare torsos and thighs, adding rhythmic shouts and other vocalizations to the mix.They are dancing with clapping, which creates the unique atmosphere of the scene. They act very hard, and I cannot move my eyes from the show.
There is no complete story of this show. Dancing is the only topic. I am so surprised that without a story, this show can still be so amazing and largely wins the attention of the audience. In the whole show, we can see a lot of small pieces of movement, like the class we attended on Thursday, small pieces of movement can create an amazing dance. I feel why the creativity is so meaningful because it let us to think, to try our best to create, whatever you think about, all of them can combines an imperceptible art.
Every dance piece seems to be short, but all of them narrate meaningful culture about indigenous in New Zealand. One memorable part is two people bat the mosquito and they dance. I feel how creative they are because they can think about more that I can never think of. Small creativity can union and become a big one. That is he art we have seen.
I can never imagine two hour’s show is no story and no talking between person and person. One thing is dance, just dance. But it is magic because audience will imagine what they will perform next and what will happen next. Such an amazing I have never seen.
Experience of Philadelphia Museum of Art
This Sunday I enjoyed a wonderful time in Philadelphia Museum of Art, the museum located on the beautiful bank of Schuylkill River, and it’s a “world-class” museum which not only has the magnificent building but also has various paintings, prints, drawings, and decorative arts. Philadelphia museum of art is a 2-floor treasure trove of art, each floor has unique themes and exhibits, most of them based on Euro-American arts.
I went to see some famous exhibits, such as Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) made by Salvador Dalí in 1936 and Vase with twelve Sunflowers made by Vincent van Gogh in January 1889. I was so excited when I saw them, because I can only see those amazing paintings through magazines or text books in school. I was attracted by physical exhibits about German-life exhibit in Pennsylvania, it shows me what life looks like hundred years age, from these antique furniture, I felt rich immigrant culture in the United States.
My favorite art is the sun flower of van Gogh. I always dream of seeing Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower because I love it so much! I have a picture that is sunflower hung on my wall. Van gogh was influences by his father who was a missionary, and sunflower always towards sun which represents devout faith. Van gogh is a talent who broke the law of contrasting colors and created sunflower that largely shock the world. I got the information that this he finished this picture just for a short time with rarely rational repeated tracing, and after he died, his spirit was also regarded as the spirit of sunflower. He is my favorite artist, I am so crazy about his paintings. I feel why he is famous is that he pay his spirit into the painting, seeing the drawing just like seeing himself. No simulate others, no careful carve, he create arts by his talent, spirit and he won the success.
Besides, the impressed part of this trip is the shock of “diversity”, I felt like swimming in a salad bowl during the visiting, and I was surrounded by cultures all over the world. I have learned that each culture has its unique characteristics, it requires us for multicultural understanding and cross-cultural respect, put this part into my own academic progress, I believed that, among other things, culture diversity stresses our learning strategies affirming the right to be different and the need for members of different cultures to respect one another.
Nevertheless, although Philadelphia museum of art is a wonderful place, I still hope to see more about Chinese culture and arts, as we all know, China has over 5000 years of history and splendid culture, there are so many fantastic artifacts and works of art made by both our generation and our ancestors. I sincerely hope that Philadelphia Museum of Art can cooperate with museums or art exhibitions in China , not only spread Western art but also give American audience the opportunity to learn more about Chinese art and culture, which can play a positive role in the process of globalization and cultural exchanges.
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