Lan g L ang’ s Lectu re in N ation Cen ter for the Perf orma nce Arts

In the afternoon of January 4th, the master Lang Lang began his lecture in
the hall of the National Center for the Performance Arts. This is the first
lecture, given by a master, held in this hall since it is put in use. Many
parents came early with their children. Before the lecture began, the
auditorium was already full with children and their parents, who had dreams in
their minds, and also lovers of classical music and fans of Lang Lang.
Lang Lang entered the hall. He wore a fashional suit with grey-black
stripes with leisu re wear outside, and also sports shoes. As busy he was
wit h p erfor manc es?, Lang Lang was high in spirits and quite energetic. Lang
Lang, the pianist considered as a musical genius from China by colleagues in
the world, has cooperated with many world-famous symphony orchestras. The
audience burst into applause on his appearance on the stage.
“ You play quite well except the lack of the impression of dancing from
Poland _____by Chopin”; “follow the beat, follow the beat, every sound should
be clear and accurate”; “ you’d better be forceful in playing Beethoven, if
you could not master the skill, it would be like the crab playing”… Lang Lang
was a serious and strict teacher when communicating with those learners. “When
playing, you should not stop but continue.” On saying this, he breathed deeply
with the body and also the arms streached forward as if he was embracing
something. He also knew how to guide, encourage the learner, and how to teach
according to the learner’s aptitude. He told the 7-year girl Zhang Siying,
“You’ve got good sense of music. Quite good. You’d better maintain that.”As
a teacher, Lang Lang was expressive with humour and childlike tone, which not
only stimulated the children but also made the audience experience the beauty
of classical music.
Li Huan, 10-year-old girl from Guangzhou, asked, “What qualities should a
pianist be equipped with?” Ins tead of answering the question, Lang Lang gave
her three questions in reply: “First, how much time do you spend in
practicing? Two to three hours or four to five, or six to seven? Second, do you
remember the score quickly? Last, do you like playing the piano?” His answer
was clever and encouraging. In another way he had given the answer for the
qualities essential to a pianist: diligence, wisdom in understanding and
wholeheartful devotion. This also reminded the audience of what he said
before---the most important thing to success is to love the thing you are doing
and to do it whole-heartedly.
The last child to be tutored by Lang Lang is Lai Jiajun from Hangzhou. He,
10 years old, was a blind who learned playing the piano by relying on tape
recorder and teacher’s guidance. What he performed was the ____, which Lang
Lang had played before. Lang Lang was amazed at it. When he showed Lai how to
deal with some details in that song, Lai put his small hands on Lang Lang’s,
with the flow of music, his fig ures moved on the keyboard with Lang Lang; all
the audience was greatly moved on seeing the movement of Lang’s and Lai’s
hands. At that movement, it seemed that music had transpassed everything and
went deep into people’s hearts.
The lec ture , w hich was plan ned to go f or o ne h our, last ed
mor e t han two.
And the young pianist was still quite excited afterwards. He said, “The
atmosphere was quite good. I am very happy to see the devotion and love those
lovely children have to music.” “The education of music is very important,
since it is part of preliminary(?) education. It is far from enough to
popularize elegant music by holding several concerts. Why those artists would
like to devote all their lives to arts? What are their feelings? All these can
be reflected and expressed from those people’s works in their lectures. It is
our job to help people to understand and love music.”
On that day , Lang Lang’ s income from the two concer ts and the
lec ture was dev oted to the Arts Edu cati on Funds of the Nati onal
Cen ter for the Perf orma nce Arts . This money wil l be des tine d to
pop ular ize arts edu cati on, help the publi c to imp rove the
und erst andi ng of a rts and get more peop le come clos e t o art s.

Zhang Xiaotao Contemporary Paintings in Peking University

On October 30th, the Exhibition of Zhang Xiaotao Contemporary Paintings, which was on the
subject of “ …”, openned in Peking University. It is organized by Yuan Gong, and co-hosted by
Arthur M. Sacker Museum of Art and Archaeology and… Center.
Zhang Xiaotao, the young artist?, was born in the 1970s. In his paintings, the complicated
life experience and the pursuit of value of life are conveyed through his employment of the
simple, brief and symbolic language of painting. His works are featured in its distinctive style and
informativeness?, and has rich implications both in terms of arts and philosophy. In recent years,
Zhang has held exhibitions of his works in places both at home (Beijing, Shanghai…) and
abroad (France, U.S.A., Germany, Japan, Norway). His paintings have been collected by
artistic agencies and collectors.
For this exhibition, Zhang has spent more than a year in preparation. It is a trial among
different disciplines, where he has placed contemporary and ancient arts into one space and
constructed a platform for conversation between the past and the present; and for
observation of the human society evolution. His strong attention and deep meditation on
individuals’ fortunes in the course of rapid social development can be detected from the paintings.
He is in a microcosmic（ 微 观的 ? way detecting the paradoxes and dilemmas which our bodies
and spirits have encountered in globalization. Therefore, his works are a visual elaboration of
the puzzlement this contemporary artist has met.
The exhibition will last until January 30th.

Notes:
- I usually don´t like the use of America for the United States of America. I
think (although people from the US might not agree) that the USA is only one
country within the whole continent, America. So I usually use USA.

- Maybe you use too many times the Saxon Genitive, all the nouns with "´s".

- For the first article, I think it would be better if you start with the second
paragraph: "Lang Lang entered the hall....”. I think it would work quite well as
a good beginning, getting the attention of the reader from the first line.

-I don´t know who you are writing for, but for a normal publication, I would
change the headlines. They are too boring.