Friendly exchange

Started on Friday and scheduled to end on July 17, an exhibition titled Drawing Time - China's Fragmented Thoughts, Dreams and Reality by South Korean artist Lee Jin-hyu is being held at the Korean Cultural Center in Beijing's Chaoyang district. The exhibition has adopted an interesting perspective on China, which can be seen from the paintings of former Chinese leaders like Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping sitting next to other socialist pioneers such as Lenin and Che Guevara.

An artist sensitive to the fragmentary nature of time, Lee mentioned that he became interested in these historical figures by reading history books as a youth.

Although born into a different society, Lee is one of the few artists in South Korea who pay special attention to Socialist leaders. With his works, Lee tries to present these famous people from a humanistic perspective. His own understanding being that while these leaders used different means to pave a way for their countries, their ultimate dream was to search for a better life for their people, the very same dream people have in South Korea.

After becoming aware of the developing art culture in China, Lee said that he has paid close attention to Chinese artistic circles and has opened communication with Chinese artists. He explained that the sharing of different ideas between artists from the two countries is what makes cross-national exhibitions such as his so meaningful.

Holding art exhibitions is not the only activity the Korean Cultural Center does to promote cultural exchange. To celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, in late June the center invited the South Korean musical Dr Butterfly to Beijing. Additionally, this Saturday a musical collaboration between Chinese and South Korean musicians will also be held at the center.

Compared to government promoted cultural exchanges such as those mentioned above, cross-cultural cooperation driven by market forces has also been developing quite nicely.

For example, with the popularity of South Korean TV show You Who Came from the Stars, the two lead actors, Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hynn, have become house-hold names in China and now appear in ads that can be seen everywhere, from subway stations and buses to TV and the Internet.

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