Beyond nature: A Chinese art treasure
Print Edition
MORE than 100 bonsai creations by artist Ma Boqin are currently on show at the Nanxiang Town Culture & Sports Service Center.
Ma used to be a painter but became interested in bonsai after his retirement and has published several books on the subject, including “China Mini Landscape Bonsai Making and Appreciation” and “Compilation of Bonsai Modeling Arts.”
Ma’s works are tiny but vivid. The biggest is about the size of a hand while the smallest is as small as a thumb. Ma has traveled several times to the Yellow Mountain, Lushan Mountain and Taishan Mountain to look for good views and landscapes from which to create his art.
Ma’s micro bonsai doesn’t need watering so is easier to take care of compared to traditional bonsai. Among the exhibited works is “Meeting in the Buddhist Convent,” a scene from Shanghai’s regional Huju Opera where characters meet after a long-time apart. Other opera-themed works such as “Romance of the Western Chamber” and “Pursuit of Lin Chong” also use rocks picked by Ma to make beautiful buildings and pavilions.
In “Walk into jiangnan,” Ma reproduces the quiet rural life of jiangnan water town that he recalls from his childhood and incorporates scenes described in ancient poems. For example, “Village in Autumn” displays a scene from the poem “Mountain Trip” by Du Mu, a poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), while “Again Spring Wind Blows” uses a poem by Wang Anshi from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to show the beauty of spring.
Although now 69 years old, Ma’s ambition is to create 300 bonsai works describing the scenes from 300 Tang Dynasty poems.
(Translated by Momo Pan)
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