Wu Weishan's sculpture of cultural figures

A.
1. What is the title of the exhibition?
Wu Weishan’s sculpture of cultural figures
2. What kind of art is being shown?
Sculptures.
3. Is the artwork made by one artist or by several artists?
By one artist.
4. Is the artwork traditional or contemporary?
The artworks are traditional.
B.
Artist: Wu Weishan
Title: The most kind people are like water.
Date: 2006
1. Describe the artwork.
The title of the artwork is “the most kind people are like water” and it was made by Wu Weishan in 2006.The sculpture is a cultural figure: Laozi. The artist did not use very specific shapes and lines on his face, but very clear textures on his clothes. At first, it was made of mud, then people used model to make it again by bronze, then it is bronze as we can see now.
The title is from a book named Laozi, it was written by Laozi’s students who gathered Laozi’s famous sentences. The subject of the artwork is not to be greedy for honor.
When I observe the sculpture, the head of Laozi is not very specific, Wu Weishan just used a lot of textures on his forehead and cheeks to tell us he is a very old man and full of wisdom. His body is very thin under the big robe. The robe’s shape is just like the wind blows it. Lower the robe is, more water-like the shape is. The textures are very clear and smooth until the bottom of the sculpture.
2. Interpret the artwork.
This artwork makes me feel the virtue in human’s hearts because of the smooth lines of water which represents purity and clear, the most pure level that the heart can be. Also from the sculpture, Wu Weishan grabbed the spirit of Laozi by the mixture of culture and sculpture, it tells us Laozi is a gentle man, he never cares about the honor, never be worried about the wealth, social classes and so on. He is calm to events, he is friendly and sincerely to people, not only friends, he is credit of saying anything.
The pureness from the artwork makes think about people in the modern society, most of them are very eager to the honor and money, they like to obtain them by anyway and they are quite tired of calculating and flattering. However, if they break the law, they will pay the serious consequence by themselves.
The artwork reminds me the story of my friend’s father. My friend’s father was a member of cadres and had strong power. He liked to receive money from other people who wanted him to help them, then he became more and more greedy until someone told the government and he was put into the jail eventually.
This artwork also relates the true intension of Laozi’s spirit and thoughts, it is ‘no action’. It does not tell you to do nothing, it means you do the things what are good for sociality and country even the whole the world without a greedy heart.
I think the artist’s intension is just his admiration to Laozi and his thoughts. The artist Wu Weishan maybe also feels how greedy the people are, so he created this sculpture. On the other hand, I think he also wants to warn himself not to be greedy.
3. Judge the artwork.
I like the artwork because the figure of the artwork Laozi is a famous philosopher in ancient Chinese history, he is the inventor of the spirit ’Dao’ and he represents the traditional culture in China. His thoughts and spirit not only affect the old China, but also modern China.
The water textures make me feel the kindness. The title---the most kind people are like water. The relationship between them is that Laozi thought water likes to flow to anywhere if there is some space, water makes the trees and grass grow but it doesn’t want to get any rewards, water’s property matches Laozi’s spirit very well.
I think other people might appreciate the artwork. Laozi’s spirit shows us his pure heart that makes many people like him. Add in Wu Weishan’s perfect sculpture shows us ‘water’ on it, it gives the best definition to the artwork.

A lunch in French restaurant

On 21st December, all our classmates and students from Grade 12 went to a French restaurant nearby Qing Liang mountain for lunch. At first, Cherry from Grade 12 planned to go to an Indian restaurant because of the special flavor and the common prices, but my classmate---Hugo, the boy from France, he said his mother had a French restaurant and invited us to go to his restaurant. Finally , we all agreed to go to Hugo’s restaurant.
On that Sunday, the weather was bad and it was very cold. We decided to meet at NFLS school gate at 11 o’clock in the morning and went to restaurant by bus together. However, because of many problems, we set off at 11:20. Someone went to restaurant directly and someone were late. As a result, all of us had to wait for them. That gave us a lesson, maybe we had better to book the names to the monitor if you wanted to go by yourself, then others do not have to wait for an extra time.
After that, we went to the bus station and 30 minutes later, we arrived the restaurant. I was surprised that the kind of the buildings were old-Chinese style instead of the French style. Maybe Hugo’s mother preferred the Chinese style and enjoyed it, but maybe another reason was to try to attract Chinese guests. Unfortunately, the sitting plan was terrible and all the people were in a mess because some friends did not want to be separated. That showed the team spirit of us, if someone did not mind being separated, then the problem could be solved easily.
In the room which I stayed in, the air condition did not work at all and I thought I would become a snowman. We waited and waited by taking photos around the restaurant. 30 minutes later, the first dish arrived eventually, it was salad. The vegetables with sauce on the dish that tasted good and it changed my mind, because I remembered when I flew to America and ate lunch on the plane, the sauce in the salad was terrible and it nearly made me nausea. The second dish was pumpkin soup with bread. This dish was OK, but the bread became soft in the soup was a little disgusting. The third one was the main dish---chicken, duck and beef, with some potatoes. I like this dish best, the roast chicken tasted delicious. Because of the knife and fork, when I ate the chicken wing, there was a small problem. I was worried if I need to eat it by my hands. At last I used my hands or I could not eat this delicious chicken any more! The final dish was an apple pie, it tasted sweet.
Through out this experience, we used a lot of time to wait. When we finished eating, it was 2 o’clock! However, maybe French people would like to chat and drink wine instead of waiting, but Chinese do not like to wait for so much time, it was the difference between Chinese and French culture. Anyway, I think I like the French food, although it is quite different from Chinese food such as rice or noodles, and other meat and vegetables, also the whole process is quick. The restaurant is a little remote, so not many people came to eat at the time when we went to. The service was no problem. I recommend other people to eat there but remember they had better go to there not in winter and with a book.