“Landscape And Mindscape: Exhibition of Traditional Chinese Culture, Lifestyle and Arts” was inspired by Wu Zimu’s “Mengliang Lu” (Diary of Sorghum Dreams) of the southern Song Dynasty about the advisable degree of pursuit in four leisure elements, i.e., “incense burning, tea sampling, hanging paintings and floral arrangement, dubbed as the gentleman’s four elegant articles should be appreciated with refrain without burdening oneself. By way of moderation, it created the quality vista of China’s Song Dynasty literati and serene lifestyles of its ink artists.

Since ancient times, Chinese literati dedicated their devotion to the landscapes, advocated the philosophy of “Heaven and Man In Unity”, and through appreciation of painting, tea partaking, zither strumming, fragrance of incense, flower arrangement and other daily art experiences to for their immersion and practice in artistic concepts and lifestyles.

In contemporary China, artists still championed the way of life in harmony between man and nature, inherited and developed China’s excellent traditional culture. Rooted in tradition, they integrated many years of artistic perception with the combination of art and daily life via usage of ink, sketch, digital technology, hard stone, porcelain and other different artistic implements to portray the nature of four seasons’ subtle changes of spring plowing/farming, long summer, autumn harvest and winter hiatus. Through their devotion of feelings toward the landscapes, a myriad of wonderful works were created.

The exhibition also entailed on-site experience, lectures and other means such as the use of exquisite “Longquan” green ceramic or celadon stoneware, tea pottery/crockery and incense earthenware for the audience to create a fusion of vision, smell, taste, hearing and touch and other sensory experiences as the art space in unison.

In this art exhibition, the organizers through calligraphy and painting, “Guqin” (ancient zither) performance, tea art, art lectures and the likes to depict the charm of traditional Chinese culture to the Malaysian people. Works by several artists including Qiu Ting, Chen Shuxia, Zhao Jinhe and Liu Zhibai from Central Academy of Fine Arts were also on display at the same occasion.