While India and China are being projected as enemies, a young woman from China has been touring across India with the mission to promote goodwill between the two neighbours through culture. Incidentally, she is a daughter of China and a daughter-in-law of India.
In her mid-20s, Fengwen lin from Fujian town of China facing Taiwan is in Odisha now who was presented by the city-based Jatin Das Centre of Art (JDCA) in its 209thmonthly meet-the-artist series on Saturday where she spoke on China in general and Chinese ink painting in particular. “India is not all about Bollywood, nor is it unsafe to live or travel. But such misconceptions about India were there in me till I landed in Delhi for internship with UNESCO as a student of heritage and tourism from Chinese University. Similarly, for average Indians, China is still unknown who are not aware of its composite society and culture.
It is like India –vast, complex and unique,” observed lin, as she set the pace of her presentation supplemented by nicely prepared audio-visual aids.
With more than 1.4 billion population, China has 23 provinces, four union territories, besides having its influence on Hong Kong and Taiwan; 292 living languages and 55 ethnic groups that contribute towards the complex but unity in diversity character of China today, her presentation revealed. She further made a brief but lucid presentation on the tourism, heritage, culture and cuisine of her country.
The second part of her presentation on the ink-art tradition – unique to Chinese art tradition – was elaborate that invited intense interaction with the artists in the audience. She explained how Chinese art and calligraphy – both integrally intertwined – were recorded on stone, metal and bamboo before invention of paper in China. Chinese traditional painting profoundly reflected birds, flowers, landscape and figures, she elaborated.
Though lin came to India three years ago just for six months, her meeting with her future husband in Delhi changed the course of her life forever. \
“He is a Tamil from Kerala and we loved each other while working together and we got married despite the fear of our respective families over our diverse cultural and national roots. But love conquered all,” she blushed. “I belong to both China and India and this bond makes me feel in love with both the nations.
I feel sad and worried when people talk of war between the two,” she confided.
Meanwhile, lin has completed her master’s degree in heritage conservation from the University of Hong Kong, worked with Indian National Museum that offered her a deeper understanding of Indian heritage, culture, life and philosophy. Her latest love has been learning Bharatanatyam while speaking Hindi is great fun for her, she shared.
“India is my new home. I will live here forever. But, as a Chinese living in India, I will act as an interpreter of culture between both the lands. We need to bring people closer through culture. After all, we all belong to one race. We are humans,” she emphasized