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Unbroken Thread
On NJN’s State of the Arts
Friday, December 29, 2006 at 8:30 pm; and Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 11:30 pm
STATEWIDE – This week, NJN’s State of the Arts takes a look at Chinese rituals and traditions that have survived not only thousands of years, but a journey to America as well. This encore presentation of Unbroken Thread airs on Friday, December 29, 2006 at 8:30 pm, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday, January 3, 2007 at 11:30 pm. State of the Arts marks twenty-five years on NJN this season. The program has earned 25 Regional Emmy Awards, including a 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy and a 2005 New York Emmy.
• The Bride Wore Red
State of the Arts producer Amber Edwards takes a journey to China in a visit behind the scenes of the 2005 exhibit at The Newark Museum, The Bride Wore Red: Chinese Wedding Traditions. The show traced the development of wedding gowns in China, from the nineteenth century through the present. Featured are the ornate dresses, fine jewelry, historic photographs and wedding gifts of southern China in the 1850s, San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1890s, Shanghai in the 1920s and Beijing in the 1970s.
• Zhiyuan Cong
Like current Chinese society, artist Zhiyuan Cong’s paintings are a mix of thousands of years of traditional Chinese arts, contemporary Chinese politics and Western culture. Cong began painting at age eleven and grew into maturity as a painter during the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. His painting brought him first to Indiana University in the 1980s and then to William Paterson University in Wayne, where he currently teaches. Cong is a master of traditional Chinese ink painting whose work also reveals his American experience and his politically charged upbringing. State of the Arts producer Peter Shea visits Cong in his studio and in class, investigating the compelling and beautiful work of an artist living on the edge of two rapidly merging worlds.
• Wu Family Shrines
The Wu Family Shrines are one of China’s most important artistic and cultural sites. Much of what is known about the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220) is based on this elaborate burial shrine and the precious objects found there over the past 2,000 years. A 2005 exhibit at the Princeton University Art Museum questioned everything about the Wu Family Shrines — even whether they were actually created for the Wu Family! The beauty of the “brilliant artifacts” created for the afterlife, the importance of ancestor worship, and the artistic importance of the shrine architecture and its carvings were brought to life in this remarkable exhibit, featuring digital reconstructions as well as architectural stonework and rare art objects never before seen in America. State of the Arts producer Susan Wallner talks with curator and architectural historian Cary Y. Liu to better understand the importance of his new take on one of China’s most venerable monuments.
• Year of the Rooster
2007 will be the Year of the Boar, one of the 12 signs in the Chinese zodiac. The Nai Ni Chen Dance Company puts on a special performance every New Year at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, followed by a traditional Chinese New Year’s banquet, showing how central food is to the celebration. In 2005, the Year of the Rooster, State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa joined the festivities to explore how Nai Ni Chen, a contemporary choreographer raised in China, both keeps and transforms ancient Chinese traditions in her work.
State of the Arts, the award-winning, half-hour arts magazine, airs every Friday at 8:30 pm, followed by an encore presentation each Wednesday at 11:30 pm.
The current episode of State of the Arts can be viewed online at www.njn.net. Individual stories will be available to view following their broadcast by visiting the program online at State of the Arts.
Funding for State of the Arts is provided by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The series producer is Susan Wallner and the executive producer is Nila Aronow.
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