My weekly adult education center Chinese language classes have turned more chatty this term. The number of students seems to fall from the beginner course to the second level course and now on the third level course we have even less active students. Yesterday was one of the days that we had only two of us in addition to our nice teacher Lì Bái (白莉). I don't mind that: with small number of students we get definitely much bang for the buck: classes containing mostly very spontaneous (and hence realistic) Chinese discussion on various random topics between the three of us. Often the topics are inspired by whatever connection and interest we have to China and Chinese language, so the my travelling to China and my relationship with Jinlin has been often coming up in the past.
Today we were discussing home decoration, paintings and art. The photography profession of my sister come up as a topic, as did the great talent of Jinlin in realistic style painting and drawing. I have been in the past writing briefly about art of Jinlin. One of the really powerful works she drew in her junior middle school depicts another girl studying:
This work of Jinlin has participated in an arts competition, winning the first prize and was subsequently printed in a cover of an art magazine (the photo above is from the magazine).
So today in the Chinese class I ended up showing pictures of various works of Jinlin to my fellow student and teacher. When I showed this picture, Lì Bái told to our mutual amazement that she recognises the picture: she has read in the past an article about the competition and Jinlins winning picture! What a connection! Lì Bái has now been living and working 15 years in Finland. The fact that she has seen article about this work of Jinlin and myself studying in her class is such a remarkable connection in the world of 1.5 billion Chinese people! And it does seem to imply that the competition Jinlin won was a bigger thing than I had earlier realised.
We were discussing this drawing with Jinlin in some emails quite early in our relationship, in November 2011. She had been seen sending me pictures of several of her drawings and paintings and in my reply I praised especially this one and asked more about it: who is in the picture? When was it drawn? Jinlin replied to me in computer-translated English (unfortunately I don't have the original Chinese from our early conversations):
Today we were discussing home decoration, paintings and art. The photography profession of my sister come up as a topic, as did the great talent of Jinlin in realistic style painting and drawing. I have been in the past writing briefly about art of Jinlin. One of the really powerful works she drew in her junior middle school depicts another girl studying:
This work of Jinlin has participated in an arts competition, winning the first prize and was subsequently printed in a cover of an art magazine (the photo above is from the magazine).
So today in the Chinese class I ended up showing pictures of various works of Jinlin to my fellow student and teacher. When I showed this picture, Lì Bái told to our mutual amazement that she recognises the picture: she has read in the past an article about the competition and Jinlins winning picture! What a connection! Lì Bái has now been living and working 15 years in Finland. The fact that she has seen article about this work of Jinlin and myself studying in her class is such a remarkable connection in the world of 1.5 billion Chinese people! And it does seem to imply that the competition Jinlin won was a bigger thing than I had earlier realised.
Story of the picture
We were discussing this drawing with Jinlin in some emails quite early in our relationship, in November 2011. She had been seen sending me pictures of several of her drawings and paintings and in my reply I praised especially this one and asked more about it: who is in the picture? When was it drawn? Jinlin replied to me in computer-translated English (unfortunately I don't have the original Chinese from our early conversations):
From: Jinlin <19690xxxxx@qq.com> To: Robert <2562970858@qq.com>
Date: Wednesday, 2011-11-23 10:28 AM
My darling!
This drawing is my competition work, the picture is a Chinese girl with big eyes. She was eager to learn and I was moved by her. I completed this picture in my comprehensive school time, long time ago. I won the first prize. The girl has now opened and become a useful person. She is now a white-collar, successful. I am honoured that I painted her when she was still a child. I send you here two more photos of the girl. In the first photo she is holding in her hand is my completed painting. In the second one she is today, as adult, with the childhood picture behind her.
Dear. I will give you more interesting ideas. I love you 爱你的陈
It's a great story, and now it has been added with the further twist of me and my Finnish-Chinese teacher knowing Jinlin through the same drawing!
Here are the additional pictures Jinlin sent me in the email:
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| The girl of Jinlins painting holding the completed work in her hand |
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| The girl of Jinlins painting as successful adult |
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