UVA Today News Blog

Denise Kaw is a third-year BA/MT student in the Curry School of Education’s five-year program where she is studying to earn a bachelors degree in studio art and a masters in special education. This semester she is studying abroad at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is the first student to participate in the University of Virginia’s new studio art exchange program with CUKH. Click here for her previous post.

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Jan. 12, 2009: This past week went by not too quickly but not too slowly. I pretty much have my classes sorted out. I’m taking Xieyi and Gonbi, two types of Chinese painting, Art History since 1945 for my major, and level 2 Mandarin. I want to take one more class but I need to find one that is taught in English and works with my schedule! It’s quite difficult.

[Update: Denise wrote in to explain the difference between Xieyi and Gonbi painting and her own Chinese language skills. "I took a 6 week intensive course in Beijing Language and Culture University the summer after my 1st year. But since then I haven't taken any classes. I understand some pretty basic Mandarin but it is more difficult for me to speak. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up more Mandarin while I'm here. Although majority of the people here speak Cantonese.

Xieyi, I believe, in English, is called Expressive Painting. You basically use calligraphy ink and Chinese brushes to make landscape drawings. So right now we have learned how to paint branches,  trunks the textures of the trunks, and roots. Once we have learned how to paint each part of nature separately, our final project will be to combine everything we have learned into one big painting. This class is taught in Cantonese but the students translate for me. Also the professor does speak English so during individual time he'll come and speak to me in English.

Gongbi is a completely different style of painting. I believe it is called Delineative Painting. Again you use Chinese brushes, that are apparently really different from Xieyi brushes, and you make outlines an fill in those outlines. I haven't actually seen it being done yet, hopefully tomorrow. Last class was mostly the history of Gongbi and the differences between traditional and contemporary Gongbi. This class is taught in Mandarin, but again I have a student translator."]

On Thursday, a friend from U.Va invited me to have dinner with him and his father in the city. They took me to a really nice Chinese restaurant. The meal was all really delicious. After dinner they took me to the Peak!

Then on Friday I had lunch with two local Hong Kong girls from my art class. They took me to eat at this small Chinese restaurant. We had chicken wings and something else. Then for dessert we had steamed egg white with milk and red beans. The dessert was interesting. It was like eating solidified milk. It was good. We mostly talked about HK culture vs Mainland China culture and how HK is a fusion of the east and west. We also talked about how women in HK are a little bit more independent than in previous times. Afterward we went to Mongkok just to look around and drink bubble tea!!

I just finished my xieyi painting homework. I had to copy four pages of trees. It was quite fun. At first I started out more drawing than painting, then I decided I needed to loosen up and actually just paint. Now, I think it looks elegant, although who knows what the teacher will think. I feel like they don’t really use words of encouragement here, or maybe I’m just that bad at it. But it’s okay, I’m learning, and it’s fun, and this is why i’m here, to learn and not to be criticized so I will improve.

On Saturday, the IASP arranged for us to go on a “city” tour. However all we saw was the Peak, which I had just gone to the day before, and two shopping areas. But we couldn’t stay very long, so they pretty much just gave us a taste of the city. However, I got to meet and get to know more exchange students! The tour ended with a western dinner and a light show by the harbor.

I can already see the end of the semester sneaking up on me really quickly ☹