Artists reveal significance of Obama’s gift to Chinese President
By ANISunday, February 13, 2011
NEW DELHI - US President Barack Obama had gifted his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao a painting created by two Chinese-American artist brothers in the honour of his state visit to Washington last month.
Chicago-based Dahuang Zhou and Shanzuo Zhou now tell Xinhua the significance of their painting ‘Eight presidents and the Great Wall of China’.
“When President Barack Obama wanted us to create a painting as a state gift to President Hu Jintao, the first thought that came up to me was to express our best wishes,” English.news.cn quoted Dahuang, as saying on Saturday.
While the White House decided the theme of the painting, it was left to the Zhou brothers to conceive the best materialization of that theme.
The duo decided that the American Presidents who visited China since Richard Nixon’s historic tour in 1972 would represent the two countries’ friendship, and that the Great Wall would show the length and depth of Chinese culture.
The painting remained a national secret before its presentation, said Dahuang.
“We used strokes to sketch the eight presidents,” he said.
The spiral red line represents the development and great expectations of the bilateral relations and the bold black line, a typical stroke of Chinese painting, is used to depict the Great Wall. The blue spots on the left top and red and white lines showed the national banner.
A short video was posted on the White House website to reveal the behind-the-scene story of this painting’s creation.
The video explained that ‘the painting is replete with imagery and motifs that represent 5,000 years of Chinese culture and the friendship that our two countries have shared and will continue on together into the future’.
The painting measures 86 inches wide and 68 inches high - numbers 6 and 8 are associated with good luck in Chinese culture. (ANI)
