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Visitors view the painting and calligraphy works at an exhibition in Vancouver, Canada, Sept. 3, 2011. An art exhibition held by Consulate General of China in Vancouver and overseas Chinese kicked off Saturday in Vancouver, marking the Chinese Xinhai Revolution, or the 1911 Revolution. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaonan)
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VANCOUVER, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- More than 85 years after his death, Dr. Sun Yat Sen is still providing inspiration for an art show that opened here Saturday as part of the Canadian city's ongoing commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai (1911) Revolution.
The show, sponsored by Chinese Consulate-General in Vancouver, enables viewers to see, from different perspective, Sun Yat Sen, forerunner of the Chinese revolution and a frequent visitor to Vancouver during his lifetime, through 110 calligraphic and paintings, in both Chinese traditional and Western styles.
Among many excellent brushstroke paintings and traditional portraits, it is the depictions of Sun in his struggle to overthrow the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that really stand out.
Arthur Cheng's "Sun Yat Sen and Vancouver Friends" is perhaps the most striking piece at the Vancouver show, held at the Chinese Cultural Center Museum and Archive that adjoins Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden.
The oil painting shows a bowler hat-clad Sun surrounded by Chinese men in Western attire among the old-growth trees of Vancouver's Stanley Park, with the setting sun, ocean and mountains in the background.
Liang Shugen, Consul-General of China in Vancouver, said in his welcoming speech that the exhibit was organized to encourage Chinese descendants around the world to depict the strength and identity of the Chinese culture.
"Today, we have organized the painting and calligraphy exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution," he said. "All the exhibits are collected from Chinese overseas here. We hope people may carry forward the spirits of the Xinhai Revolution and help promote the revitalization of the Chinese nation and reunification of the country through this event."
Also present was Paul Crowe, director of the David Lam Center for International Communications at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University. The academy works to foster greater inter-cultural dialogue between Asia and Canada through research and publications.
Crowe pointed to the "deep connection" between migrants from southern China and Canada and that reciprocal support that they lent back in the revolution period of China.
"So there's a very natural historical connection between migrants who helped establish Canada, some of the infrastructure, most famously, of course, the railway. There's a deep connection between those migrants who helped support and build Canada and China and its progress. So they felt a debt to their homeland and a connection to it and that's significantly historical," he said.
