Sunday, January 31, 2010

Resources: The Asian Art Museum on YouTube


The Asian Art Museum - Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture in San Francisco's Civic Center houses one of the foremost collections of Asian art in the United States and is in fact the largest museum in the United States devoted entirely to the arts of Asia. The museum opened in 1966 with a donation of artworks from the private collection of Chicago industrialist Avery Brundage, who is also known for his tenure as president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952-1972. Over time, Brundage continued to donate works from his collection to the museum; his gifts total over 7,700 objects of the now 17,000 objects strong and growing collection.

Recently, the Asian Art Museum set up its own YouTube channel with videos covering a diverse selection of topics ranging from Chinese calligraphy and Korean ceramics to Buddhist sites in India. The videos are beautifully filmed, narrated by the museum's curators and other professionals and scholars in the field, and are a great way to learn more about Asian art and architecture, art-making techniques and conservation, and Asian religions and history. Some of the videos introduce special exhibits at the Asian Art Museum and are filmed on-site; others are shot on locations in Asia.

The Asian Art Museum's YouTube channel may be accessed here:

And the website of the Asian Art Museum is located here:

Happy viewing!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Local Interest: Biking and Blogging

Baton Rouge native and Georgetown University graduate Evan Villarrubia has embarked upon a year-long bicycling trip through China. After graduating from Georgetown with a degree in Chinese, he worked in Beijing for an American construction company in order to save money for his trip. There, he met his traveling partners: Andy Keller, a fellow American, and Alexis Lerognon, from France.

Villarrubia's blog chronicles his quest to observe the everyday lives of the "laobaixing" ("LBX"), or common people: children playing in parks, men flying kites, migrant workers, and villagers. Having departed from Beijing, the journey is taking the three along the southeastern coast of China to the southwest, then up through Tibet and Inner Mongolia and back to Beijing.

A recent hometown article about Villarrubia appears here:
http://www.2theadvocate.com/features/80873222.html?showAll=y&c=y

And the link for his blog may be accessed here:
http://www.portraitofanlbx.com/

For anyone wondering exactly how far a degree in Chinese can take you, the answer is more than 7000 miles. True cycling afficionados will also appreciate the discussion of more technical matters!