France

“Sino-France Cultural Exchange In Beijing”

Shared in honor of the exhibition recently held in Paris ~ “The Villa of Dr. Jean Bussiere (1872-1960), a French Doctor in Beijing.”**DB

“Sino-France Cultural Exchange In Beijing”

by Vanisa Wei via “iDigest”

From the beginning of 1900s to 1930s, there were a number cultural exchanges between China and France in the northern part of Xishan (the Western Hills), in the Haidian District of northwest Beijing. If the Haidian District Government can take full advantage of the history in that area and make scientific planning to develop the available resources, it will not only improve the local economy but raise the brand awareness of that area.

Important Historical Figures

Andre d’Hormon (1881-1964)

D’Hormon, with another two Chinese educators Cai Yuanpei and Li Shizeng, initiated a work-study program for Chinese students studying in France around 1920. He also persuaded the French Government of the times to establish the Sino-French University and its affiliated institutions in Beijing. These facilities can provide language and other trainings for students prior to going to France. Through this program, a number of important figures in Chinese history, first Premier of the PRC Zhou Enlai and major reformist Deng Xiaoping among them, were fostered. .

At that time, d’Hormon was a professor at Peking University. During his tenure, who should be a librarian in the Peking University Library but Mao Zedong, later the first president of the People’s Republic of China. Whenever d’Hormon needed to borrow a book from the library, Mao would deliver the book to the professor in person, according to the Brochure of Sino-France Cultural Exchange in Beijing by Publicity Department of Beijing Haidian District Committee of the Communist Party of China.

D’Hormon lived in Beijing for 48 years, returning to France in 1954. He used his last 10 years to proofread the French edition of A Dream of Red Mansions, translated by Li Zhihua, a graduate from the Sino-French University. It should be noted that d’Hormon translated some of the poems from A Dream of Red Mansions in a style of ancient French poetry based on the Chinese poems original meaningsso that French readers might better understand the Chinese classic. The French edition of A Dream of Red Mansions was published posthumously and was well received by French readers.

D’Hormon remained a bachelor all his life and left behind no children. He spent almost half of his life in China and devoted the rest of that life towards researching Chinese culture after he returned to France.

Dr. Jean Bussiere (1872-1960)

Dr. Jean Bussiere came to China in 1912 and worked as a physician in Beijing’s French Legation Office . Later, Bussiere worked as the campus doctor at Yenching University in Beijing. When the Sino-French University was founded, Bussiere acted as the chief executive director.

Dr. Bussiere spent much of his life in the Xi Shan areaof Beijing. With superior knowledge regarding medicine, many nearby villagers visited the doctor seeking treatment for various maladies. Much of the time, Dr. Bussiere treated them for free., making him a popular figure in the area..

Bussiere was a key figure within the circle of French expatriates living in China. The living room of Xi Shan villa was an important place for Beijing’s French population to congregate. He accompanied the French poet-diplomat and Nobel Prize winner Saint-John Perse on his travels through north China to help the latter know more about China. . . .

Inside the Paris Apartment Untouched for 70 Years

by Leon Watson via “Mail Online)

Caked in dust and full of turn-of-the century treasures, this Paris apartment is like going back in time.

Having lain untouched for seven decades the abandoned home was discovered three years ago after its owner died aged 91.

The woman who owned the flat, a Mrs De Florian, had fled for the south of France before the outbreak of the Second World War.

She never returned and in the 70 years since, it looks like no-one had set foot inside.

Back in time: The flat near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera

The property was found near a church in the French capital’s 9th arrondissement, between Pigalle red light district and Opera. Experts were tasked with drawing up an inventory of her possessions which included a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

One expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900. ‘There was a smell of old dust,’ said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery.

But he said his heart missed a beat when he caught sight of a stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress.

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist’s former muse and Mrs de Florian’s grandmother, Marthe de Florian, a beautiful French actress and socialite of the Belle Époque.

Under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini

Untouched: The cobweb-filled flat was discovered in the 9th arrondissement of Paris

Treasure trove: Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects, including the Boldini painting that sold for £1.78million. . . .

The Prehistoric Cave, Grotte Chauvet, in France now a World Heritage Site

by AFP via “Courier Mail”

IT IS a cave so closely guarded that only three people know the code to the half-tonne reinforced door that seals its entrance, where cameras keep watch 24 hours a day.

But we were given a rare chance to step through this gateway into prehistory and into the depths of the Grotte Chauvet in southern France — home to the earliest known figurative drawings and now a World Heritage site.

For tens of thousands of years, time stopped in the cave nestled deep in a limestone cliff that hangs over the lush, meandering Ardeche River, until it was discovered in 1994 by a group of cave experts.

Incredible prehistoric paintings can be seen on the rock walls.

To reach the site, which is closed to the public, the lucky few allowed access must hike up a path that our Cro-Magnon ancestors once used, not far from a natural stone bridge that straddles an abandoned part of the river.

Some 36,000 years ago — the age of the cave paintings — tall Scots pines lorded over the cliff in a climate equivalent to that of present-day southern Norway.

After arriving at the entrance in sweltering heat, descending into the Palaeolithic den brings a sharp drop in temperature and almost 100 per cent humidity.

Curators take a rare look at the cave paintings.

Marie Bardisa, the curator of the site, types in the code to the fortified door and it slowly swings open.

Visitors must put on white overalls and special shoes to avoid polluting the environment, as well as a helmet and harness.

“The idea is to keep the cave in the same state of containment as when it was discovered,” Bardisa says.

“We watch over the atmospheric balance, we monitor the potential proliferation of algae, mushrooms or bacteria.”

Horses etched with charcoal into the cave walls.

Miraculously preserved

Now begins the travel through time. After crawling through a narrow tunnel, visitors reach man-made stairs. At the bottom, the silent, cool cave opens up.

Nearly everything has been left as it was when Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and Eliette Brunel stumbled across the grotto on December 18, 1994.

Paintings of hands made by blowing red ochre pigment.

Crystals on huge limestone formations sparkle in the lamp light. Bones coated with clay and calcite litter the cave, proving that bears lived here before and after humans passed through. The skull of an Alpine ibex, a species of wild goat, smiles through immaculate teeth.

Visitors are not allowed to walk freely through the site but must stick to a tiny walkway that makes movement difficult.

Animal paintings found on the cave walls.

Paintings of hands — made using a technique of blowing red ochre pigment onto the wall around the hand — appear out of the dark as a guide shines a powerful lamp onto the wall.

Further away, an image of a red bear with a spotty face stands over the only known drawing of a panther among all cave paintings from the Palaeolithic era.

“Chauvet alone houses 75 per cent of big cats and 60 per cent of rhinoceroses” known to have been drawn during the period, says Charles Chauveau, the site’s deputy curator.

Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker’s Home

“Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker’s Home”

by Clark Benson via “ABC News”

Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home (ABC News)

A pair of stolen masterpiece paintings valued at $50 million have been recovered after being bought at an auction for $25 and hung in an auto worker’s kitchen for years.

The masterworks were described as Paul Gauguin’s “Still Life of Fruit on a Table With a Small Dog” and Pierre Bonnard’s “The Girl With Two Chairs.” They were stolen from the home of a British couple in 1970.

An unnamed Fiat employee, described by police as a “lover of art,” bought the two paintings in an auction of items left in the lost and found department of the national railway. The paintings were reportedly left behind on a train from Paris to Turin and were never claimed. Railway authorities put them up for auction in 1975. (more…)