If you like oriental arts, either music or painting, you don't want to miss the opportunity to sample both in the same event at the West Windsor Library, located at 333 North Post Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550. On July 12 at 3 p.m., Ms. Yi Yang of West Windsor, a highly regarded concert master and solo artist, will take you on a short journey to Chinese folk music with her magical Zheng, a 21-string ancient Chinese zither. The Zheng music demonstration and lecture are part of a reception for another West Windsor artist, Mr. Maolin Zhang, whose Chinese Ink Painting exhibition will be on display at the library from July 1 to July 31.
Maolin Zhang cultivated a great love for the art of Chinese painting and calligraphy from an early age. He had a college degree in Chinese painting. But it was not until he was retired in 1991, did he have the resources needed to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a professional artist. Maolin devoted his time visiting and learning from painting masters, touring the scenic places and art galleries in China for inspiration, and spent most of his retirement money on a personal library of Chinese painting books. After reviews by a board of well established professional artists, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tianbei Painting Institute, Maolin was given the title of Senior Chinese Painting Artist, an honor usually held only by professors at art schools or by well established artists in China.
Maolin's artwork has been frequently requested by local government offices, businesses and other organizations across the province. He won top prizes a few years in a row in Chinese painting exhibitions in Heilongjiang province. One of his paintings was selected, among three hundreds others from more than ten thousand pieces, to be displayed and collected in the National Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition in Beijing, in July 2001. His paintings were chosen and shown numerous times in Japan and Korea. The exhibition at the West Windsor Library will show Maolin's selected paintings in the past two years. The library hours are 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., Monday - Thursday, and 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., Friday - Saturday.
Maolin is a West Windsor resident now living with his son's family. He teaches Chinese painting at the Plainsboro Chinese School. If you are interested in learning more about traditional Chinese painting, please call him at 609-716-1888, or visit http://www.oocities.org/ChinesePaintingArtist/ for more information.
Yi Yang is also an educator and lecturer on Chinese music. She has given lectures at Hunter College (NY), Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. (NJ), Univ. of Massachusetts (MA), Settlement Music School (PA), Rutgers Univ. (NJ), Yale Univ. (CT), The Cooper Union (NYC), and Princeton University. She is the founder and currently the executive director of Eastern Culture & Performing Arts Center (ECPAC), the first Chinese Professional Music Center in New Jersey.
Yi Yang is no stranger to music lovers at West Windsor, as she gave a well received concert at the request of West Windsor Library in October of last year. At the end of the concert, audiences were asking her to have another one soon. They should be pleased to hear that she will do it again as her support to Maolin's reception and her contribution to her community.
Yi Yang came to America in 1991 with her husband, Xu Zhang, a computer expert. She has been a West Windsor resident for three years. If you are interested in learning more about Chinese music, please call her at 609-936-9306, or visit ECPAC web site at http://www.enjoyourmusic.com for more information.
The event is in part sponsored by the West Windsor Library at 333 North Post Rd, Princeton Junction, New Jersey, and by the West Windsor Arts Council (WWAC), a non-profit organization promotes arts and art appreciation in the greater West Windsor community. Please visit http://www.westwindsorarts.org for more information. To show his support to WWAC, Maolin will donate part of the sale of his paintings to the non-profit 5501c3. For more information on the exhibition and the reception, please contact Yingchao Zhang at 609-716-1888 or yingchao_zhang@yahoo.com, or visit http://www.oocities.org/chinesepaintingmaster/artshow_at_wwlib.html.