Artistic "big coffees" born in the town

  Anhai Town, Jinjiang City, Fujian Province is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese.

In the past 100 years, a large number of artistic "big names" have emerged in this fertile cultural land. They have gone from Anhai Ancient Town to the world and performed wonderful artistic lives in different countries and regions.

From the star-studded film industry, to sculpture, calligraphy, music and other art fields, Anhai overseas Chinese have left a strong legacy in the development of modern art.

 Chinese movies are popular in Nanyang

  The 1920s saw a boom in the Asian film industry.

In Shanghai, known as the "Paris of the East", film companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

At the same time, the film industry in Southeast Asian countries also began to develop rapidly.

A group of overseas Chinese from Anhai seized this business opportunity, invested funds in the film industry, engaged in film production, and opened movie theaters in Southeast Asia, blazing a trail for films with overseas Chinese characteristics.

  Anhai overseas Chinese Yu Boyan is a famous film owner, director and producer in the overseas Chinese community in Southeast Asia.

In 1920, at the age of 25, Yu Boyan crossed the Philippines to the south, and embarked on a film road in Nanyang.

He founded the "Fudan Film Production Company" and directed and produced films such as "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Journey to the West", "Burning the Seven Stars Tower" and "Leopard Head Lin Chong", which were very popular among overseas Chinese in the Philippines.

What is most praised is that he put the famous Southern Fujian drama "Chen San Wu Niang" on the screen for the first time, which was extremely sensational all over Nanyang.

  In addition to "filmmakers" such as choreographers and producers, An Hai has also bred many movie stars, the most representative of which is Ling Bo, the "Asian actress" in the Hong Kong performing arts circle in the 1960s.

Ling Bo, formerly known as Jun Haitang, moved to Hong Kong with his father Jun Tianzhu since he was a child, and starred in more than 90 Hokkien movies in his early days.

In 1961, she entered the Shaw Brothers Film Company, and the famous director Li Hanxiang took her stage name Lingbo.

Ling Bo played Liang Shanbo in "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", famous in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

  Sculpture calligraphy has been handed down to the present

  The Wanfu Temple in Kyoto, Japan has a strong Chinese style, and the temple enshrines the Buddha statue carved by Fan Daosheng, a master of sculpture from Anhai in Japan.

  Fan Daosheng was born in the late Ming Dynasty. He is good at poetry, calligraphy and painting, especially in carving Buddha statues.

The style of the Buddha statues he sculpts is simple, exquisite and exquisite, and is deeply loved by the people.

During the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty, Fan Daosheng was invited to Japan with the "Eighteen Arhats Scroll" painted by his father. .

Later, when Yinyuan built Wanfu Temple in Uji, Kyoto, he invited Fan Daosheng to come and sculpt many statues such as the Eighteen Arhats, Maitreya, Guanyin, and Emperor Guan.

Up to now, the "Eighteen Arhats Scroll" carried by Fan Daosheng is still kept in Wanfu Temple.

  In addition to the sculptures that have been handed down to this day, the overseas Chinese living in Anhai have also left many influential calligraphy works.

Born in 1908, Yan Lu, a calligrapher, lived in Singapore for many years and taught at Chung Cheng High School and Nanyang University.

Iron-painted silver hooks and vigorous brushwork that penetrates the back of the paper are his calligraphy characteristics.

In 1981, Yan Lu, who was over seventy years old, returned to his hometown to preside over Anhai's first "Sea Star Award" painting and calligraphy competition, and devoted himself to cultivating new artists in his hometown.

Music and art pass from generation to generation

  Nanyin is popular in southern Fujian, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It is an ancient music genre. It has been sung since the Tang and Song Dynasties and is known as the living fossil of ancient Chinese music.

Gao Ming Wang, an overseas Chinese from Anhai, is a typical representative of Nanyin artists.

  Gao Mingwang, born in 1892, studied Nanyin at the age of 14. He is proficient and unique in Nanyin singing and orchestral fingering. He enjoys the reputation of "Mingwang Daqu Xian" in Fujian and Taiwan.

In 1929, Gao Mingwang went to the Philippines to teach at the invitation of the Philippine Changhe Nanyin Society.

He taught with all his heart, spread Chinese culture in the Chinese community in the Philippines, and made Nanyin, a treasure of Chinese art, shine in Southeast Asia, and was honored as a "generation master" by the Philippine Nanyin community.

  Zhang Ziyu