Chang Shana: "Eternal Dunhuang Girl"

Beijing, 7 July (ZXS) -- Chang Shana: "Eternal Dunhuang Girl"

China Newsweek reporter Ni Wei

The 92-year-old Chang Shana has many labels gathered on her: "eternal Dunhuang girl", "daughter of the guardian saint of Dunhuang", decoration designer of the Great Hall of the People, the longest serving president of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, students in front of Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin's hospital bed... Today, she is a ninety-year-old man hobbled in a maze of memories.

Chang Shana had already put down her brush. In the past, she used to spread out the manuscript paper in front of the window to draw, and when she was almost 90 years old, she never shook her pen. Now, she spends her time reading. Some books she read repeatedly, "many books have been read in the past, I did not pay attention, and now when I look at them, they are very rich."

There are not many books in the new residence, mostly related to Dunhuang and his father Chang Shuhong. On the desk outside the room, there was a copy of "Chang Shuhong's Autobiography", and reading glasses rested on the page. On the coffee table in the living room is also Chang Shuhong's book, and below is a copy of "Dunhuang: Everyone is Called".

"I love memories." She said. Living to be 92 years old, her vast memory bank changes from linear to blocky, and every time she captures a keyword, a floodgate of memories opens. But at the same time, empty memories are occasionally intertwined, from France to Dunhuang, from Chongqing to Beijing, from Chang Shuhong to Lin Huiyin, from mother to son, from the War of Resistance to liberation... The past sometimes comes to mind in any particular order.

In 1978, Chang Shana at the opening ceremony of the Dunhuang Exhibition in Japan. Photo courtesy of interviewee

Born in Lyon

"He's Komond, my old friend." Chang Shana sat on the sofa, smiled and said, looking at the guests at home for a long time, her eyes full of kindness. Ke Meng and Chang Shana had known each other for more than 30 years, when Chang Shana was the director of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts and spoke pure French. "She's open and not a traditional, boring leader." Komund recalled.

Facing this foreign friend, Chang Shana switched between French, English and Chinese at will. "These words are in her head..." Kermond circled his fingers twice around his head, meaning, entangled. She learned English as a teenager, and she studied abroad in the United States for two years before she was 20. In 1948, under the initiative of Ye Lihua, a Canadian Jew who went to Gansu to teach, Chang Shana went to Boston, USA, to study at the Affiliated Art School of the Boston Museum of Art, systematically studying art courses such as drawing, color, design, and human anatomy. Now, she couldn't remember Ye Lihua's name, but she clearly remembered a past event.

One summer, she took care of her children at a charity summer camp. One day, a little white girl pointed to the little black girl and asked her: Shana, why is she so dark? Chang Shana replied to her: There are many butterflies in the woods, black butterflies, yellow butterflies, white butterflies, "You see, we are the same, you are white, she is black, I am yellow". At that time, racial discrimination was still very serious in the United States, and the parents of a black child heard about this and came to the summer camp to take pictures of her and the black child. For many years, she hung the photo in her bedroom.

French is close to her mother tongue. In 1931, the year of the "6" incident in China, Chang Shuhong, who was studying at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France, and his wife Chen Zhixiu welcomed their first child. A group of young Chinese artists were studying in France at that time, and Chang Shuhong had a lot of contacts with Lv Sibai, Wang Linyi, Liu Kaiqu, Xu Beihong and others. Chang Shuhong was born in Hangzhou and used to sketch by the West Lake as a child. Lyon is also watery, and two rivers feed it, one of which is called La Saone, which Chang Shuhong named after his newborn child: Shana. In the second year of her life, Chang Shana moved to Paris with her parents. She lived in France until she was <> years old, spoke pure French, but did not speak Chinese. In Paris, Chang Shuhong and his wife, far from the war, spent their sunny youth, and Chang Shana spent a carefree childhood.

Father, mother

After returning to China, Chang Shana lived in exile for several years. When he was 12 years old, his father took his mother and siblings to Dunhuang together. Chang Shuhong had just established the National Institute of Dunhuang Art there and Chinese began to protect the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Since then, her life has been closely linked to Dunhuang. Dunhuang is not only her spiritual hometown, but also her artistic hometown. "My school experience is different from ordinary children, and learning Dunhuang art is my boy scout." She recalled.

In the 20s of the 40th century, Chang Shuhong took his daughter Chang Shana and son Chang Jialing in the Mogao Cave caves. Photo courtesy of interviewee

After the age of 80, Chang Shana's fame suddenly increased. As Dunhuang attracted attention again, she entered the public eye as a "Dunhuang girl" and became a respected cultural elder. It was found that this old man devoted his life to the construction of the motherland, worked tirelessly and made outstanding contributions.

However, as someone who has experienced several times of change, the pain she has experienced in her life is also everywhere. In her memoirs, published after she turned 80, she chronicled those painful moments that made her memorable. For example, parting.

In 1945, her mother left Dunhuang without saying goodbye, leaving her husband and two children since. This incident gave Chang Shana a huge blow and a lifetime of confusion.

Seventeen years later, in 17, Chang Shana and her mother were reunited in Hangzhou. On that day, Chang Shana was shocked, and her beautiful and radiant mother had become a pale, unkempt and expressionless old lady. Chen Zhixiu later married a poor worker, living in hardship, doing hard work such as washing clothes on the street to support the family.

When they met that day, neither mother nor daughter was too excited or shed tears. But since then, she has "no hatred, only sympathy" for her mother. After that meeting, she began to secretly send money to her mother without her father, and every time she received money, her mother would write a letter to her, telling her where the money was spent, "It took a few yuan and a few corners to buy milk powder, and it took a few yuan and a few corners to buy a warm water bag..." Chang Shana felt that her mother's writing was very poor and poor, completely different from what she remembered. She later wanted to go to Hangzhou to meet her mother, but she did not do so until her death in 1979.

Lan Suming, a student of Chang Shana and the author of the book "Yellow Sand and Blue Sky - Chang Shana's Life Memories", remembers that Chang Shana's tone was very indifferent when she recalled things about her mother. But when she remembers her father, she is often very emotional, and many small pictures make her difficult to let go.

For example, one image that Chang Shana often recalls occurred in 1943, when Chang Shuhong was on his way from Chongqing to Dunhuang. One day in late autumn, the whole family was on the road in a truck, and when they stopped to refuel, Chang Shuhong bought a bowl of mashed eggs. Just as he was about to eat, the truck suddenly started, eggs and soup spilled all over him, and his face and glasses were covered with soup. This middle-aged man's embarrassed and embarrassing moment was seen by Chang Shana's heart, and she felt that her father was so pitiful. She was 12 years old.

Perhaps since that time, Chang Shana has been following her father. Listen to him, go to the cave to copy the murals, learn Dunhuang art; Listening to him, he interrupted his studies in the county when his mother left, and returned to the Mogao Grottoes to take care of his younger brother. "I didn't understand, so I followed my dad, and he took me to the grotto to copy the mural, which I liked very much, and I painted it very emotionally. Do what you have to do, very different from what you young people think now. ”

In June 1986, Chang Shuhong and his daughter Chang Shana were still talking about "Dunhuang" at home in Beijing. Photo courtesy of interviewee

Get acquainted with Gongmei

Not only listened to her father, but also listened to the words of the country and the organization, "I don't like or dislike it, I just listen to the adults." Later, she participated in the construction of the Great Hall of the People and was appointed as the president of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, and she undertook it with this idea.

In 1951, architects Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin met Chang Shana by chance at the Dunhuang Cultural Relics Exhibition in the Forbidden City and led her into the door of arts and crafts. Lin Hui, due to a serious lung disease, stayed in bed all year round, and there was a small table on the bed where he could write and draw. Liang Sicheng is also not in good health, and sometimes he is bedridden at home to recuperate. Every day at 10 a.m., Chang Shana listened to Lin Huiyin's lecture in front of her hospital bed.

Lin Huiyin changed Chang Shana's life path. She joined the Department of Construction at Tsinghua University as a teaching assistant and entered the arts and crafts industry. Later, she joined the newly formed Central Academy of Arts and Crafts and served as its director for 20 years after the 80s of the 15th century. Walking on this road also allowed her to walk out of her father's shadow.

My father did cultural relics protection and ancient art, while she did arts and crafts and decorative design, which are the practical arts needed in the construction of New China. She decorated the Great Hall of the People, gave a national ceremony for diplomatic activities, designed redbuds for Hong Kong's return...

For many years, the famous Bauhinia sculpture in Hong Kong's Golden Bauhinia Square was designed by the "Central Academy of Arts and Crafts". It was not until Lan Suming's memoirs were written that people learned that the main designer was actually Chang Shana herself. Unwilling to take credit, she silently erased her name.

Chang Shana poses with the "Dove of Peace" turban. Photo courtesy of interviewee

Where is home

Born in France, Chang Shana returned to China at the age of 6 and arrived in Dunhuang at the age of 12, where she spent five important years of her life. Where is her inner home? Lan Suming said that it was Dunhuang. "She used to go back to Dunhuang every year, and the vendors who opened the shop knew her, and she always said, 'I'm from Dunhuang'."

Chang Shuhong also solemnly wrote to her: "Shana, don't forget that you are from Dunhuang. "Five or six years ago, Ke Meng De went to the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes with Chang Shana. The Mogao Grottoes have always preserved Chang Shuhong's former residence, with simple furnishings, earthen kang, desks, wooden cabinets, and small sculptures of Venus with broken arms and oil paintings by Chang Shuhong on the top of the cabinets. Chang Shana also lived in this house when she was a teenager.

Today, in the former house is a letter written by Chang Shana to her late father: "Time passes quickly, and Shana has reached her old age. With your teachings all my life, I have been trekking through the traditional culture and art of Dunhuang all my life. ”

In 1934, Chang Shuhong painted "The Painter's Family" in Paris. Photo courtesy of interviewee

Chang Shana occasionally hummed a French nursery rhyme: "On the Pont d'Avignon, we dance and dance, on the Pont d'Avignon, we dance in circles..." Every time she sang the nursery rhyme she learned from kindergarten, her face was full of happiness and calm.

That famous French proverb is often on her lips, and whenever she thinks of her mother, whenever she thinks of things in her life that are difficult to explain in words, she will flash this expansive proverb in her mind - C'est la vie, this is life. (End)