Beijing exhibition brings together three cultural cousins

By Harvey Dzodin | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2016-09-05 14:46

Kim Min Jung , Korean Traditional Dancer, Reflection hologram by pulse laser in 2014.[Juyong Lee/ photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Korean Cultural Center on Guanghua Lu is one of Beijing's hidden treasures. The caliber of its exhibitions is always highly professional and informative. The must-see current show on offer, "Chunyundang Photo Studio", from Professor and artist Juyong Lee, is no exception.

Chunyundang was founded 110 years ago by the Kyujin Kim, calligraphy teacher to the last Prince of Korea, Young Chin. The exhibition brings alive photographic memories from the Studio's past and with it a blend of the last days of Korea's Choson dynasty (1392-1910) mixing Korean and western concepts of beauty.

The exhibition's theme is longevity. Photography, since its inception nearly two centuries ago, has served to freeze its subject in time and provide an eternal recollection. The exhibition ties together three-culturally related cousins: China, Japan and Korea with a shared interest in longevity and shared symbols such as the crane signifying long life.

This gem of a show at the Korean Cultural Center is not your everyday garden variety exhibition. It features an area reminiscent of the Chunyundang Studio featuring a venerable studio box camera where families can actually make history by having their own portraits made. The exhibition presents a truly unique combination of Professor Lee's collection of daguerreotypes, tintypes, conventional photography and his stunningly lifelike holographic images.

The three-dimensional holograms are eerily alive and have to be seen to be believed. They truly look like the faces of live people trapped behind the glass waiting patiently to step back into the real world. Sadly they never do. But they have a bright future as Professor Lee, who became fascinated with this technology while at grad school in California, believes that within a decade three-dimensional holographic avatars will be commonplace on our screens and in our lives.

Professor Juyong Lee at his Beijing exhibition "Chunyundang Photo Studio".[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The exhibition was chosen as a "2016 Best Arts Travel Exhibition Project" and before traveling to Beijing was shown in Seoul, Tokyo and Osaka. Professor Lee's exhibition runs through September 19th.

Han Jae Heuk, the new Director of the Korean Cultural Center, is an old China hand coming first to Beijing in 1992, the year bilateral diplomatic relations were established and recently returned for his third diplomatic posting in China. He sees his mission as "working mainly to promote exchanges in cultural fields between the two countries".

Mr. Han welcomes Chinese visitors because the "Korean Cultural Center is a platform for Chinese people to understand Korean culture and a venue for displaying artworks, playing music, and sharing thoughts of the musicians, artisans, poets from Korea and China."

According to Mr. Han: "Through culture, we could enjoy our life and get more energy to be happy". If the first show under his leadership, Juyong Lee's "Chunyundang Photo Studio", is any indication, there will be an abundance of happiness for visitors to the hidden treasure on Guanghua Lu, the Korean Cultural Center.