profound stone sculpting culture lives...
TRANSCRIPT
THE World Chinese Science Fic-tion Nebula Award (2017) was won by Han Song’s novel “Exor-cism” (“Qu Mo”) on Sunday in
Beijing.The award was launched in 2010
by the World Chinese Science Fiction Association. Liu Cixin’s “Death’s End” won the gold in 2011.
This year’s top winner Han had won silver awards for his novels “Subway” and “High-Speed Train” in 2011 and 2013.
His latest work also won the gold award for creativity in a sci-fi movie.
The work, “Exorcism,” the second part of Han’s “Hospital Trilogy,” is a story of a disaster that is sparked by artifi cial intelligence (AI).
In the book, the protagonist Yang Wei wakes up in a hospital on a ship fl oating in a red sea, and fi nds that he has lost his memory and everything aboard is controlled by algorithms.
In the work, AI had taken over the hospital and tries to create a utopian world, where all humans live a long life. However, the wards are a mess, and patients had died one after another.
the mountain have diverse colors and textures — some are transparent and some are solid red, which give much space for creation,” said craftsman Liu Zhou.
White and yellow jelly-like stones are semi-translucent and glittering. Bright crimson stones, commonly called “chicken-blood stones,” are favored by collectors because in an un-carved state they are often valued at hundreds of mil-
lions of yuan. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), nobles and refi ned scholars started to collect chicken-blood stones to use as seals. During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), emperors and their concu-bines all chose chicken-blood stones as their seal stones.
“China’s stone culture is extensive and profound, so craftsmen should show respect for the stones’ nature and reveal the beauty in them,” said Liu.
CARVED stones have long been favored by collectors due to their austere origins and exquisite craftsmanship.
Han Wangxi, director of the Informa-tion Offi ce of Shenzhen Municipal Government, who is also an estab-lished cultural scholar, believes that real admiration for the stones should be focused on China’s ancient and refi ned stone culture rather than mere beauty.
On Sunday, at the closing of a stone sculpture exhibition at Guofeng Art Museum in Longgang District, Han explained that in traditional Chinese culture, stones and jade have had dif-ferent symbolic meanings.
“Stone retains its natural and primitively true features, while jade is carved and polished. Stones carry all the secrets of the world and have the most natural beauty, while jade repre-sents human civilization. Jade comes from stone, but in an ancient civilized society, jade symbolized political order and social status,” said Han.
“Due to the contrast, stone was imbued with an independent, origi-nal and unique spirit in ancient Chi-nese culture, while jade represented achievements and cultivation,” he added.
Guofeng’s exhibition featured more than 600 stone sculptures from Shoushan (Fujian Province), Chang-hua (Zhejiang Province), Balin (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) and Qingtian (Zhejiang Province).
Known as the “Four Famous Stones in China,” each of the four rare types of stone is valuable in the gem trade due to their rarity and incredible beauty. They are often carved into prestigious seals and sculptures.
During the exhibition, experienced craftsmen from around the country offered several free talks to locals on how to admire stones. “Raw stones on
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Thursday November 23, 2017
Profound stone sculpting culture lives on
Viewers admire a stone sculpture at Guofeng Art Museum. Photos by courtesy of Guofeng Art Museum
Han Song’s sci-fi novel wins top award
“Exorcism” by Han Song (2nd R) wins gold for best creativity in a sci-fi movie. File photo
To recover his lost memory, Yang works with other patients to explore the ship. After visiting a high-tech medical treatment center, they gradually dis-cover the secrets of the hospital ship.
Yang then realizes that AI might have lost control, and is killing patients as the best way of treating them.
Meanwhile, doctors who have been driven out of wards by the algorithm establish a shadow hospital to confront the machines.
Later, Yang fi nds that the treatment he has received, which was supposed to remove his pain (exorcism), was actu-ally used to plant “viruses” in his body.
“A Que’s Goodbye Doraemon,” which was inspired by Japanese animation “Doraemon: Stand By Me,” won gold for best sci-fi novella.
He Xi’s short story “Floating Life” won gold for best sci-fi short story.
The story is about the existence of individuals after the death of Earth, when civilization exists in the form of pure energy.
“Best Chinese Science Fiction in the Last 100 Years” won gold for best non-fi ction. (China Daily)
Jury’s comment on “Exorcism” “AI treats every person as a patient. How far is the dis-tance between the future and the present? Han Song’s writing creates a space that is much closer to the present one, compared with realistic writing. His linguistic labyrinth offers readers an indistinct experience of the future. Behind the enchanting vision is the unknowable truth.”
A stone sculpture on display.