A Virtuoso Master of Arts

Li Yan， a professor with Art Academy of Qinghua University， is a friend of mine. I have known him for years， but I am still puzzled by his wide-ranging success in a lot of fields. He is a master artist， a man of Chinese classic learning and a master of all liberal arts. He is all that and in that order.

A Painter of Chinese Classics

Born in Beijing in 1943， Li Yan grew up in a family of artists. He received a formal training in art from his father Li Kuchan， a preeminent master artist of traditional Chinese painting. He studied eight years at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His training in arts is more than traditional and Chinese. He stresses a fine combination of the west and the east. While crossing various styles and themes， he tries to express learning and ideology in his creation. His father says， “In the grand system of Chinese art and culture， painting is just a small component. Calligraphy and literature in that order are greater than painting， but they are still not the great way of life. Music is the next big thing. The ancient Chinese philosophy is the supreme. A painter needs to understand all these subjects before he reaches greatness. If a painter confines himself to painting， his creations are nothing but shallow.”

That is why Li Yan tries to fuse painting with the all-round classic Chinese learning.

Li Yan loves painting animals. And his paintings of monkeys are widely recognized and highly appreciated. His paintings of monkeys have been exhibited in the “Year of Monkey” across three decades. The most famous one was a 22-meter long scroll of 100 moneys. In 1992， a Year of Monkey， a monkey image he created was chosen for a New Year card published by the China Post for the first time. In 1999， his painting called “Big Eagle” was on the Shenzhou， China’s first manned spaceship.

However， Li Yan loves painting human figures more: figures of history and figures of myths give him an opportunity to express his understanding of Chinese philosophy.

His father believed that the Book of Changes is the most important of all the Chinese classics. Li Yan has studied the book assiduously. In 1987， he jointly hosted an international symposium on studies of the Book of Changes.

At my request， he created 990 figures in 450 paintings for the Illustrated Book of Changes. The human images under his brush reflect his profound understanding of the relationship between a man and his ideology. He insists that the artist needs to understand Laozi before he can create an image of China’s first known philosopher.

A Cultural Ambassador

In 1989 Li Yan was invited to participate in a cultural program for a science research institute in India. In 1991， he created a huge mural for a Buddhist sanctuary in Malaysia at the invitation of a revered monk. Li Yan also held a lecture addressing the topics of Zen and Zen-related paintings.

In 1993， he gave 10 lectures in Indonesia， covering a wide range of topics such as Chinese food， lifestyle， garment， music， Chinese zodiacs， and theater. Since 1980 he has held lectures on Chinese culture in countries and regions such as Canada， America， Japan， India， Indonesia， Malaysia， Taiwan， and Hong Kong. As Chinese classic learning has become more popular in recent years， he has given 61 lectures in Qinghua and many other universities since 2007.

As he is a celebrated artist and knows a great deal about masters of painting and calligraphy and their works， he is widely engaged in artwork authentication. He is on an authentication committee under the Ministry of Culture.

Li Yan has partnered with his wife in producing a 13-episode documentary about ballad singing genres in ancient Beijing and a 10-episode on his father’s life and art.

Li is also a popular script writer for television networks and a popular guest at television talk shows. Among his friends and audiences， Li Yan enjoys a reputation as an elite lecturer and conversationalist. He is great at speaking， for he is fun and he is an amazing guru on a great number of subjects about Chinese culture.

From 1998 to 2008， he served as a member of the CPPCC and member of the Beijing chapter of the CPPCC. He spoke out on many subjects on annual sessions. He is so enthusiastically engaged in conserving the remainder of the ancient Beijing as the national capital is rapidly metamorphosing into an ultramodern shape that he is nicknamed as one of the four hard-core conservationists of Beijing’s time-honored architectural splendors. During the ten-year tenure as a CPPCC member， he spared no efforts to present bills and spoke on key issues. Wang Meng， a celebrated author and former cultural minister， once commented that Li Yan spoke so volubly that it was as if there was a river coming out of his mouth. □