Create International Animated Video for Li People

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Check out this new animated video by Create International for the Li people, whom I presume are the ones who live off the southern coast of mainland China on Hainan Island.  I don't really know anything about the video, except that it tells the Gospel story from eternity before creation through the ascension of Christ and beyond.  It seems to incorporate some visual cultural elements like dress and perhaps cultural symbols for God (including Chinese script), colors (?), as well as cultural music.  In any case, an interesting combination of computer animation and cultural forms to tell the Gospel story.

Chinese Nestorian Headstone

From the University of San Francisco Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History:

THE LOTUS & THE CROSS: EAST-WEST CULTURAL EXCHANGE ALONG THE SILK ROAD 

This online exhibit replicates the exhibition of large-format photographs of stone tombstones from Fujian province in South China and stone crosses from Kerala state in South India was mounted in September 2007 in conjunction with the Lotus and Cross symposium.

Christian Headstone with Canopy

Yuan dynasty (1272—1368)

Quanzhou Maritime Museum

Ricci 20 KP 020 Z24

A canopy or parasol was used in ancient India to protect kings and other royals from the sun, and it subsequently became a symbol of power and prestige. It was natural to use a canopy in association with the Buddha as he had been a prince before attaining enlightenment. It can be seen in the early Buddhist art of India, and was transmitted to Central Asia and China where it appears, for example, at Dunhuang. A similar canopy to the one shown on this tombstone can be seen on a panel relief on the Eastern pagoda of the Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, completed about 1250.

The discovery of the canopy’s presence on Christian tombstones of the Mongol period is quite remarkable, and yet explicable in the context of the multiculturalism of Quanzhou. The canopy has tassels or streamers dangling from it and protects the cross emerging from an open lotus flower.

New Terracotta Warriors Unearthed

Although not related to Christianity, here is a post by Hans van Roon at Mongols, Ancient China and the Silk Road about some of the latest terracotta warriors discovered in Xian, China, which show more traces of their original colors than previous figures.  I'm reposting it here in order to show that many examples of colorless art and architecture from the ancient world were originally brightly colored.  Something to keep in mind today as artists create new art based on ancient sculpture and the Gospel!

For more info about current excavations and the efforts to preserve the original colors of the warrior figures, check out this article at National Geographic as well as their recent photo gallery of painted warrior details.  The article explains how the original colors crumble from the terracotta surfaces within four minutes of excavation– "vibrant pieces of history lost in the time it takes to boil an egg."  So finding a way to immediately stabilize them was imperative.

The article is also accompanied by this short "fly by" video showing a reconstruction of the warriors at Xian with their vibrant colors intact:

Headstone with Lotus and Cross

While I'm slowwwwly writing the next post on my series A Brief History of Visual Contextualization in India, here's a cool image from the USF Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History that I came across showing a beautiful Christian headstone from China.  It dates from the Yuan dynasty (1272—1368) and is now located in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum.  The caption reads:

Headstone showing a cross on a lotus flower and a cloud design set within a plain border following a curved outline. This basic design is repeated extensively in the Christian monuments dated to this period, although its iconographic import is unknown.