Topic: "The Art of Books: Perspectives and Communication"

Time: April 26, 2025 (Saturday) from 3pm to 5pm

Address: Academic Lecture Hall, 2nd Floor, Guanshan Yue Art Museum

Lecture format: Offline live lecture, WeChat video account

Hu Hongxia: Senior media personality, columnist, and one of the initiators of the "Four Directions Salon". I am currently a resident writer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen). Formerly served as Deputy Editor in Chief of Shenzhen Newspaper Group, Editor in Chief of Crystal Newspaper, and President of Shenzhen Newspaper Group Publishing House. He has written cultural essays such as "Micro Dust and Dark Fragrance" and "Hundred Years and Hundred Words", collections of book talk essays such as "Night Study" and "Micro Book Talk", and essay collections such as "Comparison Notes @ 1963". He has also compiled works such as "Old Moon Colors", "Dongqiao Seventy", and "Personal Reading History from 1978 to 2008".

In this issue of the "Four Directions Salon", the speaker Mr. Hu Hongxia will open up an ancient yet new art field with everyone - "Book Art". The tradition of "book art" is very ancient, and it was firmly established at the latest during the Wei and Jin dynasties in China or the medieval period of colored manuscript in Europe. But for today's readers, this artistic tradition is also very new, due to the long-standing pursuit of quick success and instant benefits in the "book view", which has obscured the artistic tradition of books. At the beginning of the 21st century, Professor Fan Jingzhong from the China Academy of Art bridged the gap between art history and book history, proposing the proposition of "books as art" in a new dimension, which received widespread response. In this lecture, Mr. Hu Hongxia will share his own understanding of "books as art" and also share his recent visit to Hangzhou for the "Linlang Cuizhen: Special Exhibition of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Classics". The lecture will revolve around "a logic, a hypothesis, a verification, a grand exhibition, and a prospect".