Children?s artwork offers a glimpse of life in China

The Presque Isle District Library is hosting a premiere exhibit from China in cooperation with the MSU extension office. A selection of vivid paintings is on display until December 17. The artworks were created by Chinese children between the ages of 3 and 14 years old. Children from all over Michigan are learning about life in China through paintings done by children from that country. Young artists from Michigan also are invited to create pictures about life in this country to share with the children of China. Each year a few pieces of art by Michigan children are chosen to be sent to China as gifts. The Michigan artwork is viewed by many people and gives a positive impression of our state and nation.

“LAST YEAR, seven pieces of artwork were selected from Presque Isle County by the 4-H program in Lansing to be included in the paintings from Michigan that were gifted to China,” said Ashley Roseberry, Children, Youth and Family/ 4-H Agent in Rogers City. Roseberry noted that understanding and appreciating the cultures of the world is important to building world peace. The children of Michigan and the children of Sichuan Province in central China have begun this quest by participating in the 4-H Children’s Art Exchange and similar programs.

One such artist is eight-year-old Yu Li. Her work (pictured above) is titled All People Love Flowers. She says taking care of a flower garden can be fun, “Especially if you share the job with your classmates and teacher.” “While the teacher waters the garden, the students bring extra water and more flowers to plant,” she continues

. The green sign in the lower left hand corner of the painting says “Loving Flowers” in Chinese characters.

THE PAINTINGS by these children are extraordinary for their ages. The artists were selected from hundreds of Chinese children to receive after-school and weekend painting classes. Chinese children traditionally learn to write their language with a brush because their characters are ideographs (pictures), not phonetic letters within a grammatical structure like ours. For this reason, using a paintbrush is as comfortable and natural for a Chinese child as using a pencil is for an American child.

Funding for this program was provided, in part, by generous grants to the 4-H Foundation of America. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, closed on Sunday.

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