This Spring Festival will see a flourish of art and cultural events in Shanghai.

At the Shanghai Art Museum several art shows are being staged, including Sidney Gamble's photography show, oil paintings by Alan Wong, ink paintings by Raymond Fung and paintings made using Russian wood carvings.

Sidney David Gamble (1890-1968) was an American social scientist, Christian humanist and photographer who devoted his life to Chinese urban and rural socio-economic studies.

From 1908 to 1932, he made four trips in China, first as a high school graduate and later as a research secretary for the Young Men's Christian Association. During his stay in China, Gamble used his camera to build a visual archive of 5,000 black-and-white photographs, color slides and 16 millimeter film strips.

These visual materials captured images of China during the most critical years of its modern history: the ending of several thousand years of dynastic rule, the rise of a new and fledgling republic and the turmoil of civil war.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Alan Wong began his artistic career very early. Known also as a poet, Wong has been experimenting with various painting styles.

He sees art as a visual media and tries to import "languages" into his art in order to give it new life. Using abstract and diverse styles, Wong's art is filled with passion and energy.

Exhibited in the same hall as Wong's works, Raymond Fung's ink paintings use minimal color as he believes that with ink and water he is able to develop and define a mood and rebuild the contours of the land on which we live.

Born and raised in Hong Kong in 1952, Fung received a professional degree in architecture in the United States and has won several awards, such as the 1990 Ten Outstanding Young Person's Award and the 1999 Hong Kong Institute of Architects President Prize.

Also, more than 100 Russian wood-carving paintings will be on display. These Shanghai Art Museum works were largely produced in the 1990s.

Near the Shanghai Art Museum is the Shanghai Museum, where "the Treasures of Japanese Art Objects" are being presented during the Spring Festival. The show presents 101 objects, which are representative of Japanese art. They date from the Jomon period (10,000-300 BC), before Japan came into contact with China, to the Muromachi period (1,400-1,600). This is the first major government-sponsored Japanese exhibition of its kind.

Competing with the Japanese treasures are replica paintings and sculptures from the Dunhuang Grottoes. They are on show at the Longhua Tourism City in Shanghai until February 28 together with original-size replicas of two grottoes.

The performing arts are also active during the holiday season with the re-staging of the "Mansions of Red Dreams" and a concert by the Shanghai Philharmonic Chorus at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, as well as a concert by the Salzburg State Orchestra at the Shanghai Majestic Theatre.

The Spring Festival is also a good season to take people to the cinema. The city's major joint-venture cinemas will screen Hollywood movies such as "Chicken Run," "Most Wanted" and "Charlie's Angels" as well as Hong Kong movies like "The Accidental Spy" and "In the Mood for Love.

(China Daily 01/22/2001)