水上的大鸟 Big Birds over Water

从南丫到中环的渡轮上, 瞥见大鸟般的鱼舟, 觉得很美, 很安宁。 Big fishing birds on the water, seen on a morning ferry from Lamma Island to Central.

生如夏花 Life Like Summer Flowers

今年国庆维多利亚港又放烟花。这是我从来看不腻、永远看不腻的。那黑暗夜空中骤然释放的极短暂却极热烈的美，是我在现实中能看到的与梦幻最接近的东西。当辉煌燃尽，浓烈的色彩化为点点星火慢慢消逝，而天空又恢复了夜色中的沉默，我想起我最喜欢的诗人泰戈尔在《飞鸟集》中的两句：“让生如夏花之绚烂，死若秋叶之静美”。

让生如夏花之绚烂，死若秋叶之静美，这正是我想活出的生命。

On the National Day there was firework display in the Victoria Harbour again. I can never get tired of fireworks. The transient but extremely powerful explosion of beauty in the dark evening sky is something in reality that is most close to a dream. When the splendid flame came to an end, the intense colours subsided into twinkling stars before they finally disappeared. Now the sky resumed the colour of the night and the sound of silence. At the moment, I remembered something Tagore wrote in his Stray Birds: “Let life be beautiful like summer flowers, and death like autumn leaves.”

Let life be beautiful like summer flowers, and death like autumn leaves. This is the way of life and death I will live and die.

大芬油画村 Dafen Oil Painting Village

深圳没什么可看的,连独特的购物去处也少见,却有一个特别的地方, 大芬油画村。 这是龙岗区一个0.4平方公里左右的社区，据说有5000多个艺术家和画匠栖居于此，开有700来家画廊，主要出售原创油画和复制名画。接近村口时已看到楼上的标语：“艺术与市场在这里对接，才华与财富在这里对换。”

进到社区里，看了摆在店里的作品，大失所望。真是只见市场不见艺术，只见金钱不见才华。满街的店铺满眼的画，却不觉的它们与文化艺术有任何关系，到是与家居装修建材城一类靠得更近。仔细一点，可以看得出大部分作品还是出自训练了多年的手。想想这些曾经怀着热情、憧憬拿起画笔的人，历尽寒窗之苦，练就了一种丰富美好的表达方式，却没有表达的自由，久而久之心里连表达的内容与愿望也消失了。若是他们知道有一天会来到陌生城市的一个小阁楼里，毫无创造性的复制他人作品，或为了迎合市场的低俗品位堆砌些刺眼的青山绿水，他们最初还会选择拿起画笔么？可悲的是，我几乎可以肯定，来到大芬村，丢弃艺术，背叛才华，并不会带来与这种牺牲对等的财富，如果真的存在这样的对等。

我们站在大芬的一间被耀眼日光灯照得象快餐店一样雪亮的所谓画廊前，看到多少梦想在这里破碎。

There is a special place in Shenzhen called Dafen Oil Painting Village. It is a community of 0.4 square kilometres in Longgang District, boasting more than 5,000 artists and close to 700 galleries. This is a base of mass oil painting production in China, exhibiting original work as well as reproduction of master pieces. Approaching the entrance of the community, one can spot a slogan high up on a building: “Here art merges with market; talent brings wealth.”

A stroll through lanes lined with shops of painting only brought great disappointment. Prevalent here was the vulgar of the market that has engulfed artistic talents. Works of paintings piled up like building boards in construction material warehouses, resembling nothing cultural or artistic, although observed more closely, some of these works did tell of the skilful and trained hands that created them. Obviously, many artists who dwell and work in Dafen have gone through rigorous training from very young and acquired the skills that would open rich and beautiful ways of expression. Sadly, the freedom of expression does not naturally come with it, and with the lapse of time, passion of expression also disappears. If they had known that one day they would belocked up in a little corner of a strange city, copying other people's work or producing tasteless chunks of loud colours to meet the market demand, would they have picked up a painting brush in the first place? What's more tragic, I believe strongly, the heavy sacrifice of giving up their artistic yearnings and betraying their own talents will not bring the justifying wealth, if there is such a thing of "justifying wealth" at all.

Standing outside a so-called art gallery lit up like a fast-food restaurant, we had to lament a complete surrender of the purity of art to ruthless commercial pursuit. Dafen Village is, indeed, a village of broken dreams.