Performances by Mingmei Yip
21 October 2005
“ISHSS GOES CHINA”
16.00-20.00
ISHSS, Prins Hendrikkade 189b, Amsterdam
The following performances are scheduled:
Friday, 21 October 2005 - 16.00
Tuesday, 25 October 2005 - 17.00
Wednesday, 26 October 2005 - 16.00
Admissions free to ISHSS students.
Limited places available, so be sure
to be on time!
Programme:
16.00 - 16.45 Qin Performance/Lecture by dr Ming Mei Yip (Phd)
The Qin (Chinese seven-stringed zither), is an instrument par excellence of the literati with a history of 2500 years old. It is often practiced, together with painting, calligraphy, and chess, as self cultivation instead of entertainment. Scholars prefer to play this instrument in an intimate environment to a few friends who can truly understand the many nuances of the music. Mingmei Yip is both a scholar and performer of the qin for thirty years; her style is reputed to be subtle and detached. Dr. Yip will talk about women qin players, including Buddhist nuns who wrote beautiful poems on the instrument. Dr Yip is currently an affiliated fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). www.iias.nl
16.45-17.00 Break
17.00-17.30 Screening of the documentary 'Pure Land, Amsterdam'
This documentary had its premiere only 2 weeks ago and is one of the few films about the Chinese community in the Netherlands. Surrounded by bustling restaurants, coffee shops and red light windows, two young Chinese nuns quietly go about their daily routines inside the He Hua (Lotus) Temple standing at Amsterdam’s (in)famous Zeedijk street. A giant temple run by two small nuns, Venerable Man Jung and Venerable Chueh Hai, is changing the dynamics of life on the Zeedijk. A bridge, an oasis, a source of lightthese are metaphors the nuns use in describing their temple.
Director: Wen-Jie Qin
17.30-17.45 break
18.00- 18.45 Tai Chi demonstration
The Chinese characters for Tai Chi Chuan can be translated as the 'Supreme Ultimate Force'. The notion of 'supreme ultimate' is often associated with the Chinese concept of yin-yang, the notion that one can see a dynamic duality (male/female, active/passive, dark/light, forceful/yielding, etc.) in all things. 'Force' (or, more literally, 'fist') can be thought of here as the means or way of achieving this ying-yang, or 'supreme-ultimate' discipline. Tai Chi, as it is practiced in the west today, can perhaps best be thought of as a moving form of yoga and meditation combined. There are a number of so- called forms (sometimes also called 'sets') which consist of a sequence of movements. Many of these movements are originally derived from the martial arts (and perhaps even more ancestrally than that, from the natural movements of animals and birds) although the way they are performed in Tai Chi is slowly, softly and gracefully with smooth and even transitions between them
18.45 - 19.45 drinks and Chinese snacks
25 October 2005
Qin Music and ist Setting: Private Study, Nature, Palace, temple, Prostitution House
Arsenaalstraat 1, Leiden.
"Stiltezaal", Sinological Library
17:00 hrs.
Ms. Yip Mingmei (Ph.D. Sorbonne) will give a little guqin concert in the "stiltezaal" of the Sinological Library,
She will introduce the instrument with a lecture titled "Qin music and its setting - private study, nature, palace, temple, turquoise pavilion", accompanied by slides.
This event is part of the library exhibition "Imagine! The many faces of of music in contemporaryChina", displayed in the library of the Sinological Institute until 31 September, 2006.
Yip Mingmei was born and grew up in Hong Kong and since 1992 has resided in the United States. She received her Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and subsequently was appointed lecturer in music at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and later senior lecturer (associate professor) at Hong Kong Baptist University. Dr Yip is currently an affiliated fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS).
Yip has lectured widely on and performed the qin at Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Orchestra Women's Association, the University of Paris, Oxford University and the China Institute in New York. Her publications include numerous articles and books, among them The Art of Qin Music, Qin Music and Chinese Culture, The World of Music, Never Poles Apart (short stories and essays), and Good Time on Earth (essays on Zen Buddhism illustrated by her own paintings and calligraphy). A sixth book, Qin Music and Zen Buddhism, has been accepted for publication in Taiwan.
The guqin (also known as qin or Chinese lute) is a seven stringed zither and China's oldest stringed instrument, with a history of some 3000 years. It has traditionally been an instrument of the scholars, and it was always (and still is) only played by a very few adepts. The oldest qins that have been handed down and are still played on are dating from the Tang dynasty (618-907). Still playable instruments have also been found in graves from the Han dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.).
26 October 2005
Women Qin Players - Gentry Women, Court Ladies, Nons, Prostitutes and Legendary Figures
Leiden University
Building 1103, Nonnensteeg 1-3, Room 329
16.00 – 17.00
Concert Program:
1. Three Varitions on the Plum Blossom
2. Playing the Flute on the Phoenix Terrace (with singing)
3. Geese Descending on Sandbank
4. Evening Songs of the Crow
About the lecturer/performer
Dr. Mingmei Yip got her Ph.D in musicology from the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Her main research area includes the qin (Chinese seven-stringed zither) which she has been playing for thirty years. She has also published two books and numerous articles on this subject. Her other research area is Buddhist chant from which she learned since a teenager from a Buddhist nun in Hong Kong.
Besides music, Yip is also an author and painter. She wrote and illustrated Chinese Children's Favorite Stories (Tuttle 2004). A solo exhibition of her Guan Yin (Chinese Goddess of Compassion) paintings was held in a gallery in SoHo, New York, 2002. Yip is currently an affiliated fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS). www.iias.nl
Information:
International Institute for Asian Studies
Ms Amis Boersma
071-527 4159