This year of 2018 is witnessing Madame He Xiangning’s 140th birthday anniversary. Commemorative activities are being held across the country so as to pay tribute to the outstanding revolutionary woman. In order to show our admiration for Madame He Xiangning and uphold her revolutionary and artistic spirit, the He Xiangning Art Museum planned a special exhibition–Patriotism Embodied in Her Paintings–An Exhibition of Selected Artwork of He Xiangning Marking Her 140th Birth Anniversary–under the guidance of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council. This exhibition has gained a lot of support from many museums, cultural organizations and arts agencies, including National Museum of China, National Art Museum of China, Beijing Fine Art Academy, Guangdong Museum, Suzhou Museum, Guangzhou Museum of Art, Liu Haisu Art Museum, Liao Zhongkai-He Xiangning Memorial Hall, and Liu Yazi Memorial Hall. Therefore, counting the collections in our museum, over 70 pieces of Madame He’s artwork altogether are being displayed. There is also a wide range of documentations and pictures of the history in the exhibition that vividly and lively present He Xiangning as a revolutionary artist.
He Xiangning (1878-1972), also known as Shuangqing Louzhu (Mistress of the terrace of the two pures), was born in Hong Kong. She was a social activist, artist and great woman in modern China. Her family was originally from Miancun Village, Nanhai County, Guangdong Province, and thus she called herself Miancun Jushi.
He Xiangning went to Japan in 1903 to seek knowledge, following her husband, Liao Zhongkai, and joined Sun Yat-sen’s Tongmenghui in 1905 to crusade against the warlords and the imperial dynasty, which was ended by the Xinhai Revolution they initiated. She devoted herself later to China’s democratic revolutions. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, she served in a number of high-ranking positions in the government, including one of the council members of the Central People’s Government Council, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, chairperson of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, Honorary Chairwoman of All-China Women’s Federation, vice chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. She was a great leader and a lifetime champion of the national liberation and unification, the founding of a new China, socialist construction and the friendship between China and all the other countries in the world, which won sublime prestige at home and abroad.
He Xiangning was a painter. She was once elected as the chairperson of the China Artists Association. She painted pine trees, plum blossom, lions, tigers, mountains and rivers to express her ideals and emotions. The paintings were impressive and imposing, inventive and profound. They were the embodiments of her seventy years of revolutionary career and noble character. The complements and inscriptions of many other artists and national leaders added more dignity to these treasured paintings of the Chinese nation.
