He is also an art educator.
He has worked for more than twenty years.
China's art education has contributed greatly.
He founded PHE International Youth Painting and Calligraphy Conference.
It affected tens of millions of people.
This is Chen Shibin.
On June 27th, 20 19, Chen Shibin was invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the China-Europe Alliance for Humanities and Art Education and delivered a keynote speech entitled My Understanding and Practice of Aesthetic Education.
The following is the full text of the speech.
My understanding and practice of aesthetic education
I remember the German philosopher Nietzsche once said a sentence that shocked the world, called "God is dead". There are many explanations for this sentence, but none of them put forward a solution to what to do if God dies. However, one hundred years after Nietzsche's death, Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the education chief, education theorist and president of Peking University in the Republic of China, put forward the solution of "replacing religion with aesthetic education". His views have a wide influence and are strongly supported by contemporary scholar Wang Guowei. Wang Guowei added: "Artists are also religions of the upper class".
Another hundred years have passed, although "moral, intellectual and physical beauty" still remains in our educational policy, it is a pity that our aesthetic education has not been paid enough attention for a long time. Of course, we should also understand that as a new China that just stood up in the middle of last century, it is understandable to pay attention to pragmatic subject education at this stage. But today, in the 2 1 century, China has developed into the second largest economy in the world, reaching the level of developed countries in all aspects. We are still at the stage of "learning mathematics and physics well and traveling around the world without fear", which is obviously too shallow and ignorant.
More than 2,000 years ago, Zhuangzi put forward the view that "those who are useless should be put to great use", which is still widely recognized. Aesthetic education or fine arts have not only practical functions, but also useless aspects. It is a trinity of technology, art and Taoism, which plays an irreplaceable role in children's aesthetic cognition and perfect personality shaping.
I once wrote an article called "Aesthetics is the biggest consumption in the future society". The central meaning is that with the progress of society, a highly developed material civilization is bound to be accompanied by a huge demand for spiritual civilization, especially the spiritual demand based on aesthetics will be greatly released. I believe that each of us has such an experience, which has established a profound connection with beauty in every aspect, including eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, eating, wearing, living, walking, swimming, learning and entertainment.
For example, when our delicious food and beautiful scenery become delicious food, or our clothes are customized by designers, the price will increase exponentially or even dozens of times; Today's housing, its decoration and decoration have already exceeded its construction cost; The design and brand value of cars instead of walking has been several times the manufacturing cost, and there are countless examples. Therefore, to some extent, aesthetics is more important than knowledge and skills.
In fact, economists have long been aware of this. They divide the course of human economic development into three economic forms, the first is agricultural economic form, the second is industrial economic form, and the third is grand aesthetic economic form. This great aesthetic economic form is our present and future era.
In view of this, it is particularly urgent and important to carry out aesthetic education for all.
Of course, the first thing to do is to educate children about aesthetics, because aesthetic education is the core content of shaping children's perfect personality and leading to a happy life. In fact, children are gifted from the day they are born. They are beautiful themselves, messengers and incarnations of beauty, and the greatest feature of art is innocence and nature. It is highly compatible with the characteristics of children at this time, so Picasso, a famous Spanish painter, said that "every child is a born artist". The famous German artist Boyce once said that "everyone is an artist". Cheng Dali, a famous painter in China, said, "Children are the closest people to the master".
However, the beauty of children at this stage is not lasting. With the maturity of the mind and the accumulation of knowledge, this natural childlike innocence and interest will gradually weaken or even disappear. If children are not given aesthetic education in time, they will not only lose their natural innocence and childlike interest, but also lose their artistic perception, which will inevitably become a beauty blindness in the new era. This is a great pity.
Therefore, I strongly appeal here not only to protect children's innate childlike interest, but also to strengthen children's aesthetic education.
Let me briefly introduce some of my practices in this regard.
From 1998 to 20 19, I did something that almost all artists dare not imagine and are unwilling to do. This activity is the PHE International Youth Painting and Calligraphy Conference.
This activity is held once a year with the theme of peace, health and environment. For children all over the world; Taking art and calligraphy as the content; A series of activities organized by competitions, exhibitions, awards, forums, publications, summer camps, etc. We put forward the service concept of "caring for everyone and nourishing every heart". At the same time, regardless of whether the children participating in the competition win prizes or not, we will make a personalized album for each child, so that the children will become the cover figures, and the works will be published on the second cover of the album. This kind of encouragement fully respects the children's labor achievements and encourages them to love art to the maximum extent. This move was warmly welcomed by teachers, students and parents, which greatly stimulated children's enthusiasm for learning art.
However, due to the complicated procedures, heavy workload, heavy responsibilities, wide coverage, arduous process and large number of people, I am afraid that the second item cannot be found in all activities of teenagers. I want to explain it briefly with a set of data:
0 1
In the past 22 years, the number of students directly involved (including local pre-selection): more than 20 million. We received nearly 2 million manuscripts directly. )
02
Direct participation of art calligraphy teachers: more than 654.38+ 10,000.
03
Nearly a thousand famous art educators, painters and calligraphers at home and abroad participated in the final evaluation and comment activities of experts.
04
Held nearly 100 large-scale awards ceremonies, exhibitions, forums, lectures and summer camps at home and abroad.
05
More than 20 national leaders, 3 UN Secretaries-General, 14 foreign heads of state, more than 200 diplomatic envoys in China and leaders of relevant UN agencies attended the event or signed their names to help out.
06
More than 30 collections were recommended to the Collection Department of China Art Museum, and more than 20 United Nations greeting cards were recommended to UNICEF.
07
Established the world's first international children's art exhibition hall.
08
In 20 15, the national aesthetic education revitalization plan was launched in the auditorium of CPPCC, involving more than 1000 schools and training institutions.
The above is what I led my team to do for children's aesthetic education for 22 years. I don't forget your initiative, and I have invested hundreds of millions of RMB. Of course, we have encountered many puzzles and difficulties now, and we also hope to get the attention and support from all walks of life, and * * * will continue to carry forward this great cause, which is beneficial to the present and the future.
In addition, PHE International Youth Painting and Calligraphy Conference has placed special emphasis on internationality from the very beginning, especially hoping to establish contact with Europe. In the past 22 years, we have received thousands of works from many European countries. The international ambassador of our conference is Mr. Philippe, a French artist. PHE's national anthem "Come Together" was written by artists from China, France and Italy. In 20 17, PHE also opened up the art study tour route between China and Europe, hoping that more children can contact, understand and learn the splendid culture of Europe. I'm glad to see that the "China-EU Humanities and Art Education Alliance" was established under the auspices of the Chinese-foreign Humanities Exchange Center of the Ministry of Education, which will certainly promote exchanges and mutual learning between China and Europe, and * * * will write a new chapter and make new contributions to youth humanities and art education.
Finally, on behalf of PHE International Youth Painting and Calligraphy Conference, I congratulate the establishment of "China-Europe Humanities and Art Education Alliance"! At the same time, I would like to thank the Chinese and foreign cultural exchange center of the Ministry of Education for inviting me again.
Chen Shibin is giving a keynote speech on the stage.
After the meeting, Chen Shibin showed the artistic creation of pen and ink calligraphy.
It is understood that the China-EU Humanities and Arts Education Alliance was founded by the Chinese-foreign Humanities Exchange Center of the Ministry of Education in conjunction with 28 schools, enterprises, institutions and social organizations that have expertise or characteristics in humanities and arts education and are enthusiastic about Sino-European humanities and arts exchanges. With the aim of improving young students' aesthetic and humanistic qualities, the Alliance builds an open, inclusive and meaningful platform for international exchanges and cooperation, and cultivates brands and accumulates achievements for high-level cultural exchanges between China and Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, as well as cultural exchanges between China and European countries.