Art and Death: The Chinese
Portraying death to children
In the preschool age, educators seldom broach the topic of death. However, some picture books for kids directly address death and related issues. Their current approach is worth utilizing as reference. Book presentations follow the steps: comprehending death with preschoolers' internal experiences, slowly probing into what death means in the eyes of preschoolers, and expanding on the subject by seeking the continuance of love. The above three elements serve as references for Chinese picture books with death as the central theme. Such books depict a child's world using children's language and culture-specific images. The concept of death is taught to students in the form of interesting stories, which portray children's pure world, characterized by curiosity and innocence. Adults are also deeply affected by their simplicity, love and care (Chen, 2012).
Thesis: Death has been incorporated, as a theme, into Chinese books, contemporary artworks, paintings, cemetery architecture, and other elements of Chinese culture.
Expressing death in contemporary ways
The artworks of Liu Bolin have a distinct political message to impart, and are often interpreted as a criticism against political oppression. The artist holds that, in his works, he engages the political facet as an important one among the numerous living conditions. Further, his primary interest is humanity's development. As such, Bolin is more interested in encouraging audiences to evaluate, using concrete situations presented by his works, how the modern society has made the 'individual' invisible. Bolin's broader critique has been expressed in the following way (Wang, 2015):
Economic development complicates the meaning of 'humanity' in the present-day world. Death only takes with it a person's body; however, rushed economic growth gradually destabilizes a person's very spirit.
If one goes along with Bolin's perspective, the predicaments faced by the Chinese, which he believes will, by any measure not be limited...
In contrast, the conflict between urban and economic growth, and the accompanying unfairness and inadequacy resonates across the globe with the impending domination of international capitalism. This simply implies that an increasing number of "invisible bodies" will be created as part of the existing global economic structure (Wang, 2015).
Circle of life and death
Following the circulation principles of ancient Chinese philosophy, the Feng Shui system maintains the belief that death marks the start of another life, and does not represent an end. The various descriptions of people's pre-existence, in addition to their visions of later life, illustrate the strong influence of such a viewpoint. In keeping with this, the Feng Shui system holds the belief that our dead ancestors continue to live in a different world, watching over and protecting their descendants. From the Qi perspective, the energy that is emitted from a dead, buried forebear has extraordinary impacts on the living generations' quality of life. Hence, choosing the right site with a suitable Feng Shui atmosphere and background for the family cemetery represents a means of respect, whilst also being an indication of the entire family's expectations of prosperity and health, in addition to that of the general community. That is, people give much greater value to having an immaculate environment for the resting places of the bereaved. Memorial halls' creation, maintenance, and protection guarantee a thriving, healthy, and fortunate destiny for the living generations. Feng Shui stresses protecting the environment, defending the landscape, and maintaining quality Qi in their ancestral burial grounds. Feng Shui settlements' spatial configurations are basically guided by the system's principles, and prove to be a critical factor in the local community's sustainable development, and that of the entire ancient Chinese agrarian society. The Feng Shui notion of seeking the best living environment by balancing nature with humans also constitutes a…
