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Song Meiying,widow of renowned artist Chen
Yifei, walks into a Shanghai funeral parlor with their son
yesterday. Some 1,000 people attended a funeral for Chen, who died
of liver disease in a local hospital 10 days ago at age 59.
(Xinhua) |
Some 1,000 people gathered in a funeral
parlor in this east China metropolis Wednesday morning to
bid farewell to noted Chinese artist Chen Yifei, who died of gastrorrhagia , or stomach hemorrhage , in a local hospital ten
days ago.
The one-hour ceremony attracted a large number of Chinese celebrities
from the art, entertainment, fashion and publishing circles, as Chen was
widely regarded as a real master with great attainments in all these
fields.
Big-name attendees of the ceremony included world famous Chinese
composer Tan Dun and directors Chen Kaige and Feng Xiaogang.
Chen Yifei, a native of Zhenhai City in east China's Zhejiang Province,
was born in 1946 and educated in the Shanghai Fine Art School. He went to
the United States to receive higher education in 1980, and his artistic
career started to blossom after he received a master's degree in art in
1984.
His stardom was demonstrated in his first personal exhibition held at
New York's Hammer Galleries and the selection of his work by an American
oil mogul as a special present
to late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
Chen was known to his fellow countrymen more as an art generalist and
successful businessman than an exceptional painter. Returning to China in
the 1990s, Chen pioneered into many artistic fields such as fashion
design, film making and publishing while continuing with his painting
endeavors.
"I'd like to make my own choice while selecting a way of life. I love
paintings, clothing and films because they are all beautiful things," Chen
once said.
Chen gave much of the money earned from the sale of his paintings to
Project Hope, a charity program aiming to help poor school drop-outs in
China resume their education. He also established an art foundation,
according to unconfirmed reports of a Beijing-based newspaper.
Prior to his hospitalization immediately followed by his death, Chen,
as director-cum-investor, was filming a new movie titled "The Barber" in
Fuyang, a city in his home province Zhejiang. The crew said they would
work even harder to finalize the movie early and present it to the deceased Chen.
Chen was admitted to Huashan Hospital in Shanghai on April 6 and passed
away four days later.
Doctors blamed overwork and
exhaustion for his illness and death.
The Shanghai Metro Operation Co. Ltd, which runs the city's subway
transport system, issued on Wednesday a special set of commemorative
ticket cards featuring two of Chen's most famous paintings, namely, the
"Twin Bridge (Shuangqiao)" and "Lingering Melodies at Xunyang", or
Farewell at Xunyang.
The memorial set was priced at 18 yuan (2.2 US dollars) each and only
10,000 copies were printed to be sold.
The metro company said the memorial set was selling hot due to the high
popularity of Chen in Shanghai.
(Xinhua) |