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Hi,Dear Friends
How are you?
Time is flying; four weeks have passed since I last wrote to you. Have you had a good time in the past 28 days? I do hope you have.
I spent quite a busy time during this period:
On June 27, 2025, I offered the second public welfare course for a group of Chinese-Australian elders at an aging assistance institution organized by the local government. Except for several nursing staff and one elder who suffers from Parkinson's disease, 21 elders over the age of 65 completed their first Chinese painting.
During my work with these elderly people, I was touched by their love for Chinese culture and their hometowns when I showed them my eighth draft of China’s Provincial Bird Map. Many people asked me which bird represents their own province in China. Many of them gave me a thumbs-up to encourage me in my work. Although the first Chinese paintings had very thin lines, every elder seriously completed his or her work.
On June 29, 2025, I conducted the third public welfare course, which was a lecture introducing Chinese art through poetry, painting, music, and ancient Chinese characters. It also gave people an opportunity to sing and paint with me at a local art organization that is a branch of the largest global child art training program in Sydney. It is said that about 2,000 people pre-registered to watch online, and several individuals on-site completed their first Chinese painting.
I was moved once more by the local Australian people:
-- Ms. Zhao Rong, a local media presenter, proactively connected with me last Wednesday and did an advertisement online on Thursday; then she came to the scene on Sunday to do a live report. With her excellent work ability, within such a short time frame, she collected about 2,000 registrations to watch the lectures online. ( She is on the far left in the group photo)
-- Mrs. Tan Wenhua, the President of the Australian Chinese Art Research Society, and her assistant Ms. Landa came to my job site and participated in the entire process while giving me some valuable advice regarding Chinese art. (She is the second person on the left in the group photo)
-- Mrs. Amanda, an entrepreneur, brought her daughter to join us before their airplane took off.
-- Mr. David, the leader of the art branch that cooperated with us, offered his location and helped set it up. ( He is the second person on the right in the group photo)
-- Mr. Dennis, an art teacher who works in David’s classroom, did most of the work helping us hang up and take down paintings from the walls. (He is the first one on the right in the group photo)
-- Mrs. Michel Ji, my work partner, did advertising tasks; she printed business cards for me and set up the classroom before leaving due to illness.
On July 2, 2025, with the introduction and guidance of Mr. David, I had an opportunity to visit a government official Ms. JR who leads nine local libraries in her community; hopefully they will start a cross-cultural and comprehensive art workshop with me in one of their libraries in 2026.
Since May 27 to July 4，2025，in the past 38 days, under the guidance of an American English teacher, I spent 96 hours completing oral English training by repeating the content (I tried not to read the book) and using their original American textbooks.
By June 25, 2025, I had basically completed the bird part of my eighth draft of the American cultural map after finishing the eighth draft of my Chinese Province Bird Map.
When I looked at and compared the more than 200 birds that I had created based on over 60,000 birds from America and China in my two big paintings, some new and interesting ideas jumped into my mind and brought me a big smile. What are they? I would like to share them with you in my paper someday.
Honestly, I am quite glad to have found some academic ideas during the creative process because I want to improve myself not only in art skills but also in art theory.
Anyway, very often when I recall my work in Sydney since May 8, 2025, I realize that on the surface I've done many jobs; however, when checking them seriously, I can find many things that should be done better.
So now, as I did in my twelfth American Travel: though I taught painting finally, still I created a PPT document for planning my teaching content including poetry, music, and ancient Chinese characters and so on. Then, I made a summary document to review both good and bad situations and figure out clear solutions for improving my future work while trying to make a little bit of progress each day…
To be honest, I am extremely tired, because since I arrived in Sydney on the night of May 8, 2025, until today (July 4), within the short span of 56 days, I have already worked through the night 9 times, and my daily work time is over 15 hours.
However, when I saw those elderly people singing Tang Dynasty (618 - 907) poems with big smiles and painting Song Dynasty (960 – 1276 / 1279) paintings seriously, I often thought about my many blonde-haired and blue-eyed American students and their love for Chinese art. I really felt that what I did was worthwhile and meaningful. I would truly like to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ to do my best to serve more people in the world.
How about you? Do you have anything special to share?
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Sincerely, I am just a lifelong learner in the arts of painting, music, English, management and Chinese art teaching, and work on the website in my free time. I would really like to do something with what I have learned and make this website a little electronic bridge for cross-cultural and integrated/comprehensive art and Chinese language studying. This way, I can help others while improving myself.
Thank you always for your understanding, guidance and assistance and if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to write to info@ebridge.cn .
Shirley Yiping Zhang
July 4, 2025 (Sydney Time, Australia )
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