CAET

Following the summer issue of CAET featuring the Harvard Asia Center event, the winter issue continues the dialogue between Asia and West. Liu and Zhang from Shenzhen University, China, write from the perspective of aesthetics about the Mat Lion Dance, one of the unique events of the flower Buddhism ritual in Meizhou, China. The article deepens public understanding of this cultural heritage. Then three authors Bockhorni (Brazil/Switzerland), Kopytin (Russia), and Zhou (China) discuss Ikebana, the Japanese classical art form of flower arrangement, together with botanical arrangement in relation to ecological art therapy.  Read more

Author: Yuelong Zhang

The “Mat Lion Dance” is one of the unique events of the “XiangHua” (which means fragrant flowers in Chinese) Buddhism ritual in Meizhou Hakka, Guangdong, China. From the perspective of aesthetics, the current study will analyze and discuss its cultural background and history as well as its artistic expression and intrinsic value. The article will emphasize three aspects: the relationship between the Hakka and Buddhist cultures; the implications of the performance and process of the Mat Lion Dance; and the function of praying, uniting the clan, and blessing of the Mat Lion Dance. The aim of the article is to deepen public understanding of the Mat Lion Dance, a precious intangible cultural heritage, and enable it to be better protected and inherited. Read More

Authors: Alexander Kopytin et al.

This article reviews the history of the Japanese art of Ikebana and the contemporary ecological art therapy practice involving botanical arranging and their correlation and contribution to the physical and mental well-being of human beings. Different perspectives are offered by a Brazilian Ikebana professor, with a neurological background, from the Ikenobo School, a Russian art therapist specializing in ecological art therapy, and a Chinese creative art therapist with a biomedical background. Ikebana and botanical arranging are considered forms of creative interaction with nature, providing multiple therapeutic effects and showing us how to realign with the laws of nature.  Read more

Authors: Akihito Suzuki

The interview focuses on James Miller’s thinking about the relation between Daoism and ecology. Miller believes that, to develop a foundation for ecological sustainability, we need to break down the separation between human beings and the world we live in. This can be done by Daoist techniques of bodily cultivation, based on the concept of the body as porous and interpenetrating with the environment. Practices such as these will lay the groundwork for an aesthetic foundation of ecology.  Read more

Authors: Stephen Levine

This review outlines Miller’s argument that the Daoist tradition offers an important perspective for ecological thought based on the pervasion of nature in human existence and the porosity of the human body. Somatic practices can build a basis for the aesthetic perception necessary for ecological action. The reviewer suggests that there is a possible convergence between Daoism and the thinking of poiesis that shows the importance of the creative and expressive arts in ecological theory and practice.  Read more

Author: Debra Kalmanowitz et al.

Six art therapists belonging to the Asian Art Therapy Network give their personal reflections on the International Art Therapy Practice Research Conference, which took place in London, 2019. In common is the importance given to collaboration, cooperation and developing a sense of community.  Read more

Authors: Rachel Sweeney

In August 2015 a group of seven students and staff from Liverpool Hope University in the UK visited the SOS Children’s Village just outside Galle town in Southern Sri Lanka, to partake in a two week residential program ‘Global Hope’, teaching English to children between four and fifteen. Below is lecturer Dr Rachel Sweeney’s account of their experiences at the SOS Village, reflecting on a range of somatic educational tools as applied to the pedagogic focus of teaching English through movement and music, and focusing broadly on the education values of somatics as placed within an interdisciplinary embodied approach.   Read more

Authors: Tony Yu Zhou

Xiang-Dong Kong (born 1968, in Shanghai), Chinese pianist, one of the musicians featured in the 1979 documentary film, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Kong was the Gold Medalist at the 1988 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. In 1992 he won the Sydney International Piano Competition. Dr. Tony Zhou, the executive editor of CAET, interviewed Kong for the Featured Artist column of the journal. The pianist shared his story and mission to bring music to the public to improve the well-being of humanity.   Read more