It was one year ago when the new journal idea came into my mind and giving birth to it has been an exciting journey. I was thinking of a unique academic international journal in English combining arts education and arts therapy with a China focus, the first of its kind to bridge East and West, art and science. I started to invite people one by one onto the editorial board. After more than a half year of preparation, our editorial board has been set up and consists of nearly 50 influential researchers and scholars active in different fields in China and abroad. This group reflects the multidisciplinary commitment of CAET and our vision to enhance serious inquiry into the function and value of the arts in the current social context of East and West.
As the founder of the journal, I also see this as an interesting and rewarding personal journey. My Chinese and biomedical background and many years of living in both China and Europe have given me many perspectives on China and the scientific community, but it was only when I was drawn into the art world through modern dance and later through dance movement therapy that my perspective about myself and the world become more multidimensional and comprehensive. The challenges and bottlenecks I encountered in scientific research suggested that the insights I sought could not be provided by hard science alone which is more mind oriented. When we engage the arts and embodied experience, we are creating more possibilities for understanding ourselves and the world, and for answering many questions, including scientific ones. So I see the value of the arts not only in performances by arts professionals but also as an essential element of life for every human being as well an indispensable counterpart to science — just like the Yin and Yang we need to make a good balance. This is my fundamental motivation for establishing the journal. Looking back, it was 10 years ago when I brought the knowledge from the West to China with dance/movement therapy colleagues from Europe and the United States. Now, I find myself facilitating the reverse process with the journal where a mutual flow and dialogue will help us complete a circle of learning.
I feel extremely happy and lucky to have Professor Shaun McNiff on board to be one of the chief editors of CAET. Shaun has a profound understanding of the value of art and keeps inspiring our community with his passion for integrating artistic and scientific inquiry. In addition to the many other leaders in the arts in education and therapy fields who have joined our editorial board, I also feel it is important to have young talented researchers participating to bring new ideas and innovation to our journal. The expertise and dedication of Shaun and other editorial board members, and the support from both art and science will play a significant role in determining CAET’s success.
Getting the first issue to take off has taken considerable time and effort from all of us who are engaged in this process. While there are challenges for many Chinese authors who are writing in the English language, we do hope our readers and colleagues can enjoy reading the different perspectives in the articles in the first issue which we hope will facilitate more dialogue between the East and West. We would like to thank all our authors whose articles have or have not been accepted for publication in this issue for the enthusiasm and support for the CAET journal, and for the time and effort you have spent to prepare the manuscripts, especially those authors whose mother tongue is not English. We also thank each of the reviewers who read the manuscripts and offered constructive feedback. We are very pleased to have people with committed to the mission of the journal join us for this exciting and meaningful journey.
I do hope CAET will be your partner in your research and practice. We look forward to working closely with our art and science communities in the future.
Dr. Tony Zhou, Founder and Executive Editor
Dec 15, 2015, Delft
前言
创立这本新期刊的想法应该是在一年之前进入我脑海中的。它的诞生如同一段令人激动的旅程。那时候我考虑的是一本特别的国际英文学术期刊，它包含艺术教育和艺术治疗并以中国为其中一个焦点。而且它是世界上第一份架接东西方，艺术与科学领域的期刊。我开始一个个邀请同行进入编委会。经过半年多时间的准备，由中国和国外近50位各个领域有影响力的学者专家组成的编委会搭建了起来。这个团队体现了CAET致力于多学科合作的特色，以及我们对于当今东西方社会背景下艺术的功能与价值进行严肃认真探讨的眼光与目标。
作为这个期刊的创刊人，我也把这看作是一段充满乐趣和价值的个人征途。华人和生物医学的背景，以及在中国和欧洲工作生活多年的经历赋予了我对于中国和科学界许多的视角。但仅仅在我被现代舞和舞动治疗带入艺术世界后，我对于自己和世界的认识才变得更加的多维和全面。我在科学研究中遇到的挑战与瓶颈提示我：自己一直在探寻的深度洞察不能仅仅单靠基于理性思维的‘硬科学’提供。当我们将艺术和具身体验加入其中的时候，我们便创造出了更多的可能性去理解我们自己和世界，并回答很多的问题，包括科学问题。所以我看到得艺术的价值不仅仅存在于专业人士的表演中，而且在于它是对于每一位人类个体生命中的基本要素，同时也是与科学相匹配的不可缺少的一部分，就如同我们需要阴阳去获取平衡一样。这成为了我创立这本期刊的原动力。回顾过去，十年前我和欧洲与美国的同行通过舞动治疗将知识从西方带到中国。十年后，我发现自己在通过这个期刊促进逆向的进程，而最终这种双向的流动与对话帮助我们完成一个学习的轮回。
为了准备和出版这份期刊的第一期，我们所有参与这个过程的人都付出了很多的时间和努力。虽然众多中国作者用英语写作有挑战，但我们希望我们的读者和同行们仍然能够从第一期的这些文章中读到并欣赏不同的观点和视角，我们也期待第一期能够进一步促进东西方之间的对话和交流。我们要感谢所有的作者，不管文章被这期所接受发表与否，为您们给予CAET期刊的热情和支持，以及准备稿件中所花费的时间和心血，特别是那些母语不是英语的作者。我们还要感谢每一位评审专家，认真仔细地阅读稿件并提供了建设性的反馈和建议。我们非常荣幸能够有致力于期刊使命的同行加入到我们这一令人激动和有意义的征途之中。
我感到很高兴和荣幸将Shaun McNiff 教授请到我们编委会担任CAET期刊的主编。McNiff 教授对艺术有着深刻的理解，他不断地用其整合艺术和科学探索的热情激励着我们领域的同仁们。除了艺术教育和治疗的卓越领导外，我觉得将年轻有为的中青年才俊请到我们的团队中是非常重要的。他们的加入将为我们的期刊带来活力和创新。Shaun和其他编委的专业知识和奉献，以及来自艺术和科学的支撑将决定CAET将来的成功。
我真心希望CAET能成为您科研和实践工作中的伙伴。我们期待着与艺术和科学界同仁们将来紧密的合作。
周宇博士
CAET创刊人及执行主编
2015年12月15日，荷兰代尔夫特
Since 1970 I have explored how the arts heal throughout history and in the different regions of the world by transforming pain and suffering into endlessly variable and unique affirmations of life and by activating creative energies that exist inside and outside the person in what might be imagined as a pulse of nature, maybe close to China’s untranslatable Tao. These forces are not only accessible to all humans, they are what make us human.
As an advocate for a deeper appreciation of this common humanity I have always celebrated understanding and respecting different traditions that move like rivers toward and from the source that holds their ongoing changes. My work with the arts also affirms the endless differences in individual expressions, manifestations of our unique creative DNA and biodiversity. I miss this deeper sensibility in our current Western discussions of culture where more attention needs to be given to how the arts both individuate in the most radical ways while also uniting in communion with all people and living things.
This was the context of my life and thought when Dr. Tony Zhou invited me to be part of CAET. I was taken aback by his commitment to all of the arts, close cooperation between education and therapy, and the need for a more robust partnership between artistic inquiry and science—all of which have been the bedrock of my career presented to me now in a new opportunity to span East and West and to affirm the importance of China to our past and future.
As we begin the work of CAET I am once again limited by my inability to access the written expressions of China but I hope the journal, fully accessible to readers of Chinese and English, will promote more cross-cultural understanding and opportunities for others like me to learn and be a more complete participant in the world.
Shaun McNiff
Co-Editors-in-Chief
Dec 20, 2015, Boston
自从1970年开始我就开始探寻在人类的历史长河过程中各个不同的地区和文化怎样通过艺术进行疗愈，帮助我们将痛苦和磨难转化为无穷的对生命的多样和独特的肯定。艺术所赋予我们的那种创造力存在于一个人的体内外，可以被想象成自然的脉搏，也许这类似于中国文化中所谓的‘道’。这些力量不仅对于所有人类是可及的，它们也使我们成为人。
作为对于这一共同人性深切欣赏的倡导者，我始终庆贺自己能够理解和尊重不同的传统，它们就如河流般流淌进出于抱持着不断变化的源头。我的艺术工作也确认了个人表达的无限不同，体现了我们独特的创造性的基因和生物多样性。在当今西方对文化的探讨中我看到了这种深度感性的缺失，我们需要更加关注艺术在最为激进的方式中如何体现个性化的同时，将人类和所有的生灵在交融中统一在一起。
这是当周宇博士邀请我加入CAET的时候我生命和思想的背景情况。我惊诧于他对于所有艺术，教育和治疗之间紧密合作，艺术探索和科学更为坚定伙伴关系的需求的致力奉献。所有这些都一直是我整个职业生涯中的基石，而现在它们以一种新的机会呈现在我的面前，跨越东西方，并确认了中国对于过去和将来的重要性。
在CAET的工作开始之际，我再一次因为自己不能读到中国的书面表达受到一些限制。但我希望这本对于懂中文和英文的读者的期刊，将促进像我这样的人对跨文化有更多地理解，并为我们提供学习和更加全面参与到世界的机会。
Shaun McNiff 教授
CAET联合主编
2015年12月20日，美国波士顿
