Author: He Shan

Publishing House: Guangxi Normal University Press 

Publishing Time: April 2020

People's attention to Dunhuang art has been on the rise for years. How did Dunhuang art come about? What is the relationship between the art and Chinese and world civilizations? What is its true value? 

The Guangxi Normal University Press recently published a third edition of Culture of China's Western Regions and Dunhuang Art, which gives comprehensive answers to those who are curious about the ancient art.

The book is an academic work and also a collection of drawings. Author He Shan spent a dozen years copying wall paintings on the spot and writing down over 300,000 words.

It has 15 chapters and includes more than 300 copies of Dunhuang wall paintings, demonstrating the origin and value of Dunhuang art, and also the relationship between it and the culture of China's western regions as well as the world's other civilizations.

The author is of the opinion that Dunhuang Art, one of the world's richest art traditions, was cultivated by the Silk Road. It reflects a fruitful exchange between ancient China and the world, and is the result of the collision and integration of the world's four ancient civilizations.  

The birth of Dunhuang art is also inseparable from the cultural characteristics of the nomadic people in western China. The author analyzes the creation of the water-and-grass-based nomadic tribes. During their migrations, they had cultural and artistic exchanges with other tribes, and spent plenty of time creating decorative arts and participating in cultural activities such as singing and dancing. 

A large number of historical materials in the book prove that Dunhuang art is an important part of traditional Chinese culture. It was not only a simple "output" or "input" of Chinese and Greek civilizations, but an outcome deriving from a process of learning from each other.  

(Source: China Youth Daily/Translated and edited by Women of China)