一对一 tête à tête
listen to the thousand-year Guqin, play the thousand-year old music, and taste the fragrance of thousand-year tea and commenting on the on the rise and fall of the millennium
UPDATE: Maintenant que l’Europe veut que la Chine aide à hâter la fin de la crise en Ukraine (…), elle devrait au moins commencer à repenser la politique de l’OTAN qui [consiste à] rechercher la sécurité absolue aux dépens de la sécurité d’autres, ce qui est devenu la principale source d’instabilité mondiale. »
"Now that Europe wants China to help hasten the end of the crisis in Ukraine [...] it should at least start rethinking NATO policy, [which consists of] seeking absolute security at the expense of the security of others, which has become the main source of global instability."
"现在欧洲希望中国帮助加速结束乌克兰危机[......]它至少应该开始反思北约政策，[它包括]以牺牲他人安全为代价寻求绝对安全，这已成为全球不稳定的主要来源"。
两人喝茶 deux pour le thé
CCTV has uploaded videos to YouTube of President Xi Jinping and President Macron listening to traditional Chinese music of profound significance.
CCTV says in the intro to the segment:
循着《高山流水》悠远婉转的琴声，习近平和马克龙来到白云厅，听千年古琴奏千年绝唱，品千年茶韵论千年兴替
Following the long and gentle sound of "High Mountain and Flowing Water", Xi Jinping and Macron came to Baiyun Hall to listen to the thousand-year Guqin [a traditional music instrument] play the thousand-year old music, and taste the fragrance of thousand-year tea and commenting on the rise and fall of the millennium.
Xi can be heard as saying clearly in the segment:
《高山流水》，千年古琴奏的是千年绝唱……高山流水盼知音呐……古代很优美的一个故事，俞伯牙和钟子期的故事……体现的是知音，只有知音才听得懂这个曲目
The "High Mountain and Flowing Water," thousand-year old music played by a thousand-year old Guqin[a traditional music instrument]..... A person expects a bosom friend, and they are in sync in the same way between high mountain and flowing water ...... it was a beautiful, ancient story, the story of Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi ...... embodies the bosom friendship, only bosom friends can understand this music.
The story about Zhiyin
Bo Ya was good at playing the qin. Zhong Ziqi was good at listening to the qin. When Bo Ya's will was towards high mountains in his playing, Zhong Ziqi would say, "How towering like Mount Tai!" When Bo Ya's will was towards flowing water in his playing, Zhong Ziqi would say, "How vast are the rivers and oceans!" Whatever Bo Ya thought of Ziqi would never fail to understand. Bo Ya said, "Amazing! Your heart and mine are the same!" After Zhong Ziqi died, Bo Ya broke his Guqin because he thought that no one else can understand his music.
Bo Ya's story with Zhong Ziqi generates the term Zhiyin (Chinese: 知音, original meaning: someone who knows music well), which from then on means close friends that can completely understand each other.
Courtesy of Pekingnology.
一对一 tête à tête
Chinese President Xi Jinping held an informal meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in South China. The two leaders strolled through the Pine Garden close to Baiyun Mountain, chatting and stopping at times to enjoy the unique scenery of the southern Chinese garden. They had tea by the water, enjoying the view and discussing the past and present. Xi and Macron listened to the Guqin melody "High Mountain and Flowing Water" at Baiyun Hall. Xi then invited Macron to dinner.
Xi said that to understand today's China, one must begin by understanding its history. Guangzhou is the cradle of China's democratic revolution and the vanguard of China's reform and opening-up. Now Guangzhou is actively promoting the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, continuing to play its role as a locomotive for high-quality development.
Briefing Macron on the essential features and core elements of Chinese modernization, Xi noted that China is advancing Chinese modernization in an all-round way. This is a socialist modernization theory and practice with Chinese characteristics, which has gradually come into being through repeated reform, opening up and innovative development. It conforms to the general laws of modernization and has unique characteristics.
Macron said true friendship means mutual understanding and mutual respect. France appreciates China's consistent support for France and Europe to be independent and united, and is ready to work with China to respect each other's core interests such as sovereignty and territorial integrity, open their markets to each other, and strengthen technological and industrial cooperation, as well as cooperation in artificial intelligence, to help each other achieve development and prosperity.
On the Ukraine crisis, Xi noted that its cause is complex and a prolonged crisis serves no one's interests. He said a ceasefire as soon as possible would serve the interests of all parties concerned, and a political settlement is the only correct solution.
China will never handle the Ukraine issue out of selfish interests, but always stands for fairness and justice. All relevant parties should shoulder their responsibilities and make joint efforts to create conditions for a political settlement, Xi said.
China welcomes France's concrete proposal for a political solution to the crisis, and stands ready to support it and play a constructive role, Xi added.
Macron said France also believes that a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis needs to take into account legitimate concerns of all parties. France attaches great importance to China's international influence and is willing to work closely with China to facilitate an early political settlement of the crisis.
Xi said he is glad that they have the same or similar views on China-France relations, China-EU relations and many international and regional issues, which demonstrates the high level and strategic nature of China-France relations. He said he would like to maintain close strategic communication with Macron and elevate the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height. Macron welcomed the Chinese president to visit France next year.
Read more here.
Douche Froide en Chine
Jeudi, le président français a tenté de convaincre son homologue chinois de « ramener la Russie à la raison ». Mais Xi n’a pas rompu la bienveillance affichée par Pékin à l’égard de Moscou.
La berline noire d’Emmanuel Macron s’est arrêtée au pied des marches du Palais de l’Assemblée du peuple, à Pékin, devant un Xi Jinping enjoué. Ce jeudi 6 avril, face à la place Tiananmen déserte et sous haute surveillance, les deux dirigeants scellent leurs retrouvailles dans le faste réservé aux visites d’Etat, après trois années de pandémie de Covid-19 qui ont coupé la Chine du reste du monde. « Rien ne vaut les contacts humains », résume le président français après avoir passé en revue les troupes chinoises, tandis que résonnent vingt et un coups de canon sur fond de Marseillaise et d’hymne national chinois.
A quelque 8 000 kilomètres du tumulte de la crise sociale qui secoue la France, Emmanuel Macron espérait œuvrer pour la paix en Ukraine en faisant de son homologue chinois, sinon un médiateur, du moins une voix modératrice auprès de Moscou, dont l’agression, a-t-il rappelé, a « mis fin à des décennies de paix en Europe ». Après les vaines tentatives françaises auprès de Vladimir Poutine, la Chine, qui revendique une « amitié sans limite » avec la Russie, pourrait, pensait-il, avoir plus de succès avec l’hôte du Kremlin. « Je sais pouvoir compter sur vous pour ramener la Russie à la raison et tout le monde à la table des négociations », a dit le chef de l’Etat français à Xi Jinping, au début de leur tête-à-tête.
Mais ce « chemin de paix » qu’espère tracer Emmanuel Macron s’apparente pour l’heure à une impasse. Malgré les poignées de main franches entre les deux hommes, Xi Jinping se contente de petits pas. Le chef du Parti communiste chinois n’a pas rompu la bienveillance affichée par Pékin à l’égard de Moscou. Il s’en tient à des déclarations de principe sur les armes chimiques et sur le recours au feu nucléaire. Et plaide de façon évasive pour une « reprise des discussions de paix le plus tôt possible ». Après sa visite en grande pompe à Moscou, le 21 mars, M. Xi serait prêt, selon les diplomates français, à parler au président ukrainien, Volodymyr Zelensky, mais seulement « quand les conditions seront réunies ».
« Douche froide »
Emmanuel Macron n’a pas non plus obtenu du président chinois qu’il condamne la décision prise par Vladimir Poutine, juste après leur rencontre au Kremlin, d’installer des ogives nucléaires en Biélorussie. « Ce qui est non conforme aux engagements pris à votre égard, à notre égard et au droit international », a pourtant commenté le président français. Le président chinois s’est par ailleurs fait l’écho du souci de M. Poutine de prendre en compte les « préoccupations légitimes de sécurité de toutes les parties », en référence au motif invoqué par Moscou pour attaquer l’Ukraine : l’expansion de l’OTAN dans l’est du continent. Il a appelé à la mise en place d’une architecture de sécurité européenne « équilibrée, efficace et durable ». Jeudi, le China Daily, quotidien du Parti communiste avait aussi condamné l’adhésion de la Finlande à l’OTAN : « Maintenant que l’Europe veut que la Chine aide à hâter la fin de la crise en Ukraine (…), elle devrait au moins commencer à repenser la politique de l’OTAN qui [consiste à] rechercher la sécurité absolue aux dépens de la sécurité d’autres, ce qui est devenu la principale source d’instabilité mondiale. »
'Xi intends to rely on the Global South to bypass a hostile North and establish China as an indispensable power'
After securing a third term as president on March 10, Xi Jinping is now putting China's international role at the top of his priorities. His agenda reflects this: Since the end of the parliamentary session on March 13, he has not visited any province but has made another visit to Russia (the ninth since 2013), is preparing to receive Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and then, the following week, French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. He was also supposed to welcome Brazilian President Lula da Silva in Beijing at the end of March, but Lula had to postpone his trip for health reasons.
Meanwhile, China will hold the first China-Central Asia summit in May, before marking, with considerable fanfare, the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, launched by Xi in Kazakhstan in 2013. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, created by Moscow and Beijing to deal with this buffer region, has expanded "at Moscow's initiative," according to the Chinese, to the point of bringing together traditional enemies (India and Pakistan), but without leading to anything much thus far.
Taking advantage of Russia's current weakness and despite his "friendship" with Putin, Xi is leveraging his advantage by trying to regain leadership in this region. This area is also once again of interest to the White House, as evidenced by the recent trip of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
What is new, however, is the discourse that accompanies this diplomatic priority. Beijing believes that it has achieved in a few decades what took the West centuries and that its success "offers a new option for the modernization of humankind." Of course, Chinese propagandists are too smart to recommend that emerging countries emulate China. For the moment, they are content to send two messages.
A sufficiently consensual discourse
First, the American model is failing. This can be seen anywhere you look, according to Beijing: from the populism of former president Donald Trump to the devastation caused by drugs and guns to the fear that China inspires in Washington.
Second, this American failure is nothing to be concerned about, quite the opposite in fact, as China is proving that an alternative is possible. According to Beijing, five characteristics distinguish its "success" from Western modernisation: the first is the massive size of the population involved; the second is "common prosperity," a concept developed by Xi in 2020 in an attempt to reduce inequality; the third is "the coordination of material civilisation and spiritual civilisation"; the fourth is "harmonious coexistence between human and nature"; and the fifth is "peaceful development."
JEAN CROTTI
Jean Crotti (24 April 1878 – 30 January 1958) was a French painter.
A survey of the highly personal artistic development of Jean Crotti, an artist who was both close to the great artistic movements of the first half of the twentieth century and at the same time independent of them (Jean-Hubert Martin).
The artist’s development ranged from his early work that was strongly influenced by fauvism to his apogee as a dadaist and the creation of his own Tabu movement. The more intimist paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, including the invention of the gemmaux stained glass technique, and later return to a more universal form of painting.
Crotti was born in Bulle, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in Munich, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to Paris to study art at the Académie Julian. Initially he was influenced by Impressionism, then by Fauvism and Art Nouveau. Around 1910 he began to experiment with Orphism, an offshoot of Cubism, and a style that would be enhanced by his association in New York City with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia.
A refugee from World War I, he looked to America as a place where he could live and develop his art. In New York, he shared a studio with Marcel Duchamp and met his sister, Suzanne Duchamp. She was part of the Dada movement in which Crotti would become involved. In 1916, he exhibited Orphist-like paintings, several of which had religious titles that also included his Portrait of Marcel Duchamp and his much discussed Les Forces MÈcaniques de l'amour Mouvement, created by using found objects.
In 1920, he produced one of his best known works, a portrait of Thomas Edison. He would be part of the 1925 Exposition International in Paris, and the International Exhibition of Modern Art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926 - 1927. Over the ensuing years, he would create numerous paintings and be the subject for several solo exhibitions at major galleries in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
Jean-Hubert Martin rebuilds the chronology of Crotti’s oeuvre throughout his life. He identifies three crucial periods in the artist’s development: the dada period, Crotti’s psychological works painted between the wars, and the invention of gemmaux. Crotti counted amongst his friends, Marcel Duchamp, Drancis Picabia and Pablo Picasso.
Jean Crotti (1878–1958) was an active participant in the great adventure that was the fashioning of modern sensibility.
Crotti died in Paris in 1958.