Chen Xiaochun654789759@qq.com

THEMED “Cross-Over Stitching, Kreuz-und Querstiche,” a delicate stitching exhibition of German artist Katharina Sommer jointly held by Innday and Handshake 302, was unveiled Dec. 16 and will run through Jan. 16 at ArtInn in Guanhu in Dapeng.

At the opening ceremony, Sommer gave an introduction to her 12 works and the stories behind each one. The exhibi-tion presents a selection of embroidery

works on the relationship between his-tory, family and individuals. Unlike the traditional purpose of embroidery, which focuses on art and decoration, Sommer stitched her thinking, doubt, warmth and

humor into her embroidery works.“In this exhibition there are mainly

photos of my own family. ‘Before My Time’ is images about the childhood and youth of my parents. Others are, for instance, about an uncle who died in the Second World War. I never met him. There are also some about my childhood,” said Sommer.

One of the embroidery works “Friend-ship” uses stitches to portray three women whose hair is disheveled by the wind, showcasing the close friendship between the artist’s mother and her two

best friends over the years in a unique way.

Stitching is an old tradition. Cross-stitching (or Kreuzstiche in German) is a basic stitching method in embroidery. Cross-over, another method, means interlocking and criss-crossing threads like grass in a fi eld or tree branches.

Sommer has been an artist for many years. Since 1987, she has participated in indoor and outdoor public perfor-mances, as well as exhibitions with masks, performance, sculpture and fi ne art.

religious organization named Basel Mission sent nearly 200 missionar-ies to Guangdong. They evangelized, set up schools, established hospitals and lived in Hakka villages over the century.

Back in the mid-1800s, missionar-ies from the Basel Mission arrived at Longheu Village to preach to the local residents. The fusion of Western civi-lization and Hakka culture was sealed through sharing the mundane details of everyday life such as drinking tea, conversation over shared meals and education.

Gradually, children — especially girls — at the village started to receive education from the missionaries, and other conceptual changes took place among the residents as well. Vice-versa, the missionaries incorporated Hakka culture into their lives and their memories of Hakka villages also shaped their European lives.

Through increased contact with the missionaries, as well as through remittances from overseas relatives, Longheu Village transformed from a small Hakka village into a village with Western houses and high-qual-ity homes.

Luckily, the missionaries’ children have preserved many of the objects that their parents brought back to Europe when they left China. Hearing that an exhibition was going to be held at Dalang, many descendants of the missionaries mailed valuable objects such as textbooks, Hakka-English dictionaries compiled by the mis-sionaries and photos to be displayed at the exhibition.

Some descendants even recorded videos to share their memories of living in the Hakka village when they were very young and many can still speak Hakka dialect.

Among all of the artifacts that recorded the special period, the remaining and renovated Longheu Pious Virgins Girls’ School is the best for retelling the stories of how Hakka and Western cultures merged.

In 1891, a school established by the Basil Mission in Hong Kong was relocated to Longheu Village and was renamed the Longheu Girls’ School. The buildings of the school under-went expansion several times to house more students. The school later also accepted boys with combined tradi-tional Chinese and Western subjects.

The latest renovation work on the school was conducted in 2015 by the local government and the school is now an exhibiting venue.

Stories of several devoted Western missionaries and their achievements to enhance local villagers’ life are also on exhibit at the village.

Zhang Qianzhqcindy@163.com

IN the heart of Langkou Village, a tradi-tional Hakka village in Longhua District, stands several unique buildings that fea-ture a combination of both Chinese and Western architectural characteristics.

The buildings were originally a school campus built by Swiss missionaries and now serve as an venue for passing on the special history where Hakka and Western cultures intersected more than 100 years ago.

An exhibition, “Migrations: Home and Elsewhere” that aims to rediscover Hakka history and Chinese-Western cultural exchange, is underway at Langkou Vil-lage until Feb. 4.

Langkou Village, also dubbed Longheu Village in Hakka dialect, is an authentic Hakka historical site that has been grow-ing from two large families since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The two clans have built ancestral halls and temples, single-story homes and Western towers.

Since the reform and opening up about four decades ago, many residents in the village have also built new modern build-ings, known as “handshake” buildings.

From 1847 to 1949, an international

culture x 15CONTACT US AT: 8351-9409, YWENNSONG@HOTMAIL.COM

Thursday January 4, 2018

Exhibition rediscovers Hakka and Western

cultural fusion

German artist presents cross-over stitching exhibition

▲ The renovated building of the Longheu Girls’ School is the main venue of this exhibition.

◄ A picture and textbooks on display.

Wang Yanxia, one of the curators of the “Migrations: Home and Elsewhere” exhibition, gives a tour instruction at the exhibition. Photos by Zhang Qian

Katharina Sommer (L) talks to visitors at the exhibition.