时间:2019-01-22 作者:英语课 分类:2018年VOA慢速英语(十二)月


英语课

China Struggles to End its Image as Capital of Art Copies


Ma Chunyan’s hands appear to hold Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting “The Starry 1 Night.”


But it is not Van Gogh’s masterpiece. The 32-year old Chinese artist is holding a $145 reproduction she made in one day from an image on her cell phone.


Ma is from Dafen, a small, but heavily populated area in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. She is one of an estimated 8,000 painters there who specialize in creating copies of Western art.


Dafen was once home to 300 rice growers. Then it became an international center of painting reproductions. The change began a few short years after former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping opened up China’s economy in 1978.


The town once claimed 75 percent of the world’s oil painting reproductions. Dafen has 1,200 art businesses and galleries, which employ about 20,000 people. Its yearly output reached $601 million in 2017.


But many people there are wondering about the future. The local economy has shrunk since the financial crisis 2 in 2008, when foreign demand for art reproductions fell and never returned.


The local government has launched a plan to rebuild Dafen businesses. The goal is to have artists stop copying masterpieces and instead create their own original works of art.


But success is difficult. There are few artists who want to create original works. And there is little demand for the work of the few who do.


To change this, and to bring in newer artists, the government of Dafen has invested 100 million yuan in an art museum. It has also built 269 apartments for artists. The town now has 300 artists making original works.


One of them is Chen Jingyang, who has lived in Dafen for 12 years. He does not believe the new plan will be successful.


“The big buyers know that the market here used to be famous for copies, and it was a low-end market, so not many are coming for the original paintings,” he said.


I’m Susan Shand.


Words in This Story


masterpiece – n. a great book, painting, piece of music, movie,


gallery – n. a business that sells paintings, statues,


output – n. production or work


original – adj. made or produced first; not a copy


museum – n. a building in which interesting and valuable things are collected and shown to the public


apartment – n. a room or series of rooms usually used for housing



adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的
  • He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
  • I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。
n.危机,危急关头,决定性时刻,关键阶段
  • He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明,在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
  • The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。
学英语单词
2-ethylhexyl peroxi-dicabonate
a one horse town
a-ketoacetic acid
above-stairs
abreak
acceptable conditions
air vented tumble dryer
altitude difference
Ave, R.
averse
Avogadro, count Amedeo
barrier film rectifier
ben
bias control circuit
bidirectional drive
bostrychid
ceasefires
Chebyshev polynomial of the second kind
Chechen', Ostrov
Christianization
control and dispaly unit
criticizable
dinarthrum taiwanense
discharge electrode
dp's
dust collecting plant
eileen chang
exchange words
expenditure for military establishment
Fiesta Bowl
focis
fused salt medium
FWD & REW reel stop detector
garage-sale
geniohyoids
genus Nauclea
hauns
heurn
hirdum-dirdum
homokaryons
Hueter's maneuver
hyperchrome
impulse functions
in animal body
intasuchids
interior focusing lens
isabelles
Isocarboxazide
iustices
Judaeo-Spanish
juglandifolia
katalase
kentishes
liquid cladding
marble intarsia
mechanical ground support equipment
miethe
money position
mousselines de soie
multi-mission underwater remotely operated vehicle
multiplier time division modulation
naevi of the nail matrix and bed
network of workstations
orange-wood stick
oryctocoenose
planet-striking
post-ictal
preliminary enquiry
prides of california
pseudohistory
psychojargon
puangs
read verify
rechecks
rolling-bearing
saddening
sarcocystoid
semi-controlled mosaic
service substance
space decoration
step strobe marker
submedian vein
that is the bottom line
thermologist
throat section
tidal impulse
to what extent
topkapis
transportation of live fish
ultrasonic level ga(u)ge
underground cooling
unmanifesting
ventral anterior nucleus
voice interruption priority system
washing amalgam
watchnight
water cooled impression tray
window for finance activity
wired logic control
wrasses
zero speed position
zilascorb