An artist's Olympic dream

　　At the age of 59, Lin Xiangxiong, a China-born Singaporean, has got enough accomplishments under his belt to make him proud.

　　He has held numerous personal exhibitions in countries such as Singapore and Thailand, as well as in major parts of this country, including Taiwan and Hong Kong.

　　He has published dozens of painting albums and books of prose, along with plenty of art reviews. He has been the subject of five biographies, published in Singapore and China.

　　He was included in the 1991 and 1993 'Who's Who in China,' in the Cambridge-based International Biographical Centre's 'Dictionary of International Biography, 23rd edition' and is mentioned in 'International Man of the Year - 1993/94,' and the American Biographical Institute's '1994 Man of the Year.'

　　Recently, he was invited by the Chinese Academy of Arts, China's top institution for artistic research, to be one of its first two overseas advisers.

　　Yet all these honours will pale somewhat if the residential complex he has designed for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, known as Olympic Village, wins out over competing proposals, he said.

　　Head of a group of international architects and artists working on the project, Lin said the design integrates modern architecture with China's 5,000 years of civilisation.

　　'It will be a lifetime honour for me if I can contribute my bit to this historic event and to familiarising the rest of the world with some of the glories of Chinese civilisation,' he said.

　　Olympic dream

　　At first sight, Lin might remind people of the world-renowned Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa. Their mid-length silver hair and eyes that bespeak the vision and energy of an artist are the things that do it.

　　He is, indeed, an artist. But he wields the brush of fine art, not the conductor's baton.

　　Lin's eyes shine through his glasses when he talks about the Olympic Village design, a work dear to his heart and soul.

　　'The 2008 Olympic Games will be a great opportunity for China and its people to introduce themselves and share their culture and history with the rest of the world,' said Lin.

　　'As an overseas Chinese, I'm honoured to take the challenge of participating in the international bidding for the 2008 Olympic Village design.'

　　Accepting the offer to head a design team, he led a group of more than 50 architects and artists from China, Singapore and Japan that took five strenuous months to work out the design.

　　The essence of their design, Lin said, is to combine the Chinese traditional philosophical theory of wuxing, or the earth's five fundamental elements, with the five Olympic rings, which symbolise the earth's five continents.

　　'We were so thrilled to find that the colours of the elements - wood, water, fire, earth and metal - exactly match those of the Olympic rings,' Lin said proudly.

　　In the traditional view of the Chinese, the five elements of wuxing combine to give form to all things in the universe.

　　The designers decided to apply the colours green, blue, red, yellow and black to the five avenues cutting through the Olympic Village from south to north.

　　The red one in the centre, called Fire Boulevard, on the city's central axis, takes Tiananmen Square as its starting point.

　　It is also at this avenue that two canals, the Tiger and the Dragon, meet, which alludes to the Chinese saying 'longzhenghudou,' or 'the dragon and tiger contend.'

　　'This implies the competitive atmosphere in which the athletes will be living,' said Lin.

　　The buildings in the village will incorporate traditional features of architectural structures in the country's north and south, such as rectangular courtyards, water city layouts, and round Hakka houses.

　　Lin said the combination of traditional and modern elements in these buildings reflects China's process of historical development and the concept of a 'People's Olympics.'

　　Lin's design was one of the six Olympic Village design projects undergoing evaluation by [It's the designs that were being evaluated, not the experts.] experts from the International Olympic Committee last August.

　　When the Beijing Urban Construction Group consortium, the successful bidder for the tender of the Olympic Village, signed the contract later last year, Lin's design and another design, both proposed by the consortium, became the final two options.

　　The result of the competition will be announced soon and work on the project is expected to start this year, according to the municipal government.

　　Lin does not hide his eagerness to see his design win out and finally become part of the Beijing skyline.

　　'My life will become really meaningful if my design finally stands in the Olympic Green,' he said.

　　'I also hope that the light of Chinese civilisation will be carried to every corner of the world by athletes who will live here.'

　　East to West, West to East

　　Lin's pursuit of art has taken him full circle, as has his life, from the East to the West, and then back to the East.

　　Born in 1945 in rural Chao'an, a small town in South China's Guangdong province, Lin spent his childhood with his mother and two sisters doing farm work.

　　Although he left for Singapore at the age of 11, what he saw among the hills and fields during those childhood years became a major inspiration for his future art work.

　　After studying painting at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, in Singapore from 1965 to 1968 he moved to Paris in 1971 to continue his study of world art.

　　It was a move from the world of Chinese traditional techniques to a world featuring typical Western painting techniques.

　　Those three years of study and his travels in Western European countries in the following years gave a touch of Western style to his paintings.

　　'His painting has a touch of the Western modern art of Pollock and De Kooning,' said Singaporean art guru Liu Kang, adding that Lin's works were the result of his immersion in the work of various masters from both West and East, out of which he created his own style.

　　His combined style evolved when he returned to Singapore and began visiting China in 1986.

　　As he later described it, for years he toured across his motherland, visiting serene places, absorbing the cream of Chinese culture, and developing a more powerful love toward his people.

　　'Recollecting the old days and returning to original purity are tendencies of the human heart,' said Lin.

　　'Such longings are even stronger in those of us who have deep feelings for our nation, and who have a keen sense of responsibility.'

　　Critics who have been keeping an eye on his work have found his changes are in line with his convictions. 'His later paintings are more Oriental than his earlier works, and more strongly reflect his nationality,' commented Shao Dajian, professor with the Beijing-based Central Academy of Fine Arts.

　　Shao explained that Lin's earlier works focus more on building shapes and structures, while his later works pay more attention to the simple expression of feeling.

　　Yet Lin is not simply an artist. He was engaged in business as early as 1975 when he worked as a design consultant for a famous ceramic tile factory in Italy.

　　He did not stop painting and writing while he was involved in a number of other business activities over the years and does not think doing business will blur his vision as an artist. While holding to his belief about art, he has successfully achieved his goal of 'feeding art with business.'

　　As president of Innovation International Consultants Alliance, he has been providing consultancy services for architectural designs and urban planning in many cities in China.

　　By Wu Gang