Young Chinese artist draws inspiration from ancient culture

A young Chinese artist became an overnight sensation when she presented a stunning contemporary adaptation of an ancient painting on a popular television show last weekend.

Photo by Ye Luying

The hit variety show National Treasure, which aired on China Central Television, introduced the ancient Chinese painting “Nymph of the Luo River” by Gu Kaizhi of the East Jin Dynasty (317-420) at the same time as Ye Luying's modern version in her picture book.

Her own cartoon-style “Nymph of the Luo River” amazed the audience along with the exhibited Song copy of Gu’s painting recommended by the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Many say that she perfectly combines the traditional art with modern features and has brought high-end art closer to ordinary people.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo by Ye Luying

Gu’s painting was an inspired illustration of an essay written by Cao Zhi, a poet of China’s Three Kingdoms period (220-280), in which he depicted his imagined romantic encounter and separation with the Nymph of the Luo River. 

A talented calligrapher and painter, Gu Kaizhi is also known for his theories in Chinese painting that laid foundations for its new development, especially his emphasis on the eyes of the figures.

“The eyes were the spirit and the decisive factor in figure paintings,” Gu wrote down in his theoretical works.

Ye Luying (L) and Chen Xiao, Chinese actor, appear at the variety show "National Treasure". /Photo via Ye Luying

Ye Luying, 25, is one of the generation dubbed the “post-90s,” a reference to those who were born in the 1990s. After graduating from the Chinese Academy of Art and studying abroad, she now works as a teacher at the academy. 

While overseas she came to the conclusion that the country’s 5,000-year cultural heritage is rooted in her spirit. 

“I was so impressed by the Norse mythology that I couldn’t help wondering 'do we have such stories in China, and what are the aesthetic symbols of the Chinese',” said Ye.

The Song copy of Gu Kaizhi's painting "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo via Liaoning Provincial Museum‍

She started to immerse herself in libraries after returning to her hometown in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang Province, until she came across with the Nymph of the Luo River again after graduation.

She said she was inspired not only by Gu Kaizhi’s painting, but also his theories of comparing lines in painting to silk. Cao Zhi’s depiction of the nymph in his essay has also provided her with numerous ideas.

From then on, Ye has dug deeper into the ancient Chinese literature and culture and was amazed by what she found out.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River." /Photo by Ye Luying

“The Chinese culture, with its long history and profound contents, is like a huge treasure to me. It has nourished my works and would continue to do so in my entire career life,” Ye said at the variety show. “I want to share the Oriental beauty with everyone.”

She spent half a year painting her picture book, which was based on the ancestors’ works but invigorated with her wild imagination.

The Song copy of Gu’s painting was 6.4 meters in length, and Ye’s manuscript is about 11 meters in general. She completed a large part of her painting on the computer.

A picture from Ye Luying's picture book "Nymph of the Luo River". /Photo by Ye Luying

“The computer has its advantage. For example, the colors would be more saturated, refreshing and are capable of presenting more layers of changes,” said Ye. “It’s an era of rapid development, with the technology leaping forward. 

“New elements should be infused into the classic artistic works.”  

Her picture book has become a rising star in the field of fine art, and has grabbed a handful of domestic awards. It was also exhibited at the Frankfurt Book Fair. 

A Ye Luying painting. /Photo by Ye Luying

Dong Baohou, painter and researcher of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, speaks highly of Ye’s painting. 

“The ‘Nymph of the Luo River’ is an important piece of work in the Chinese history of art, but it is still far away from the public. Ye has inherited the classical beauty from the ancient painting, and expressed it in a modern way, which is great,” said Dong. 

Ye’s picture book is scheduled to be published in April.

NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft and Meta Platforms are driving Wall Street higher on Thursday after reporting profits for the start of the year that were even bigger than analysts expected.

The S&P 500 was up 0.9% in midday trading and heading for an eighth straight gain, which would be its longest winning streak since August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 205 points, or 0.5%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.9% higher.

Microsoft jumped 8.6% after the software giant said strength in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence businesses drove its overall revenue up 13% from a year earlier.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also topped analysts’ targets for revenue and profit in the latest quarter. It said AI tools helped boost its advertising revenue, and its stock climbed 4.8%.

The two are some of the most influential stocks within the S&P 500 and other indexes because of their massive sizes, but they weren't alone. CVS Health, Carrier Global and a bevy of other companies also joined the stream of better-than-expected profit reports that have helped steady Wall Street over the last week. The S&P 500 is back to within 8.5% of its record set earlier this year, after briefly dropping nearly 20% below the mark.

Still, plenty of uncertainty remains about whether President Donald Trump’s trade war will force the economy into a recession. And even though companies have been reporting better profits for the first three months of the year than analysts expected, many CEOs are remaining cautious about the rest of the year.

General Motors cut its forecast for profit in 2025, for example. It said it’s assuming it will feel a hit of $4 billion to $5 billion because of tariffs. GM’s stock nevertheless rose 0.4%. The automaker said it expects to offset at least 30% of the tariff impact.

McDonald’s fell 0.6% after reporting weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, even though its profit was slightly above forecasts. An important underlying measure of performance at its U.S. restaurants had its worst decline since 2020, when COVID shuttered the global economy, and McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said consumers “are grappling with uncertainty.”

McDonald's joined Chipotle and other restaurant chains that have seen customers get more cautious amid all the unknowns about the economy and inflation that’s still higher than many people would like.

The uncertainty has already shown up in surveys of consumers, which say pessimism is shooting higher about where the economy heading. On Thursday, a couple reports about the economy came in mixed, following up on several recent updates that have suggested it’s weaker than expected.

The first of the reports said more U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than economists had forecast, setting the stage for a more comprehensive report on the job market arriving Friday.

But a later update said U.S. manufacturing activity was better last month than economists had feared, though it still contracted again.

The fear on Wall Street is for a possible worst-case scenario called “stagflation,” where the economy stagnates yet inflation remains high. It’s hated because the Federal Reserve has no good tools to fix both problems at the same time. If the Fed were to try to help one problem by adjusting interest rates, it would likely make the other worse.

Some encouraging news on inflation arrived Wednesday, when a report said that the measure of inflation the Fed likes to use slowed in March.

In the bond market, Treasury yields swiveled following Thursday's economic reports. The yield on the 10-year Treasury initially fell below 4.13% after the worse-than-expected update on joblessness. But it later trimmed its losses following the better-than-expected report on manufacturing and rallied to 4.21%. That's up from 4.17% late Wednesday.

In stock markets abroad, trading was closed in many countries for May Day, or international Labor Day holidays.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% after the Bank of Japan kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged, as many investors expected.

Hopes that Trump may eventually roll back some of his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries also helped to support markets.

A social media blog by China’s state broadcaster claimed that the Trump administration has been seeking contact with the world's second largest economy through multiple channels to start negotiations over tariffs.

AP Writers Yuri Kageyama, Matt Ott and Didi Tang contributed.

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