Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it.
Now I understand 
why the old poets of China went so far
and high 
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
"The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver


Photo: Some of the photos to be featured in the exhibit.


The UP Asian Center will host a photo exhibit, The Tempo of China, from 14 to 31 March 2016 at the Philippines and China Halls, Hall of Wisdom, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The exhibit, free and open to the public, will start at 10 a.m. on Monday, 14 March. Regular viewing hours run from 8 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

With its five-thousand-year old civilization, China conjures, among other things, icons of antiquity, from sacred religious traditions to venerable cultural practices. But what is it like beyond these images? Offering a different glimpse of the country, these images, according to the exhibition text from the Cultural Counsellor's Office, Chinese Embassy in the Philippines, display the “vim and vigor” of 21st-century Chinese society. From “spectacular landscapes to stunning architecture, everyday life, and people of all ages...,” the images showcase photography at its finest, exhibiting a “superb sense of space, movement, and alacrity”; collectively, they “capture the spirit of China in its compelling immediacy”, its boundless” vigor and prosperity vividly and realistically rendered in a myriad of colors, graceful lines,  and enchanting compositions.”

The exhibit features the works of amateur and professional Chinese photographers, all selected from over 1,000 entries submitted in a photo contest in China. It is organized in partnership with the Confucius Institute, University of the Philippines Diliman and the Cultural Counsellor’s Office of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines. 


The UP Asian Center offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Get an overview of these programs. The Asian Center also houses a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia. It has published several books and monographs, and hosts or organizes various lectures and conferences