Chinese Art in Uzbekistan
From a Single Lecture to Sustained Local Practice
中国艺术在乌兹别克斯坦：从一次讲座到持续的在地实践
Xitoy san’ati O‘zbekistonda: bir ma’ruzadan uzluksiz mahalliy amaliyot sari
January 26 — October 1, 2026
Zhao Guiyang
External Expert · Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan
乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心 · 外籍专家
From a Single Lecture
In January 2026, I began teaching Chinese art in Uzbekistan.
The reason was straightforward. Chinese art was not extensively covered in the teaching materials available locally, particularly those in Uzbek. I was therefore invited by local teachers to introduce Chinese painting and art, along with some of the cultural ideas behind them.
My first lecture did not follow the conventional chronological structure of art history. Rather than moving from one dynasty to the next, I began with Chinese landscape painting, moved on to classical gardens, and then extended the discussion to architecture, interior space, and contemporary design. My aim was not simply to introduce particular works or historical styles, but to explore the connections between them: how ideas about nature, space, and the human relationship with the environment have changed over time while continuing to find new forms of expression.
After the first lecture, the teachers who attended asked me to continue.
What began as a single lecture gradually developed into an ongoing series of courses, marking the beginning of my teaching, exchange, and research in Uzbekistan.
第一部分｜从一次中国艺术讲座开始
2026年1月，我开始在乌兹别克斯坦讲授中国艺术。
最初的原因很具体：当地现有的教学资料，尤其是乌兹别克语资料中，对中国艺术的系统介绍相对有限。因此，当地教师邀请我介绍中国绘画、中国艺术以及它们背后的文化观念。
我的第一场讲座没有按照朝代顺序讲述中国艺术史，而是从山水画出发，讲到古典园林，再进入建筑、室内空间与当代设计。我希望讨论的不是某一种风格，而是中国艺术中关于自然、空间与人的观念，如何在不同历史阶段发生变化，又如何延续到今天。
第一场讲座结束后，参加课程的教师邀请我继续授课。
一次讲座由此变成了持续的课程，也成为我此后在乌兹别克斯坦进行教学、交流与研究的起点。
January 26, 2026 · Tashkent
My first lecture on Chinese art in Uzbekistan, marking the beginning of a continuing practice of teaching and cultural exchange.
2026年1月26日 · 塔什干
我在乌兹别克斯坦的第一次中国艺术讲座，也由此开启了此后持续的教学与文化交流实践。
Video source: Official Instagram account of the Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan.
视频来源：乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心官方 Instagram。
Part 2 — From Landscape Painting to Contemporary Design
The connection I draw between landscape painting, classical gardens, architecture, and contemporary design was not something I developed after arriving in Uzbekistan. It had already taken shape through my earlier work and teaching in China.
What changed in Uzbekistan was the context in which I was presenting it.
To me, Chinese landscape painting is more than a representation of the natural world. It reflects ways of seeing nature, organizing space, and understanding the relationship between people and their surroundings. Similar ideas can be found in classical Chinese gardens. As people move through a garden, their viewpoint changes; space unfolds through borrowed views, framed scenes, concealment, and revelation.
Following this line of thought leads naturally into architecture, interiors, furniture, and contemporary design. The forms may be different, but certain ideas about nature, space, and human experience remain connected across periods and disciplines.
So in the classroom, I was interested not only in explaining what traditional Chinese art is, but also in asking another question:
How can tradition be transformed and continue to play a role in contemporary design and everyday life?
第二部分｜从山水画到当代设计
从山水画到园林、建筑和当代设计，并不是我来到乌兹别克斯坦以后才形成的思路。这套框架来自我此前在中国的工作与教学。
来到乌兹别克斯坦之后，改变的是讲述它的环境。
对我而言，中国山水画不仅是对自然景物的描绘，其中还包含着人如何观看自然、组织空间以及理解人与环境关系的问题。这些观念后来以不同形式进入古典园林。人在园林中行走，视点不断变化，空间通过借景、框景、遮挡和显露逐渐展开。
沿着这条线索继续向前，又可以进入建筑、室内、家具和当代设计。形式已经不同，但对自然、空间与人的思考仍然可以找到联系。
因此，我在课堂上希望讨论的不只是“中国传统艺术是什么”，还有另一个问题：
传统如何经过转化，继续参与今天的设计与生活？
Viewing and discussing classical Chinese painting with local art educators, Tashkent, 2026.
与当地艺术教育工作者共同观看并讨论中国古代绘画，塔什干，2026年。
From Chinese landscape painting to classical gardens: exploring the translation of visual traditions into spatial thinking, Tashkent, 2026.
从中国山水画到古典园林：探索视觉传统向空间思维的转化，塔什干，2026年。
Part 3 — When Two Artistic Experiences Meet
From the very first class, teaching, viewing, and practice took place together.
I brought reproductions of Chinese paintings into the classroom, along with Xuan paper, Chinese brushes, and ink. Participants could study the works closely while also experiencing for themselves how brush, ink, water, and paper interact.
In Uzbekistan, this created an especially interesting point of comparison.
Uzbekistan has its own strong tradition of miniature painting. Some of the teachers and artists attending my classes already had extensive experience with traditional painting and were familiar with line, color, decorative composition, and highly refined craftsmanship.
Chinese painting was therefore not entering a classroom without an artistic tradition of its own. It was encountering another mature visual tradition.
The movement of the brush, the way ink spreads through Xuan paper, the use of empty space, and the handling of solidity and void created clear contrasts with miniature painting. At the same time, both traditions place great importance on line, manual skill, and sustained practice, providing a basis for mutual understanding.
The classroom therefore became more than a place to learn a new painting technique. It became a space where two artistic traditions could observe and encounter one another.
When two traditions genuinely meet, their differences can themselves become a way of understanding each other.
第三部分｜当两种艺术经验相遇
从第一堂课开始，讲授、观看和实践就是同时进行的。
我把中国绘画复刻作品、宣纸、毛笔和墨带进课堂。参与者既可以观看作品，也可以亲自尝试笔、墨、水与纸之间的变化。
这在乌兹别克斯坦形成了一种很有意思的比较。
乌兹别克斯坦拥有自己的细密画传统。参加课程的一些教师和艺术工作者，本身已经具有传统绘画经验，对线条、色彩、装饰性构图和精细的手工技艺并不陌生。
因此，中国画面对的不是一个没有自身传统的课堂，而是另一套已经成熟的艺术经验。
毛笔的运行、墨在宣纸上的渗化、留白以及虚实关系，与细密画形成了明显差异；而两种传统对线条、手上功夫和长期训练的重视，又让彼此有了可以理解的基础。
课堂因此不再只是学习一种新的绘画方法，也成为两种艺术经验彼此观察和比较的地方。
当两种传统真正相遇时，差异本身也可以成为理解彼此的入口。
Chinese painting practice with teachers from the Pavel Benkov Specialized Art School and other art schools during their professional
training at the Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan, 2026.
帕维尔·本科夫专业艺术学校及其他艺术学校教师在乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心参加培训期间的中国画实践，2026年。
Part 4 — Beyond Translation: Rethinking Cultural Transmission
These classroom experiences also led me to reconsider what we mean by cultural transmission.
Language is, of course, essential. My classes often involve interpretation between people with different linguistic backgrounds. But I gradually realized that translating a term accurately does not necessarily mean that an artistic experience has been fully understood.
Some things have to be seen. Others have to be experienced through the materials themselves.
The way ink spreads across Xuan paper is difficult to explain through words alone. Questions raised by participants often came from their own artistic experience, and those questions, in turn, made me reconsider concepts that had long seemed self-evident within a Chinese context.
Translation matters, but it is only part of the exchange.
I began to understand cultural transmission as a two-way process. I was explaining Chinese art, while the participants were interpreting, questioning, and evaluating it through their own experience. It was through this back-and-forth that connections between different cultural perspectives began to emerge.
Cultural transmission is not simply about translating content into another language. What matters is how it is understood through another cultural experience.
第四部分｜超越翻译：重新理解文化传播
这些课堂经验也让我重新思考“文化传播”。
语言当然重要。我授课时需要通过翻译与不同语言背景的参与者交流，但我逐渐发现，准确翻译一个词，并不意味着已经解释清楚一种艺术经验。
有些东西必须通过观看才能理解，有些需要真正接触材料。
墨落在宣纸上的变化，很难只靠语言说明；参与者在实践中提出的问题，也常常来自他们自己的艺术经验。这些问题反过来让我重新解释一些在中国语境中习以为常的概念。
因此，我开始把文化传播理解为一个双向的过程。
我在解释中国艺术，对方也在用自己的经验理解、提问和判断。正是在这种往返之中，原本属于不同文化背景的经验才可能真正建立联系。
传播不只是把内容翻译出去，更重要的是它如何被另一种文化经验理解。
A discussion on originals, reproductions, and exhibition practices in Chinese and Uzbek art, Tashkent, 2026.
关于中乌艺术中原作、复制品与展览方式的讨论，塔什干，2026年。
An Uzbek miniature painting artist explaining the traditional papermaking process used in miniature painting, Tashkent, 2026.
乌兹别克斯坦细密画艺术家介绍传统细密画中的造纸过程，塔什干，2026年。
Part 5 — From Learning Chinese Art to Expressing Uzbekistan
As the courses continued, I began to notice a change in the participants’ work.
At first, most exercises focused on the fundamentals of Chinese painting: brushwork, ink, water, Xuan paper, and basic techniques. Gradually, however, some participants moved beyond simply imitating Chinese subjects and forms.
They began using Chinese materials and ink-painting methods to depict things familiar to them.
Uzbek landscapes, architecture, plants, people, and cultural memories began to appear in their work.
For me, this mattered more than whether a painting looked sufficiently “Chinese.”
The materials and methods came from China, but what they expressed belonged to Uzbekistan.
At this point, Chinese painting was no longer simply something being learned. Some of its methods had been selected, adapted, and used as a means of expressing local experience.
This was one of the clearest forms of cultural exchange I encountered during my teaching: not reproducing the forms of another culture, but understanding them well enough to use them to express something of your own.
第五部分｜从学习中国艺术，到表达乌兹别克斯坦
随着课程继续，我开始在参与者的作品中看到变化。
最初的练习主要集中在毛笔、墨、水、宣纸以及中国画基本方法上。但慢慢地，一些参与者不再只是模仿中国画的题材和形式。
他们开始使用中国的材料和水墨方法，描绘自己熟悉的内容。
乌兹别克斯坦的风景、建筑、植物、人物和文化记忆逐渐进入作品。
这对我来说，比画得“像不像中国画”更重要。
材料和方法来自中国，表达的内容却属于乌兹别克斯坦。
到了这里，中国画不再只是被学习的对象。它的一部分方法已经被重新选择和使用，成为表达当地经验的一种可能。
这也是我在这段教学中看到的最具体的文化交流：不是复制另一种文化的形式，而是在理解之后，用它表达自己。
Student works from the Center for Retraining and Professional Development, Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan.
乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院教师再培训与专业发展中心学员作品。
Part 6 — From Teaching Chinese Art to Entering Uzbekistan’s Art Education System
After teaching for some time, my attention began to move beyond my own classroom toward art education in Uzbekistan itself.
A natural question emerged:
If I was teaching Chinese art here, how was Uzbekistan’s own art being taught?
With this question in mind, I began visiting art schools and higher education institutions, observing classes and graduation defenses, looking at student work, and speaking with teachers, students, artists, and art educators.
My focus gradually expanded from how people here understood Chinese art to how art education itself functioned in Uzbekistan.
What do students learn at different stages? How are traditional arts taught today? How are professional skills developed? How do teachers evaluate student work? And how does a younger generation move from established traditions toward forms of expression of its own?
From this point on, I was no longer only teaching. I was also beginning to observe the educational environment around me as a researcher.
A new question emerged:
How are Uzbekistan’s own artistic traditions carried forward through education?
第六部分｜从讲授中国艺术，到进入乌兹别克斯坦艺术教育现场
教学进行一段时间后，我开始把注意力从自己的课堂转向乌兹别克斯坦的艺术教育。
一个很自然的问题出现了：
如果我在这里教授中国艺术，那么这里自己的艺术又是怎样被教授的？
带着这个问题，我开始走访艺术学校和相关院校，旁听课程与毕业答辩，观看学生作品，并与教师、学生、艺术家和艺术教育工作者交流。
我的关注点也从“他们如何理解中国艺术”，逐渐扩展到当地艺术教育本身。
不同阶段的学生学习什么？传统艺术怎样进入今天的课堂？专业技能如何训练？教师如何评价学生？年轻一代又如何在传统训练的基础上形成自己的表达？
从这时开始，我不再只是一个授课者，也开始以研究者的身份观察自己所处的教育环境。
新的问题由此出现：
乌兹别克斯坦自身的艺术传统，是如何通过教育延续到今天的？
Chinese ink painting practice at the Navoiy Specialized Art Boarding School, alongside the program documenting the workshop, Navoiy, Uzbekistan, 2026.
纳沃伊专业艺术寄宿学校的中国水墨画实践现场及记录此次课程的活动日程，乌兹别克斯坦纳沃伊，2026年。
Left: With Akmal Nuridinov, Chairman of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan / 左图：与乌兹别克斯坦艺术科学院主席阿克马尔·努里迪诺夫合影
Right: With faculty members after participating in the graduation defense at the Pavel Benkov Art School / 右图：参加帕维尔·本科夫美术学校毕业答辩后与答辩教师合影
Participating in the Graduation Defense at the Pavel Benkov Art School / 参加帕维尔·本科夫美术学校毕业答辩活动
Part 7 — From Art Education to the Historical and Urban Environment
Artistic traditions, however, do not exist only within schools.
They are also present in architecture, cities, historical monuments, museums, artists’ studios, and everyday life.
My observations therefore gradually extended beyond educational institutions into a broader social and historical landscape. I travelled to different cities and historical sites across Uzbekistan, visited museums and artists’ studios, and began paying closer attention to architecture and urban change.
I became particularly interested in three historical layers: traditional and historic architecture, the cities and buildings inherited from the Soviet period, and the rapidly developing contemporary city.
These layers are not separate. They coexist in the Uzbekistan of today.
Looking at them together led me to reconsider, on a larger scale, questions that had already emerged in the classroom:
What has been preserved? What has changed? What is disappearing? And what new forms are being created by changing technologies, social needs, and ways of life?
Art education and urban observation were beginning to point toward the same underlying question:
How does a culture carry its past into the present?
第七部分｜从艺术教育走向历史与城市现场
但艺术传统并不只存在于学校。
它也存在于建筑、城市、历史遗迹、博物馆、艺术家的工作室以及日常生活之中。
因此，我的观察逐渐从教育机构延伸到更大的社会和历史空间。我走进乌兹别克斯坦不同的城市和历史遗址，参观博物馆与艺术家工作室，也开始持续观察这里的建筑和城市变化。
在这些过程中，我尤其注意到三个不同的历史层次：传统与历史建筑、苏联时期留下的城市与建筑，以及正在快速形成的当代城市。
它们并不是彼此分开的，而是同时存在于今天的乌兹别克斯坦。
这让我开始从另一个尺度思考此前在课堂中遇到的问题：
什么被保留下来？什么发生了变化？什么正在消失？新的生活方式、技术和社会需求，又在创造什么？
于是，艺术教育和城市观察逐渐指向了同一个问题：
一种文化如何带着自己的过去进入今天？
Field research across Uzbekistan, observing the transformation of architecture and urban space from historic cities and the Soviet period to the contemporary city, 2026.
在乌兹别克斯坦进行城市与建筑考察，观察从历史城市、苏联时期到当代城市的建筑与空间变迁，2026年。
Part 8 — From the Classroom to the Exhibition
By this point, two strands of my work had begun to converge.
One came from the classroom:
How is Chinese art understood and reinterpreted in Uzbekistan?
The other came from my observations of the country itself:
How are Uzbekistan’s own artistic traditions being carried forward, and how are they responding to contemporary change?
The idea for an exhibition grew out of the meeting of these two questions.
I began to consider bringing Chinese painting, calligraphy, rubbings, ink works created by Uzbek participants, and local artistic traditions into the same space.
The aim is not to determine who influenced whom, to demonstrate how similar two cultures might be, or to place one tradition in the background of another.
Instead, I want each to retain its own character while being seen alongside the other.
The exchanges that began in the classroom involved mainly teachers, students, and artists. An exhibition can bring that conversation into a public space, allowing more people to encounter the works and see what can emerge when different cultural traditions come into contact.
The exhibition is therefore not a conclusion to the work that came before it. It is a way of extending an exchange that has already begun.
The exhibition is not the end of the exchange, but a place where the dialogue can continue and deepen.
第八部分｜从课堂走向展览
教学与田野观察进行到这里，两条原本不同的线索开始汇合。
一条来自课堂：中国艺术如何在乌兹别克斯坦被理解和重新使用？
另一条来自我的观察：乌兹别克斯坦自己的艺术传统如何延续，又如何面对今天的变化？
展览的想法由此产生。
我希望把中国绘画、书法、碑拓、乌兹别克斯坦参与者创作的水墨作品，以及当地艺术传统放进同一个空间。
这并不是为了寻找谁影响了谁，也不是为了证明两种文化有多少相似之处，更不是让一种传统成为另一种传统的背景。
我希望它们能够保持各自的特点，同时出现在彼此面前。
课堂里的交流主要发生在教师、学生和艺术家之间，而展览可以让这种交流进入公共空间。更多的人可以看到作品，也可以看到不同文化在接触之后产生的变化。
因此，展览不是对前面工作的总结，而是把已经发生的交流继续向外延伸。
展览不是交流的终点，而是让对话继续深入的地方。
9. From “Going Out” to Truly Entering
Nearly ten months of practice have led me to reconsider a phrase often used in China: culture “going out.”
Going out is not particularly difficult.
A lecture can be held in another country. An exhibition can travel abroad. A work of art can cross a border. In a geographical sense, the culture has already “gone out.”
The more difficult question is whether it truly enters.
For a culture to enter another cultural environment, it is not enough simply to appear there. It has to form connections with existing knowledge, experience, and everyday life.
When teachers and students in Uzbekistan began using Chinese brushes, ink, and Xuan paper to express their own landscapes, architecture, and cultural memories, I was no longer simply seeing Chinese art being introduced in another country.
I was seeing it being understood, selected, and used in new ways.
At the same time, the process required me to enter more deeply into Uzbekistan’s own art education, history, and contemporary life. Chinese experience can offer a point of reference, but it cannot provide a predetermined answer for another cultural context.
For me, then, cultural exchange is ultimately not about how much we can “take out” into the world. It is about what each side begins to see differently, and what new understanding becomes possible through the encounter.
The exhibition planned for January 2027 at the House of Photography in Tashkent will continue this process.
This article records only one stage of the work, up to October 2026. The teaching continues, and the research remains open.
This is not a conclusion, but another step forward.
九｜从“走出去”到真正“进入”
近十个月的实践，让我重新理解了一个经常被使用的说法——文化“走出去”。
“走出去”并不困难。
一场讲座、一次展览、一件作品来到另一个国家，从空间意义上说，都已经完成了“出去”。
但真正困难的是“进入”。
一种文化能否进入另一种文化环境，并不取决于它出现了多少次，而在于它能否与当地已有的知识、经验和生活建立联系。
当乌兹别克斯坦的教师和学生开始使用中国的毛笔、墨和宣纸表达自己的风景、建筑和文化记忆时，我看到的已经不只是中国艺术被传播到了另一个国家。
它开始被当地的人理解、选择和重新使用。
与此同时，我也在这个过程中不断进入乌兹别克斯坦的艺术教育、历史和现实生活。中国的经验可以成为参照，但不能成为预设的答案。
所以，对我而言，文化交流最终不是“把什么带出去”，而是双方在接触之后，各自看见了什么，又产生了什么新的理解。
2027年1月，计划在塔什干摄影之家举办的展览，将继续这一过程。
这篇文章记录的只是截至2026年10月的一段实践。教学仍在继续，研究也没有结束。
它不是总结，而是继续向前的一步。