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| The Aesthetics in Hualien |
| Pan, Sheau-Shei |
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I am living in an apartment overlooking the Hwalien harbor and the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes, ships are entering the harbor silently like dreams. The sight of the crew on the deck looking at the land is a still painting for me. In summer time, the small boats are at sea early in the morning. I wake up and open the screen to find fishermen laboring here and there, occasionally overhearing them chatting over microphones. On a moonlight night, sitting by myself on the top floor, I look at the ocean, feeling my city sailing at midnight.
German scholar Josef Pieper says, “ To remain fully human, some people among us necessarily live a ‘useless’ life of meditation.” As for leisure, he says that leisure is a mental attitude, in which his state of soul is carefree, peaceful, and meditative. An attitude toward leisure is not to release self, but to open self, to the extent of immersion. In focusing on silent meditation, we find a new flux of life bursting toward us. Isn’t it flowing out of our profoundly dreamless sleep?
Leisure is not a life of idleness, but a return to our being by stopping work which is irrelevant to our immanence, a return to our own existence, in tune with the world. A workaholic is an idle person who desperately doesn’t want to be himself, and as a result lose his ability to look at life face to face, not to mention being distracted by his deep worry.
The greatest model of cognition is not futile diligence, but a real silent meditation after a period of letting oneself going blank, which is an inspirational insight. This is a gift, without any form of being granted and without obstacles. This is the aesthetics of living in Hwalien. Only when you come to inhabit Hwalien will you realize this sort of miraculous beauty. Many great art creators in pursuit of art mystery continually meditate on the fundamental problems of their existence, and return to the hometown of their soul, Cezzane back to Provence, Gorgon back to Taihiti, Richard Long far from the metropolitan cities, to the borderline of the world. By doing so, they resuscitate a life of art. This is the power which Hwalien promises to offer to the art creators, who are immersed in meditation and authentic feelings as an inspiration of creativity.
In the world map, Taiwan is a very small island, to say nothing of Hwalien, but where else can you a more inspirational art garden? When you visit Hwalien, which was formerly called an outlying mountain area, you will find it to be ‘ the Last Pure Land’ in Taiwan, as is confirmed by the efforts of Master Cheng Yen and her Tze Chi Foundation. This paradox of existence goes to prove that with a new horizon of perspective, we could create something positive and worthwhile even under disadvantageous circumstances.
Hwalien in eastern Taiwan is a multi-racial community, with beautiful landscapes, good-quality environment, urban and rural variety, and local features. These characteristics are reflected in a variety of cultural and creative power resources, allowing different races to live in harmony and cooperation. This is called the pride of Hwalien.
The Liberal Art College, the cultural load and creator in Hwalien, wishes to create a promising future, together with the entire faculty , students, residential arts, and art lovers.
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