- Chinese Classics, 'The Works of Mencius,' V, part 1 (1861), James Legge's credo as a translator

 

 

From Beijing, China, Deng Defai and He Hai (The Utopia Group) moved to Huntly as artists-in-residence during Summer 2009.

 

James Legge left his Huntly birthplace as a missionary to the Far East. Believing that he had to understand those he sought to convert, he learned Chinese and began a lifelong study of the language and culture. Later, occupying the first chair of Sinology at Oxford, he published 50 monumental volumes of the Chinese Classics - including the scripts of Confucius and the i-Ching. This opened routes of exchange that seeded early modern globalization. Legge fully understood the sensitive nature of this ideal program of exchange, so looking at contemporary society, how has this process developed? Is there something that gets lost in translation? Or does (re)interpretation involve an exchange that allows two cultures to enrich and contribute to one another?

 

As their name suggests, The Utopia Group are concerned with the notion of the ideal society. However, without idealizing the modern world itself, they search for the seeds of utopia in reality, translating them through their art into monumental gestures and artworks that highlight the moments of history that brush against the ideal. Engaging with the community of Huntly allowed the diverse array of residents to witness how their town has been, and still is, involved in a global course of cultural exchange that is at once ideal yet flawed in its subjectivity, and enriching.

 

Their time in Huntly was filled with a dense program of events, dependent upon close collaborative partnerships with the people of Huntly, such as a local church, and also their ongoing research into the practices and legacy of James Legge. Producing a 24-piece puzzle comprised of charcoal images of Chinese text, Deng Dafei and He Hai hid the various pieces around the town in an elaborate treasure hunt. Many townspeople joined the hunt to place the pieces back together, which formed a Chinese newspaper - one of Legge's cultural developments in China and also a symbol of globalization and disseminated information. Meanwhile, the hunt for these fragments itself, represented a convoluted journey for the search for meaning, the bigger picture, one that Legge was familiar with in the process of translation. This idea of keeping the bigger picture in mind, as suggested in Legge's credo, was developed in their exhibition of drawings, which, incidentally, took place in a building built and owned by the Legge family. The exhibition contextualized their project in the cultural, technological and historical developments of both nineteenth century China and Britain, but also contemporary Huntly.

 

A true collision and breeding of cultures was apparent in their final event, an event both funereal and joyously celebratory. In commemoration of the legacy of James Legge, his lasting achievements in cultural understanding and their impression on the modern world, a funeral procession was staged in Huntly which drew from both Western and Chinese traditions of burial and remembrance. Local church hymns, Scottish bagpipes, newspaper confetti and banners written in Chinese calligraphy precluded the burning of a paper boat in the River Deveron, a local area associated with the childhood of James Legge. Later, Deveron Arts held both a Ceilidh and a discussion: The Legacy of James Legge: Understanding, Misunderstanding, Belief and Amnesia - China and the West, in the Gordon Arms Hotel.