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<img src="http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130528-INLINE.jpg" alt="Learn to Read Mandarin: Art Essays, Artist Blog Posts" title="Learn to Read Chinese: Art Vocabulary and Simplified Chinese Art Blogs" width="100" height="100" class="imgborder alignleft" /> Thanks to Sina Weibo, China's most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat <a href="http://blog.sina.com.cn/zjf998">art blog</a>, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you'll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. <!--more-->

The Chinese for "Ukiyo-e" is 浮世绘, or "Floating world paintings". 

For me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. 

I'm also a fan of the word 翻出 - 

I've only translated the first paragraph here. <a href="http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4aa4c0c30102e3p9.html">Here's the original post</a>, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures. 

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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland
瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain
包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper
肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait
姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose
各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different
版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting
震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing
以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...
色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Eroti
梵高
印象派
</div>
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<div id="chinesetext">
19世纪初，一位<strong>荷兰</strong>商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本<strong>瓷器</strong><strong>包装纸</strong>上居然有一副美人<strong>肖像</strong>，<strong>姿态</strong>传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他<strong>翻出</strong>了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容<strong>各异</strong>的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本<strong>版画</strong>之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎<strong>震撼</strong>了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，<strong>以至于</strong>现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是<strong>色情</strong>，第二想到的就是<strong>梵高</strong>和<strong>印象派</strong>。

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In the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen.  Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector's items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are "Ukiyo-e". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism. 
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