“那种共同感和兄弟之情是中国文化的精华，在过去几千年里将整个民族维系在一起。”

　　——旅居新加坡的中国艺术家林祥雄

　　艺术家林祥雄的作品充满热带的热量和激动的色彩。他自己则充满对中国文化复兴的激情。

　　林祥雄是一位旅居新加坡的中国人，以印象主义题材为主题—赤道上空落日的狂暴的红光、拼死争斗的公鸡、挤满身着五颜六色服装的马来人的集市、橡胶树和椰子树覆盖的热带庄园、咆哮的黄河瀑布等等。

　　强有力的笔触和飞溅的色彩成为他的风格特征。这些条块组合起来构成了他的作品的那种粗犷之美。

　　但是他的作品不仅仅是场面壮观。他利用这些作品来表达一种看法。例如，打斗的公鸡象征人类的无情争斗。新建高楼与被拆旧房之间的对比象征对明天的希望或现代化对节奏缓慢的旧社会和既定价值观的侵蚀。

　　他充满同情的画笔同时也描述了劳动人民的生活与工作。这是因为他自己就是凭着独自奋斗而从社会底层走上来的人。

　　林祥雄1945年出生于广东省潮州市的一个农家。还不到11岁母亲就过世了。失去母亲的男孩一路辗转来到新加坡与父亲团聚。在之后的岁月里，他在刻薄无情的继母手下饱尝了生活的艰辛—擦皮鞋、在杂货店打杂、卖报纸等等。

　　但是，他的狄更斯式的童年结果却成为其艺术和商业活动的巨大推动力。

　　虽然生活艰难，但是他对艺术的热爱却从未动摇过。他不停地画，并因此而于1965年被新加坡艺术学院录取，然后于1971年前往巴黎。

　　他学习刻苦，经常参观博物馆和美术馆，以便吸收西方艺术的要素。这些后来都在他的艺术中得到表现。

　　他曾遭遇过种族偏见，但是再次以此作为推动力。今天，他热烈地主张中国艺术和文化的复兴。

　　作为在新加坡生活的中国人，林祥雄在海外华人中间感受到了一种强烈的文化共同感。

　　“那种共同感和兄弟之情是中国文化的精华，在过去几千年里将整个民族维系在一起，使它能够挺过所有游牧民族的入侵、自然灾害和外国侵略，”他说道。

　　这使得中国移民能够在异地他乡能够扎根、发展，无论他们分散在什么地方。

　　但是，新加坡的中国文化在迅猛发展的现代化建设中正在衰退。在他看来，“新的华人即不是中国人，也不是西方人。我们正在成为没有灵魂的人，在精神上无处可去。”

　　“我们的钱、名望、荣誉、物质享受比以往任何时候都多。但是我们正在丧失更多的传统、道德、文化、甚至还有灵魂。

　　“我们正在建设今天的繁荣，但是我们同时也在卖出未来，”他说。在危机感的推动下，他努力去尽其所能来告诫人们。

　　他是一位言行一致并实践主义者。他在中国的主流文化事业中投下巨资。

　　经过两年的讨论之后，由林祥雄所捐赠的30万元人民币（54,545美元）赞助的第一版大型艺术杂志即将出版。《玄黄》将包括有关中国绘画、雕塑、壁画、剪纸、木雕、木偶制作、园艺和建筑方面的文章。

　　“我所做的一切就如点燃了一根火柴，而华人艺术家们的热情将会使火焰经久不衰，”他说道。

　　他很清楚没有钱什么都干不成。这就是他既是商人，也是艺术家的原因。他同样清楚或者甚至更加清楚精神和文化要比物质和金钱更永恒。

　　“日本人的钱可以买来很多西方的杰作，但是绝对改变不了绘画大师们的姓名和国籍，”他说。“英国人在他们的全盛时期能够从其他国家将很多艺术作品引入伦敦，在大英博物馆展出，但是无法把这些作品转化为自己的文化。”

　　所以，林祥雄的生活形成了一种循环：追究艺术、挣钱、推动艺术、然后创作更多的艺术。

　　他知道，用三国时期（220-265）魏国的统治者，同时也是中国文学史上才华横溢的散文作家曹丕的话来说，“荣耀和物质奢华会随着一个人的生命而终结”。所以他竭尽全力去实现能够超越物质生命的与众不同的某种东西。

　　他说：“毕竟，无论一个人有多么富有，但是每天只需要不超过3000卡路里的食物和3平方米睡觉的地方。”

　　（原刊于《中国日报》，1992年12月3日）

Lim's art burns bright with cultural passion

　　"That sense of community and fraternity is the quintessence of the Chinese culture, which has tied the nation together over the past thousands of years."

　　—Lim Siang Hiong, a Chinese artist living in Singapore.

　　Artist Lim Siang Hiong's works burn with tropical heat and riotous colours. And Lim himself is burning with passion for the revival of Chinese culture.

　　Lim, a Chinese national living in Singapore, picks impressive themes — the angry red glare of the setting sun over the equator, cocks locked in desperate combat, bazaars crowded with colourfully-dressed Malays, tropical plantations bristling with rubber trees and coconut palms, the Yellow River's roaring waterfalls.

　　Powerful strokes and splashes of colour mark his style. It is these lines and patches that combine to make up the rugged beauty of his works.

　　But his works are more than just spectacles. Lim uses them to make a point. For example, his fighting cocks symbolize ruthless struggles among human beings. The contrast between the newly emerging high-rise buildings and torn-down old houses symbolizes hopes for tomorrow — or perhaps modernization's erosion of the gentle-paced old society and established values.

　　Lim's sympathetic brush also depicts the lives and labours of the working people. That is because Lim is a self-made man who emerged from the lower rungs of society.

　　He was born into a farm family in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, in 1945. His mother died when he was barely 11, and the motherless boy travelled all the way to Singapore to join his father. In the years that followed, under an unkind stepmother.

　　Lim tasted the bitterness of life — shining shoes, apprenticing to a grocer, selling newspapers.

　　Yet his Dickensian childhood turned out an overwhelming driving force that was to power his artistic and business activities.

　　His love for art never wavered in the hard times; he kept drawing. He painted his way into the Singapore Academy of Arts in 1965 and then on to Paris in 1971.

　　Lim studied hard and went to the museums and galleries, absorbing elements of Western art. Those were to find expression in his art later.

　　He encountered racial prejudice. Again, he used them as a driving force. Today he fervently advocates the revival of Chinese art and culture.

　　As a Chinese living in Singapore, Lim feels a strong sense of cultural community among Chinese overseas.

　　"That sense of community and fraternity is the quintessence of the Chinese culture, which has tied the nation together over the past thousands of years and has enabled it to tough' through all the periods of nomadic invasion, nature-wrought havoc and foreign aggression," Lim said.

　　That has allowed Chinese emigrants, no matter how scattered, to take root in their adopted lands and prosper.

　　Chinese culture in Singapore, however, is losing ground in the fast pace of modernization. In Lim's opinion: "The new Chinese are neither Chinese nor Western. We are becoming soulless' creatures, who have nowhere to turn to, spiritually."

　　"We have more than ever before — money, fame, honour, material comforts. But we are losing even more — tradition, ethics, culture and even soul.

　　"We are building today's prosperity, but we are also selling the future," he said. Prompted by the sense of crisis, Lim tries to warn people whenever he can.

　　But he does more than sound an alarm. He is also a man of action, investing money in various cultural undertakings in China, the cradle and home base of the mainstream Chinese culture.

　　After two years of discussion, with Lim's donation of 300,000 yuan ($54,545), the first edition of a large- format art magazine is being published. "Xuanhuang" will include articles on China's painting, sculpture, murals, paper-cutting, woodcutting, puppet-making, gardening and architecture.

　　"All I've done is strike a match, and the enthusiasm of the Chinese artists will sustain the flame," Lim said.

　　Lim knows well that nothing can be done without money. That explains why he is a businessman as well as an artist. He knows, equally well or even better, though, that spirit and culture outlive material and money.

　　"Japanese money can buy many Western masterpieces, but it can never change the names and nationalities of the painting masters," he said. "The British in their heyday could transport many works of art from other nations to London and have them exhibited in the British Museum; but could not transform all those into their own culture."

　　So Lim's life follows a circular path: Pursuing his art, making money, promoting art, then creating more art.

　　Lim knows that "glory and material luxury end with one's life," in the words of Cao Pi, a ruler of the Wei Kingdom in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-265), and also a talented essayist in Chinese literary history. Lim is out to achieve something distinctive that outlives the physical life.

　　"After all, one needs no more than 3,000 calories of food each day and 3 square metres of space to sleep in, no matter how wealthy one may be," he said.

　　( Printed on "CHINA DAILY", 3-12-1992 )

作者：杨毅