The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire made it obvious that the holder of a tough job can have a sensitive side by opening a painting exhibition steeped in culture, tradition, and spirituality.
The world touring collection, titled The Art of Zhen Shan Ren, depicts the history and practice of Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual discipline, from its inception to its persecution in China today.
The new Commissioner, Sir Graham Bright, cut the blue and yellow ribbon at the Cambridge Guildhall, on November 26 only four days into his tenure. He was in the first batch of Commissioners to be elected in the UK on November 15 this year, though their posts officially started on November 22
Sir Graham has been to China as a businessman and saw how China had grown its economy and industry.
“But I also saw China because I was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to our Prime Minister [John Major],” he said.
He was aware the view he was given of Communist Party China by Communist officials was a narrow one. “We saw all the heads of state and went to the banquet and everything else but we were only shown what they wanted us to see and it was quite obvious to us at the time that we were shown what they wanted us to see.
“I was itching to try and see behind the scenes but, of course, we weren’t allowed to see that,” he said.
Now, he is seeing some of that behind-the-scenes view as forced organ harvesting, imprisonment, torture, and the ransacking of practitioners’ houses are pictured in the work.
The paintings are very represenational, almost photographic, though with hints of symbolism, for instance in colour where evil is represented in dark and murky tones.
Yellow, or gold, and blue, (featured in the ribbon cut by sir Graham) are worn in the costumes of Falun Gong practitioners when in parades to draw awareness to the persecution and killing of practitioners in China. Yellow and gold were reserved for emperors in the past and in Taoism, one of the traditions amalgamated into Falun Gong, blue signifies trust, calmness, immortality.
There is peace in the paintings, he said, but there is the darker side which is trying to silence those people in the most gruesome sort of way you can imagine.
“And there’s a cry for help,” he said. “There’s a cry for help for freedom of thought which someone like myself supports totally. And I thought that message was very clear.”
Sir Graham was the Conservative candidate for the Commissioner’s job in Cambridgeshire. The post lasts for four years and he will hold the pursestrings of police budgets, decide priorities and be able to to hire and fire Chief Constables.
With a national turnout of only 15% of possible voters, there were questions about the need to elect Commissioners. However, voters in the West can make the choice to abstain from voting, unlike the citizens of China who have recently had a nexus of seven major posts imposed on them at the 18th Communist Party Congress.
Sir Graham said of the exhibition, “There is concern, particularly in the West, that China does have to come to terms with the fact that people should be free to have their own thoughts.”
Asked if he would you recommend this exhibition to others, he said it’s an exhibition which is worth coming to see.
“Sadly with all these things,” he said, “you only get a few people who take an interest but if they were to take an interest, not only are they looking at the exhibition of the paintings but they’re looking at some of the Chinese culture.
“And I think it’s important for everyone to understand the world is getting smaller and we should all start to understand each other,” he said.
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