Painting: The Immortal at the South Pole

The artist, Ms. Zhang Cuiying is an internationally acclaimed Chinese artist living in Australia. From an early age, Ms. Zhang was nurtured and taught by well-known Chinese masters, in the respected discipline of traditional Chinese brush painting. Her works have been extensively published throughout China. One of many honours includes the Asia-Pacific Gold Medal for Chinese Calligraphy and Painting.

Ms. Zhang is an Australia Citizen, and has been a tireless ambassador for human rights, since the conclusion of her eight-month long experience of torture and incarceration in Chinese prisons, for peacefully appealing the communist regime's persecution of Falun Gong.

Traditionally Chinese painters have been describing the long-living deity on canvas as a kind looking senior man, whose back was slighted arched, and whose hand carries a walking stick. The deity’s forehead is high and rounded, his hair silver-white but his complexion is as delicate as a child's. His ear loops are long and big, and his eye brows are long and drooping. The deity always shows a compassionate face, with a big smile.

In paintings the deity carries peaches of longevity, with a sacred bird in the Taoist school. According to fairy tales, in North-East China there is a gigantic peach tree, whose height is over 50 yards, and whose leaves are eight yards long and 5 yards wide. The peaches are 3 feet in diameter, while the stone small and thin. Whoever eats the peaches shall obtain wisdom and long life. In fairy tales the long-living deity also rides the sacred bird sometimes, therefore the bird is also regarded a symbol of long life. Together with pine trees, the birds are said to “extend the ages”. For Chinese people, the long-living deity is the symbol of longevity.