Literati painting

Hua Yan is a leading figure of Yangzhou School, a loose artists' group in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The group's inventive approach helped carry on literati painting, a semiabstract, expressive style of classical Chinese painting, and the artists emphasized high morality, literary accumulation and mastery of calligraphy as integral parts of their endeavors to be accomplished in art.

Elegance, Refinement and Style: Paintings of Hua Yan, an exhibition at Guangdong Museum in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, running until Oct 7, hails the achievements of Hua in blazing new trails in ink art.

Born in Fujian province, Hua lived in destitution throughout his life. He taught himself to paint and studied calligraphy, literature and other areas of arts and culture. He traveled a great deal to become immersed in the brilliance of nature.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 2 Zhujiang Donglu, Tianhe district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province. 020-3804-6886.

Seeds of art

Meta Point, an art exhibition now on at the Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, is a collaboration between adult and child artists whose works investigate the impulse of people to create, examining current world issues from the perspectives of younger generations.

The exhibition looks at children not only as a group or community but also as a stage in a person's whole course of development. It brings the audience to the initial stage of humankind to see how and what motivated men and women to create art.

The exhibition also surveys how experiences and memories of childhood influence people throughout their lifetime and the importance of independence and creativity for both adults and children in a time when digital technology plays a big role.

10 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 12 Hele Road, Xingqing district, Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. 0951-8426-111.

Porcelain glare

Shangyu, a district of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, was one of the earliest ceramics production hubs.

In 2014, the district partnered with Tsinghua University to establish an international center for modern ceramics, which has since received more than 100 artists from home and abroad to carry out residence-creation in Shangyu, with over 1,800 of their works collected by Shangyu Museum.

East Encounters West, an exhibition at the Shangyu Museum running until Oct 15, gathers the works of dozens of artists from around the world, who have been introduced to the history of ceramic making in China during their stay in Shangyu and whose works show new developments in the international ceramic art scene.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 26 Yuyuan Lu, Cao'e subdistrict, Shangyu district, Shaoxing, Zhejiang province.0575-8222-1222.