Bull Fighting by Jia Haoyi, representing Kingdom of Spain.
 
Art can heal and help all. This time artistic expression is helping the 2008 Beijing Olympics in possibly the largest themed art exhibition held in China since 1949. Vanda Miss Joaquim by Pang Yuan, representing Republic of Singapore.
 
As a friendly gesture before hosting the greatest sporting event ever held in China, hundreds of contemporary local artists created 200 traditional paintings about the 192 United Nations member states.

Each nation is often represented by its architecture, landscape, folk-custom, national flower or national bird. For instance, the Great Wall symbolizes China and the UN headquarters building in New York reflects the United States as well as the laughing faces of people of different nationalities.

Britain has been embodied by London Bridge, France by the Eiffel Tower and also by the building of the UN World Tourism Organization. Russia is represented by its Orthodox churches.

These works were displayed at an exhibition titled One World, which ran at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing from April 29 to May 8. They will travel to the United Nations headquarters in New York as well as its office in Geneva, as one of the prelude events of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Bamiyan Valley & Buzkashi Game by Xie Zhen'ou, representing Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

The State Council Information Office, China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Chinese Artists' Association organized the event. Liu Yunshan, member of the Communist Party of China's Politburo, visited the exhibition.

"It is possibly the largest themed art exhibition after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949," said Li Bing, deputy director of the State Council Information Office, at the exhibition's opening ceremony.

"The artworks show how friendly Chinese artists and also other Chinese people are to the world's people, how much they respect different cultures and how they expect for the building of a harmonious world," he said.

He added that embassies of many countries provided documents and suggestions to the Chinese artists in their creations. 

(China Daily May 15, 2007)