人物:馬航失聯客機上的中國藝術家

Wang Linshi, a thin, erudite 69-year-old from China's eastern city of Taizhou, has a soft spot for chickens.

69歲的王林詩是江蘇泰州人，博學多才，人很清瘦，尤擅畫雞。

He paints them. In his work, done in the traditional Chinese style, daubs of black ink dart and splay into astonishing renditions of tiny claws, or fade to gray to become wings, or come alive with expressions, and the humor he gifts them.

在他的傳統中國水墨畫中，可以看到他用墨汁隨意抹兩筆便繪出了雞的爪子，用淺墨塗幾下便描出了翅膀和神態。他筆下的雞栩栩如生，作品意趣盎然。

'Once, he painted five chickens, four of them eating rice, and one of them standing on a stone,' said Yang Linchuan, Mr. Wang's friend and fellow painter. 'I asked him why he left that chicken without food. He said the chicken is on guard, sacrificing himself for the happiness of others.'

王林詩的朋友、畫家楊林川說，有一次他畫了五隻雞，四隻在啄米，一隻站在石頭上。他問王林詩那隻雞爲何不吃米，後者答道，這是站崗雞，辛苦自己，幸福大家。

Mr. Wang is a 'typical Southern Chinese literati' who doesn't say much, but when he does he isn't above dropping Tang and Song dynasty verse into casual conversation, Mr. Yang said.

楊林川說，王林詩是典型的中國南方文人，平日話不多，但一旦開口，閒談之中不知不覺就會吐出唐宋詩詞。

On Jan. 20, the pair attended a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Nanjing Zhongshan Painting Institute, to which they both belonged. It might be the last time Mr. Yang would see his friend.

今年1月20日，王林詩和楊林川一同參加了南京中山書畫院建院30週年的慶祝活動。他們二人均曾供職於該書畫院。這也許是楊林川最後一次見到王林詩。

Mr. Wang was among 18 Chinese artists--calligraphers, painters, poets--aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 . The artists had been invited to a three-day exhibition last week in Kuala Lumpur organized by a Chinese online commerce group called IBICN.

王林詩是馬來西亞航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)370航班上18位中國藝術家之一。這個中國藝術代表團由書法家、畫家和詩人組成。他們上週應邀參加了吉隆坡一個爲期三天的展出，主辦方是中國在線商務網站國聯資源網(IBICN)。

Some in the group are regarded as heavyweights in the Chinese art scene.

代表團中一些藝術家被認爲是中國藝術界的重量級人物。

Liu Rusheng, a 76-year-old Nanjing man, heads at least three traditional-Chinese art groups and is a member of the state-backed China Calligraphy Association. He is known for his mastery of portraiture, birds and flowers. Where Mr. Wang favors chickens, Mr. Liu has a knack for grapes and plum blossoms.

76歲的劉如生是至少三個書畫院的負責人，是官方的中國書法家協會會員。他以擅長畫人物和花鳥聞名。王林詩愛畫小雞，劉如生則在畫葡萄和梅花方面技藝精湛。

'He was exemplary among artists because he had great technique, and he had a lot of friends,' said Ma Yongan, chairman of the China Calligraphy and Art Association.

中國書法藝術家協會主席馬永安稱，他是藝術家中的典範，他的繪畫技巧高超，而且有很多朋友。

Mr. Liu's work is of such high quality that it attracted the attention of Chinese officials, who presented it as an official gift to Taiwan's former premier, Lien Chan, Mr. Ma said. Mr. Lien's office confirmed the gift. 'We wish Mr. Liu all the very best and we hope the situation is not as bleak as it seems,' said Ting Yuan-chao, a spokesman for Mr. Lien's office.

馬永安表示，劉如生的作品造詣頗高，受到了中國官員的關注，中國官員曾把他的作品作爲官方禮物贈送給前臺灣行政院院長連戰。連戰辦公室確認收到過這份禮物。連戰辦公室發言人丁遠超說，祝劉先生好運，希望事情不像看起來那麼糟糕。

Friends say Mr. Liu is an exuberant and energetic man given to speaking in a somewhat formal manner.

朋友們都說，劉如生是一位精力旺盛、充滿活力的人。

'He has an air of celebrity, as he worked in an art troupe before,' Mr. Yang said. The term in China refers to a Communist Party vehicle for popular live drama.

楊林川稱，劉如生有一種名人氣質，因爲他以前在文工團工作。在中國，文工團指的是在共產黨領導下的文藝團體。

Mr. Liu performed in such a troupe for coal miners in the past, Mr. Yang said. A 2006 essay written by Mr. Liu described how his father, a coal mine boss in eastern Nanjing, had been stabbed to death by Japanese soldiers during Japan's 1937 invasion of China. It was the first of six 'close brushes with death' for Mr. Liu detailed in the essay, which has been circulating on the Internet since the disappearance of Flight 370.

楊林川表示，劉如生以前在煤礦文工團當演員。劉如生曾在2006年發表過一篇名爲《曾與死亡六次擦肩而過》的散文，其中描述了他的父親、南京一煤礦老闆在1937年日本侵華時被日本士兵殺害的經歷。這是他六次與死亡擦肩而過的第一次，這篇文章在馬航370航班失聯後就在互聯網上廣爲流傳。

Mr. Liu would continue to entertain even in Kuala Lumpur, where he held court on the bus en route to Kuala Lumpur's Istana Negara, or Royal Palace, singing a 'classic red song,' said Zheng Wenbin, a 45-year-old calligrapher from China's port city of Shenzhen, who was in the group.

45歲的書法家鄭文彬說，劉如生在吉隆坡也繼續給大家帶來歡樂，他在開往吉隆坡馬來西亞王宮(Istana Negara)的汽車上還唱了一首經典的紅歌。鄭文彬來自深圳，他也是此次訪問馬來西亞藝術家代表團的成員。

The exhibition in Malaysia, billed by organizers as a four-year-old Sino-Malaysian art and cultural exchange, wasn't a major international showcase. But for some in the group, like Maimaitijiang Abula, the fair was special because it was his first such outing abroad.

在馬來西亞的這次展覽（主辦方將其稱爲“中馬藝術文化交流”，已經舉行了四年）並不是一項重大國際項目。但對參加展覽的買買提江・阿布拉等人來說，這一項目有特殊意義，因爲這是他第一次在國外參展。

Mr. Abula, a clean-cut 34-year-old oil painter, has just started to get internationally noticed. For most of his career, he has worked in his hometown of Kashgar, China's westernmost city in the Xinjiang region, where he developed a talent for depicting earth-toned images of faded urban desolation, including portraits of Uighurs, the ethnic minority to which Mr. Abula belonged.

阿布拉現年34歲，是一位外表整潔的油畫家，剛剛開始在國際上受到關注。在職業生涯的大部分時間裏，他都是在自己的故鄉喀什工作。喀什是新疆地區最西部的一個城市。他擅長用土黃色調錶達城市的荒蕪感，他還畫維吾爾族人的肖像畫，他自己也是維族人。

Mr. Abula's remote location has left him cut off from much of the art world, but he has sought to maintain a presence in the provincial capital of Urumqi.

身處偏遠地區的阿布拉基本與外面的藝術世界隔離，但他仍然在省城烏魯木齊有着一席之地。

'Kashgar and Urumqi are separated by 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) so he didn't come here often, but he was our member and took part in our exhibitions,' an official with the 1,300-member Xinjiang Artists Association said.

新疆美術家協會的一名負責人說，喀什和烏魯木齊相隔1,500公里，因此他不怎麼經常來烏魯木齊，但他是協會會員，參加協會的展覽。該協會有1,300名會員。

Mr. Abula was thrilled to be invited by the organizers to the trip, said his friend and fellow painter Yimamu Aishan.

阿布拉的朋友、同樣也是畫家的依麻木艾山說，在收到主辦方的邀請時，阿布拉非常高興。

On Thursday, Mr. Aishan got a text message apparently sent by Mr. Abula from Kuala Lumpur. The group had mostly wrapped up the official portion of the visit by then.

上週四，艾山收到了阿布拉從吉隆坡發來的短信。那時，藝術代表團的官方行程部分已經基本結束。

'He said he was getting ready to come back to Beijing,' said Mr. Aishan, as he sat beside Mr. Abula's older brother in a Beijing hotel that Malaysia Airlines set aside for friends and relatives of the missing. 'He said he won't call because he might not have enough money on his phone card.'

艾山稱，阿布拉說他已經準備返回北京，說他不會再打電話，因爲電話卡上的錢可能不夠了。艾山此時正在北京一家馬航爲失聯乘客親友安排的酒店中，阿布拉的哥哥就坐在他身邊。

The pair met in Xinjiang Normal University more than 10 years ago, where they studied art, Mr. Aishan said. Both men favored oils, and painted together whenever they could. When Mr. Aishan moved to Beijing to study stage design at the Communication University of China about a year ago, Mr. Abula stayed in Kashgar.

艾山說，他與阿布拉相識於十多年前，當時兩人都在新疆師範大學(Xinjiang Normal University)學畫畫。兩人都酷愛油畫，一有時間就在一起搞創作。大約一年前艾山來到北京，在中國傳媒大學(Communication University of China)學舞臺美術設計，阿布拉則繼續留在了喀什。

Mr. Yang, the Nanjing painter, recalled inviting Mr. Wang to the podium to address the Nanjing Zhongshan Painting Institute in January.

南京畫家楊林川回憶起了1月份他邀請王林詩在南京中山書畫院成立30週年座談會上發言的情景。

'He sat in the back, so I asked him to come up and speak,' Mr. Yang said.

他說：當時王林詩坐在後排，我專門請他到臺上來發言。

When Mr. Wang did, 'he spoke of how he wanted to do more charity work such as bringing art to the rural areas. He talked about his work plans, such as participating in overseas art activities after the Lunar New Year.

王林詩上臺之後，說了他希望多參加“送畫下鄉”這樣的公益活動，還談了他的工作計劃，說他打算過完春節去國外參加一個藝術活動。

'I didn't think at the time what it would mean.'

楊林川說，當時他不知道這個“國外”是不是馬來西亞。