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Artistic tribute

By Yang Yang in Wuzhen, Zhejiang | China Daily | Updated: 2016-11-17 07:25

Artistic tribute

After careful selection, the museum has put on show 100 paintings and 50 copies of manuscripts of different time periods from Mu Xin's life. He left behind a total of 600 pieces of paintings and thousands of manuscripts.

In 1968, Mu Xin was sentenced to jail for his outspokenness. He was not released until 1979. During the 12 years in jail, he saved 66 pages of paper from when he was asked to write confessions. Front and back, the pages are crammed with his written characters. The 132 pages have become his famous "manuscripts in jail".

Mu Xin wrote about Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Chopin in jail, trying to prove he was still living.

About two years after he was set free, Mu Xin moved to New York. In 1984, Unitas monthly in Taiwan published a special issue on him, who immediately became popular on the island. Twenty-two years later at the age of 79, Mu Xin went back to his hometown and spent the last five years at the renovated house of his family. Also in that year, his works were published in the mainland for the first time, and he enjoyed an avid following among young readers.

At the end of 2011, Mu Xin died. Five years later, the museum building was officially open to the public, telling stories about different aspects of his life.

Each month, about 10,000 visitors come to the museum to see and feel the cool space of the modern building, to watch short videos in which Mu Xin talks about his love for painting and music and reads his own writing.

On the second floor, there is a small library, where visitors can take a book by Mu Xin from the shelves and read for a while.

There are different kinds of visitors. Some are here to appreciate the modern architecture, some come because they are fans of Mu Xin, and others just come in by chance.

Tom Tang and four of his friends from Hong Kong University are strolling in the museum. They knew nothing about Mu Xin and his works before they came here, but "the space looks very nice".

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