人物:马航失联客机上的中国艺术家

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

69岁的王林诗是江苏泰州人，博学多才，人很清瘦，尤擅画鸡。

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.

在他的传统中国水墨画中，可以看到他用墨汁随意抹两笔便绘出了鸡的爪子，用浅墨涂几下便描出了翅膀和神态。他笔下的鸡栩栩如生，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.'

王林诗的朋友、画家杨林川说，有一次他画了五只鸡，四只在啄米，一只站在石头上。他问王林诗那只鸡为何不吃米，后者答道，这是站岗鸡，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.

杨林川说，王林诗是典型的中国南方文人，平日话不多，但一旦开口，闲谈之中不知不觉就会吐出唐宋诗词。

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，王林诗和杨林川一同参加了南京中山书画院建院30周年的庆祝活动。他们二人均曾供职于该书画院。这也许是杨林川最后一次见到王林诗。

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.

王林诗是马来西亚航空公司(Malaysia Airlines)370航班上18位中国艺术家之一。这个中国艺术代表团由书法家、画家和诗人组成。他们上周应邀参加了吉隆坡一个为期三天的展出，主办方是中国在线商务网站国联资源网(IBICN)。

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

代表团中一些艺术家被认为是中国艺术界的重量级人物。

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岁的刘如生是至少三个书画院的负责人，是官方的中国书法家协会会员。他以擅长画人物和花鸟闻名。王林诗爱画小鸡，刘如生则在画葡萄和梅花方面技艺精湛。

'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.

中国书法艺术家协会主席马永安称，他是艺术家中的典范，他的绘画技巧高超，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.

马永安表示，刘如生的作品造诣颇高，受到了中国官员的关注，中国官员曾把他的作品作为官方礼物赠送给前台湾行政院院长连战。连战办公室确认收到过这份礼物。连战办公室发言人丁远超说，祝刘先生好运，希望事情不像看起来那么糟糕。

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

朋友们都说，刘如生是一位精力旺盛、充满活力的人。

'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.

杨林川称，刘如生有一种名人气质，因为他以前在文工团工作。在中国，文工团指的是在共产党领导下的文艺团体。

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.

杨林川表示，刘如生以前在煤矿文工团当演员。刘如生曾在2006年发表过一篇名为《曾与死亡六次擦肩而过》的散文，其中描述了他的父亲、南京一煤矿老板在1937年日本侵华时被日本士兵杀害的经历。这是他六次与死亡擦肩而过的第一次，这篇文章在马航370航班失联后就在互联网上广为流传。

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岁的书法家郑文彬说，刘如生在吉隆坡也继续给大家带来欢乐，他在开往吉隆坡马来西亚王宫(Istana Negara)的汽车上还唱了一首经典的红歌。郑文彬来自深圳，他也是此次访问马来西亚艺术家代表团的成员。

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.

在马来西亚的这次展览（主办方将其称为“中马艺术文化交流”，已经举行了四年）并不是一项重大国际项目。但对参加展览的买买提江・阿布拉等人来说，这一项目有特殊意义，因为这是他第一次在国外参展。

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.

阿布拉现年34岁，是一位外表整洁的油画家，刚刚开始在国际上受到关注。在职业生涯的大部分时间里，他都是在自己的故乡喀什工作。喀什是新疆地区最西部的一个城市。他擅长用土黄色调表达城市的荒芜感，他还画维吾尔族人的肖像画，他自己也是维族人。

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.

身处偏远地区的阿布拉基本与外面的艺术世界隔离，但他仍然在省城乌鲁木齐有着一席之地。

'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.

新疆美术家协会的一名负责人说，喀什和乌鲁木齐相隔1,500公里，因此他不怎么经常来乌鲁木齐，但他是协会会员，参加协会的展览。该协会有1,300名会员。

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、同样也是画家的依麻木艾山说，在收到主办方的邀请时，阿布拉非常高兴。

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.

上周四，艾山收到了阿布拉从吉隆坡发来的短信。那时，艺术代表团的官方行程部分已经基本结束。

'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.'

艾山称，阿布拉说他已经准备返回北京，说他不会再打电话，因为电话卡上的钱可能不够了。艾山此时正在北京一家马航为失联乘客亲友安排的酒店中，阿布拉的哥哥就坐在他身边。

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.

艾山说，他与阿布拉相识于十多年前，当时两人都在新疆师范大学(Xinjiang Normal University)学画画。两人都酷爱油画，一有时间就在一起搞创作。大约一年前艾山来到北京，在中国传媒大学(Communication University of China)学舞台美术设计，阿布拉则继续留在了喀什。

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

南京画家杨林川回忆起了1月份他邀请王林诗在南京中山书画院成立30周年座谈会上发言的情景。

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

他说：当时王林诗坐在后排，我专门请他到台上来发言。

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.

王林诗上台之后，说了他希望多参加“送画下乡”这样的公益活动，还谈了他的工作计划，说他打算过完春节去国外参加一个艺术活动。

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

杨林川说，当时他不知道这个“国外”是不是马来西亚。