At the moment, Beijing is hosting an International Arts Biennial and the works from a group of South Korean artists are drawing a lot of attention.

Paintings from 20 or so of South Korea's best and most prodigious painters are on display at the China National Museum of Fine Arts. They represent the highest level of South Korean fine arts over the past two years.

Besides more realistic landscape paintings and portraits, some of the more abstract works show the influence of western art. The works are also penetrated by the desire to break away from colonial influences and express their makers' artistic freedom. The ideas are not lost on exhibition-goers.

Sun Xiaoyan, a student of Science & Technology Univ. of Inner Mongolia, said:"I am deeply impressed by works of the South Korean artists. I feel every painting gives me a different kind of feeling and shock. "

The South Korean fine arts are deeply influenced by western art, which first started to have an influence in the country in the late 19th century. In the 1960's, the new generation of South Korean artists introduced abstract as well as other pioneering art forms into the country. And in the 1980's, South Korean society went through dramatic social changes and the artists brought up their brushes to record the reality of their world.

(CCTV September 27, 2003)