The Communist Party of China has experienced a glorious history for a century. Through this magnificent centenary journey, the CPC has withstood the test of time and grown even stronger. The past one hundred years have witnessed the CPC’s dedication to fulfilling its original aspiration, its hard work of laying the foundation for the nation, and its commitment to making brilliant achievements and opening up the future.

Amid the warm atmosphere when the centenary of the CPC was celebrated, the Hangzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles hosted the “Splendid Qiantang — Art Exhibition of Hangzhou Painting Academy (Hangzhou Academy of Oil Paintings)”, organizing more than 30 painters from the academy to carefully create works, from which 100 were meticulously selected for the exhibition. 

In 1985, Hangzhou Painting Academy was officially founded. In 2014, the Hangzhou Academy of Oil Painting was resumed. It was founded not only because Hushan in Hangzhou has been a prosperous place that is uniquely favourable to culture and art since ancient times, but also because Hangzhou is closely related to the profound painting heritage, the immortal paintings passed down from the painting academies dating back to the Southern Song Dynasty, the artistic roots of the four great painters in the Yuan Dynasty, the origin of Zhejiang landscape painting school and Wulin school in the Ming Dynasty, the cultural convergence of Ming and Qing Dynasties, the absorption and transformation of the modern Shanghai school, and the “replacement of religion with aesthetic education”. For more than 30 years, Hangzhou Painting Academy (Hangzhou Academy of Oil Paintings) has lived up to expectations, insisted on excelling in academic performance, focused on creation and research, cultivated talents, kept up with the times, based on the present, and made fruitful achievements. It has been awarded twice by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and has been a frequent winner of “Advanced Collective” at provincial and city levels. In recent years, it has served for the central work of Hangzhou, carried forward and put into practice the core values of socialism, developed cultural and artistic undertakings, and built cultural self-confidence. It actively organizes international and domestic art exchanges, holds various exhibitions, supports cultural and artistic exchanges under the “Belt and Road” initiative, and participates in the annual exhibitions and inter-academy exchanges among major urban painting academies across the country. It organized a series of thematic art exhibitions, such as “Prosperity of Qiantang Since Ancient Times”, “History of the Canal”, “Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up”, “Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China”, “Hangzhou as a Well-off Society in All Respects”, and “Celebration of the centenary of the Communist Party of China”, which were well received by all sectors of society.

Having taken solid steps for over 30 years and looking back on the history, the academy will pass down the mission from generation to generation. Standing at a new starting point for the new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, we must unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with General Secretary Xi at the core, keep our original aspiration, assume the mission, and continue to struggle. Hangzhou Painting Academy (Hangzhou Academy of Oil Paintings) will stick to its founding principle, give full play to its talent advantage, serve as an “important window” at the forefront to show the integration of “ancient and present” cultures, and contribute as an arts institution to the high-level construction of Hangzhou as a socialist metropolis.