‘Great Walls’ for L.A. Neighborhoods : Art: In addition to Chinatown’s first mural, five other resource center wall paintings have been completed this month.

“The Chinese have a long history in the arts, and now people have a chance to see that,” says William Chun-Hoon, principal of Chinatown’s Castelar Street Elementary School. “Most of the kids here have never been given an opportunity to study their own culture, but now they’ll see that they do have a history to be proud of. This is our contribution to the culture of Los Angeles.”

Chun-Hoon is referring to Shiyan Zhang’s “The Party at Lan-Ting,” Los Angeles’ first Chinese mural. The colorful, jewel-studded work--which vibrantly depicts a historical gathering of artists and intellectuals--graces the north wall of the Los Angeles Public Library’s Chinatown Branch at Yale and College streets.

The 17x40-foot work--one of six ethnic and environmentally themed murals to be completed this month through the city-financed “Neighborhood Pride: Great Walls Unlimited” program, will be dedicated today at a 3 p.m. ceremony sponsored by the Friends of the Chinatown Library.

“People are so proud of having something cultural in this commercial setting,” said Elsa Wu, the facility’s senior librarian. Wu said having their own mural has “definitely” made a difference in the Chinese community, and that Zhang’s theme has served as “a reminder about Chinese history and the lost art of calligraphy.”

Los Angeles Councilman Michael Woo called the work “a wonderful addition . . . (that) raises the standard of public art in Chinatown.”

Zhang came to Los Angeles in late 1988 to “learn from the U.S. art scene and try a different life experience.” In his first U.S. mural, the Chinese native painted a historic party thrown by calligrapher Wang Xi-Zhi about 1,700 years ago.

As Zhang, who spoke through an interpreter, explained: “The party at Lan-Ting was a very important artistic event in Chinese history. Wang gathered all his important friends for a party outdoors, where they played music, wrote poems, showed off their paintings and drank. . . . Then Wang documented the party on a large Chinese scroll that became an important part of Chinese art history.”

Zhang noted that the original scroll is rumored to be buried in the tomb of an emperor from the Tang Dynasty, but said there are hundreds of replicas throughout China and that the story is still well-known.

The 53-year-old artist has a dozen murals in China, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong to his credit and is known in China as a master lacquer painter. He incorporated the main ideas of the Chinese lacquer form--such as the layering of various colors and the use of materials including glitter and eggshells--into his acrylic mural.

“I (thought): ‘If I can put all kinds of things into a lacquer painting, then why not in a mural?’ ” the artist said. “So I’ve used glitter, sequins and pieces of (costume) jewelry to add detail.”

In judging reaction from the Chinatown community, Zhang proudly points out that his mural has already been the subject of 15 articles in the Chinese press, a factor which he said should help bring about more murals in the future.

Judy Baca, a leading muralist who is also artistic director of the Venice-based Social and Public Art Resource Center, which administers the city’s “Neighborhood Pride” program, also thought Zhang’s mural would prompt others: “I think what will happen is that Chinese businesses will enjoy the piece and it will give them the impetus to sponsor other (murals) in Chinatown.”

Baca also said Zhang’s unique style of mural painting--such as using the classical Chinese composition of stacked figures on a frontal plane as opposed to a three-dimensional rendering--should be considered “a push on the form in L.A.”

In addition to Zhang’s mural, five other resource center murals have been completed this month, including noted Thai artist Vibul Wonprasat’s “East Meets West,” which Baca said is the first city-sponsored Thai mural since 1974. The colorful work on the Bangkok Market at 4757 Melrose Ave. depicts various Asian peoples blending with Western culture and juxtaposes such images as traditionally costumed Thai dancers with Western ballerinas, and Japan’s Great Buddha and China’s Great Wall with images of the space shuttle and children sitting at computers.

“These artists show that mural painting is a valid and living form,” Baca said of the works, which she said cost more than $20,000 each--including an $8,000 stipend for the artists--to produce. “The form has always been associated with Chicanos in L.A., which has in some ways caused it to become denigrated and perceived as ghetto art. But the fact that the Chinese are now using it, the Thai are using it, and the whole range of (the city) is using it serves as a testimony to the vitality and life of muralism in Los Angeles.”

Other murals representing different ethnic communities include:

* Ignacio Gomez’s “Hispanic Hollywood,” which depicts prominent Latinos in the entertainment industry including Jimmy Smits, Andy Garcia, Rita Moreno and Raul Julia (at Nosotros Theatre, 1314 N. Wilton Place, Hollywood);

* Alice Patrick’s “Women Do Get Weary (But They Don’t Give Up),” which pays tribute to the pride and courage of black women and features anonymous African-American “mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers” along with black personalities including Josephine Baker, Oprah Winfrey and Florence Griffith-Joyner (at the National Council of Negro Women building, 3720 West 54th St.);

* Ernesto de la Loza’s “Resurrection of the Green Planet (or Tercera piedra desde el sol),” which the artist describes as a “socio-environmental-political-cultural piece” featuring elements such as an old medicine woman healing her daughter Earth and a desperate homeless man reaching out for help (at El Pavo Bakery, 2242 Brooklyn Ave., Boyle Heights).

Perhaps the most impressive of the murals, however, is Sandra Drinning’s “The Living City,” which brings together the city’s diverse neighborhoods in an incredibly detailed pictorial documentary interwoven by a massive freeway system.

“I tried to capture what I saw in L.A., (which is) a mixture of different ethnic groups,” said Drinning, 28, whose mural is on the west side of the HK Supermarket, 124 N. Western Ave. “Los Angeles is like a collage that’s constantly moving in this huge stream of cars, which is represented by the freeways.”

It took Drinning--who has shown her prismacolor drawings at galleries including Santa Monica’s Boritzer/Gray and USC’s Linhurst--six months to paint the 16x94-foot work, which is her first mural and, she says, her “first successful piece as a painter.”

The work features various landmarks including Watts Towers, Olvera Street, Hollywood Bowl, Chinatown, Dodger Stadium and the Coliseum. While at first glance the whimsical buildings and freeway mazes might appear to be just another take-off on Frank Romero’s car murals, closer scrutiny reveals Drinning’s humor and sense of detail are entirely her own.

The mural includes hundreds of figures and other hilarious details that include a billboard promoting the mural and its “cast” in the form of a movie ad, a “Take-U in a Hurry Nowhere Service Ambulance” caught in rush-hour traffic, a “Ghostbusters” van chasing a Pac-Man ghost and a police officer chasing a nude runner.

“This part of the work changed; the little miniature portraits were not on the original plans for the mural,” Drinning said. “But as I worked on the project I met so many people--a real cross section of characters--including the regulars that came by the area. So I decided to paint them all in the mural. . . . Later, I would see gang members, for instance, come back and point themselves out and be excited about being in there.”