WHAT would have happened to Chinese civilization if Xuan Zang, a famed Chinese Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), had traveled beyond India on his pilgrimages and returned in 645 with biblical or Islamic scriptures rather than Buddhist texts?

"Great Pilgrimages" by Wang Jing, a graduate student at Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in Hubei Province, depicts the answer at Fresh Eyes: Growing up With Modernity. The exhibition of oil paintings by art undergraduates and graduate students at He Xiangning Art Museum opened Sunday and runs through Oct. 15.

Wang Jing's four paintings depict humorous, intriguing and imaginary scenes of what the four fictional figures in "Journey to the West," a Chinese folk novel of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), would have encountered on a new pilgrimage to the United States and Europe.

"I often wonder what our society would be like today if the Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty had traveled further than India and hadn't returned with the Sanskrit texts," said 34-year-old Wang.

"We're embarking on another great pilgrimage today, learning from advanced cultures from around the world," the artist said. "I wish that we neither worship nor expel foreign classics and culture blindly."

Following exhibitions in 2003 and 2005, this year is the third time He Xiangning Art Museum has invited art students to show their works.

The exhibit features 146 oil paintings by 36 undergraduate and graduate students from nine major fine arts schools, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and China Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou.

The exhibition is divided into two parts: "Illusions of Time" and "Images of Reality."

"We have chosen this year's theme 'Growing up With Modernity' to reflect, through the eyes of selected art school students, some aspects of historical changes the country is going through," said Liu Yingjiu.

Liu is the exhibition's organizer and deputy director of the planning department of He Xiangning Art Museum.

The exhibition's first section, "Illusions of Time," includes a group of young painters, such as Wang Jing, who are reinterpreting tradition or contemporary culture by boldly borrowing and reusing historical and cultural symbols.

The second section, "Images of Reality," includes young painters' works using the concepts and techniques of realism to depict the current physical and social environment resulting from China's drive to modernization.