<<The Backbone of China>> Series

<<The Backbone of China>> Series

       Over the past thousands of years, they—the Chinese farmers—have always been a silent group, as silent as the soil they stand on. For most of the time they were the backdrop of the great achievements of the kings and emperors. In today’s world which is prevailed by the so-called “elite culture”, they are further pushed off the mainstream, without any air time.

       However, I’ve always strongly believed that, when the elite culture is becoming increasingly pale and malnourished, the lifeblood of our nation has to come from the civil world, from those silent people who are separated from official topics.

       Our sculpture focuses on the past, because history carries the memory of the whole humanity. We pay attention to the loss of humanness of current society, because it forebodes whether we can arrive at the future. We pay attention to industrialization, to environment protection, to the endless desire of human—

       What else should we care about?

       Farmers, yes, farmers! We do not need the kind of morbid pretense, we want the reality that can be touched. Our society needs close relationship in real terms, needs real lives with flesh and blood who can cry and shout. We need the farmers who embody our whole national spirit. They are the powerful backbone of our nation.

       They are lively with ease and verve, they do not need decoration and refuse falsity, while at the same time they are deep and broad, containing a kind of strength as powerful as the land they live on. They are the son of the land, in true terms.

       My thinking will continue, the unity of the heaven and man is not only the consummation of thoughts, but also an ideal living condition. Through these bodies featuring the ardor of lives, I believe you will, as I have, get a new perception of them.