The Full Essay
Walking and Handscrolls
The artist has long practised the flowing method, painting while walking, with no fixed dimensions. This Kunming scroll is 45 cm wide and 20 m long. The practice is rooted in the ancient cultural tradition of wandering: Xie Lingyun's "ascending mountains and waters," Li Bai's "seeking immortals among the Five Sacred Mountains," Xu Xiake's "inquiring about wonders in famous mountains and great rivers," all measuring heaven and earth with footsteps, recording journeys with brush and ink.
The creator unrolls with the left hand, rolls back with the right, writing segment by segment; the viewer unrolls with the right hand, rolls back with the left, moving to see changing scenes. This tradition of "wandering observation" originates from A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. The handscroll is the trace of walking, the materialisation of time itself.
Similarities with the Ancients
Ancient handscrolls mostly depicted the forms of mountains and waters, pursuing the realm of "possible to walk, possible to gaze, possible to wander, possible to dwell." The artist takes walking as method and the scroll as diary, emphasising the inner monologue after observing the world: the smoke and fire of Laos, the embers of Thailand, the pain of Kunming, all transformed into flowing emotional traces. The ancients wandered and observed external things; the artist looks inward at the self. The ancients sought eternal mountains and waters; the artist records fleeting tremors of the moment.
Beyond Boundaries
Neither East nor West. Having broken the boundaries between East and West, merged into a unique style of personal perspective.
The Perspective of Chongren Li'en
Through the eyes of Chongren Li'en, the Naxi ancestor from the Dongba scripture Genesis, having survived the flood that destroyed the world, the trials of heavenly gods, reborn after devastation, creating "paradise on earth" through suffering. This is not ancient myth, but the contemporary artist's daily practice.
The artist's choice of painting materials follows the methodology of the Five Elements from the I Ching, while connecting with Dongba ritual methods.