During my third year of college, I studied at the University of York in the UK, learning the history of art and philosophy. There I took a challenging module about Spanish realist paintings. My final essay analyzed portraits of the Habsburgs drawn by Velasquez. In the process of researching the portraits of emperors drawn by different painters, my desire of creating the portraits of Chinese emperors was aroused.

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        These works focus on iconic leaders from six dynasties: the Qin, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, and New China. The history of these dynasties spans more than 2,000 years. Over these 2,000 years, people's opinions of these men have constantly changed and become blurred. Inevitably, they eventually turn into paragraphs of text description and summaries that remain in people’s minds. My work transforms the first group of six "normal people" into a second group of "legendary characters", and finally into a third group comprised of impressions and symbols. In my view, history is passed down across generations in this way.

 

      This group of paintings was created before I painted the “Red, Yellow, and Blue” series. The reason why I finally put it in the portfolio is that it represents my exploration of painting before I studied contemporary art. After this group of paintings, both my creative style and form changed dramatically.