 Swordsgirls 8, 2007 watercolor on silk, 100 x 80 cm Xu Hualing Eternal Beauty Wild at Heart On Xu Hualing's Recent Painting Series "XIANU: Chinese Swordsgirls" - By Ni Jun With great delicacy, using tightly woven silk, Xu Hualing paints fantasies and wild dreams from the times when she was a young girl. Psychologically, she has secretively completed a personal wish. "Distant dreams unformed in light autumn drizzles, And a night of breeze from the west embracing a guest house." Quote by late Tang dynasty swordsman For many years, each time when Xu Hualing leaves Beijing for somewhere far away, for example the eternally beautiful region of southern China, she would immediately enter a mode of tranquility that is distant from the hustling and bustling of the metropolitan, and continues with her world of distant dreams. Since she was ten, she became infatuated with neatly bound books and various versions of television episodes on Chinese knight-errantry written by Mr. Jin Yong, a deeply beloved journalist and story-teller based in Hong Kong. In the 1980's, a time when the mainland is flooded with Hong Kong and Taiwanese pop culture, the People's Republic was stepping out of the dark, sealed and isolated period and began to nurture "a generation of knight-errants with liberal minds". Who would have thought that Xu Hualing, a teenage girl at the time, was also part of this group? Yet, she was. Certainly Jin Yong recognized that his readers are not only literate men, but dreamy girls as well. He wrote "female" knight-errants as "woman warriors", or the chivalrous ones among women are swordsgirls or rather xianu in mandarin pronunciation; xianu are specifically intended for young women readers among all Chinese on earth. Jin Yong not only wanted to reform contemporary Chinese men, but he also wanted to propose to Chinese women a bright direction that is different from Mao Zedong's view of femininity; he wanted to reveal to the world of his study and perspective on the relationship between men and women since ancient times. Through his protagonists, Jin Yong attempted to change his nation single-handedly. What we see through Xu Hualing's new works has reopened our new debates about Jin Yong and the stories he created as well. His primary intention, as what he had once proclaimed himself, was only to write fictions for a Hong Kong newspaper called Ming Bao. Yet, this small flame has spread into wild fires. I can sense that Xu Hualing's twenty years of Chinese swordsgirl infatuation has been an unexpected intellectual present to me. She reminisced to me, and to herself, of things from the past in details. I interrogated her, an interrogation to myself at the same time, "What can women really see in the spiritual dream world of Chinese errantry? And what is the evaluation in the minds of Chinese girls with regards to that Yang Guo, or that Dugu Qiubai, the swordsmen who strived to defeat?" As I was writing this essay, I already knew my Chinese text would be translated into English. This has made me to sympathize with the English translator on the difficulties he or she might encounter. Can we not try to translate all the things written in Chinese into English? Can we only talk about the Chinese knight-errantry in a Chinese language? Apparently, Xu Hualing's aesthetics taste for these paintings is of Chinese nationality, which is one of the reasons I have always supported her. When we speak of art today, we are aware of the unfortunate consequence of national "fundamentalist" cultural establishment, at the same time, we also question the so-called internationalism and the globally standardized art prototype consequential of technological revolution. To develop the national aesthetics in full spirit is not at all a preferable plan. Rather it's to fundamentally meet a psychological need; because to depend on other's cultural language would be an inadequate reason for planning. Men swinging swords and halting horses in the battlefields; their deviousness and wit tactics are always going to be the basic approaches. However, art is something streaming down to a river of time - one's duty and consistency are often crucial elements. The art world in a country like China, if one can still make such a claim, is now chaotically unwieldy and almost lost its chances to glory, thus has come the time for the emergence of the female knight-errants. When a woman is about to manage this chaos, her approaches would often be indistinct, misty and mysterious. Weng Meiling, Qi Meizhen, Zhao Yazhi and Huang Xingxiu were actresses playing Jin Yong protagonists, who also have become the protagonists for Xu Hualing. Unlike Jin Yong's fictional details, the artist only has to handle the world on a piece of silk. Xu Hualing continues to apply mineral pigments, and use water to dilute the colors. Her elaboration and spreading of the hues are accomplished even more with a relaxing state of mind. This year, with each and every one of her brushstrokes, Xu Hualing has given up all nuisance on techniques, she is more at ease with the flowing and leisurely portrayals, which she has applied throughout the years, of the Chinese swordsgirls she has always wanted to depict - they were the artist's spiritual guides when she was a young girl. A person's long time obsession with a kind of dream face, relying on the time spent for each brushstroke and spread of colors to form, has accomplished paintings one after another without any rush to these dreams on silk; this is also part of the swordsgirl style in terms of endurance. Dutiful yet free, on her seemingly indistinct, faded and intangible silks, Xu Hualing has intentionally painted red lips and red nails for the heroines. Every girl who likes to accentuate her flaring features likes to reinforce her gender. About twenty years ago, Xu Hualing had colored all female knight-errants' skin on numerous children books printed with the stills of a TV drama or movie based on Jin Yong novels, just like other kids who liked to draw had painted the faces and bodies of their idols. Still using these juicy red markers, Xu Hualing now paints the lips and nails red satisfying her own swordsgirls named Yazhi or Meiling. Being a swordsman or a swordsgirl is all about a role of the liberator for others and also about one's efforts for a self-liberation. "When we look around today, who can be called a xianu in your mind?" I asked the woman painter. My conversation with Xu Hualing and this writing both conclude with the love issue between men and women, since the "pretty Huang Rong" and "Baby Dragongirl" both were not single. "What a perfect lover!" Xu Hualing confessed her dream man was Yang Guo. A proud, stubborn yet passionate and responsible knight-errant not only provides his woman a sense of security, but also the origin of all his woman's fantasy and ecstasy. In places like Suzhou, Tongli, Kunming and the central but old section of Shanghai, Xu Hualing has enjoyed delicacies and freedom with her "Yang Guo" in days of escaping the mundane. "The heavenly wind blows on the sleeves of her gown, In the elusiveness her body floats." - As written by Zhou Dunyi, a Song dynasty man of letters, to a friend. Because of Xu Hualing and Jin Yong's creations, if you contemplate appropriately, your sword of wisdom would pave yourself a new path of joy in life. The word "love" is always imbued with a dense red. Being aloof from your lonesome hero, or without your swordsgirl's sentimentality, how would the other one know of that you are wild at heart? Translated by Fiona He Exhibition 14 October - 10 November 2007 Gallery hours Tues-Sun 10 am - 6 pm F2 Gallery 319 Caochangdi, East Dashanzi Road, Chaoyang District China, Beijing 100015 Telephone +86 10 6432 8831 Fax +86 10 6132 8203 Email art@f2gallery.com www.f2gallery.com |
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