88

Remembrances

discovery by my group of friends of my fatal weakness
was the key to their success; my grandfather was a "landlord." At first they made use of it spasmodically andFang Lijun

unconsciously, but very soon my status was destined tofall. Whate ver game I played I could never win; I nevereven had a fair chance. In happy games with my closefriends, I had probably suddenly become some kind of

The first thing I can remember is being a toddler , bawl-

strange creature . Sometimes when I joined their games,

ing and making a fuss when my mother had to go to work.

they antagonized me for their own amusement.

My granny used sweet beans or something else to dis-

To keep me at home, my father used his job as an

tract my attention and my mother hurriedly got on her

engine driver to buy me a book of white paper and thickbike and left for the factory.
My father often said he was the first graduate of the

chunky pencils. This was very strange at the time. I stayedat home drawing -my father had succeeded in keep-

Railway College to be made a cadre, but as far as I

ing me at home. Although I wanted to run out outside

remember, because of the problem of the class status

and be with the other kids, I actually spent all my timeof our family, he had already become an engine driver.

with my new book and pencils so that I could get new

Before too long, a whole lot of capitalists, landlords,

ones when they were used up.

. members of a National Party, and counter-revolutionar ies

As a result, I unwittingly, but not unhappily, began

were dragged out and struggle sessions started to happen

to draw. My father introduced me to Cao Zhenhuan, who

all over the place. Being a stupid kid, I went along with

did propaganda work for the trade union and would teachthe grown-ups shouting out slogans and was happ y to

me to draw, although Mr . Cao couldn't draw very well.

go to every denunciation session. One day, when like

It became my ambition to draw well enough to do

before I was shouting with the adults for the overthrow

propaganda work for the trade union when I grew up.

of who knows who, my grandfather was forced onto the

Until I was over twenty, I thought that the labor union

stage. Around his neck was a placard with the words

was the propaganda instrument of the Party.

"Landlord Fang." The grown-ups towering around me

I remember clearly how happy I was the first time I

were shouting out angr ily and shaking their fists. I felt

copied a picture of Li Yuhe in the revolutionary opera Red

I would like to sink into the ground with shame. I don 't

Lantern, and how proud I was to be able to come andknow what I was thinking at the time , I was afra id andgo freely in the trade union offices.

felt ashamed because my own grandfather was this kindTo escape the struggle sessions and denunciationof person . Although I knew that he was good and honest,

meetings, my grandfather took me away. We got off thealthough I loved him, I knew his class status was thattrain and went to stay at a Muslim uncle's house. In theof "rich peasant ."evening I was woken up, made to stand up , and my feet

Life rapidly grew worse. On the back wall of our housewere put into thick cotton socks. My grandfather and I

in letters taller than me was written "Down with Land-lay still on quilts in a donkey cart. All around was thelord Fang." A crowd of poor, children yelled out "Downhorizonless snow and freezing wind of the north, and thewith Landlord Fang," the back window became a window

moonlight made the world a dazzling display of white.

for the hatred of the poor and we were constantly beaten .

My grandfather took me quietly back to Huituo village in

My father, who was happy with a few poems or

Fengnan county, the place of his original domicile.

essays in the paper, became very cautious. He quietly

I had a very good time, doing all kinds of things withcared for the family's beloved tropica l fish, until one day

my grandfather and playing all kinds of games with otherwhen there was a big storm he took the most valuab lekids. Although my grandfather was very careful , I wasangel fish, which was bigger than his palm, quietly away.

stil l aware of the class struggle.

This job done, the once filled and lively goldf ish bowl was
now dark and gloom y and unp leasant to look at.

It was soon time for me to go to school, and I had
to return to Handan . When I returned to my previous life,

Claimin g the y were looking for valuable things in our

the "Down with Landlord Fang" sign on the back wallhouse, our poor neighbors repeatedl y ransacked ourwas still there. The characters were still thick and new .

property . Each time the searches took place other kind-

The cries of " Down with landlord Fang" still soundedhearted neighbors look ed after me and protected me.

from dawn until dusk.

As the struggle progressed , the violence became

I soon entered primary school and started to receive

worse. For a time, as early as possible every evening,an education. I don't know if it was the kind of educa-

mothers would cuddle their children on the bed to pro-t ion my father hoped for.

tect them from the soldiers' gunfire outside the window

I found the cri ticism essays assigned by the teacher

as people tore each other .to shreds in the name ofextremely difficult. Criticizing the exploiting classes wasn't

ideolo gy .

difficult, but there was no way of removing my grand-

In this ruthless struggle, the ability to find weaknesses

father from this class. Life always reminded me that it

in other people was rapidly taken up by the children. The

did not stop wi th my grandfather, but also applied to me,89destined to be a member of the exploiting classes. Father

dead," there was an anxious look in grandfather's eyes.

helped me a great deal on the side; whenever I had an

He glanced fearfully at me, and said tersel y to my father,essay, it was almost all his work, and as a result I was"Don't talk nonsense." He was rebuking my father, but

the best in the class at composition and reading. The

he was also warning me.

teacher often asked me to write class criticism speeches,

Next came the movement to criticize Lin Biao andbut I couldn't go onto the stage to deliver my speech

Confucius. I wro te an outstanding composition and was

because of my own class background.

admitted to the school writing group, it was titled "Dick

The struggle sessions continued and spread. The

head Confucius is a Stupid Pig." A young village boy takes

school, my grade, and my class had criticism meetingsa ligh t stone and throws it into the water where it floats

that lasted for days or even weeks. The criticism of theon the surface. This problem baffles the sages ; Con-

sports teacher Yang Huajian was like this. Classes

fucius; the conclusion is that Confucius is a stupid pig.

stopped right at the beginning, the only task the students

Sometimes I think I was a thoroughly

had was to write criticism of Yang and later to read thembecause before I could even write more than a few

one after the other in front of him and then stick them

Chinese characters I shamelessly dishonored the ancient

up on the four walls of the classroom. Later the criticism

sage like th is. But, after all, I received encouragement,

sessions escalated and the whole grade criticized Yang.

and this essay was very well received in criticism ses-

All other lessons were suspended, and criticisms weresions at school, in the kindergarten, in the waiting room

written and read aloud. After one criticism session, Yangat the train station; the youngest grade writing groupsat stiffly in the last row of chairs, and all the children

always saved the day.

went out to play on the sports field; as usual Yang was

Liu Maoming was, like me, a humiliated child. Whenthe key to their game. I saw that there was no one else

he was a child his mother died, but like other small chil-around, and screwing up my courage I grabbed Yang's

dren he was also capable of yelling out "Down with Land-shoulder to comfort him. Some years later when several

lord Fang." The children punched Liu yelling out "Serves

schoolmates were discussing this affair, almost half the

you right your mother died." We therefore became goodkids said this was the first time they fe lt sorry for Yang.

friends, we escaped the other children, and solitary and

These struggle sessions had a devastating effect on
the children's

inner world. A beautiful young teacher

contented we played together. When we had a fight, wecursed each other, yelling out "Downwith Landlord

quickly appeared who was well aware of this formidable

Fang" and "Serves you right your mother's died ." Eachweapon and frequently made use of it. If I arrived latetime this happened, our hearts and eyes filled with sad-or somebody saw me throwing stones at sparrows out-

ness, each of us regretting what we were saying.

side when it was time for class, the teacher immediately

Although we insulted each other many times, we were

stopped lessons, for two periods, four periods, perhaps

actually the best of friends, and we couldn't carry aroundfor a whole day or two days , and led the other students

resentment because of that abuse. Several years later,
I saw the Japanese film Muddy River, and in the scene

in denouncing me.
Finally one day she found another target, and, like thewhere the boy takes secret pleasure in burning a smallothers, she organized a criticism meeting against Li Aiguo.

animal to death I saw the image of two small boys, lonely

When she confidently seized Li by the scruff of his neckand forlorn, on a day long ago. I thought of how people

and encouraged the students to attack him, Li twisted

will not miss a chance of persecuting someone else evenhis body and bit her delicate finger, seizing the opportu-

if they know how much it hurts to be persecuted

nity to escape through the window. Li came from a poor

themselves.

peasant family. Two days later his poor peasant father
brought him back and the affair was settled.

Once, when my mother, father, and brother were outof the house, the neighborhood kids came to our house

Once when I was in class I noticed a photograph in

to ask me to play. I couldn't and didn't want to refuse,a newspaper one of the students was holding. It showedbecause I was proud of my home and besides it was safe.

the leader of a foreign countr y who was visiting China.

However, my last citade l was violate d , and the kids

"He looks very much like Chairman Mao," I whispered.

started to beat me up. I was no match for them in either

A student assistant pushed me up against the wall, alter-

strength or spirit. At that point my brother came home.

nately slapping my face with his hand, screaming that

When he saw what was happening he became angry and

I was a counter-revolutionary

90

nasty person,and spitting in my face.

beat the oldest kid mercilessly. The grown-ups came

I had already learned to keep my mouth shut. I had

home one after the other when they left work. We heard

already decided that there was no point in lett ing on toangry shouting and the sound of footsteps. The kid's

my parents what happened to me outside, so I didn't tellfather charged into our house with a kitchen knife andanyone, I didn't cry. When I reached 20, my father hap-a stick. My brother, who had long ago been frightened

pily told guests sitting around the table that since I wasby a neighbor had already run away and been hidden bya child I had never been unhappy. Some time later, whenanother "exploiting"he saw the scraps of writing from my childhood, he wept.

about to end, with th is guy waving his knife and stick

When father quietly told grandfather "Lin Biao isaround, standing at the entrance to our house hurlingfamily. I thought my world wasabuse. My parents clutched me tightly, at the same timeincreased. The height of the row of arrows indicated thepraying that he wouldn't

depth of your feelings for the Chairman and the extent

catch my brother.

Once, in a downpour, the neighbor's shed where myof your political consciousness. Praise was showered onbrother had taken refuge collapsed and I could hear him

the kids making the fastest progress. Within several weeks

calling out in pain. My terrified father was hysterical. I

we went from mastering short passages to mastering his

was shocked to discover that he was such a good person.

thought, and the teachers and school were amazed by

When I first started primary school, I had put in an

our progress.

application to join a Little Red Soldier organization. By

During the final term before graduation, I went with

now I was in the third grade and my application was finally

one of my classmates to visit what would be our new

accepted. I was part of the last batch to be admitted andschool. In the middle of the empty sports ground, we dis-

I could finally go to school wearing a red neckerchief.

covered that the younger brother of our primary school

Throughout those three years my teachers' reports always

teacher would be in the same grade as us at the newsaid "We hope that in the future young Fang learns toschool. We beat him up and told him to go home andbe a man acts up to what he says."tell his older sister all about it. He was in tears, but neverIn 1976 Mao Zedong died. When my father quietly

went to the school. We were delighted. Although we had

passed on the news to my grandfather, I saw on mynever been completely squashed, we wanted to get backgrandfather's face a fleeting smile that was impossibleat those who had got at us.

to hide. When we queued up to pay our last respects,

After the Cultural Revolution came to an end, large

I caught a glimpse of my father's face. I understood that

numbers of landlords, the wealthy, reactionaries, mis-look. I didn't feel like crying; but once I was standing increants, and Rightists were rehabilitated.

My family

front of the portrait of Mao I started bawling loudly andapplied to get back the precious things that had been con-howled all the way back to school. I didn't dare look up

fiscated, but our poor neighbors told us they were only

for fear that my teachers would see through me. I was

kidding when they said that they had our things. Were

making a great racket but there were no tears. But thenthey kidding us then or were they kidding us now? We

I really did start bawling for real and the whole thing wasdidn't push the matter; we were too exhausted. We had

uncontrollable.

had enough of all the talk.

The teacher was worried I was getting

hysterical and raised by head. My face, chest, and sleeves

I was happy. I had finally got into the art group at

were saturated with tears and snot. Because I had criedschool and had Wang Yongsheng as a teacher, and thenthe most in the class I was warmly applauded. This isa series of good, hard-working teachers - Zhang Yichun,probably the time my suspicion of tears began.

Zheng Jindong, Zhou Diehui. Another teacher, Liu Jing-

My grandfather died soon after Mao. When I wentsen, registered me in the art course at the Hebei Lightwith my parents and grandmother to the funeral home,

Industry College. I made good progress and then had Li

my grandfather seemed as calm as ever. I felt his hands,

Xianting as a teacher. I took part in the China National

which only yesterday had given me sweets, and they

Art Exhibition and entered the Central Academy of Fine

were icy cold. I felt his face, and it too was icy cold. I

Arts, Beijing.

didn't cry. I didn't want to cry. The adults who wereOnce I had grasped the techniques of painting, I lost

crying seemed to be putting it on. I didn't understand thatmy direction for a while. Aestheticism, idealism, and for-death meant forever. Many years later as it graduallymalism -dawned on me that my grandfather had jeft me for everthough they were all so attractive to many other artists,

I often cried in private for myself And then many years

as far as I was concerned they were becoming increas-

later, after I had become a painter, and felt those big cold

ingly insipid.

faces on the canvas, I would have the same horrible feeling that I had when I touched my grandfather's face.

my interest in all these was waning. Even

In 1988, I worked on the series of Drawings, still lostin my direction.

Like everywhere else in China, my school got caught

The events of 1989 made me feel a new wave of sus-

up in the feverish study of Mao Zedong's selected works,

picion, and I felt the same suspicions as when I was aand our teacher would lead us all in reciting them word

kid. I felt doubts about the same things that had trou-

for word, and would explain their meaning. But it wasbled me before. I was fascinated by those people who

all such a slow process that somehow we never seemed

seemed to be just fooling around. To make sense of otherto catch up with the enthusiasm of the masses for Chair-people, I concentrated on myself. After all I was just one

man Mao's works. So the teacher drew up a progressof them. If I couldn't make sense of myself the next bestchart with all the kids' names on it. Little red arrows were

thing was to have a feeling for other people and to hope

put in boxes for each of his essays we mastered. The

that I was somehow enclosed in their existences. But

little red arrows gradually increased in number, much towhenever I felt I had made some sort of discovery, every-

the delight of the kids, and the teacher. My classmatesthing would just become a blur again. That was when

making the best progress began to discover how their

I began my work.

own feeling correlated exactly with each word of our glorious leader. The number of little red arrows rapidly

91

Selected Biography

The "Gang of Four" falls from power. Hua Guofengassumes power, and a power struggle ensues.
1977

1963

Born on December 4 in Handan, Hebei Province.
His father, graduate from the Railway College,
became a cadre in the Machinery Division of the
Ministry of Railways.
His mother was a worker in a textile mill.
1966

Outbreak of the Cultural Revolution.
Because Fang Lijun's parents are classified as richpeasants, his father is transferred to the post of
locomotive driver.
1968

At the peak of the Cultural Revolution, his grandfather
is criticized because of his class background. Fang
Lijun witnesses his grandfather's labeling as"Landlord Fang."
To spare his son humiliation by his peers, his fatherorganizes private tu ition in painting at home.
His first paintings are copies of a scene from theposter for the revolutionary Peking Opera Red Lantern.
His father continues to drive locomotives trains and in
his spare time drinks and cooks with two colleagues
who are disgraced "professionals."
Fang Lijun is daily forced to intone the slogan "Downwith Landlord Fang," which is pasted to the wall in aprominent position by the Red Guards. The family
home is subject to regular ransacking by the Red Guards,
although the neighbors lend emotional support. To
avoid denunciation, Fang is taken away to Huituo
Village, the place of grandfather's original domicile.
1971

Returns to Handan to assume his studies at a time
when the Red Guard denunciation of "Down with
Landlord Fang," continues.
Enters a school in Handan for the offspring of railway
employees, and his father encourages his writing
skills, even though his writing efforts are confined todenunciatory politics. Unable to read his essays out
aloud in class.
Fang Lijun applies to join a Little Red Soldierorganization, but is classified as politically retrograde.
1973

Fang is finally acclaimed as part of a writing team in
the Movement to Criticize Confucius and Lin Biao.
Articles elaborating on the vicious nature of "Dick head
Confucius" begin appearing in schools, kindergartens,
and railway stations, while his cartoons of Lin Biao
and Confucius aroused such public mirth that Fangvows to summon up his painting skills for the cause.
His request to join the school's art group is constantly
turned down, and so Fang, and a group of fellow
students, form their own group.
His teachers express the hope that henceforth be a
man who acts up to what he says.

1980Enters the Hebei Light Industry College, program for
ceramics.
Fang Lijun begins studying the techniques of Realism.
His reading includes My Life by Isadora Duncan,
Confessiones, Wuthering Heights, Ouatre-vingt-treize,
Lettres de Vincent Van Gogh.
He undertakes painting field trips to the Taihang andYanshan Mountains.
He begins studying woodcuts. Zheng Jindong
introduced Li Xianting to him.
At the time, Li Xianting was on the editorial board of
Meishu and intended publishing Fang Lijun's woodcuts,
but in the wake of Li Xianting's appointment as
abstract art editor, the magazine was shut down.
China embarks on an ambitious program of opening,and colleges begin professionalizing.
1984

On graduating, Fang Lijun is assigned to work in an
advertising company in Handan.
He participates in many regional and municipal art
exhibitions.
He wins the grand prix at the province-sponsored art
copetition.
His Country Love series is exhibited in the "6thNational Art Exhibition."
1985

Formal and systematic train ing in art fundamentals
and woodcut begins at the Central Academy of Fine
Arts, Beijing.
1986

He traveles throughout China, gathering materials forhis works.
1987

He reads many books on modern Western philosophy.
1988

He completes his set of shaved head Draw ings, Pencil
Drawing No. 7-3.
1989

He takes part in "China/Avant-Garde."
He experienced the Tian'anmen Incident as a student.
1990

After graduation, rema ins in Beijing, and pursues his
career as a professional artist.
Begins working in oils.

1974

1991

Fang Lijun is part of the final group in his school to
become a Little Red Soldier.

Marries Michaela Raab (German).

1975

Exhibition in Beijing at Beijing Art Museum with Liu
Wei.

The movement to study the Works of Chairman Mao
is in full swing, while gang warfare is a regularfeature of Beijing adolescent urban life.
Fang Lijun-bashing is also in full swing.
1976

Tangshan earthquake, and the deaths of Zhou Enlai
and Mao Zedong.
Fang Lijun urged by his father to publicly display grief, isat first unable to weep, but finally affects uncontrollable
tears, for which he is applauded by his teachers .
Fang Lijun's grandfather dies .

92

Term ination of the Cultural Revolution.
Enters the middle school in Handan for the offspringof railway workers.
He enters the fine arts group in the school, andstudies painting under Wang Yongsheng.
The school, however, proves to be disruptive, but theWorkers' Cultural Palace provides artistic relief andthere Fang Lijun also stud ies painting with their finearts group, and acquires two new teachers - Zhang
Yichun and Zheng Jindong.
It's plaster casts, portraits, and still life by day,railway station sketches by night.
He meets his teacher, Ms. Zhou Diehui , for the first time.

1992

1993

He starts participating in many Chinese art exhibitions
abroad and major international art exhibitions, where
he wins critical acclaim from art circles in Europe andthe United States.

lI
Exhibitions

New Collection of Commissioned Works on the
Theme "Hiroshima," Hiroshima City Museum ofContemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
1996-97

China!, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany (travelingexhibition)

Solo Exhibitions

Public Collections

1995

The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia
Museum Ludwig K61n, Germany
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art,
Hiroshima, JapanFang Lijun, Galerie Bellefroid, Paris, France
Fang Lijun, Galerie Serieuse Zaken, Amsterdam, theNetherlands
1996

Fang Lijun : Human Images in an Uncertain Age, The
Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo, Japan

Group Exhibitions

1984

6th National Art Exhibition, Guangzhou
1989
China/Avant-Garde, China Art Gallery, Beijing
1991

Fang Lijun/Liu Wei private exhibition, Beijing
1992
Fang Lijun and Liu Wei Oil Painting Exhibition, Beijing
Art Museum, Beijing
1992-93
New Art from China/Post-Mao Product, The Art
Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney/Queensland Art
Gallery, Brisbane/City of Ballaart Fine Art Gallery,
Ballarat /Canberra School of Art Gallery, Canberra,
Australia
1993
China's New Art, Post-89 , Hong Kong Arts Center ,Hong Kong
Mao Goes Pop, Museum of Contemporary Art ,Sydney, Australia
Passagio ad Oriente, 45th Biennale di Venezia, Italy
New Art from China: Post-89, Marlborough Fine Art,
London, U.K.
1993-94
China Avant-Garde, Haus der Kulturen derWelt,Berlin, Germany/Kunsthal Rottterdam, theNetherlands/The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford,
U.K./Kunsthallen Brandts Klredefabrik, Odense,
Denmark
1994
Welt-Moral , Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
Chinese Contemporary Art at San Paulo, 22ndInternational Biennale of San Paulo, Brazil
New Chinese Art, Hanart T Z Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1994-95
4th Asian Art Show , Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka/
Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo , Japan
1995
Visions of Happiness-Ten Asian Contemporary
Artists, The Japan Foundation ASEAN Culture Center ,Tokyo, Japan
Unser Jahrhundert , Museum Ludwig K61n, Germany
1st Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju , Korea
Couplet 4, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam , theNetherlands
Avantguardes Artistiques Xineses, Centre d' Art Santa
Monica , Barcelona, Spain
1996
Begegnungen mit China, Ludwig Forum, Aachen,
Germany

Beijing/ No No Soap Opera?, Munchen, Germany

93

Photo Credits...t!f!liJ'if(cat nos. 4, 5, 9, 26 ,45 )~,$:flt/\(cat. no. 1 9)0ystein Thorvaldsen(cat.nos

28,29,33,34)

Fang Lijun : Human Images ,n an Uncertain Age

EditorFuruichi Yasuko
Nakamoto Kazumi
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Chinese-Japanese Translat ion: Akiyama Tamako
Japanese-English Translation: Stanley N . Anderson
Stephen Comee
Hoashi Aki
English-Japanese Translation: Shimasaki Yosh inobu

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