Wang Qingsong as journalist and social critic
20th March, 2020
Wang Qingsong was born in 1966 in Hei Longjiang, and grew up in Hubei province to witness ten years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Since the 1978 Opening and Reform policy, China has turned itself from a closed and conservative country to the second biggest economy worldwide, and with global influence. The transformation of Chinese society amidst this political, economic and cultural change, and the influence of these changes on the world view and values on Chinese people, created a objective environment for Wang Qingsong’s work. Wang’s awareness of the market economy’s impact upon an atheist, socialism country has been the main spirit in his work. On the one hand, the public has embraced the huge wealth brought by Opening and Reform; on the other, without any moral bottom line in this atheist country, the public face social issues caused by economic development including environmental deterioration, a decline in food safety, the medical system beoming market driven, and a widening gap between urban and rural areas. The artist combines his own experience with his doubts on the current situation of society to make work.
Wang Qingsong uses applied photography as a way to respond to the rapidly changing society, repeatedly stressing that he is a ‘journalist’, arguing that the news does not just stay on the surface, but also functions in a more essential way. Working with exaggerated content and shocking, spectacular scenes, Wang reflects social issues. His work arranges details within complicated, large images, as just one image can deliver the impact of a whole issue.
Wang Qingsong on the set of one of his photographs.
In Wang Qingsong’s work, the concept of photography is not used to directly capture the truth, but to present a virtual truth by staged photography. Wang was a painter during the 1990s, when he observed dramatic changes within Chinese society, before realising painting is not a good media to express his observation and concept. It was then that he chose photography as the media to imitate, and to capture the absurdity of stories taking place amidst the transition of a communist society within Opening and Reform. Wang’s focus and sensitivity to social issues creates a rethinking of history. He does his best to present gaudy scenes that are more exaggerated than real life. For example, Night Revel of Lao Li (2000) was an artwork to criticize the corruption and repression on Chinese intellectuals. Follow Me and Follow Him criticize Chinese education. Most of his works include the artist within the photographs as a witness to the social changes of China amidst great transformation.
Night Revel of Lao Li is an appropriation and imitation of a famous ancient Chinese artwork Night Revel of Han Xizai. It was about a intellectual Han Xizai who was not allowed to show his intelligence in the government in South Tang dynasty, the artwork was about Han Xizai’s gaudy life with his concubines depicted by the artist Gu Gongzhong who received monitoring order from the emperor. In those days, when there was no place to make intellectuals’ ambition dream come true, the solution was to be self-indulgent. He places Li Xianting in the artwork to replace Han Xizai and uses other female models with gaudy clothing to replace the concubines. Li Xianting is a famous Chinese contemporary art critic who is very sensitive for the Chinese government because he promotes artworks which deal with social issues. Wang borrowed the situation of Han Xizai to be the metaphor of Li Xianting’s situation in the growing social material culture, in order to depict the situation of all the contemporary Chinese intellectuals including himself in a one-party governing country in which intellectuals have limited space to express themselves. The situation of intellectuals in the past is used as a metaphor for the situation of intellectuals today, as artists, particularly intellectuals.
Wang Qingsong’s large format photography Follow You, Follow Him and Follow Me (2003) were staged in his studio the social reality as the background. In these three projects, Wang presented the Chinese education scenes of the transformation of China. It is a visual expression and the shrunk version of Chinese modern education. It dramatically depicted the syndrome of Chinese education system. Wang presents the social issues with his special perspective, giving the audience an surreal impression but with real Chinese social background. On the large blackboard of Follow Me, Wang wrote all kind of information in Enlish and Chinese such as the Great Wall represents China and the MacDonald’s sign represents the West. The most outstanding words are, ‘Lesson eight: Let China walk to the world, let the world know China’. In front of blackboard, the artist acting as the teacher stands in the pose of showing knowledge on the blackboard. On his desk sits the daily equipment for teachers, including a Chinese porcelain made brush holder, a bottle of Coco Cola and a globe, representing the mix of Western and Chinese culture.
Wang Qingsong, Follow You, 2013, 180 x 300 cm.
Follow You was another photograph staged in Wang Qingsong’s studio. The story was from a new about one student was still studying in the classroom with injection medical equipment before the university entrance examination. Wang Qingsong bought 20 tons of books and staged more than a hundred students sleeping in the classroom while the artist himself acting as the patient students awake with the medical injection equipment with aimless eyes. Normally there are around fifty students in the classroom in China. Most of the students are having a lunch time nap which is compulsory in China. The books accumulated on their desks are nearly as high as their head, because they have to study seven compulsory units for the entrance exams. The books represent the pressure these students are under. The scene was exaggerated to present a haunting and powerful visual impact. The back of the wall was full of posters of encouragement that reflect typical Chinese slogans by the Communist Party such as, ‘Study well, progress everyday’ (好好学习，天天向上), and ‘For sustained development, education is crucial’ (百年之计，教育为本), followed by a giant question mark. This question mark shows the artist’s attitude and doubt about the surreal Chinese education system. Is this the right way to cultivate our future generations? Is this right to use this method to train the students to be creative and undertake the responsibility of developing our country? The whole atmosphere gives viewers a strong oppressive feeling. The classroom is full of people, books, and posters, with a feeling that there is no space to rest and escape. This photograph is the satirical way for Wang Qingsong to criticise Chinese education.
China is degree-oriented country, which means the university degrees are always the knocking keys for many jobs in the fields. The university entrance examination is a bridge to such education, particularly for those average students who don't have a rich family or any political background which could provide different way of living. For many people who miss the exams, their social status and income will be totally different from those who achieved a university degree.
With the background of these entrance exams, teachers and students spend all their energy to get high scores, while students’s other abilities that are not tested which are not involved by the examination are not encouraged. Wang Qingsong’s attitude and parody on Chinese education is obvious. It is not mechanized education which doesn’t encourage students to be creative but just aiming for standard answers to get high scores. Students are working as machines from 8am to 10pm, five days a week. The standard pressure on the students to fight for the university entrance influences the students’ creativity and other social abilities. The patient student in the image represents students anxiety and hopelessness in front of this education system.
In the home library of Follow Him, the whole room is full of tens of thousands of books, including upon the desk in the middle of the room. On the floor, thousands of used practicing paper tells of the hard work of study. Wang Qingsong bought 20 tons of books and installed them in his studio, leaving the scene for a year before he photographed the final images. This image depicts the strong educational pressure on Chinese people. The attitude of the artist is the artwork. It is a way for the artist to deliver questions and doubt on social issues such as education. Through his exaggerated and dramatically staged photographic artwork, it is clear to see Wang’s concerns about the society during the modern transformation of China.