Still done on silk, on the tightly woven threads, Xu Hualing has painted all fantasies, all wild dreams from the times of being a young girl. Psychologically, she has secretively completed a personal wish.
For many years, each time when Xu Hualing leaves Beijing to somewhere far away, for example the eternally beautiful region of southern China, she would immediate 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.
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 faces, 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.
For many years, each time when Xu Hualing leaves Beijing to somewhere far away, for example the eternally beautiful region of southern China, she would immediate 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.
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 faces, 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.