Mending

This painting depicts Nuwa, the goddess who created mankind, mending the sky with five color stones. In many mythological stories, the role of the female god is always ignored or, as in Nuwa's story, sacrificed in the end. Inspired by artist Beili Liu's installation The Mending Project, this work touches on the theme of women's longstanding neglect and gender stereotypes.

In creating this painting, I also followed the stereotypical female mending task and mended different Chinese mythological stories into it. Incorporating different stories into this painting makes it not only focus on the female god, but also on a wider range of cultural backgrounds and creatures. In a way, the act of mending the different stories is also an act to fill my anxiety and insecurity about the my current state of life.

Phoenix

According to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the phoenix was formed by the fusion of two birds that could live forever. Every 500 years, the phoenix burns itself in fire and is reborn.

Nine color deer and thousands of birds

The Nine-Colored Deer is the earliest horizontal scroll story painting at Dunhuang. The vivid storyline of the Nine-Colored Deer praises the spirit of the Nine-Colored Deer's compassion and virtue, as well as publicizing the idea of good and evil karma that "evil is rewarded with evil and good with good".

A long time ago, the phoenix was just an ordinary-looking bird. But after it generously shared its food with other birds to save them during a drought, the birds plucked the most beautiful feathers from its body to make a dress for it, and from then on all the birds would fly over to see it on its birthday every year.

Human made out of mud

Nuwa, the great god in the sky, made dolls out of clay and then gave them life. From then on, Nuwa created human beings, and people lived happily ever after for generations.

Monks

Many Chinese myths are heavily influenced by Buddhism. Their bodies resemble the shape of a mountain, representing their azure and immovable position

the Immortal Tree

The Immortal Tree looks bare throughout, with only an intricate trunk. It grows in the mountains and guard the creatures. It can live forever and will not experience aging, sickness or death. If its branches and trunks are crushed into powder and drunk, people can also live forever.

Kun

Kun refers to a big fish in the sea of the north in the legend. The size of the Kun is unknown to be as large as several thousand miles; it can change into a flying bird called Peng, which spreads its wings like clouds in the sky, and the Peng migrates with the raging waves of the sea to the southern sea. It symbolizes prosperity and stability, loyalty and reliability, and other noble qualities, and is an important player in celebratory ceremonies.