Liu Zheng

刘 铮

Photographer, *1969 Wuqiang, Hebei, lives in Beijing

Liu Zheng, 2005, photo Facebook

In 1994, Liu Zheng began photographing people, archetypal Chinese figures in contemporary incarnations – and often in extreme and unexpected situations. The resulting series, "The Chinese", portrays a society wrestling with the contradictions between traditional culture and modernization. Through this series he tries to show a broad cross section of society including the wealthy, the poor, beggars, transsexuals, coal miners, opera performers, as well as waxwork figures in historical museums.

Influenced by both Diane Arbus and August Sander, Liu Zheng presents the viewer with a personalized study of Chinese culture, concentrating on the dark side of its psychology. Through his photographs Zheng performs an intricate balancing act between harsh reality and romanticism, between engagement and detachment, seeking to reconstitute Chinese history in the process.
Yossi Milo Gallery, Beijing, 2005

Liu's photo series are inadvertently also plumbing the limits of present Chinese sensitivities and aesthetics. A Westerner has to understand that his work has not been censored in China with the exception of some images from his “Beijing Opera Series” - ten years after their publication....

I will present a selection of his extraordinary photographs in chronological order. Clicking on the pictures will enlarge the images.

The Chinese
1994-2000

	1994 A Boy with his Monkey Beijing		1995 Convicts waiting for hot water Baoding, Hebei
	1995 Elderly Entertainers Beijing		1995 Aged Female Impersonator Beijing
	1995 Xinjiang Youth Beijing		1996 Coal Miners Datong, Shanxi
	1996 Buddhist Monk Lingqiu Monastery, Shanxi		1996 Moslem Children Tongxin, Ninxia
	1996 Old Moslem Shiangu, Ninxia		1996 Textile Worker Hetian, Xinjiang
	1997 Actress in the Revolutionary Opera Beijing		1998 Caged Buddha Wutai Shan, Shanxi
	1998 Coal Miners Datong, Shanxi		1998 Poetess Beijing
	1998 Soldiers in a Sunflower Field Harbin, Heilongjian		1999 Entertainers in Nightclub Beijing
	1999 One-Armed Beggar Linton, Shaanxi		1999 The Rich Celebrating New Year's Eve Beijing
	1999 Dancers at a Nightclub Beijing		1999 Transvestite Huiyang, Henan
	1999 Warrior Actor on a Donkey Longxian, Shaanxi		2000 Actress in Hebei Opera Huoshentan, Henan
	2000 Boy in School Uniform Fengxiang, Shaanxi		2000 Transsexual Males Shenzhen, Guangdong
	2000 Three County Strippers Houshental, Henan		2000 Performing Theater Group Nanfeng, Jiangzi

Newer Work
1997-2006

Two newer series remain incomplete, “Revolution” and “Three Realms”. The former presents highly scripted photographic tableaux of revolutionary scenes in forms of soft pornography. “Three Realms” alludes to the Buddhist concept of separate spheres of humans, deities, and suffering souls in sub-series:”Peking Opera” (1997), “Four Beauties”(2004), and “Survivors” (2005). In the Peking Opera series Liu depicts canonical scenes from classical opera in which the female actors are stripped of their clothes. “Survivors” portrays bedraggled foreigners with ashen, befuddled faces supposedly in reference to news photographs of 9/11. His most recent series “Under the Sun” (2010) is a confusing hodgepodge of images of topless women, swimming pools, and Che Guevara....
Text abbreviated from Philip Tinari in Uta Grosenick and CasparSchübbe, edts., “China Artbook”, Dumont, 2007
- None of these photographs has the artistic power, or holds the historical interest of “The Chinese” series.

Two tableaux from “Peking Opera”, 1997

Tableau from “Four Beauties”, 2004

“Survivors”, 2005

God knows who lent their faces for these zomby photos