Wu Changjiang

To sketch and create in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau region is more precisely a process of learning, feeling, thinking, and continuous accumulation. This process is an unforgettable test for the painter's mentality, thoughts, and even body. The Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet regions located in western China are an important part of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. They are the birthplace of the two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, which are the sources of Chinese culture. They are also the intersection of plateau and inland cultures. Here live tall, fierce, rugged, and handsome and beautiful Kangba and Ando people. Their harmonious coexistence with nature forms a vibrant picture, and in their peaceful and fulfilling spiritual life, they have found the original essence of human freedom and simplicity. The cultural form of Xizang is extremely unique in the world, which is caused by the special region, natural environment and lifestyle. It is inherently integrated into the entire nation, imbued with a strong religious and cultural atmosphere in architecture, sculpture, murals, singing and dancing, festival celebrations, tent patterns, and daily life. The mutual influence between Tibetan religion and daily life is reflected in various aspects of their lives. On the vast land of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the good living conditions of the Tibetan ethnic group coexisting harmoniously with nature for generations leave us with many questions to learn from and consider. There, many primitive and beautiful things of humanity are well preserved due to their unique culture, geography, and cultural factors. The famous epic of the Tibetan nation, "The Legend of King Gesar," has been accumulated since the 11th century and passed down from generation to generation through oral instruction by folk rap artists, and has been passed down to this day. In their peaceful daily life, they have endured the tempering of nature and the erosion of long years, producing their own unique and charming cultural and artistic works that are deeply rooted in the blood of the Tibetan nation. Like the Yushu area in Qinghai, it was historically known as the hometown of Kangba songs and dances on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. The beautiful and robust dance culture, dance music, dance postures, and folk songs accumulated over these generations all come from the traditional primitive nomadic life, their worship of the spirituality of nature and their profound belief in it. In the vigorous and rhythmic dance steps, beautiful movements imitating animals such as eagles, lions, and tigers appear, with vivid shapes, atmospheric layouts, and dynamic and vivid movements. The accumulation of these exciting and excellent cultural arts is the accumulation of the coexistence between the Tibetan nation and nature, and the result of their use of wisdom to observe all things in heaven and earth. Therefore, they have genuine emotions, vitality, and eternal vitality. The uniqueness of the lives and cultures of high-altitude nomads is also reflected in their fierce appearance, which embodies a special beauty and a devout spirit of facing the world. This simple and generous beauty is reflected in their image, physical characteristics, and the curves of their eyes, nostrils, mouth corners, etc. The lines are extremely delicate, exquisite, and vivid. I often have this feeling that when faced with these beautiful gods created by God, the painter's brush appears clumsy, and it is not easy to fully express this tension containing beauty. Undoubtedly, this primitive and simple beauty is rare on the faces of modern people. It is the indomitable spirit that enables them to survive on this world's highest land for a long time. The clothing composed of long lines and bright human colored blocks is highly decorative, with a strong and harmonious contrast to the attire of vermilion braids. This special clothing is practical, beautiful, generous, and dignified. They dare to decorate jewelry, gold and silver jewelry, animal fur, and bright floral fabrics together. The culture and aesthetics of the Tibetan people are also fully reflected in the unique costumes of different regions, forming a unique Kangba culture. This is a major contribution of the Tibetan horse riding ethnic group to human civilization. As a painter, it is a difficult task to fully express the spiritual connotations of plateau herdsmen through the portrayal of character images. This is a profound experience I have gained from my long-term sketching, which has led to more than ten sketches of plateau characters. The purpose is to draw into it, to penetrate into the wood. The process of sketching on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau is a tempering and accumulation of spiritual realm, and the significance of this accumulation lies in finding a special thing in the characters and nature through communication, finding one's own expression language in the depth of expressing the life and spiritual connotation of the Tibetan nation, and making one's works generous and fleshy.

The trip to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau not only had a significant impact on my artistic creation, but also on my spiritual world. From initially being moved by the heroic and heroic image of Tibetan herdsmen, to gradually gaining a widespread understanding of the culture, history, and human geography of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, their living conditions, and their spiritual pursuit of solidarity with nature, although these are emotional and superficial feelings, they have had a great impact on my spiritual vision and painting state. My paintings are far from reaching the connotation of the spiritual realm of the Tibetan nation. This is a vast and boundless sea of spirit. Art practice has taught me that the depth of understanding of Tibetan life and culture directly affects the depth of artistic expression. The profound accumulation of culture on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau permeates various aspects of life, such as places like Yushu, Qinghai Lake, Eling Lake, Zhalinghu, Batang, Baiyu, etc., which are very beautiful and pleasant to listen to. Beautiful place names scatter like pearls around two large rivers, forming a unique regional culture. For example, the beauty and strength of Tibetan songs, dances, and music are also very exciting. The sketching on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau often excites me, using my heart to get close to the pulse of the plateau, feel the mountains and rivers, overcome difficulties, and endure physical training, all of which have increased my inner strength in artistic creation. Observing the primitive way of life of high-altitude herdsmen who work at sunrise, rest at sunset, and work day after day has gradually enabled me to appreciate the religion, culture, and history deeply embedded in their daily customs. The "Harmony and Four Auspicious Figures" in traditional Tibetan auspicious patterns depict elephants, monkeys, mountain rabbits, and sheep horned chickens living in harmony in the forest, creating a peaceful atmosphere that allows you to feel their spiritual harmony with nature. The reason why the charm of Xizang's traditional culture has been enduring is that its culture originates from nature and contains profound human feelings and the character of "truth, kindness and beauty", which permeate into the blood of the Tibetan nation. I started my artistic creation to express the theme of Xizang by painting Tibetan areas and herdsmen in Gannan. These works express my strong feelings.

The print series of Xizang Group Paintings created in the early 1980's strengthens the content of the theme of the picture by making the visual space formed by the contrast between the shape and symbolic dynamics of the main character and the large area of blank with a distinctive composition. The basis of this style of painting is the strong feeling and experience in the plateau life. The painting "Sweeping Snow" created in 1981 mainly depicts a tent and a shepherd sweeping snow. I once described my feelings in an article in 1983 as follows: "A heavy snowfall inspired me to handle the relationship between the subject and space in a large blank background. In the morning, when I opened the door, I saw a silver world. Overnight, the grass turned all white, and the tents and cows were covered in thick snow. The first strong feeling I felt when standing on the snow was life. I seemed to see the resilient spirit of this strong and simple nation with its own words and history under harsh living conditions. The heavy snow seemed to intentionally cover all the trivial things. The black tent standing on the snow appeared so..." Simple, as if it wants to tell you something. Isn't the tent roof blackened by cooking smoke, the hemp ropes that hold the tent one by one, and the wooden sticks that support the tent that have been worn out all traces of human life? This painting only depicts a female figure, a tent, and a snowy path. The background is a large area of blank space that perfectly forms a broader visual space with the snowfield. The tent in the painting is no longer a reproduction of ordinary life props. It helps Tibetans resist wind, rain, and cold. I feel that it is alive. It is the boat of Tibetan life and the cradle of Tibetan life I will recreate the symbol of Tibetan survival in the picture. My biggest feeling during my first trip to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau was choosing to depict the extremely simple and peaceful living conditions of the plateau herdsmen, striving to find the simplicity and profound beauty hidden beneath their fierce appearance. During this period, printmaking often used the contrast and composition of large and blank spaces and delicate gray tones of the main characters to strengthen the theme of the work and the painter's subconscious, making the theme of the work distinct and the expression language concise and lively. Fifteen trips to the Tibetan Plateau, each time with fresh experiences and experiences. The cultural characteristics of the same Tibetan ethnic group and different cities have a subtle influence on my works. Every time I focus on sketching, I go to a specific region and focus on researching and solving some of the problems in the painting. The plateau area at the border of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Tibet that I often visit is a very beautiful place, with continuous and majestic mountain peaks, abundant grass mountain pastures, and large river water sources. It is an excellent pasture on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. The grassland there is open, the snow capped mountains are majestic, and the flowing water is very spectacular. In this majestic mountain and majestic water, one can fully enjoy the power and wonder of nature. I think the most important reason for the lack of tension and grandeur in artistic creation is that artists have detached themselves from their profound understanding of nature and lack the courage to engage in a devout dialogue with nature with their own hearts.

I like the characters on the plateau best, because the nomads in the border areas of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan and Xizang have the most primitive beauty of human beings. They are straightforward, simple and full of wild vitality without artificial decoration. In their strong appearance, there is a blend of heroic and upright beauty, and the traces of difficult environment and life are embedded in their eyes, nostrils, corners of the mouth, and clear lines of hair braids. They remain calm in the face of harsh natural conditions, relying on the national belief of worshiping the spirituality of all things in nature as their spiritual support. They are full of optimistic spirit. I firmly believe that artistic creation originates from a deep understanding of life, and it is precisely the practice of my high-altitude journey that has given me a deeper understanding of the high-altitude ethnic group. The Qinghai Tibet Plateau, as a unique region in the world, has its irreplaceable uniqueness in religion, history, geography, language, art, and culture. My feelings for the Qinghai Tibet Plateau are to constantly seek the mysteries of the Tibetan spiritual world in my works. The culture of the Tibetan Plateau is full of mysterious and unknown cultural atmosphere, which induces us to look for, until we find the painter's own soul, and finally find our own "expression language of Xizang spirit". My trip to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau has gradually made me realize that there is an eternal vitality in the spiritual world of the Tibetan people. Their culture blends with nature, human views on truth, goodness, beauty, and ugliness, as well as the personified spirit of humanity and the spirit of eliminating evil and promoting good in religion, culture, and art. These are all truly valuable things that art should express.

The painting collection placed on the desk collects a large number of sketches from a trip to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. Looking at these works, familiar faces emerge one by one. Watching these many works completed with the selfless help of Tibetan friends, I am deeply moved and have many reflections. I remember in famous Kangzang places such as Maqu, Seda, Yushu, and Batang, my friends took me to run to the tent and search for herdsmen to sketch objects. Qiulang from Seda once served as a translator and one day brought me 10 grassland herders. He jokingly referred to it as "talking to people in the Four Cleanup Work Team". Da Wa, the eldest brother of Batang, comes back from herding every day and rides on the sunset to tie up his horse (herdsmen regard horses as their fate, and they would rather carry wood on their shoulders than let the horse pull the temple). He then rides a motorcycle and takes me up a grassy mountain about ten kilometers around, calling out the owner to various tents and searching for "models". When I concentrate on sketching, he will sit on the grass chatting with his owner, drinking tea, and waiting for a while. Looking back now, his sincere and simple gaze still lingers clearly in his mind. His image will forever remain in my painting "Batang Herdsmen". With the accumulation of time and the gradual understanding of Tibetan culture and customs, my love for the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and its culture has been growing day by day, and I feel more and more strongly that there seems to be a past life agreement between me and the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. I am so close to their hearts, as if I were once one of them. My strong desire to express Tibetan culture and the lives of the Qinghai Tibet people has prompted me to not stay in the fleeting style of light and shadow, but to pursue the eternal spirit contained in the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, as if only in this way can I express my deep emotions.

At the turn of the century, a new journey to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau is calling upon me.