I am a native Beijinger born in Liulichang of Beijing, which is the famous cultural street in China. My parents kept close relationship with Qi Baishi, a famous painting master. Under this environment, I began to love painting from my childhood. My home was close to Qianmen, so I often played with my friends at moat and railway station near Zhengyangmen. Towers, stone bridges, decorated archways, tea houses, old and famous shops, and trams have all deeply rooted in my mind. I was born and grew up in Beijing, which attracts me so much with its constant changes every day, so I decided to capture its beauty in my painting and my mind as well. I have been painting Beijing, including its old streets, cypress trees, quadrangle dwellings and temples. I dedicate myself to painting sceneries with ornamental value, humane environment and historical stories and want to keep them for future generations.

I have great passion with Imperial Academy (Guozijian) street where Confucian temple is located and thousand- year old cypress trees are there. I have been there for many times to do sketches. The cracked old roots and fissures of the truck touched the bottom of my heart again and again. In the painting “Cypresses in the Forbidden City”, I used a so-called method of scattered dots to depict the fissures which is extremely rare in similar paintings, while for the walls I used the crimpling skills to reveal its weathering nature. It is because I believe that all techniques and effects should be centered on the main themes, to make paintings more profound in humanism.

In the recent years, due to the city’s large scale reconstruction and economic development, only those well-known ancient buildings and gardens as well as quadrangle dwellings (siheyuan) have been restored and renovated, but a much larger quantity of old residential compounds and buildings have been torn down and replaced by bustling streets or new skyscrapers, or even modern flyovers. They are typical and important factors for a modern metropolis. Living overseas for many years, I have found that the city is changing with each passing day. So there is an idea bourgeoned in my mind, which is to use the traditional painting to express the new appearance of Beijing. So as what Shi Tao, the renowned painter in the Qing Dynasty said, the painting brush and ink should follow the times. I drove all over the city to look for the most representative places that can demonstrate its new beauty. The places like Xizhimen Flyover and the night scenes on Chang’an Avenue are all my favorite painting subjects.

The traditional Chinese ink and wash painting is not an ideal way for depicting concrete objects, so apart from the usual rice paper and painting brush, I also used propylene color materials and broad brush in an attempt to enrich the depicting methods of the traditional Chinese painting and strengthen its color visibility. The flickering neon lights, street lamps, passing pedestrians and cars----Beijing is steadily becoming a modern and international city. It is my lifelong fulfillment to record every step of progress made by my hometown and capture its unique scenes on paintings, especially those rarely noticed. I

n 1981, initiated by Ye Qianyu, I organized an exhibition entitled “Beijingers to draw the picture of Beijing” It was very successful and caused a sensation at that time. Beijing painters like Li Xiaoke, Li Baolin and Yang Yanwen all joined the exhibition. In 1989, sponsored by China Arts Association, the second edition of the exhibition was held in Macao, with the delegation headed by Wu Guanzhong. It made quite a stir at that time. And in 2001, with the support of Wu Guanzhong again, I orchestrated the third painting exhibition which was held at the China Millennium Monument. It offered some kind of help to the successful bidding of Beijing to host the Olympic Games in 2008.

Every painting, together with every gateway, every cypress and relics in the paintings, is a sign of my sentimental attachment to the city. I will capture all the beautiful scenes of the city in my paintings. And that is going to be my lifelong commitment to Beijing