The First day 2001

　　Place: Hu Ming's Home in Sydney

　　There were stacks of Hu Ming's paintings have been carefully placed along the walls. She took them out one by one to show me. "These were all painted in New Zealand." She arrived in New Zealand in 1990, and started painting oils three years later.

　　The image looks a bit weird, fish are poured from sky; frog kind of animals running between the legs of people; goat with red boots; icy stairs; cat is frozen into square; and giant dragon, opens its huge mouth.

　　Ling: Hu Ming, I'm not smart enough, I cannot get the meaning of your paintings.

　　Hu: Most of these are my wild imaginations. Some of these are from my childhood dreams, just like the one with a little girl and dragon. The dragon woke me up from dreams, it stucks at the tree trunk, and I can still clearly remember the noise that it made.

　　Few dreams from my kindergarten are still fresh as yesterday. Imagine, in a dark corridor, half a face with staring eyes appeared from a half length glass door, and that's me. The corridor was full of foxes, standing there, queueing up and laughing, they were doing gymnastics. And a big fish pond, fish were overflowing everywhere as water. But there's no water at all.

　　Hu: I had another dream also from my early childhood memories. My family lived in the compound of the Army Ground Forces Hospital Headquarter. I loved to go into the teaching buildings in the nursing school with my friends, we jumped in from the window of the building that we called "cross building", to see the "giant" - an educational model. The "giant" is about 4 or 5 meters tall, imported and true to life. The skin is soft, the blood vessel is distinct. The eyes are clear blue and transparent with long and curling eye lashes. Both the eye lids and lips can be opened up, with teeth and tongue inside the mouth, even the tonsil can be clearly seen in the throat. Every important part has foreign annotations. The "giant" is female, laying on a platform, sometime naked, some time covered with white sheet, and sometime with patient cloth on. I never got bored looking at her.

　　Later on, the "giant" had appeared in my dreams numerously, always intertwined with dreams after I became a soldier. During the night emergency gathering, she was there when I suddenly looked up. All the foreign annotations were clear enough, sometime she carried a red plastic bag with Mao's Little Red Book in there.

　　Ling: Sounds like sleeping is the warm bed for your creation, why don't you sleep through the whole day instead.

　　Hu: I do like sleeping. It seems like I spend most of my life sleeping. When "everyday reading" time came when I served in the army, I untied the discipline button and curled up into the cloth, started sleeping while holding the book and drooled. The director said I wasn't "reading everyday", but "sleeping everyday". Thus, I got a nick name of "muddle" (Hu is the family name of the artist, in Chinese it has the same pronunciation with muddle). Sometime, when people from the clinical unit came to hand the broadcast draft, they even call me "little muddle".

　　I was the broadcaster, responsible for wake up call, eat call and lights out call. It was miserable, I couldn't get up in the morning. I relied on alarm clock, the one with chicken pecking decorations. But there still happened a major accident. One night the emergent call went off around three o’clock, and the song followed up. All the medical staff of the hospital woke up and trooped up in the field, including the sick and wounded. When the vice-president came to ask me about the incident, I was asleep with the alarm clock. In the end, I wrote a self-criticism for this.

　　The Second Day 2003

　　Place: Hu Ming's Home in Sydney

　　Hu Ming called me to go over and look at her paintings. It's nearly lunchtime when I got there. Hu was making dumplings, she loves eating dumplings. We were talking while making the dumplings. There's a large scaled oil painting in the opposite, three strong and half naked countryside women standing in the corn field. Each of them holding a bowl of dumplings in their hands. Hu Ming said this painting named . She turned over one of the paintings that lied against the wall. A group of countryside women, vivid and lively, the same style just like the eating dumpling one. These women have the hairstyle of southern women back from the Republic of China period, wearing cloisonne hair ornament of lat Qing dynasty. You can neither tell which era the flowery underpants and under wears that they wore are from, nor where they are from, they just suddenly appeared in front of you.

　　I was stunned for a little while.

　　Ling: Hu Ming, these ladies are really hardy. Look at them, bronze colored skin and full of muscles. This is your standard of beauty, isn't it?

　　Hu: Yes. I'm sick of pitiful kind of women, it's annoying. Thirty years ago Michelangelo influenced my whole life. It's probably since I discovered his paintings, I stepped on a totally different path.

　　I joined the army when I was 15, worked as the broadcaster, movie showing worker and also librarian.

　　I joined the army when I was 15, worked as the broadcaster, movie showing worker and also librarian.

　　254 Hospital used to be the old house of the warlord Cao Kun. The library is located on the second floor of this independent French House, and the stairway is the turning circled wooden stairs. The library was closed during the Cultural Revolution. One day I unlocked a historical lock, I was shock looking into the room: there were books everywhere, about a meter high. It was said that theses were all the “poison grass” that off the shelf. I went through them, they were all excellent books! I stole two of them and brought back to the dormitory. One was Hugo’s , and another was Balzac’s . It was brilliant, my tears wet the pillow case after reading . Since then, I started stealing book everyday. Because I was by myself in the broadcasting studio and no one cared. I usually brought two steamed buns on Sunday and sit in the library for a whole day.

　　One day I found Michelangelo's life drawing among a stack of books. Published in Japanese and already turned yellow. I was strike when I opened the book up-I don't even know that human anatomy can be draw so magnificent!

　　I secretly took this book back and hide it under my quilt. I'm afraid of looking at it in day time. Only until the lights out at night, I started copying it inside out.

　　One night, when I lift up the quilt, the catalogue book disappeared, also a pair of shorts. So I bet he or she must had done this purposely for the shorts. This kind of things happened all the time, and I dare not to make it a huge scene, thus, keep it to myself.

　　On the second day, the commander of political department called me in the office. On the desk it's that troublesome book.

　　The commander asked: "Where did you get this?"

　　"From the library."

　　"It supposed to be sealed up, it's part of the feudalism, capitalism and revisionism!"

　　I was afraid to say a thing.

　　The director started talking in a sincere manner: “Hu Ming, the organization has always been cultivating you. But now we are so disappointed on you. Why did you paint naked people! It's not only the representation of capitalist consciousness, but it also indicates your mind is very complicated."

　　At that time, "capitalist consciousness" and "complicated mind" we're two different terms. The former is about political standpoint, and the latter is lifestyle problem, which is even more despised. I was frightened and cried, I thought I was addicted. But it's really funny that the person who reported this didn't mention his or her behavior of stealing.

　　Ling: I would like to ask a rather personal question, I have to admit, when I first saw masters' drawing of human bodies at the year of 14 or 15, I had sex fantasy. Did Michelangelo's body drawings give you the same feeling, which also became one of the elements in your paintings?

　　Hu: No. I started reading the medical books at early age, there's book called , it's full of real human photos, which is revolting. In the meanwhile, I have seen so many dead bodies at the hospital. I really had enough of looking at naked bodies, most of them were extremely ugly. But Michelangelo's are different, they are breathtakingly beautiful and perfect. Also, all the male "important parts" in this book have been covered by cloth, and in this way, they didn't create any sex fantasy.

　　Ling: What happened after Michelangelo had been confiscated?

　　Hu: Michelangelo had already changed me. Later on I found a good place, the bath house. The bath house in our hospital opened twice a week. It was fully packed with 3 or 4 people under each shower nozzle, and there were shaking people waited around. They were all young female soldiers, nurses, doctors. How vigorous the naked scene was after they were undressed!

　　I brought the painting kit to the bathhouse, spread the drawing paper in the steam. Some of the female soldiers screamed: “Hu Ming, you are so indecent, do not draw me!" Some others said: " go ahead, but I'm warning you, no faces are allowed!". The drawing paper got wet by the steam very soon. And I enjoyed my drawing while catching those moving bodies.

　　Ling: That is to say, in your paintings, no matter the countryside women or the female soldiers, their beautiful bodies were from the old time impressions.

　　Hu: Maybe, but only sketches were not enough. My major in nursing provided me advantages.

　　I was promoted in 1973 because one of the Chinese paintings I painted won the Excellence Prize in the group exhibition of the military region. It was titled - a female soldier preaching . The so called "promotion" was me becoming a nurse, which was the lowest rank among the 23 ranks of National Administration.

　　The resource of dead bodies for anatomia education was very limit. Some of them were kept from the Anti-Japanese War period, which turned into the color of beef jerky. The muscle looked like stripped monk's ragged robe covered on the skeleton, underneath was the bicipital macule of the arms, and another layer was the triceps muscle. The nervus was spread out like broken electric wires. Students were scared of going there because it was said that room was haunted. You can hear the footsteps of people running at night, and girls were always gathered together. I'm not scared, I wanted to go over at night on my own to practice, so I could concentrate and lift the skin to draw the muscle and bones. The smell of formalin made my eyes watery. The power was cut off sometime, so I had to use torch. Imagine, a dark room full of dead bodies with faint beam, and I was wearing a big mask bent over the corpses, looking.

　　Ling: Did you hear the ghosts running?

　　Hu: Really did not.

　　Ling: Your countryside women were busty and well developed, did you used this kind of presentation to illustrate the abundant fertility of female? Or phallism?

　　Hu: It can be understood like this. To me, its Michelangelo’s strong influence, I’m deeply in love with the vitalized muscle that he painted. No matter men or women, not sure since when female were depicted without muscle.

　　Ling: There is one thing I don’t understand, from your experiences, you have come into contact with so many deaths: the dissection of the hospital, the deaths of the sick and wounded, stripping the skin of dead baby, to excise the organs from people sentenced from death penalty, be presented at the scene of clearing victims from the Tangshan Earthquake. Fresh or dried corpse, soaked or living organ. Some people will become depressed or even nervous breakdown, or at least leaving a grey memory. However, in your paintings, it’s hardly to see that kind of dark decadence, but a completely opposite way to manifest live, healthy body, ruddy face, big smile, and the similar prosperous atmosphere from the Chinese New Year picture.

　　Hu: The characters in my paintings are not real, but the ideal characters that I’m pursing. I do like it. As long as I think it’s needed, I will totally add strong stimulation in my paintings, just for the excellent visual effect. The real world is way too ugly. I would like to lead people into the “real” world that I have created.

　　Ling: There is another thing, your paintings are far removed from the academic skills that I know. Simply a subversion.

　　Hu: Right, many of my painting techniques are the taboo in academic oil skills. I understand that some people who study oil paintings dismiss my style of painting. I have never formally studied oil paintings, or even drawings. I don’t follow any rules or standards. I have to do it my way, even if there is nowhere to go, I have to continue it.

　　Ling: So how did you get the idea of this style/form?

　　Hu: It’s really simple, maximize my favorable strength and minimize the unfavorable weakness. You know, my profession is the meticulous personage in Chinese painting. I have good basic skills. I was doing Chinese painting when I first arrived in New Zealand, but I could not find any authentic rice paper after I used up mine, that is why I started oil paintings. As a result, the meticulous paintings skills were naturally brought into my oil painting creation. And I found out the effect was so very special.

　　In 2003, Hu Ming had her first Australian solo exhibition at Soho gallery, . Australia’s famous Chinese artist Shen Jiawei gave Hu Ming an address book that he accumulated for so many years. Hu Ming sent her invitations according to that book. According to the gallery, they had never seen these many people during an opening ceremony. The influential Australian translator Mable Lee gave an opening speech. Soho is a small gallery, but Hu Ming’s exhibition shocked all the guests. A bunch of Chinese countryside women were vibrantly stood in front with bright and vivid color, which broke the established visual formula that the audiences had already had. People enjoyed calling this series “Big Girl Series”. There were also several paintings of female soldiers in the exhibition, which developed into a larger series later.

　　Hu Ming originally had an extremely feminine name, in 1957 when the idea of “speak out freely, air ones view fully” was prevalent in the air, her mother changed her name to Hu Ming. The name change was appropriate, it means to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat.

　　The Third Day 2006

　　Place: Hu Ming’s Home in Sydney

　　I went to visit Hu Ming, another complete new series.

　　In one painting, a woman is extracting liquid from a gigantic red chili pepper, and another one is bottling in a distance, to get ready to transport to the market. It was titled . In another painting, a woman is half turning into the color of the capsicum that she’s sitting on, called .The most scary one is the one in completion in a large scale of 2 meters, a group of women swimming in a huge half watermelon with several frogs. They did not realize that they had become the monster of half human, half frog and half watermelon. The red woman-like fingernail is growing from the flipper of the gigantic frog. This painting was called .

　　Hu: This series is about genetically modified food.

　　Ling: Exciting. Compare to your previous works, these paintings contain a sense of absurdity, especially the last one, it’s scary.

　　Hu: It is absurd, isn’t it? This world is as absurd as this. Human being is currently facing the survival crisis, the advanced technology that they produced plus the ubiquitous business scam, the world is out of control. The so called genetically modified food that is produced through bio-science is contrary to the law of biological autologous.

　　Ling: In my point of view, it is a sudden change from the “Big Girl Series” to genetically modified food. The genetically modified food series can be seen as the continuation of Michelangelo’s transgene. It is no long about praising, but expressing the concern of human survival. This is a serious topic.

　　Hu: I have been living abroad for more than ten years now. It is difficult to see direct elements from Western society from my paintings, but they do really exist and have impact on me. The biggest impact is respect for life, no matter the human beings, the animals or the nature, everything that has life. To cherish the living environment of human beings is one of the most important aspects of respecting life.

　　These paintings were shown in Melbourne, which caused great attention in Australian art world.

　　The Fourth Day 2007

　　Place: Hu Ming’s Studio in Beijing

　　In 2007, I got a call from Hu Ming when I was visiting relatives in Beijing. She’s already been painting in Beijing for ten months.

　　She told me that she rented a studio in Beijing and invited me to go over and have a look. The studio is located in an old building back from the 70s in the city center.

　　Go along the narrow staircase, an old unit on the third floor is the one. There were ten large scaled (about a person’s height) paintings standing along the wall. Another new series of works. It was a scrolled oil painting, 14 meters long, 1.4 meters high. She added historical characters in <87 Immortals> from Song Dynasty. All the male immortals are disappeared, and a bunch of female passerby with cloths from different periods replaces their positions. From Qing Dynasty’s Manchu costume in the beginning to the bikini in the end, it’s a hundred year timespan. They are surrounded by line sketched female fairies, walking from the space-time of civilization alternation. The color tone is sunset melting gold, marble like evening clouds, fascinating…

　　Hu: This painting is called < Relic of the New 87 Immortals-Following the Sun >. It’s about the transformation of female cloths in the past centenary. Let me introduce to you from the beginning: at the beginning of these are the odalisques, imperial concubines and ordinary women back from Qing Dynasty;

　　They are the women from the 20s, large cuff, high collar, scissors hairstyle, Western hat;

　　These ladies are from Shanghai in the 30s, all kind of hetaera, Western maxiskirt, cheongsam with jacket outside;

　　These are the costume of female street beggars, student uniform of the May 4th and the attire of progressive youth who’s on their way to Yan’an;

　　This one, female soldier from the Liberation War era, and this is the female militia; the one with mask on is the female cadre down South, and also the Northern girl with mourning dress;

　　These are the female textile workers, female intelligentsia, female construction works and female salesperson;

　　Here comes to the 60s, female red guards from middle school, unisex Mao style cloths;

　　The mid-aged women in the market from 70s or 80s, flared trousers, afro hairstyle and portable cassette player;

　　These are the trendy new generation from the 90s to 2000, bikini and beanie.

　　Ling: I think rather than saying the depiction of women in various cloths indicates the costume change of a hundred years, the fashion change reflects the political transformation and changing times.

　　Hu: I’m flattered. I’m not that profound. I have no in depth study toward politics and history. My original intention was not to display women’s liberation or historical revolution. My focus was on people, through the change of fashion to represent the transforming people. Look how gorgeous the cloths of the 87 immortals are. Women from every period have their own facial appearance, new meaning is created when they have been put together，and the contrast among aesthetics from diverse era is established. Do you know which one if my favorite? This one, the cadre down South. With a flushed face, she insists to wear the then fashionable mask, her cheongsam and men’s shoes both reveal her mastership.

　　Ling: Ha ha, how interesting.

　　Hu: The last one, which is couchant, wearing a pair of flowery underpants with red star on the forehead, is me.

　　There is always a sense of humor and tease in Hu Ming’s paintings.

　　The Fifth Day 2008

　　Place: Hu Ming’s Home in Kangaroo Valley

　　Hu Ming told me that she had created another batch of paintings. She invited me to the mountains and took a look of those new paintings. More than two hundred kilometers away from Sydney in the hillside into the wood, a grey house is located on the grassy slope.

　　There is a wooden cabin around fifty meters away from the house, and that is the studio that Bob has customized for Hu Ming. It has excellent lighting. Hu Ming loves to be left alone and painting in the mountains, no news, no newspaper, no one speaks English or Chinese, but only winds and birds’ twittering. The idea of time is faded here. She always continues to painting for one or two months without coming out of the mountains.

　　Hu Ming produced another series of female soldiers. As early as 2003 or even earlier, she started painting female soldiers. I especially love this series because it arouses my spiritual resonance, even though I have never had any military life experiences. But I have lived through that era, the era when our youth thrived, both soldiers and non-soldiers.

　　Lin: Did you hear that, your female soldier paintings have been labeled as Russian artworks online, they even condemned the Russians of spoofing and smearing Chinese female soldiers.

　　Hu: Of course I know that. In fact, for people who have lived through the 70s, they would know these are not painted by foreigners immediately when they see the paintings.

　　Ling: You are right, you can just tell the weight of army career in your life through your paintings.

　　Hu: It’s way too important! Think about it, I joined the army when I was 15 and retired from there in the year of 35. I dedicate my juvenile period, youth and half of the middle age to the army, how can I forget.

　　Ling: I like the expressions of your female soldiers, very innocent and pure, that is the manner of dedicating youth and blood to the Party.

　　Hu: Naive, and real.

　　Ling: Exactly! This is the common feature of our young people from that era. I also like the way you depict the details very much. The peeling walls, cracks on doorframe, slogans with dripping ink, broken mirrors, naked light bulbs, the dried sweating shoes, men’s plastic sandals, these are all the symbols that mark our period, they take me back to the old times in a second.

　　Hu: That’s a foolish and pale era, with harsh and rough environment. Both the material and spiritual lives are extremely poor.

　　Ling: Well, the “paleness” is in sharp contrast with the beauty and aliveness of the female soldiers. What I want to know is, most of the female soldiers that you have painted are naked or half naked, but they are different from sexy big girls. Although the latter is naked, the entire image is dissociated outside reality, in the world that you have created. They have dressed up extremely sexy, naked, half naked and transparent military uniforms. I have this kind of feeling: these nude female soldiers are the subversion in the world of army men, they might be the reflection of your unconscious sexual repression?

　　Hu: I have never carefully thought about it in this way, I don’t feel like I was sexually repressed. I started dating boys since 17, which was fun.

　　Ling: I thought dating was banned in the army? Tell me more about it!

　　Hu: Soldiers were not allowed to date, but cadres can. I was promoted before turning 18. My first boyfriend was a thoracic surgeon. The way we dated was just like a spy movie. We used specific gestures to pass on the time and place of our next date. During the dating, he was always out of the hospital door first, I followed him a bit later because a commander was always on duty. Once, he was out first, I took a big broom on my shoulder to pretend. I walked out unhurriedly. We were walking along the seaside with the broom on my shoulder all the time. It’s really funny to think about it now. Dating boys was the most interesting thing in that boring era

　　All in all, during my adolescence, “Libido” was released healthily.

　　There are also some paintings that recorded my military life, such as . We often had readiness exercise or emergent assembly at night. I had the habit of taking off the underpants and changing into the slouchy unisex one that the army sent out when I was sleeping. When emergent assembly call was on, I jumped off the bed and could not find the underpants, so I rushed out by wearing outside army pants directly and without underpants.

　　And also that one of injection, that depicts the basic skills of training nurses. In order to be accurate of the injecting position, we used gentian violet to mark a cross on the buttocks. Finding a point at the one-third of the upper buttocks, practiced on each other. I was feared on pain, so only practiced on pillows.

　　The old times can never come back, I can only go back to the army in my dreams. Over the years, I still dreamed of being late at the emergent assembly, sometime I forgot the quotation book even I had the underpants on, and sometime I just could not find my troop during the march; or, I found out I was the only one wearing vintage uniform, when my comrades were in new uniforms. I also dreamed of the public bathhouse, I could even smell the steam and the soap of Lighthouse brand in the dream.

　　Dreams become eternal when they fall on the canvas.

　　Ling: Army is the masculine world, everything about the place makes women forgot their own gender, and lost their feminine consciousness. This kind of “collectively unconscious” gender distortion has also been revealed in your paintings.

　　Hu: In the army, it is considered as praise if any female soldier has been regarded as “tomboy” by the commanders. I have often been praised as “tomboy”, which made me feeling very proud. I thought it was not too far away to join the party every time when I heard this.

　　The Sixth Day 2008

　　Place: Hu Ming’s Home in Kangaroo Valley

　　I stayed in the mountain at night and went to Hu Ming’s studio on the second day. She was painting a large scaled painting of transparent army uniform. Bright red background, grass green military uniform. Underneath the transparent military uniform are the strong and fit waist and the rounded buttocks, which are indistinctly visible.

　　Ling: In the female soldier series, “transparent military uniform series” is a very distinct one. It has significantly gone beyond reality, I’m afraid it’s not only the celebration of the beauty of human body.

　　Hu: Well, I can never understand politics. In the common logic, I joined the army since I was 15, I should be politically matured in this “revolutionary melting pot”. But the organization was testing me all the time because they thought I was politically immature. In fact, I do love the party very much, but I don’t know why I cannot join the party.

　　Here is a joke. During the political examination of my entrance test to Tianjin Academy of Fine Art in 1979, they asked when the “Great Strike of February 7, 1923” happened. I did not remember at all, suddenly I remembered the dialogue of Granny Li in “The Red Lantern”: “In the year 23 of the Republic of China, the Beijing-Hankou Railway workers established a general union in Zhengzhou….” I also had no ideas of how to convert between the Republic and AD, so I answered: “Year 23 of the Republic of China.” The last question was what the superiority of socialism is, which worth 30 marks! I completely don’t know how to answer, however, I suddenly remembered the song , so I just wrote down the lyrics of this song and handed in my examination paper as the very first.

　　I didn’t pass the political examination in the end. The school went to the army and investigated me. The elder commander of the Political Department said: “This ‘muddle’ comrade has bad memories. But the organization can guarantee she’s competent and politically reliable.”

　　Ling: That’s marvelous. There are many people saying you have bad memories, but I don’t think so. You have excellent memories, it’s your brain that filters and excludes the uselessness for paintings outside the memories.

　　Hu: You said right, politics is the first to be excluded. In my opinion, it narrows the coverage of any artworks when political element is added, which also shorten the vitality of the artworks. I start creating from my own direct experience, using painting to express my personal feelings. It would be too narrow to interpret my paintings only from political viewpoint.

　　Ling: I actually would like to hear your interpretation of the transparent military uniform.

　　Hu: That kind of thing does not exist. I purposely create it. Just imagine the absolute beauty of the young bodies underneath the transparent military uniform! Maybe I have addiction to uniforms. I used to kept several sets of uniforms back from the 70s, but my mother gave them to the victims, only left few military caps of all kinds: with brim, without brim, big brim ones and cotton-padded ones. I can paint uniforms from that period even with my eyes are shut.

　　Ling: The transparent uniform that you painted is the reflection of you-rebellion.

　　Hu: I have always been a rebellious child, until I went abroad, my rebellious nature was able to be gradually revealed. My transparent uniforms subvert myself first, then subvert the tradition and the public visual habit.

　　The body of the female soldier is nearly finished. After looking at it for a while, Hu Ming said: “Do you think there is something missing? There should be a gun in the hands.” She pulled out the picture of guns from a pile of data, “if I’m going to paint a gun, then the hand needs to be repainted, and also have to do some changes to the arm.” After she has done the changes to the arm, she quickly painted a AK-47. “I’m so familiar with this gun.” She looked at it with few steps back, “well, the composition of this painting is stable now, isn’t it?” I laughed: “It is a fortune that I’m the one seeing you like this, if it’s other people, they must add extra sexual fantasy onto this gun.”

　　We both laughed out loud.

　　Frog raise, the wood became invisible at one time, and we placed ourselves in the white mist. Another while, mountain breeze started bursting and it brought the rain. “It’s going to be raining.” Hu Ming said.

　　The Seventh Day 2008

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　It was pouring outside. I should be back in the city center, but I had to stay in the mountain at that moment. The rain was scary in the mountains, everything disappeared in a distance, and you could not see anyone there. I was a bit nervous: “The rain is terrible.” But Hu Ming was kind of relaxed: “The rain in the mountain is like this. The rain is God’s tears, the wind is God’s laughs and the lightening is God opened up his eyes to look at you.” I asked: “Are you scared?” Most of the time, she’s staying on her own in the mountain. Hu Ming answered: “Not at all! I especially love raining days. Everything disappears, only left very limited space- the painting and me. I can fully enjoy the status of isolation after excluding the entire visual disturbance. This is my gift from God.

　　The rain stopped in the evening. We went back to the kitchen with a torch. Hu Ming opened up a bottle of wine, said: “come on, let’s have something to drink.” I said: “I don’t do alcohols.” “Then you are missing a great pleasure in life. Tipsy feeling is the best, painting becomes easy and relaxed.” I said; “Yes, drinking and painting, that’s the momentum of female hero.”

　　Hu Ming’s ancestors were from the Hun (Xiongnu) tribes. Huyaner is one of the four major ancient Hun surnames. Huns ruled the northern central plains during Han Dynasty, which was banished later, split into South and North branches. Northern Huns moved westward from Mobei. Southern Huns then moved into the central plains, changed their surname from Huyaner to Huyan, and part of the clan simplified it into “Hu”. Hu Ming’s family was derived from the latter. These descendants eventually settled in Liaocheng, Guan County, in Shandong province. Up to the present, there are still more than a dozen of Hu families living in her home village.

　　Ling: Ordinarily, your painting should be more masculine according to your character. However, feminine absolutely dominates your paintings from your “Big Girl Series”, “Female Soldier Series” to “Transparent Military Uniform Series”, the very few male character in your paintings are just props. Why do you exclusively paint women?

　　Hu: Because I’m familiar to that. I joined the army when I was 15, my whole military life was spent in a female surrounded environment. We did everything together, just like a big family. There was no secret among us. I could grasp all their moods, and any emotional changes of theirs; I could even catch their manners without open my eyes. But it will be totally different with men.

　　Ling: Can we consider your painting as the female art of the female artist?

　　Hu: In fact, it is a discrimination to single out the term such as “female artist” and “female art”. This kind of concept is based on the viewpoint from a patriarchal society. Why don’t we say “male artist”, “male art”? Both men and women are the same in creative thinking. The special and extra attention to female art has always had the pathetic feeling. I also dislike the idea of International Women’s Day. It is actually a declaration of “women are weak”. When I was little, my mother used to have half day off work, but she had to do the housework for the next half of the day. What a “laboring” day!

　　Ling: These make you sound like a feminist…

　　Hu: Although I am a woman, I am a human being in the first place. I put myself on the same level as men. In fact, there is no difference between men and women despite the genital system. I did the same work as men in the army, even works that male soldier could not do, I did better than them.

　　I like the beauties under my aesthetic frame, the beauty of women should not be just for men, but also for women. Women should be strong and confident. I like women’s expression and the change of their muscles when they are laboring.

　　Hu Ming had already drunk half a bottle at this point.

　　The Eighth Day 2010

　　Place: On the Way to Kangaroo Valley

　　Hu Ming’s artistic creation came into the climax stage in 2010.

　　I was driving Hu Ming to her studio in Kangaroo Valley. Bob usually drove the car, but he was occupied that day. The direction that Bob wrote me was things like “turn left 200 meters after you see Shell”, I had no confidence in that because on the highway, if you missed the intersection you had to go around for another tens of kilometers. It was lucky to have Hu Ming with me in the car, she could guide for me.

　　I was really nervous on the road, kept asking Hu Ming whether I was on the right way. The most frequent answer I got from her was: “eh? I don’t think I have been here before.” And suddenly she would cheer up and said; “I’ve seen that billboard before, this should be the right way.” I said: “Please, you came here every week, no less than 500 times in ten years!” She replied: “So what?”

　　Therefore, our conversation started from this topic.

　　u: People always say I am really a muddle, actually that’s right. The things that I lost in my life are countless. I was in charge of subscribing newspaper and magazine in the army, there were so many invoices. When it came to the year-end, there were more than 300 Yuan less, all I can do was to beg my mother to cover it up for me. The most dangerous experience was that electrical short cut in the broadcasting studio, I climbed up to the ceiling to inspect and muddled up the wires, I was electrically stunned. Until dinnertime, no one trumpeted, they could not find me in the broadcasting studio, so they went to the ward and saw the opening vent on the ceiling. That was how I got my life back.

　　Ling: Based on my understanding of you, I think your mind is very well structured. Your “silliness” should be considered as “out of state”.

　　Hu: Yes, just like something has been taken away from reality. It happened all the time, such as in the car, I would imagine a picture when I saw those black and yellow barricades on the road, they were turning into cats’ tails, standing in the middle of the road, very interesting. The few hours of travelling in the car to the mountains gave me space to conceive. To grasp a idea and fully expended it. I have a small notebook in the car, which records my ideas and sketches, all very detailed. So when Bob talked to me in the car, I replied but could not hear a thing or remembered. He called me dreaming girl.

　　Ling: This dreaming should be considered as “day dreaming”.

　　Hu: Exactly. You know what, I’ve written a movie script in 1986 called , which was also published in August 1st movie magazine in 1986. It is a children science fiction. The protagonist is a primary school student called Zhang Xiaofan. He loves to fantasize, and indulges himself into the whimsies that has nothing to do with reality. For instance, since the wheels are spherical, damage can be avoided in a collision; when encounter the traffic lights, cars can fly low altitude in order to reduce the traffic jam; the road is the speed changing conveyer, which is operated by solar. Also, there are lots of pipes in the kitchen at home, soy sauce, vinegar and other spices flow out from there. In the eyes of the teacher and his mother, Xiaofan is a child with ADHD, therefore he is considered as mentally disordered and sent to the lunatic asylum… In the end of the movie, Zhang Xiaofan is cured and becomes a good boy, goes to the classes primly and wearing the red scarf…he is disappearing with his schoolmates into the distance.

　　Ling: This Zhang Xiaofan reminds me of you.

　　Hu: But my result is better than Zhang Xiaofan, I can daydream endlessly throughout my artistic creation.

　　It was an open valley in front of us. Hu Ming cheered up: “I know it now! Here we are!” We finally got home.

　　The Ninth Day 2010

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　It was Kangaroo Valley again. A huge fishpond was built outside the grey house. There were two 2 meters long golden koi, leisurely chasing us. Hundreds of their descendants in various sizes were swimming through the weeds and rocks. “This is Bob, and this is me.” Hu Ming pointed at that two big ones, “I like watching fish, and sometime I can spend hours watching them.” No wonder the fish in Hu Ming’s painting are so lively.

　　We stayed in the mountain that night. It was extremely quiet. In the dark, kangaroos, hares, fox, wombat, possum and owls all came out and occupied the garden, and they knew the guest was here.

　　Around 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning, birds started singing in the mountains. The animals scurried home to rest by riding the early morning lights, left footprints on the porch.

　　Hu Ming got up before 6 o’clock, and started her works of the day.

　　She transported a load of firewood to the studio by using the unicycle trolley. She lightened up the fire, and the flames brought vitality to this silent room. She picked two pumpkins from the vegetable garden, chopped off two pieces and put them on the stove.

　　The studio was extended two times in size. The finished paintings from the were put inside there. Again, this was another brand new series, animals were the dominant in these paintings. We chatted while she’s painting.

　　Hu: I’m always looking for new things. The subject and content of my concept is always changing. When new pictures arise in my head, I will follow them and get lost. Every lost state can be developed into a series. And sometime it’s only one piece.

　　Ling: These paintings, it is really close and intimate between the animals and human beings. They look very cute, but also pitiful.

　　Hu: Can you tell their wretchedness? Animals and human beings suppose to be interdependent, but human are destroying the natural state, imposing man’s will onto the animals, which perish themselves eventually.

　　Ling: is so scary. All of the animals are eating human. Not only the beasts that we know, but also the docile ones are also sharing a part. If the world becomes like this, human will have nowhere to hide.

　　Hu: Human and animals are supposed to be equaled. But nowadays the consequences of the ubiquitous inequality of human framing animals’ ecological nature are everywhere, which is pathetic and hateful.

　　Ling: I feel like the previous and the present convey two notions. First of all, to violate the law of nature will bring consequences to human beings, which express the concern towards the human future. Secondly, it depicts an ideal world- a world that human and animals or even human and nature are in a total harmony.

　　Hu: Yes.

　　The aroma of roasted pumpkin was out, floating in every corner of the studio, exuding a sweet nostalgia. It was already more than nine in the morning, and this was our brunch, Hu Ming usually ate like this. She said she did not like having lunch at 12pm, if she accidentally ate more, she would fall asleep and could not paint any more.

　　Hu Ming once again entered into creating mode, I was watching at side while listing to A Bao’s Northern Shan Xi love songs.

　　Hu Ming concentrated on painting a cat, lots of her paintings have cats, and it was kind of a special mark of her. Her cat is very adorable, and dynamically different, but all have the same expression of understanding everything.

　　Several hours past, I was almost unable to sit still, so asked her; “Don’t you feel bored to paint so long?”

　　She smiled; “How come? I will go into another world once I start painting. There are so many novel ideas and endless pleasure to enjoy, how can I get bored? I can continuously paint for 9 hours even 13 hours. It is unconscious.

　　I said; “Hu Ming, you were born for painting.” She replied: “Very good. Other peers enjoy painting, but I put my life on it. People said I had masochistic tendency. I think it might be the training result of the slogan “Fear neither hardship nor death” when I was young. In fact, I also enjoy putting my life on painting, the new tern is called ‘challenge the limit’."

　　Around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the kingfisher was warbling in the garden. Hu Ming said; “It is on that big tree, it’s calling me everyday at 5 o’clock.” I didn’t see it because of the dense brunches, but I saw a kangaroo standing outside the fence. After bump into me, it unhurried to look around in the garden again. Hu Ming called off work early for me. She said; “Koala is coming soon, there is an elder koala here for many years. It comes out of the woods at this time everyday, wonders around the house, it’s not afraid of me touching it. Let’s go and have a look of it.”

　　In the evening, Bob was back. He pointed at the tablet on the wall-which they bought from Pan Jiayuan in Beijing-that was inscribed with “Ya Tian Xiu”, and asked me the meaning of it. It means “to greet the blessing from God”. But I interpreted in a manner of Kangaroo Valley; “to receive the happiness that nature gives us.” Bob was very pleased.

　　The Tenth Day 2012

　　Place: Kangaroo Valley

　　Hu Ming said; “I pretty much finished the scroll painting, would you like to see it?” Surely I would like to be the first to see it. It also used <87 Immortals> as the background, this time the scroll was even longer (159cmx1573cm). She had been talking about this idea several years ago, now it’s complete. Compared to , this one was even more magnificent. Hu Ming said; “The name is .” She was trying to put those large scaled painting in order in the studio. I offered my help, she said; “No need, you could not move it, this is labor work, I have to do it several times a day.”

　　Hu: These females under the masters’ pens, some of them are publicly acknowledged as masterpiece in the history, some of them are my own favorite, the artist may not be famous, but to me they are masters. Their appearances are neither in historical order nor the ranks of their fame, they are randomly positioned, mainly for the composition need.

　　The first one is Botticelli’s . I rubbed in elements from contemporary society-camouflages from wartime. War replaces the ideal of peace and love.

　　That woman with green cloth is from Jan Van Eyck’s . It is known as the first picture in the history of painting. On top of that, the fine detailed skills and the style of his characters are similar to Chinese meticulous detailed color painting. Thus, it is worth to be memorized.

　　I put the pregnant woman from Gustav Klimt’s painting beside her, childbearing is a breeding responsibility of women. No matter they are happy about it or not, she looks very happy, with an accidentally been fooled expression.

　　After that is Michelangelo’s Goodness of knowledge, has beauty、strength、wisdom in one. Just look how beautiful the muscle is at her back, I am so confident in painting young muscles.

　　I always like Mona Lisa, her secretive smile, looking at the transformation of human and society with sarcastic smile. She has been repetitively appeared in my works since I started painting. She’s from the same period as , the spiritual world that they represent is the same, calm and beautiful.

　　After Mona Lisa is teenage girl of D. D, Velazquez, the empirical costume from this period was very decadent, slyly stunning and morbid. My main point is to present her cloth. Apart from the body curves, clothes play a very important role. Clothes represent class and the change of hierarchy at times, whether covering the body, for convenience or different decoration, they all have their own different meanings.

　　I put two of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe on the pennant of the fairies. Marilyn Monroe is my favorite beauty, the eternal temptation. Warhol’s Monroe is a revolution because it has told the public that art is not only from easels, but can also be produced from machines.

　　It supposed to be lotus in the hand of the fairy behind, but I changed it into the mushroom cloud of the atomic boom. Modern people focus more on conquest nowadays, they advocate military force, and have their hopes on the most advanced weapons. Look, the fairy is a mass of bruised.

　　The woman in red lying in the front is the representative work of the Raphaelite Frederie Leighton, lazy estheticism. Some critics believe his paintings are greasy and kitsch. There is no right or wrong in artistic standards, only like or dislike.

　　On the top, is the woman from Richard Lindner’s works with leather gloves and garter. He had never been professionally trained, his mother made underclothes for people, so he grew up peeking at female models. I admire the weird and wild character of his female characters, full and with tension.

　　I don’t really like the female body of Rubens, so I only selected one female portrait.

　　The cello player is from Domenichino, which plays the role of the prelude of the band at the back.

　　The woman in blue dress comes from the pre-Raphaelite Rossetti. All of the faces he painted were the same, just like him, especially the mouth, which is particularly sexy.

　　The one lying on the ground is the representative masterpieces from the Cubism Fauvism artist, Femand Leger. The original book in the hand has been changed into ipad.

　　The one with the stretching arms is the Goddess from David, which has also been put on a pair of headphones.

　　The one wearing red shawl is from the work of Modigliani.

　　The woman that plays piano is from Anne-Louis Girodet. She has so many works in her life. I love the pattern of her cloths, and also the piano. Her gesture just echoes with the immortal kabuki. The characters in immortal kabuki are the center and also the climax of this whole scroll, the design of the line drawing is so beautiful.

　　Beside it’s the woman in green dress from the painting of Lempicka. I chose her because the early female body shape in my works was hugely influenced by her.

　　Apart from the one of green dress, the six people in the group are all laborers. The woman in red kneeling on the ground is from Courbet’s , her kneeling position is pure, simple and also sexy.

　　Fee Ann Marytemperature’s <Russian Country Girl Vera><Back from the Market> of Chardin.

　　Jules Bastien Lepage’s <Haystacks>.<Family>, from Schiele.

　　Bouguerean’s <Girl that Breaks the Water Jar>

　　Then it comes to the noble lady on the swings. Artist Fragonard belongs to classic Rococo, most of his paintings are the depictions of the sexual desire of those nobles, in gaudy style.

　　Rene Magritte’s paintings are extremely secretive. He is one of the most admired masters of mine. His imagination is elusive.

　　The white dressed woman who is making the dough is the character from the Mexican artist Rivera. He is the national treasure of Mexico, his paintings have been exhibited in the biggest Mexican museum. I actually don’t like his style, but because my time is so limited and his painting is easy to copy.

　　That dismembered woman is Dali’s. For this kind of paintings, I only copied once, very easy.

　　The girl that sits underneath is IIya Yafimovich Repin’s painting of his own daughter. Repin’s work is difficult to copy. Copying this painting revealed my deficient skills in oil painting.

　　Women in Ingres’s paintings are the most virtue and serene ones, even the back of a bathing woman is still elegant and dignified. I was stunned when I saw this perfect naked back.

　　That chubby woman is from Lucian Freud. He is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the psychiatric expert. His paintings are usually too real to face directly. I painted a bunch of capsules on the body of the woman to accusation- obesity and the overuse of antibiotics is a century disease.

　　The woman in white is from Degas’s impressionist work.

　　The woman with a child on her shoulder is also Michelangelo’s work, very strong and sturdy. I painted because I like it.

　　I only sketched the outlines of Rapheal’s Virgin Mary and Christ, and put @ in the position of his heart to manifest how much modern people’s spiritual life is dependent on internet.

　　Max Ernst’s works are extremely crazy, and I need that red.

　　To copy Gauguin is to save time.

　　The last one is Picasso’s , the original has two women with flying long hair. I cut one’s hair short to manifest homosexuality, which is also the contemporary phenomenon. The two running in the opposite directions represents the sense of rebellion.

　　And the last “immortal” is me. Colored glasses and five-pointed star is my symbol.

　　Ling: I feel like I’ve been going through the world art history after listening to you. I find another characteristic of this scroll, all of the Western women have been painted in half oil painting and half traditional Chinese realistic painting.

　　Hu: I purposely did it. Chinese painting believes line drawing represents the perfect shape. At first, I tried to do Mona Lisa with traditional line drawing, but no one could recognize her. It seems like it is not just the outline that people are familiar with, but the color sketch is also very important. So I found a neutral way to do it by combining the skills of oil paintings and line drawings together. To extract lines out of masters’ oil paintings is very interesting.

　　Ling: The most wonderful thing is, in this way, the characters from Western oil paintings are blended among the immortals, therefore, becoming unobtrusive in the scroll.

　　Hu: That is correct. I did the best to apply all my line drawing skill. It can be considered as the attempt to combine Chinese and West.

　　Ling: This painting is really gorgeous and powerful. The integration of Chinese and Western figures; the integration of line drawings and oil paintings; which makes the image coherent, and this is the so called qi. The composition of both the Western figures and Chinese immortals is fit and appropriate, this is shi. Such a great painting!

　　Even till now, I still have the same conclusion: Hu Ming was born for painting. Her family background, her personality, her experience and her living environment, all of these are the preparations for her to paint.