I was born in the mid-1970s into a southern Chinese town known to be the cradle of Mao Tse-tung's Communist guerrillas in the 1920s. Throughout my youth, I was a loyal Communist
Young Pioneer and later a proud member of the Communist Youth League. I remember
dismissing what I thought of as gossip about riots and natural disasters in my "socialist
motherland" as rumors spread by hostile American media. In my mind the new society had
eternally eradicated all natural disasters and social ills after the liberation.
Before I was 20, I believed that mankind lived and worked for the sole purpose of
achieving Communism. All my years afterward I have spent counteracting the omnipresent
manipulating power of that system, whose default mode for young persons is to accept,
memorize and follow rather than to question, challenge or defy. This partly explains why
peasants in this country are much more pleasant than many of the educated. The more education
one has received, the more common senses he has lost -- unless, luckily, some of life's turns
activate the de-brainwashing process in his or her life.
My life's turn came when I was able to leave for a land where, despite all its limits, free
pursuit of truth is fundamentally respected and protected. While a student in Notre Dame's Peace
Studies program, I was exposed to facts that once were off-limits to me. This resulted for me in
constant shock and anger. Gradually, the negative energy that resulted from being kept blind and
ignorant for so long was channeled into positive passion for expressions and change. One's
humanity will be awakened once he starts to develop a free and independent mind.
Now I am of such an age during which time, according to the Chinese saying, one is
supposed to "stand firm." Despite several trials and errors, life has now led me to stand firm with
truth-seeking through artistic undertaking. I believe in the power of art and literature, for they
provide the primary means for exploring one's self and for understanding and empathizing with
others. Through artistic and writing projects, I want to explore, capture and present how people
caught in life's contradictions struggle between the aspirations to be good or to surrender to
destructive desires from within as well as to external forces.
I am also interested in exploring the vertigo feeling of my peers. Ours is probably the
nation's most confused generation in history. Since the last decade of the 20th century,
commercialism has quickly filled the vacuum of Communism and is becoming the dominant
ideology. Different forces are contending for power, which leads to a weak sense of security
among the population. Living in China today is like riding on a roller coaster. It's fast, it is
thrilling, scenes are changing, but at the end of the day, one asks oneself: "Is it real?" This roller
coaster has no sure track, and you know not where it is heading.
We are China's last generation to remember times when there was no TV or the Internet.
Despite new developments in communication technology, many choose voluntary ignorance or
fulfilling ignorance, two terms I coined to describe the popular mentalities. Today, for some, the
problem is less of accessibility and more of voluntarily choosing to be ignorant -- ignorance
itself is fulfilling. Remaining in the dark is probably a less risky choice if one is used to it.
Others have chosen to be apolitical. Yet I regard political apathy as a luxury that only people
who live in systems which respect the bottom line of human dignity can afford. In our current
situation, it is problematic if the majority of the young generation indulge themselves in such a
luxury.
The economy still boasts impressive statistics. So, sadly, does the scale of environmental
pollution. The growing economy legitimizes many injustices and overshadows resentments over
social and environmental issues that might lead to serious crises. But only fools or liars would
believe that this economy will go on like this forever.
So, apart from individual works, I am working with ordinary citizens on visual art
projects. My dreams are that people will be better prepared when the days come in which the
economy can no longer sustain all the false dreams. I hope that the little things I can do in the art
scene will help some break up with "voluntary ignorance" and political apathy.
Jian Yi is the coordinator of the Notre Dame Club of Beijing and a visiting fellow in the Centre
for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge. He is
also a filmmaker, photographer and managing director of ARTiSIMPLE Studio, Beijing.
(April 2007)
