In 2007, the art historian and curator Lu Peng invited a group of Chinese contemporary artists including Zeng Fanzhi, Zhang Xiaogang, Zhou Chunya, Ye Yongqing, Yue Minjun, Wang Guangyi, Mao Xuhui, Wu Shanzhuan, and Zhang Peili to gather at a resort of Sanya for a ‘brush event’. The artists were asked to explore traditional medium of ink and color using brush on rice paper in reinterpreting the most recognizable themes and imageries within their oeuvre. Like the Orchid Pavilion gathering organized by Wang Xizhi in the Six Dynasties, the Sanya gathering after 1600 years brought contemporary artists together for mutual inspiration and artist creation, reviving the great literati traditional in the Chinese history.

Untitled (Boy) by Zhang Xiaogang, depicts a large head of a boy bearing a mysterious pink patch across his left eye. Like the emotionless figures in the artist’s most famed ‘Bloodline: The Big Family’ series, the mark of scar represents the material residue of a formative experience. Zhang believes that transformative experiences, no matter it is good or bad, become inscribed to a person’s character as if to the flesh itself. On the other hand, Zhang’s imageries are usually based on archival photographs from the Cultural Revolution period. The boy, with its ubiquitous feature and background, could be anyone from anywhere. Therefore, the anonymity and lack of individuality ties him tightly to the collective memory of this traumatizing national event and the simultaneous homogenization of citizens.