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January 20, 2019

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Emotional, evocative photos of extensive travels

A selection of Zhuang Hui’s “Ten Years” series is displayd across a whole wall, showcasing a variety of snapshots the artist took during his travels between 1992 and 2002.

Like every traveler on the road, Zhuang liked to snap photos of everything interesting that caught his eye. In 2001, he showcased 100 of more than 100,000 photos in a solo exhibition. Today, about 40 of them are on display at current exhibition.

Zhuang, 55, traveled with a point-and-shoot camera. Looking at the photos today, he can still recall the time, place and reason for taking each picture.

The scenes can be quite ordinary: A walking path that suddenly felt strange to him, a blurry shred of light escaping from a bathroom door at the crack of dawn; a dam located amid lush greenery and covered in a hazy green mist.

His photos can also be nostalgic and evocative, such as deserted railways and factory buildings reminding him of where he once worked, a snow-crested village in northeastern China reminiscent of his hometown and an old photo studio in southern Shaanxi Province that reminds him of his father.

Most of the works are in saturated colors, which is “a trait of a generation,” Zhuang explained.

“I was born during the ‘cultural revolution,’ and people at that time were accustomed to bright reddish shades,” he said.

“The photos are totally different from those we normally see today.”

His photos capture the mindset of a generation that was “simple and pure, and much more carefree” than today’s younger people, he said.

“They were imbued with a gushing power to destroy the old, a rebellion toward collectivism and the desire for sexual liberty,” Zhuang said.

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