One of the Conversion of the Five Hundreds Bandits Photo: Courtesy of Cong Yunfeng 
 

Playing Pipa Behind the Back Photo: Courtesy of Cong Yunfeng

"I believe that art has the power to change and influence things and hopefully my work does too," an up-and-coming Chinese artist Cong Yunfeng told the Global Times recently. His mural works, Conversion of the Five Hundreds Bandits, as the strongly response to the controversial blockbuster exhibition, China's hidden century, which took placed at the British Museum until October 8.

Collecting looted relics from many countries makes the British Museum live in misery, especially the exhibition of the China's hidden century, billed as "Chinese people can't laugh after visiting it" by netizens. The ruckus started with the display of cultural relics from Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) that were looted from China marauding foreign armies. 

The hashtag related to the exhibition reached more than 6.211 million views by Tuesday afternoon and topped the second hot list on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. Meanwhile, its racked up 12.152 million of views by Tuesday afternoon on short video platforms Xiaohongshu.

"What a shame!" "It is heartbreaking to see these magnificent relics lost overseas, which obviously belong to the Chinese, when can they be returned to China?" These were just some of the comments and questions written by netizens. 

According to the official website of the British Museum, the exquisite and beautiful objects are brought together for the first time, from cloisonné vases given by the Last Emperor's court to King George and Queen Mary for their coronation in 1911, to a silk robe commissioned by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The show highlights the lives of individuals-an empress, a dancer, a soldier, an artist, a housewife, a merchant and a diplomat. 

Even the original of "The Treaty of Nanjing" is on display.

As one of the most discussed spotlights by Chinese netizens, exclusive to the British Museum—a portrait of lady Li (Lu Xifu's wife) from 1876 for the official promotional image, showing the strangest appearance with pallid eyes that spreads thick and fast on the internet. 

"This portrait reflects Western stereotypes and stunted aesthetics of China," said one comment on the Xiaohongshu.

Speak out 

Cong's artwork comes amid the controversy of China's Hidden Century exhibition, "When I visited the British Museum years ago, I always had mixed feelings as I saw a lot of artifacts from China in the crowded display, and this exhibition finally triggered long suppressed emotions," he told the Global Times. 

His feelings spurred thinking, engagement and action.

He transformed modifications based on the original imagery, the Dunhuang mural, Conversion of the Five Hundred Bandits, dating back to the Western Wei Dynasty (535-556). 

The original mural vividly depicted scenes of suppression, capture, interrogation, eye-gouging, exile and restoration of sight. 

As an artist he shows an eclectic taste in painting, introducing metaphorical elements through the replacement of the facial features of the bandits with characters final judgment themed artworks in Western art history. 

Moreover, the work was divided into six parts, the headlines description was taken from Buddhist scriptures and Western classical works were integrated into the art work. Like the first part head, "Violence is the midwife of everyone old society pregnant with a new one," was taken from Das Kapital.

Conversion of the Five Hundreds Bandits as one of the projects of "Wall-facing Project," spending one month, displaying at the Asian Girls Club of Brick Lane Loading with great success. 

Chinese people also have kept a close eye on his works together posted by himself and the notable blogger Xiang Haixin that racked up 113,000 views on the Douyin platform as of Tuesday afternoon.

Cong told the global times that this exhibition presented a historical period marked by colonialism. Reflecting on history, he embarked on a period of contemplation to respond to the post-colonial era with the "Wall-facing Project." 

"The "Wall-facing Project" reflects the current state of multiculturalism in the context of globalization advocating for a cultural decentralization experiment, " Cong said, through presenting cultural symbols from different civilizations in the form of murals and graffiti in public spaces within the framework of the Western contemporary visual system, he creates effects of convergence, collision and conflict among diverse cultures, reflecting on the impact of Western-led gobalization on multiculturalism. 

'Genes of all mankind' 

It seems like most kids like to draw on the walls, true to form, Cong's first brushstroke was painted on the wall. 

"This could be all mankind's childhood memory," Cong told the Global Times, he described this action as 'Genes of all mankind.' Cong became interested in painting when he was a 2-year-old toddler, and now "it's his life," he added. 

Born in 1990, he graduated from Central Academy of Fine Arts, majored in mural painting since 2013, and also studied at the Prince's Foundation School of Traditional Arts, UK from 2014 to 2016. 

Cong has always had a passion for murals, he stressed that the wall, as a carrier, is also alive and can be brought to life by interacting with people. 

Another works, Playing Pipa Behind the Back, at the London's Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel that taken from the image of playing pipa behind the back in a mural painting from the middle Tang Dynasty (618-907) at Dunhuang.

As another works of the "Wall-facing Project," Playing Pipa Behind the Back, is a relatively friendly artwork compared with Conversion of the Five Hundreds Bandits  as it conveys a sense of dialogue, with an echo between the dancers playing on the dome and the spontaneous dances of people of different races and ages dancing underneath the dome, Cong said.
 
"This is a work that crosses time and space and crosses conversations," he noted. 

While the "Wall-facing Project" is underway, the "wall-breaking Project" is also in preparation, giving the frescoes a shift in spatial and temporal dimensions and reconstructing its meaning, he told the Global Times. "I hope that more people will pay attention to and value China's unique and deep-rooted Chinese culture through my works."