Red is a deep memory that flows in the veins, a memory of turbulence and passion. Sunny colorful childhood drenched in bright red, experiences a rabid revolution:watchwords, big-character posters, slogans, demonstrations, red (Mao's) citation songs, Red Guards settling down in villages and mountains, red-foot physicians, "loyal" dance, Sample Operas, just like the undeletable computer hard drives, which carries that part of history.

That spectacular and stirring era has passed instantly. Look around: what 're facing is a thorough revolution. Everything seems to have changed over night: economic resurgence, materialism, congestion, seduction. A feeling once unconsciously hidden inside of us becomes stronger. This emotional romance is bigger than intellectual confusion and is expressed by an artistic language. It is called Red Romanticism.

In that era, people di't lack romance: Chairman Mao was the people's idol. Everybody wore a Mao badge, and held a "red treasure book" with Mao's portrait on the cover; every home had M's portrait on their wall, a ceramic Mao sculpture on their table; every square had M's tall, hand-waving statue. It's like worship and adoration of a deity. Iron Girls, the Red Woman Army were the sexy feminine beauties of that time, no less than fashion models today. Grass-green army uniforms, worker outfits, army-green bags were the most fashionable styles.

I try to make use of artistic symbols to build a real memorial world using photographic elements without meticulously reducing them. Is history real? I transform serious and solemn situations into colorful and vulgar color expressions to recreate the social reality of that time. Using current techniques, methods, and color preferences I ponder and explore. Although history has already been broken into pieces, it's still lucid. It's like the countless stars in the sky that we tried to count when we were children, they are still above us, and while we can't see them, they still shine brightly in our hearts.

Ren Hong