For those who don’t read Chinese weibo (micro blogs), I thought I’d take a look at what Zhong Biao has been talking about recently. He’s active, as are many of his generation, and their collective discourse increasingly a major part of contemporary Chinese cultural fabric.
So what does he write about? In the MB format, short posts are the not only the norm, but the only option. Of late in particular, though formally speaking his standard mode, Zhong prefers the striking photograph with his own caption, ala:
眼睛如此美丽而神秘，就像未知星球的表面！
Eyes this mysterious and beautiful are just like the surface of an as yet undiscovered planet!
Or, this:
幸福就是这么简单！
Good fortune is just that simple!
But from these, I think we can learn a lot about what people are thinking, with Zhong’s characteristically broad, interplanetary view of aesthetics, and his ongoing rumination on happiness and human relationships (I won’t speculate that old age is part of this rumination as I’m not at all certain that’s the case). Nonetheless, there’s a reason why certain images make enough impression to result in the copy, paste and comment.
Most striking then, as I do believe that consumption, excess, and degraded health are a major part of the contemporary picture, particularly for highly social artists such as Zhong, the following struck me as particularly current:
什么样的饮食习惯得到什么样的身体！
You are what you eat!
In any event, this is what Zhong has been talking about this week.
