Over the last few years, my creative work has focused on the rapid moderniwations that China has been undergoing and the destruction that cities have experienced — in other words, what we have been doing so far. I find it very contradictory that we want to modernize our country while we keep negating our own traditions. In 2002, I photographed two new triptychs called Preincarnation and Incarnation. Continuing the idea of reflection upon our destruction of traditional culture, the gigantic models humorously tell how we pretend to protect the precious past while
unconsciously damaging history. Moreover, I see a huge difference from my own generation in the way that children these days are very much geared towards obtaining popular goods and fashionable stuff. Their tastes are influenced from the very beginning. So in my scroll-photos Knickknack Peddler and Preschool, I portray a peddler who sells all sorts of foreign goods, and an old man who nurtures new beliefs in the minds of children.
Overall, I hope my photographic works witness and emulate a variety of social phenomena that have arisen during the course of the modern
construction of “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” By putting stories into my photographs, viewers can clearly discern my attitude towards the social phenomena of the current era. If my works encourage others to reflect more deeply on these issues, I will be even happier.
— Wang Qingsong

Selected solo exhibitions: 2002: Marella/ Spazio Consolo, Milan; Loft, Paris; 2000: Wan Fung, Beijing.
Selected group exhibitions: 2002: 2nd Pingyao International Photography Festival; A New Year’s Dream, Chinese Arts Center, Manchester; Run, Jump, Crawl, Walk, East Modern Art Center, Beijing; P.S.1, New York; Let’s Go, Art Museum, Beijing; Chinese Modernity, Foundation Armando Alvares Penteado, Sao Paulo; False Emotions, Art Bunker, Munich; Paris-Pékin, Espace Cardin, Paris; Dream 01, The Red Mansion, London; 2001: Red Hot, Red Gate, Beijing; Next Generation, Passage de Retz, Paris; Promenade in Asia-CUTE, Art Tower Mito, Japan; China Album, Contemporary Art Museum, Nice; Cross-Pressures, Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland; 16th Asia International Art Exhibition, Art Museum, Guangdong; 2000: Dystopia + Identity in the Age of Global Communications, Tribes, New York; Big Torino, Turin; 3rd Kwangju Biennial.