My first encounter with Zhang Xiaogang can be attributed to our mutual friend Zhou Chunya. One day in 1985, Zhou Chunya mentioned that he wanted to bring a talented artist to my house. Subsequently, Zhou Chunya, Zhang Xiaogang, and other like-minded friends would frequently gather, share drinks, and engage in uninterrupted conversations.
I consistently emphasize that issues related to society, politics, culture, style, emotions, and more, brought forth by the life and work of an artist, are intertwined with the broader context of history. Therefore, based on dissecting each individual artist's case, I conduct research in the history of art, with a focus on the 20th century as the core period since the 19th century. Zhang Xiaogang is one of the artist cases that I have particularly analyzed and examined during my research. I have been involved in the editing of "Amnesia and Memory: The Correspondence of Zhang Xiaogang (1981 - 1996)," and completed the first monograph on the artist, titled "Blood Lines： Zhang Xiaogang Before 1996." In 2017, I curated a dual exhibition in Prague featuring Zhang Xiaogang and Wang Guangyi titled "The Reunion of Poetry and Philosophy" among other endeavors.