Lui Liu's political paiting

Artist Lui Liu mixes superb painterly techniques, with a unique language that finds a wide range of audience around world. Growing up in China and living in the west ( Toronto, Canada) make Lui Liu a keen observer as both an insider and outsider of the two worlds. Through extraordinary awareness and compelling techniques, he creates a surreal world that transcends cultures, spaces and races. A note of parody is most noticeable in almost all his works.

It’s the ambivalence, the tensions between the poles, according to Barry Callaghan, a renowned Canadian writer, that free Lui Liu so that he can stand alone facing east or west, as he chooses.

Explanation from a Flickr member - Trangcon : Everybody knows that 2008 Beijing is where the Olympics will be. Westerners call it the Olympic Games. There is a game in this oil painting, but it is the traditional Chinese game of mahjong. On the top left corner of "2008-Beijing," there is a standard head portrait of a man. He seems familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. He has Sun Yat-sen's beard, Chiang Kai-shek's bald head and Mao Zedong's facial features. He symbolizes the one hundred years' of Chinese history and the sum total of the old and new democracies. To the left of the painting, there is a innocent and focused girl who is probably celebrating because she has a good hand. The girl in the middle with her back turned to the observer has three "east" tiles, symbolizing the unignorable reality -- the emergence of China. But the girl is also trying to cheat with the tiles hidden behind her foot. The girl in the middle facing the observer seems to be of mixed blood. As she plays the games, she is looking at the source of the light (that is, the future). She is nicely dressed, and she has a slightly worried look. Then there is that foreign girl. She is playing a Chinese game in which she has no confidence. She is lying there, because she has one tile less than required. She has lost already. On the right hand side, there is a peasant girl who came to work in the city. She is the fresh labor force that allowed China to rise. On her face, there is a little bit of incomprehension and dissatisfaction. She holds a shining fruit knife in her hand, indicating a resentment against wealthy people and a certain danger. On the right of the painting, in front of the rundown building, there is a river and some rocks. This symbolizes the uncertain future by which one can only cross the river by stepping on one rock at a time.

Another explanation from an anonymous: The dresses they're wearing stand for their countries' political situation (Strip poker; who loses will have to take off their clothes). Japan on the left, China is the girl wearing only bottom with black hair and tattoo; US is the girl wearing top and looking at Taiwan (the red shirt girl), and the last one is Russia, who is lying down. Japan seems to be losing/or lost because she is wearing nothing but feels satisfy with the game, and China seems like a winner even she is topless (she turns her back, doesnt show her face, but she looks to be concentrated in this game. Here, they mention that China is wearing western clothes style even she has Chinese tattoo, this point shows that China is very much westernized - not very China anymore. US looks like has more clothes, but actualy she doesnt wear bottom (It shows that US is just pretending they can handle the situation but actually they have nothing underneath). Russia seems to be on US side (her leg puts on US's leg), but on the other hand, she is cheating with China (She also looks tired, look as if she doesn't want to play the game anymore). Taiwan stands outside and has an overall view of this game, but she doesn't join them and she knows exactly what is going on, and she is wearing Chinese traditional underwear (shows that Taiwan is a real soul of China), she doesn't wear any bottom,which means she's on US side as well but she (Taiwan) is holding a knife, mean that she is protecting herself and her belongings (Fruits). The greyish sky and lukewarm water outside shows that this is a tough time for countries around Pacific Ocean (in political way).

Very interesting indeed. What do you think?