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Serving the People: An Artist in the PLA

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was founded on August 1, 1927. To commemorate its founding I’d like to bring a painter who was trained in the army to your attention: Cheng Zhaoxing.

Born in 1957 in Yangquan, Shanxi Province, Cheng became a PLA soldier when he was 19. He has been in the PLA for 33 years, rising to a high-rank after starting as a normal soldier.

Enthusiastic for art, he was sent to study at the Xi’an Fine Arts Academy in 1985, graduating from the Art Department of Henan University in 1988 and the Art Department of PLA Art College of China in Beijing. A member of the China Artists Association, he is also a member of the Henan Oil Painting Association, a council member of the Henan Provincial Artists Association and is an associate professor at the in Zhengzhou Air Defence Forces Academy.

There are two general kinds of artists in China: those who work in governmental organizations and those who work independently. Independent artists, however, must seek the favour of curators at home and abroad, exhibit and sell their work to live, participate in auctions and sacrifice nearly everything to their artistic dream.

Cheng is a professor in the PLA; yet his work conveys an independent spirit, and some of his work has been exhibited abroad. A “typical” artist who works in a governmental organization, he sometimes straddles the two sides. He has won awards in the National Artworks Exhibitions, participating in the seventh and winning an award in the eighth National Artworks Exhibition. He also participated in the 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th National Engraving Exhibitions. His works have been shown in Japan, Britain, and Holland. In 1999, he won the Lu Xun Engraving Award. Finally he became a professor, but he is not satisfied with this achievement alone; he still struggles to improve his work. There may be more of these kinds of people in governmental organizations, but if so, not many. Of those I have met, I can think of only two or three artists like this in the army, no more than five.

It is not easy for artists such as Cheng, people who live and contend with their own thoughts. Everything around them, including their living and work environments, their colleagues, educations and so forth are geared to achieve a fixed aim, to produce a fixed vision. Conformity is hard to avoid; it is the norm.

I love the words “advancing with the times”; this signifies that we must change with the times and adjust our strides as we march forward. Cheng’s works live in the present and express his own identity. I feel the similar to him; I can tell that he is a man who struggles with his art.

Cheng says, “I am a soldier. A soldier’s experience should leave some marks. Painting is a way to explore those experiences and let them flow onto a canvas. A soldier's hat, a pair of shoes, a piece of a uniform, a star…they all represent serving the people.”

A soldier devotes most of his life to benefiting society. Once, I was a soldier too, and I also worked as a painter. Though I am younger than Cheng, I can feel what he feels, and I recognize the challenges he faces as an artist.

No need to say more: I just wish him the best in his life and art.