6 | Thursday, July 22, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | DAILY CHINA Artist paints the stories contained in Yellow River’s stones

By Ye Zizhen in Beijing and YUAN HUI in Hohhot So far, my themes Walk into the yard at Lu Ting’s studio, and you’ll find dozens of have been about stones, washed and placed neatly maternity and on the ground. They range in size from less than women, but I feel the 1 square meter, to as large as an stones are telling a adult human. As an artist, Lu has a special way story on a bigger of expressing her deep love of her scale, about hometown — by creating colorful paintings on her beloved stones. relationships and “I was born and raised near the the meaning of life.” Yellow River and used to visit it a lot as a child. I feel connected Lu Ting, artist in Wuhai, Inner with the river,” the 46-year-old Mongolia autonomous region said. At age 2, Lu moved from Bayan- Guangdong province, two years nuur to Wuhai city in the Inner later in 2018. That same year, Lu Sun Jingkun talks with the head of his nursing home in Dandong, province, on July 10. xinhua Mongolia autonomous region and opened her studio in Wuhai, which has been living there since. residents can visit for free. “Wuhai is located in the delta “Slowly, people have begun to between the Yinshan Mountain come here and look at the paint- and the Yellow River. When I visit- ings, they also get to know more ed the mountain as a child, I saw about our homeland, and to love it many symbols and lines carved more deeply.” Veteran awarded top honor into the rocks, which left a deep Residents help Lu to collect impression on me,” Lu said. stones, sometimes with an excava- A graduate of the Inner Mongo- tor. Over five years, she has paint- lia Normal University, Lu majored ed 50 different stones, using in woodblock painting, and now techniques she mastered at col- works for the Painting and Callig- lege, including splashed ink and for his devotion to village raphy Academy in Wuhai’s fine Chinese brushwork in her cre- district. ation. “When I was in school, a teacher When she started, she faced a Sun Jingkun made personal sacrifices to eliminate poverty in his hometown called Mr Yan used to take groups number of headaches. of students to study the carvings “I was not sure what color to use on the rock. We would collect when I began to paint because the By Zhang Yangfei path to glory Armed with grenades, they were he gave up the chance to stay in a beautiful river stones on our way colors of the stones are all differ- [email protected] Pathprofil to glorye ready to give their lives. city and returned to his home in back and draw on them,” Lu ent. Another problem was how to To lend support to the front line, Shancheng village, Liaoning pro- recalled. preserve the paintings, and pre- Sun Jingkun always has a military Sun assembled nine soldiers from vince. He said that as a Party mem- For six years, Lu traveled along vent the colors from fading in the uniform hung on his wall. It is different companies, each carrying a ber, as long as he was able to do country roads with rocks on both sunshine or water.” pinned thickly with the medals he box of grenades, and charged up the something for the people, every sides. After several failed experiments, won during service between 1948 2.67 161 Highland. During the battle, Sun position was the same. “I guess since then I have liked Lu now uses a long-lasting mineral and 1955, and according to his eldest hectares and his comrades repelled six coun- In the village, he oversaw grain looking at stones. I’ve always pigment on the stones. daughter, Sun Meili, the first thing the area of land Sun Jingkun terattacks and held their position, and vegetable production efforts, thought there are as many stones Apart from the Fuhe series, two he does in the morning is look at gave to five impoverished but at great cost. planted 130,000 trees and built to be read on the ground, as there other series are underway. them. families from He said that even all these years dams to protect lives and properties are inconstant clouds in the sky.” In The Warm Wind from the The 97-year-old fought in the War province later, he misses his comrades who from flooding. However, it was not until five South series, Lu seeks to express to Resist US Aggression and Aid died on the battlefield the most. It In 1984, he organized a poverty years ago that Lu turned her idea the emotion between a mother Korea (1950-53), won a first-class was this campaign that earned him relief group and divided his own into reality. and a child, and in The Gentle war medal and was congratulated counterattack, Sun’s regiment cap- a first-class merit. parcel of land of about 2.67 hectares “In 2016, I found myself fasci- Autumn Wind series, she aims to by Mao Zedong personally in 1953, tured the 161 Highland from the Years of fighting have left him and gave it to five impoverished nated by the stones I saw as I walk- present Chinese women of differ- when he returned from the Korean United States army. In an attempt to with more than 20 scars on his body, families who had moved to the vil- ed beside the river where it flows ent ages, regions and status. battlefield. On June 29, Sun was take it back, the opposing side and there is still a bullet in his leg. lage from Heilongjiang province. through the city. I picked up eight “I used to be very busy as a awarded the July 1 Medal, an honor launched a fierce attack, causing Sun Meili said her father rarely Qiu Dapeng, Party secretary of stones, and kept looking at them teacher and was not able to spend given to outstanding Party members heavy casualties. watches war films because he said a the village, said: “In Sun Jingkun’s after I got home, until I felt I could much time with my daughter. as the Communist Party of China At the time, there were only six sol- real battle is far more brutal. heart, the Party, the country and the read the stories in them.” These creations have made me celebrates its 100th anniversary. diers left alive in Sun's company, the Sun joined the CPC in 1949. When people always come first. He puts For Lu, the Yellow River is like a rethink our relationship. Now, I’m In October 1952, after a fierce 8th Company of the 3rd Battalion. he retired from the military in 1955, himself last.” mother, and people like her who more willing to accept who she live beside it are like its children. really is, and not try to change her,” In 2016, she produced her first she said. more than 100 swabs. Under the cir- series of stone paintings titled The For Lu, her relationship with her cumstances, members of the team Story of Fuhe. daughter is like that of the Yellow Fujian doctors bring supplies, have tended to avoid going out in In English, fuhe translates as River with the nature. their free time, except to buy neces- “river of fortune”. In the series, she “I feel I’m at a bottleneck in sities. created seven characters, accom- terms of creativity. So far, my In May, Zhou was assigned to deal panied by five elves. themes have been about maternity expertise to Botswanan hospital with inquiries at a vaccination site “I wanted to tell the story of a and women, but I feel the stones during a campaign to inoculate Chi- mother and her children, about are telling a story on a bigger scale, nese workers in Botswana, code- how they keep each other compa- about relationships and the mean- By Hu Meidong in named “Spring Sprout”. ny. The eyes of the characters were ing of life. I think my drawings will and Li Hongyang in Beijing “I really felt the strength and very important in telling the sto- advance when I figure that theme warmth of China. Being able to get a ries,” she said. out,” Lu said. Zhou Rui, a doctor from Fujian vaccination from home, many Chi- The series was displayed at the province who is working in Africa, nese in Botswana expressed their China International Cultural Contact the writers at always thinks about self-improve- excitement and pride,” Zhou said. Industries Fair in Shenzhen, [email protected] ment because he said that outside It took Zhou and his colleagues of China, he represents his coun- some time to adapt to life abroad. try, not just himself. “Botswana is beautiful, with The 37-year-old, who works at the blue skies and white clouds, but Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital the dry climate is difficult. At the at Fujian Medical University in Fuz- beginning, many of us had nose- hou, capital of Fujian province, bleeds, cracked lips, sore throats joined a medical aid team in Sep- and itchy skin. We were also not tember. used to the food, which is heavy Together with 45 doctors from the on bread and meat, with few vege- province, he will serve for two years tables.” at the Princess Marina Hospital in Before applying for the program, Gaborone, capital of Botswana. Zhou had to convince his parents Before leaving, the team received Zhou Rui writes a prescription to a patient at Princess Marina he would be safe during the epi- 10 months of training in English and Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana. provided to china daily demic. other necessary skills. He managed to allay their con- “The way Chinese doctors speak cerns and flew to Botswana with a and behave is under a spotlight, and culosis, diabetes and high blood any related symptoms, Zhou suitcase stuffed with supplies to that will show our ability to commu- pressure. reviewed the results and proposed a fight COVID-19, medical books and nicate and professionalism,” he said. Born with an inquiring mind, diagnosis of esophageal cancer, gifts, including Chinese knots and As for his own abilities, Zhou is Zhou has impressed his African col- instead. White Rabbit milk candy. humble. leagues by uncovering cases of mis- “Botswanan doctors have a com- His team is the 16th Fujian has “Although I have made some diagnosis. prehensive understanding of medi- sent to Botswana, and includes progress during the past 10 In March, for example, a diabetic cine, but sometimes suffer from members from Fuzhou, Xiamen, months in Botswana, I still have patient was initially diagnosed as weakness when it comes to differen- Quanzhou and Nanping. The provin- many shortcomings. For example, having a severe infection due to a tial diagnoses,” he said. cial health commission said that my English is not fluent enough, surging white blood cell count. In addition to diagnosing since 1981, Fujian has sent 511 medi- and my professional skills have But when Zhou further examined patients, he also goes on rounds, cal workers to the country, and treat- room to improve. I’ve set goals to the patient, he found no focus of writes handbooks on epidemic pre- ed over 2.8 million Botswanans. improve, and hope that I can come infection or any other obvious vention in Chinese and English, and Chen Denghua, head of the 16th to better serve the people here,” he symptoms. He looked into the mat- collects swabs for COVID-19 nucleic medical team, elaborated on the said. ter and it turned out the patient was acid tests. mission at the departure ceremony Zhou got his degree in clinical med- taking a medicine that was affecting “Botswana had roughly 50,000 in September. icine from the Southern Medical Uni- their white blood cell count, and did confirmed cases among a popula- “We aren’t only sending medical versity in Guangzhou, Guangdong not have an infection. tion of 2.3 million when we arrived. supplies and expertise, we are also province, and holds a license in inter- In another case, a patient was giv- We would have been exposed to a there to help Botswana develop its nal infectious diseases. en a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis high-risk environment if we had not own medical system,” he said. In Botswana, he works in the gen- based on gastroscopy results. been well-protected,” he said. From top: Lu Ting paints on a wall at her studio in Wuhai, Inner eral internal medicine department, As the patient had no previous Since September, he has treated Contact the writers at Mongolia autonomous region. Two stone paintings are on display handling patients with AIDS, tuber- history of chronic liver disease or about 750 patients and collected [email protected] at Lu’s studio. photos provided to china daily