My New Normal project drew inspiration from Qiushi Chen. Qiushi is a lawyer who calls himself a citizen journalist, because he cares about people. He was a brave journalist who entered the epidemic area alone during the outbreak in Wuhan, and recorded it in vlog form. He questioned the statistics of Wuhan government's inaction in the early stages of the epidemic, given by CCTV and expressed anger at the Wuhan government's inaction at the beginning of the epidemic. After that, one day, his family and friends say the government arrested him. As a result, I was shocked, because in his vlog, I saw he shared the suffering with the people. He helped the people of Wuhan to communicate with the outside world to deliver supplies and used his influence to help the patients who could not get a bed. However, perhaps it is because he has touched on some sensitive political issues.
This is the portrait I made for Qiushi, satirizing the Chinese news controlled by the government, because of what he has done. his name has disappeared from all the information in the local media. There was no newspaper account of the good he had done, no article to explain why he had disappeared. I made a collage of him with the logo of various Chinese newspapers and TV stations. As you can see these characters from this image, it is some statistics and reports during the epidemic which is Qiushi questioned. Qiushi's covered right eye is the logo of People's Daily, the most authoritative newspaper in China, which means: even if he only has one eye, he can see clearly at night.
The second work is a group of photos, which are also angry about Qiushi disappearing on the Internet. I used my own strength to connect Qiushi with the public space, and even made his leaflets about missing persons connect with the public.
The third piece was a short video of the posters I had made and put up on the street, watching the reactions of passers-by. My starting point is the same as the last photo shoot. I printed bold black flyers and chose alleys with lots of traffic during the mid-day rush hour. I hoped the leaflet would attract the attention of passers-by, but it was so busy that no one paid any attention to the notice. Apathetic passersby are like government-controlled newspaper stories. This phenomenon in the video reinforces the point I'm trying to make.
In conclusion, I think the three works are all good attempts. Also，I hope to use what I can do to tell people that Qiushi exists and that I think we should not forget what he has done for the people of Wuhan.
