Jesus, Jazz, and Buddhism

Note from the Editor: Welcome to the art of Yu Lin, a contemporary artist in China.  As we look at her art, we cannot help but imagine her characters having thoughts of their own.  In what follows I imagine some of those thoughts.   You might imagine very different thoughts.  Please do so.  In Whitehead's philosophy one of the functions of art is to provide lures for reflection.   But one of the functions of reflection is to help us look at art.  Skip the words if you wish, and just let the art speak.

It is the 1960's during the Cultural Revolution.  I have been reading some constructive postmodernism lately.  Some Whiteheadian philosophy.  Don't tell anybody.

I know that this philosophy is not exactly Maoist in its tone.  It doesn't think that power must come through the barrel of a gun.  It doesn't divide the world into bad people and good people.  It doesn't think that we should dominate nature.  It doesn't emphasize class conflict.  It is more Taoist or Buddhist in its spirit.  More Christian.  

Still Whitehead's philosophy bears so much resemblance to traditional Chinese ways of thinking.  It emphasizes interconnectedness and the beauty of nature; the evanescent web of life and the ultimacy of events over substances.  Someone says that Whitehead's philosophy of organism is just a Western way of catching up with Chinese philosophy.

What surprises me about Whitehead's philosophy is that it invites a preference for the poor and powerless, for the peasants, for the underdogs.  It is not elitist.  When I read Whitehead-influenced thinkers, they do seem to have at least some Marxist leanings.  They seem to think that we Chinese should be more socialist in spirit.  I can imagine a Whiteheadian socialism.

I remember when I was caught up in a more violent vision.  I was a member of the Red Guard.  I accepted the idea that the future of China -- maybe even the future of the world -- lay in the wisdom of Chairman Mao.  I worshiped him like a god.  And if he said that social change must come through violence, he was right!  His little red book was my Bible.

I picked up my gun with pride.  I was ready to destroy people for the sake of The Good.  It was clear to me that The Good cannot be achieved by peaceful means.  Whitehead thinks The Good is compassion.  At that time in my life, I thought it was Power.

But then I started to think for myself.  Do I really want to give my life to violence.  Do I really want to surrender to the impulse, within myself, to harm others in the name of a communist dream.  Is The Good really consistent with violence.

I began to wonder if true communism doesn't lie in living in community with others, in a spirit of love.   Call it Taoist Communism or Christian communism or Buddhist Communism.  The names don't matter.  And I began to wonder if there wasn't something very, very un-loving, and thus un-communist, about Mao's more violent perspective.  He harmed so many people.

This "thinking for myself" was new to me.  Everybody said you couldn't do it.  They said that it was selfish, and counter-revolutionary, to think for yourself.  But I thought it was just being human.

And one more thing.  When I was in the Red Guard, they told me that any small act of self-concern, such as wanting to comb my hear and maybe be a little more beautiful, was selfish.  I wasn't supposed to be interested in mirrors at all.  Chairman Mao was my only mirror.

So one day, as I was combing my hair, I asked myself: "Well what's wrong with wanting to be just a little pretty!"  I almost shocked myself in asking it.  I got mad at myself.  It seemed so wrong to even think it.

But I still wanted to be pretty.

It is still the 1960's.   I am pretending that I am still part of the Red Guard.  I am pretending that I'm still one of them.  But really, behind these eyes, I am thinking for myself.  I've put down the gun.  I don't hate Chairman Mao.  He was right about some things, and wrong about others.  I still love him in a way.

But I'm growing to love a new kind of communism.  Not the violent kind of communism, but the spiritual kind.  The kind that you see in the Buddha, in Jesus, in Lao Tzu, in my grandmother.  Please, don't tell anybody quite yet.  I'm waiting for the 21st century.

Yu Lin was born in Jiangsu province in 1968. Graduated in oil painting department of China Fine Art Academy.
Exhibitions

1. 2002    Oil painting <life between breath> wins third excellent award of China-Japan " human being and the nature” Exhibition
2. 2003    Oil painting <Jade Emperor scud> wins the Chinese artistic creation painting show silver award
3. 2004   Work is entered weaving <Chinese youth oil painting family work assembling>,<times fine arts>,<Chinese the present age scenery album of paintings>
4. 2006    Solo Show in "Beichang Door" Art Centre
5. 2006    China Fine Art Academy 3 Artists Oil painting show, Xujiahui Area, Shanghai
6. 2007    The 10th Shanghai Art Expo
7. 2007    Oil painting Group Show, Yb2gallery, Shanghai
8. 2007    Contemporary Artists Group Show, OUTSTANDING ART, Shanghai