the internal crusade

In the summer of 2024, I undertook a two-month journey along the route, documenting the symbolic representations of the “Long March” and the people who live along it. We live in an illusion constructed by false tales, our intentions are revealed as some kind of task, and our experiences are hammered into certain struggles. Within the narrative of the “Long March” is there a wailing about the unfinished revolution? The image of the god we worship is so blurred as to be weathered by the vulgar soul. We seem to love suffering. It is true that, on the surface, we resist it, but if suffering is absent, it is followed by an uncontrollable emptiness. There are too many things in China that one can't talk about. We can't speak our minds without thinking about the consequences. We can't talk about mistakes, fires, and failures. We have only one official narrative of the “Long March” that seems unchallengeable. But maybe we still have the possibility of exploring - or at least approaching - history. Maybe the multiplicity of meanings in photography can still provide me with a degree of safe space. What has been said has been said, but the position of the image is ambiguous yet firm, and the power of interpretation belongs to the viewer to a large extent, just like the “Long March” as I understand it. Capturing abstract emotions in a figurative form, we may be fortunate to see the historical complexity of it in the conflict of those. This is what I thought.