The Other China

書畫古今聚復散

 

Lao Shu 老樹 is the nom de plume of Liu Shuyong (劉樹勇, 1962-), a Beijing-based artist, writer, critic and professor in communications. His artistic voice is unique and personal, its tenor, whimsy and profundity evoke what for decades we have called The Other China — a cultural noosphere that is as undeniably local as it is universal.

***

China Heritage marked the last day of the Year of the Dragon with the Lao Shu 老樹 — see The Dragon Gives Way to the Snake — just as we welcomed the First Day of the First Month of the Year of the Snake in his company — Lofty Aspirations & Modest Wishes for the Year of the Snake.

As the New Year festivities come to an end with Lantern Festival, yet again we sought solace in Lao Shu’s art and words — see The Lantern Festival in the Year of the Snake, as well as in the presence of his cat. Below we join Lao Shu, and his quizzical cat companions.

捨身紅塵皆如是，
有無之間自徘徊。

Thus do we loiter in the Dusty Realm,
fleeting shadows in the welter of Being.

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
24 February 2025

---

Thus do we loiter in the Dusty Realm

Paintings and Poems by Lao Shu

Selected and translated by Geremie R. Barmé

The temperature inside is on the chilly side,
and I’ve called management a few times.
Since no one’s come to do anything about it,
might just as well snuggle atop the heater.

— Lao Shu, New Year’s Day, 2025

Published on 12 February 2025

***

Bumped into a mate after New Year’s
and continued our bullshitting chin wag.
We touched on the international scene
and speculated about the capabilities of AI.
There was also all that celebrity gossip
just begging for our sage adjudication.
On we moved to the generic drugs scandal —
we had very perceptive things to say about that.
We lingered and I continued chatting away,
after all, there was also that billion-dollar movie.
My friend smiled indulgently but was shtum
before offering this: things really are tough as;
why not focus instead, he told me, on ways we
can make a cracker and fill our bellies.

— Lao Shu

Published on 13 February 2025

[Note: ‘Generic drugs’ 集採藥物 refers to widespread suspicions that generic locally made medicines used in hospitals are less efficacious than brand-name pharmaceuticals. ‘Billion-dollar movie’ 百亿影片 is a reference to the Nezha 2 哪吒之魔童鬧海, a record-breaking animated film. — Ed.]

***

New Year’s is well and truly over,
the promise of spring still far off.
What use a head full of thoughts,
will anyone appreciate these blossoms?

Published on 14 February 2025

***

The flood of information is nonstop
and all of it seems so very important.
Spose it was also like this before,
then, tho, we simply didn’t have a clue.

— Lao Shu, recorded in Early Spring, Yisi Year of the Snake

Published on 15 February 2025

***

This slacker pose is just a put on;
making out to be a vagabond.
Of course, you know the truth:
you’re nothing but a prisoner.

剛剛有碗飯吃還真以為是一等世界公民了

— just because you can finally eat your fill, you’ve convinced yourself that
you’re a worthy member of the international elite.

— Lao Shu, early in the Yisi Year of the Snake

Published on 17 February 2025

***

The winter’s passed without spotting dancing snowflakes.
Instead, everything in our wide world is covered in dust.
At a loose end in my garret in the middle of the night
I listen to the soughing wind with a cat in my arms.

— Lao Shu, a painting and note made in the middle of the night.
Early Spring, Yisi Year of the Snake [February 2025]

Published on 22 February 2025

***

Art and words are all but the stuff of time.
People, too, travel in this eternal round.
Thus do we loiter in the Dusty Realm,
fleeting shadows in the welter of Being.

— these thoughts suddenly occurred to me while I was staying
with friends in California, so I recorded them in this manner.
Lao Shu, White Dew, Guimao Year of the Dragon [September 2025]

Published on 18 February 2025

***

Source:

• 老樹畫畫微博

---

---