The Other China
何處覓知音
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.
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For more work by Lao Shu, see The Other China.
— Geremie R. Barmé
5 June 2025
Atop this Solitary Crag
我坐在危岩上
Paintings and Poems by Lao Shu
Translated by Geremie R. Barmé
我坐在危岩上，
餐風飲露，渾然坐忘，
貌似一個隱士的模樣。
其實心裡清楚，
假裝清高，到處亂晃，
只是失去了活著的方向。
銅版+水彩
Atop this solitary crag,
surviving on precarity itself,
a recluse lost in blissful forgetfulness.
Who am I fooling:
for all of my lofty pretence
I’m still a shaky mess inside.
Added to that, my life’s adrift.
— Lao Shu, watercolour on copperplate
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A melody that breaks your heart — who else in this wide world really gets me?
— Lao Shu, late spring, Year of the Snake
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西溪待了幾天，
住在荷塘旁邊。
有只青蛙鼓譟，
歲數應是中年。
Spent a few days at Xixi
living close to the lotuses.
The croaking of a frog though
really made me feel my age.
[Note: Xixi 西溪 is a wetland park in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.]
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As the lotus bud in the pond and
rose buds hang on the trellis,
friends gather here for tea,
misbeliefs for a snack.
— Lao Shu’s record of a gathering of friends at Xixi in early summer
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A weary week is over now,
back home I crash on the sofa.
My mind is a complete blank,
last thing I want is to think.
— exhausted at week’s end, I turn off my phone and let everything go.
— a painted record made by Lao Shu after getting back from Hangzhou in early summer, Year of the Snake
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昨日事甚多，
忙完到夜半。
遙聞布穀聲，
亙古未曾變。
Busy as, yesterday
deep into night.
Lo, a distant cuckoo —
eternity is calling.
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我看紅塵之事，
兩件最為美好：
壯士殺掉仇敵，
美人咬破櫻桃。
Of all worldly things
two stand out as glorious:
a warrior slaying an enemy;
a beauty biting into a cherry.
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日子雖操蛋，
咬牙不言愁。
假裝挺快活，
銜花江湖游。
Life’s may be bullshit, but
I’m keeping things under control.
Pretending to be free and easy —
a flower in my mouth —
I wander in the wilds.