Scrolling the fight against the pandemic

On first sight, you'd probably think this is an antique Chinese landscape painting. It seems to tick the boxes for such a description. Scroll format? Check. The yellow backdrop? Check. Ancient buildings with gray-green tiles and flying eaves? Check.

But on closer examination, a lot of things don't add up. The skyscrapers are not the only suggestion that this is a modern piece. The medical workers toiling in their signature white and blue protective gear, and in the bottom right corner, parents watching their teenage children walk into the senior middle school with banners in hand that say "pass the exams with flying colors" confirm that this work is contemporary art.

The painting, created by artist Chen Zhijie in Foshan, Guangdong province, portrays the scenes of mass nucleic acid testing in the provincial capital Guangzhou, and is included in his Battling the Pandemic in Solidarity series.

Because of the panoramic format and the traditional landscape painting style, Chen's paintings bear an uncanny resemblance to the fabled classical painting, Along the River During the Qingming Festival, by Song Dynasty (960-1279) painter Zhang Zeduan, a handscroll painting that depicts bustling scenes of Bianjing, the then capital, now Kaifeng in Henan province.

Hence, when the paintings were first circulated on the internet, they were given the nickname "Nucleic Acid Testing on the River".

"This young artist in Foshan painted Nucleic Acid Testing on the River, a modern version of the famous ancient painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival. It captures the touching moments of medical workers, volunteers carrying out the testing," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying posted on Twitter.

Knowing about the nickname, Chen says that he dares not aspire to such an honor. "In terms of artistry, Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a peak that I'll never be able to reach," he says, adding that he likes the handscroll format and the idea of telling stories with paintings.

Nor did he expect these paintings to be widely spread on the internet. The first of his series was created last May, zooming in on Foshan, the city where he works as an art teacher. At the time, COVID-19 cases were found in Guangdong province, and all extracurricular training courses were suspended.

He recalls that the weather was very hot. When taking a test, he noticed that the medical workers, wearing full protective gear, were sweating profusely, and he felt grateful for their hard work.

"Everyone needed to take the tests, so I thought about painting the pandemic prevention and control, showing how people are taking preventive measures and are united in the fight. So I gave my students some assignments, wanting them to know that they can show their social concerns through art," Chen says.

He then spent five days, working from 7 am to midnight, creating the Foshan painting. Without a comprehensive composition in mind, he simply started off by painting from a corner of the scroll, and gradually added details, including the landmarks of Foshan and stories he read in the news.

In June, after learning from a Guangzhou COVID-19 prevention and control news conference that it had taken 18.7 million samples from June 4 to 6, he spent another six days working on a Guangzhou painting.