Now a truck, now a general

"Autobots, transform, and rollout."

Visitors to the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) may well be tempted to mouth this famous line from the movie Transformers.

For, just as the movie's Optimus Prime is turned into a Peterbilt truck and Bumblebee into a Camaro, a China-made Jiefang CA10 truck stands transformed into Guan Yu, a general of Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) period, a giant Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand, in the academy's grounds.

The 9.7-meter figure is the brainchild of CAFA's 26-year-old sculptor major Bi Heng. A 3D video clip posted on the Web offers a detailed account of how the old truck transforms into the fighter Guan Yu, thanks to another CAFA student Han Han.

The Guan Yu figure is part of the ongoing exhibition of works by CAFA's graduates.

Bi says the idea of creating this Chinese version of Transformers came to him in 2006 and he hopes to convert his "toys" into a commercial proposition.

His ambitious plans include transforming a taxi into the Monkey King and turning his cudgel-shaped weapon into the Olympic Torch.

Naming his current work Revolution, he says it embodies important elements of Chinese history.

The Jiefang CA10 army truck rolled out of the First Automobile Works in Changchun, Jilin province, in 1956, the country's first locally made vehicle.

Guan Yu, whose stories were made famous by the historical fiction Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is seen an embodiment of loyalty and justice.

"I simply combined a Western idea (transformers) with two typical Chinese elements," Bi says.

He devoted his final semester in CAFA for his project, investing 200,000 yuan ($29,289) for buying a second-hand Jiefang truck from his hometown, and paying his schoolmate to make a 3D video clip.

Bi has already been approached by collectors and companies interested in his work, but he says he is not in a hurry.

"Transformers (toys) are a cherished memory of the post-80s generation, but these people are still not rich enough to buy my work," Bi says.

He is also considering a movie script on his Kwansformer - his name for his contraption.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/23/2010 page18)