Plains Washed by Time: Dong Liang Solo Exhibition

Shen County lies in western Shandong, at the junction of Shandong, Hebei and Henan provinces, and it is my hometown.

Heidegger used a metaphor for the relationship between humans and the world, which perfectly defines how I relate to my hometown today. When we pick up a hammer to drive nails, we pay no heed to what the hammer itself is. Only when it breaks and fails to serve its purpose do we pause all actions and begin to examine it closely—its size, material and condition.

In years past, my hometown functioned seamlessly for me, almost invisible in my daily life. I interacted with it in the most innate way, dwelling and merging into it, yet barely noticing its existence.Urban expansion and the social disruption brought by the pandemic broke this tacit bond, prompting me to gaze afresh at this once-familiar yet now somewhat alien land.

Geographically affiliated with Shandong, Shen County maintains profound cultural and social ties with Handan in Hebei, as well as Puyang, Anyang and Hebi in Henan. Dating back to the enfeoffment system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, this territory belonged to the State of Wei. My father’s cousin married into Daming of Hebei, and my aunt’s maternal relatives settled in Puyang, Henan. Teresa Teng spoke fluent Shandong dialect, which always strikes me as warmly familiar; her father was from Daming, Hebei, and her mother was a native of Shandong. Shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, this region once formed Pingyuan Province, which existed for merely three years. It was divided back into the three provinces in 1952 and has undergone repeated administrative adjustments ever since to reconcile regional interests. Even today, the county seat of Fan County, Henan Province, is still located in Yingtaoyuan Township within Shandong territory.

Boasting an age-old history, this land stood undeniably at the heart of Chinese civilization as recorded in ancient legends and pre-Qin classics. Nevertheless, the aura of antiquity feels faint in daily local life. By contrast, Shanxi Province is permeated with a pervasive historical ambience thanks to its abundant preserved above-ground cultural relics. I have visited villages named Xiloucun and Zhangdamiao, yet even octogenarian locals have never seen any ancient opera towers or grand temples implied by these place names. I was thrilled to learn that the famous Battle of Maling took place right here in Shen County, only to be filled with confusion upon arriving at the site. The battle was renowned for luring enemies into rugged terrain for encirclement and annihilation, yet the area spanning present-day Maling Village and Daokou Village is nothing but vast flat farmland, with not even a one-meter elevation difference to be found.

In the process of rediscovering this land, I have reshaped my way of perceiving the world, and in turn reshaped myself. Only by doing so can I free myself from the burden of the past and illusions of the future, and fully anchor myself in the present moment. This is my most sincere sentiment standing beneath the Yan Pagoda in Shen County after returning home in the wake of the three-year pandemic.

Administrative changes, course shifts of the Yellow River and mass migrations have continuously reconstructed the cultural texture of this land. Local loess has been shaped into vegetable greenhouses, dwellings, dykes, palaces, city walls and tombs by human hands, only to be gradually smoothed away by the passage of time. The plains captured through the lens are no longer mere geographical markers, but an epic jointly composed by nature and humanity.

Dong Liang

May 2026