
“In 2005, I opened a handcraft factory in Dongguan, China1, which shut down after just one year. During that period, I spent a lot of time wandering around the factories in the surrounding area. Those factories mostly manufactured computers, electronics, clothing and shoes. The workers came from every part of China, mainly from villages and small cities. Their average age was about 20 and most of them were female. There were also many book rental shops in the factory districts and most of the books in these stores were love stories2. The rental fee for the books was quite cheap, costing about 2 RMB (about 33 cents) for deposit and 0.5 RMB (about 8 cents) per day to rent.
Many workers would rent a book after they got off work. These books were only half the size of a regular book and were small enough to fit in a pocket and very portable. In the beginning, I was interested in the characters and the history of these books. Taiwanese or Hong Kong writers wrote most of these books in Mandarin in the 1980s and the 1990s, which was the golden age for Taiwan and Hong Kong and new social classes were created.
These books met the cultural needs of these new social classes. As contemporary China developed and the industrial revolution took hold, they were imported to mainland China and soon attracted a much larger readership. They are considered low culture literature. Rarely translated into other languages, these books were mainly circulated within Mandarin speaking countries. I had tried to translate one of the books to English, which was my plan for the artist residency program at Gasworks, but I eventually gave up due to lack of time. Several years later, I wanted to re-create this work. I purchased all the books from a run down book rental shop, about 700 in total. When I looked through them, I found quite a large number of hand-written notes in the page margins. Some read like letters, which are really internal monologues, some look like diaries, others are the addresses of their hometowns or simply just scribbles.
Sometimes people would also write modern poems. But after reading them carefully, I think they are not actual poems. They could be copied from random phrases, or simply written words from their minds. It feels like fruit picking in an orchard, the fruits casually picked up and put into a basket. I looked very closely at these handwritings and found quite a few of them to be quite brilliant. Their command of the language really surprised me. They were much better than the tedious fictions of the love stories themselves. These anonymous readers were driven by a secret desire to write and share. They invented a space from the white margins of the pages. They wrote and read in these blank spaces. The whole process is silent and secret.
The writings propelled the micro-economy of book rentals and turned the book rental stores into a lower version of internet blogging. It was invented in a specific time and was temporary and lasted from 1990 to 2010, the same time as the Internet was developing and popularized in China. By 2010, when smart phones became popular, many these book rental stores shut down. People started to download books on cell phones, the same books that were in those now closed book stores.”
Text by Liu Chuang
Liu Chuang (b.1978, China)
Love Stories - 4, 2006-2014
Art Basel Unlimited, presented by Salon 94 in collaboration with Leo Xu Projects
Hong Kong, China
June 2015
Liu Chuang: Love Story
Salon94, New York, US
May 2014 - June 2014
Paul Teasdale, In Focus: Liu Chuang
Frieze (Online), March 2015
View Publication »
Zhang Hanlu, The Impulse to Scribble: On Liu Chuang’s “Love Story”
Randian (Magazine), December 2014
Venues Lau, Liu Chuang
Kaleidoscope (Magazine), Fall 2014
artist origin
provenance
current location
exhibitions
multiple
Zhang Ding
—Orbit-4
2014Wei Dong
—Beside the Girl 1
2011Li Gang
—Red Apple, Green Apple
2013Li Gang
—Soft
2014Weigang Gao
—Anonymous Ditch
2008-2012Weigang Gao
—Don’t Cry to Me
2011Guo Hongwei, Li Shurui, Yang Xinguang
—Rural Poetics
2015Wu Hao
—Rolling Gate No.2
2014Wu Hao
—Rolling Gate No.3
2014Wu Hao
—Rolling Gate No.4
2014An He
—Yoshiyoka Miho
2012Yu Honglei
—Everything is Extremely Important, There is Nothing That Will Not Come Back Again
2013Yu Honglei
—First into the Mist
2012Yu Honglei
—It
2011Yu Honglei
—Black Dragon River
2016Zhang Huan
—Insect Painting no. 2
2006Yu Ji
—Public Space No 1
2007Yu Ji
—Public Space No 3
2011Yu Ji
—Tiny Figure - Female
2012Yu Ji
—Tiny Figure - Male
2014Wang Jianwei
—...the event matured, accomplished in sight of all non-existent human outcomes." No. 13
2013Wang Jianwei
—"...the event matured, accomplished in sight of all non-existent human outcomes." No.28
2013Wang Jianwei
—It is...No.5
2013Li Jikai
—Burning Match
2010Li Jinghu
—Rainbow
2009Li Jinghu
—Stone Feces
2006Li Jinghu
—Counting Stars
2005Hyung Koo Kang
—Self Portrait
2010Hyung Koo Kang
—Auguste Rodin
2011Hyung Koo Kang
—Albert Einstein
2003Hyung Koo Kang
—Mao Zedong
2003Sea-Hyun Lee
—Between Red 116
2010Sea-Hyun Lee
—Between Red 059
2008Sea-Hyun Lee
—Between Red 111
2010Yongbaek Lee
—Broken Mirror (Classic)
2008Ming Li
—The Phantom That Is Screen
2016Tianbing Li
—Rêve Tiananmen
2010Tianbing Li
—Selfportrait (Village Paris, Xiangbi Hill, Tiananmen)
2010-2011Guohe Liao
—Save the House
2011Guohe Liao
—Old Fuck
2011Fang Lijun
—2005.1.10
2005Cheng Ran
—1971-2000
2012Jin Shan
—Tabula Rasa
2014Ruijun Shen
—Market
2008Ruijun Shen
—Statue#1
2008Liu Shiyuan
—From “Happiness” to “Whatever”
2015Liu Shiyuan
—If It Wasn't
2012Timur Si-Qin
—Truth by Peace Ⅱ
2015Timur Si-Qin
—Truth by Peace Ⅲ
2015Yoon Suk One
—Dry Flower
2016Yi-Hsing Tzeng
—9 Works: My Dear Deng, Xiaoping | My Dear Ronald Reagan | My Dear Bill Clinton | My Dear George W. Bush | My Dear George Bush | My Dear Sunny Side Up Chiang, Kai-shek | My Dear President #4 | My Dear Ma, Ying-jeou | My Dear Barack Obama |
2010 - 2011Du Wang
—Fable
2012Liu Wei
—Beyond the Sky Limits No.2
2012Liu Wei
—Jungle 1
2012Ai WeiWei
—Grapes (chair installation)
2008Ai WeiWei
—Forever
2003Guan Xiao
—Action
2014Guan Xiao
—The Documentary: Geocentric Puncture
2012Liu Xiaodong
—The fire of 1841
2012Pei-Ming Yan
—Red Buddha
2008Pei-Ming Yan
—International Landscape
2006Haegue Yang
—Escaping Transparency
2011Haegue Yang
—Over the Waves and Trails – Trustworthy #87- #104
2011Haegue Yang
—Hardware Store Collage – Bauhaus Circle Saw Blades #1
2013Zhu Yu
—Stain NO.16
2012Dong Yuan
—Grandmother's House
2013Song Yuanyuan
—Landscape
2014Song Yuanyuan
—Workshop
2014Song Yuanyuan
—Comfortable Room
2013Zhao Zhao
—Constellations II No. 3
2013Zhao Zhao
—Girls with Snake
2010Zhao Zhao
—Rabbit
2010Zhao Zhao
—Thank You Brother-in-law (2)
2010Zhao Zhao
—Waterfall
2013Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—"In mass exercise, the greater the conflict between theory and reality, the stronger its eagerness to impose beliefs on others"
2010Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Buddha's Warrior Attendant (Kepi)
2011Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Light Source-The Gold of Their Bodies
2014Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Play-Rebecca
2014Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Under Heaven -- 3228IN0144
2014Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Buddha's Warrior Attendant (Officer's hat)
2011Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Buddha's Warrior Attendant (Soldier's Hat)
2011Xu Zhen (MadeIn Company)
—Buddha's Warrior Attendant (Colonial Hat)
2011
Rina Banerjee
—With breath Taking Consumption Her Commerce Ate While She Was Being Eaten
2008Eduardo Basualdo
—Sky
2013Sheba Chhachhi
—Neelkanth: Poison/Nectar
2000-2008Adriano Costa
—Navio Negreiro
2013Adriano Costa
—When Attitudes Become Farm
2013Adriano Costa
—6 Monuments (Mão, Gala, Sahara, Human Rights, Israel, Waikiki)
2012Vibha Galhotra
—Works in Progress
2008Weigang Gao
—Don’t Cry to Me
2011Os Gemeos
—Sem Titulo
2008-2010Guo Hongwei, Li Shurui, Yang Xinguang
—Rural Poetics
2015Shilpa Gupta
—I Keep Falling At You
2010An He
—Yoshiyoka Miho
2012Geraldine Javier
—Hysteria
2011Li Jinghu
—Rainbow
2009Li Jinghu
—Stone Feces
2006Li Jinghu
—Counting Stars
2005Gabriel Kuri
—Waiting Spent (07)
2013Fang Lijun
—2005.1.10
2005Mateo López
—Caja Negra
2012Ohad Meromi
—Screen and Totem
2001Moris (Israel Meza Moreno)
—Macho Alfa (Alpha male)
2012Marcelo Moscheta
—Anti-Gravitational Magnetic Pole 62 Stones
2009Paulo Nazareth
—Banana Market/ Art Market
2011Paulo Nazareth
—Vicious Circle
2011Maria Nepomuceno
—Sem título
2015Ernesto Neto
—Nave Nove
2000Donna Ong
—In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
2010Nicolas Paris
—History of expandable parts / Diagram of the interaction
2011Rashid Rana
—Desperately Seeking Paradise II
2011Duhirwe Rushemeza
—Return of the Makaned
2013Liu Shiyuan
—From “Happiness” to “Whatever”
2015Eliezer Sonnenschein
—Untitled
2010Manit Sriwanichpoom
—Pink Men vs. Pink Buddha
2007Erika Verzutti
—Mineral
2013Adrian Villar Rojas
—Before My Birth 3
2012Laura Vinci
—Lux Lisboa
2010Ai WeiWei
—Forever
2003Guan Xiao
—The Documentary: Geocentric Puncture
2012Haegue Yang
—Escaping Transparency
2011Dong Yuan
—Grandmother's House
2013Robert Zhao Renhui
—Eskimo Wolf Trap Often Quoted in Sermons
2013Zhao Zhao
—Waterfall
2013