s royal painter Nicolas Poussin insisted on staying in Italy and refusedto go back to France no matter how the French King tried to get himto go back to France. As for Francois himself， he decided to devote190 himself to art after visiting the Scotland highlands， and became a realpainter in Spain.
Francois said： “I am interested in everything that Chinese philosophydiscusses. I use the discussions as the proof of my own existenceand memory. When I just came to China， I was really happy. It seemsthat all the thoughts I had about China were correct and China also acceptedme. As for me， I don’t need to become a Chinese person firstto be accepted and absorb the nourishment of Chinese thoughts andideas. Another thing that Francois cherishes very much is Chinese folkart.
In May 2004， Francois was preparing his exhibition in Beijing，and encountered professor Jin Zhilin from the Central Academy ofArt. It seemed that he was fated to meet Professor Jin. Jin Zhilin toldFrancois that he worked with peasants artists and invited Francois tovisit the villages in northern Shaanxi. He built a museum there and exhibitedart pieces made by peasants.
Francois accepted the invitation because he had never been to therural area of China to know another part of China and its art there. Hisvisit proved worthwhile： Francois found another world.
Jin Zhilin’s hometown of Yanchuan is a very remote and bleakplace， but the style of the paper-cut art pieces by peasants are extremelyreal and honest. Francois was excited and loved their works immediately.
At that time， a TV crew was also doing interviews in that village.
One of the young cameramen told Francois： “I have been here forthree days， and I strongly feel that I am not a true Chinese person.” Hiswords touched Francois. compared to the cameraman， he felt movedin two ways： not only within China but also within different provinces，there are so many different worlds coexisting， and they all functionin different ways. It may be just because of the existence of differentworlds that Francois believes that the Chinese paintings can stand outso obviously and contain so much information.
“In China， the people who come to my exhibitions are always more obviously moved by my work than they are in France. Peoplehere observe carefully， they feel and think. No matter their method orangle in understanding my pieces， they take my paintings very seriously，although they cannot always express this feeling in language. Francois soon realized that there was a wide gap between Chinesephilosophy as he understood it and the realities of contemporaryChina.
China now is developing at a rapid pace， and its new conceptsof time and space are very close to those of America. Francois thinksthe modern structure of Chinese cities is more Western than thoseof Europe. It is really hard for people to leave them， and stay awaylong enough to think clearly. Therefore， the phenomenon is awkward：China is going really fast while Europe is slow; China is really noisywhile Europe is comparatively quiet.
Francois said that this might mean that living in modern China，people were not able to paint a mountain according to the traditionalconcepts. Everything around the world is spinning so fast， and we arenot living in a space suitable for painting.
The misunderstanding of Francois’ pieces now appears in hisexhibitions. Many people pay sympathy to him and think that he cannotunderstand Chinese philosophical concepts because of his Chineselanguage. In fact， it is not the original content of that philosophy —
such as the unity of heaven and humanity， or how the Way begets oneand one begets two — which confuses Francois， it is the modern explanationsthat confuse him.
The question is that， the closer you are to something， the lessyou can understand it. Francois said that it is just like looking at an oilpainting. In order to completely appreciate it， you will have to moveback and forth.
Francois senses some caution in many contemporary paintingsdone in the Chinese traditional style， just like the caution he can seein the European academic paintings of the 19th century. He thinks theimages of Chinese painters’ works are too full. It does not embodythe concept of “resembling yet not resembling”， but instead becomes192 purely “resembles”。 Perhaps， after almost one century of self-denial，China needs to acknowledge herself and be acknowledged by others.
A calm criticism hasn’t really started yet.
Painter Zeng Laide came to all three of Francois’ exhibitions.
He is moved by Francois’ changes every time. He feels that Francoisis becoming closer and closer to the Chinese people. But he does notwant Francois to become a Chinese person completely. He hopes thatFrancois can maintain his view as an outsider to examine and absorbChinese civilization from a different angle， all the while shaping himself.
By Zhang Hong
Translated by Ma Dongxiao