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Artist Zeng Fanzhi depicts 'zero-COVID' after a lifetime of service to the Chinese state

SHENZHEN, China (AP) 鈥 In one painting, a child sits, mouth wide open, as a worker in white medical garb extends a long cotton swab toward her tonsils.
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A painting by Zeng Fanzhi, a retired architect turned artist, depicting residents locked inside their home during the COVID lockdown, is tucked away after censors deem it "too negative" during the Beijing art exposition in Beijing, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. Zeng painted stark, realist portrayals of life in China under zero-COVID, saying he did so to capture a unique moment in history. (AP Photo/Dake Kang)

SHENZHEN, China (AP) 鈥 In one painting, a child sits, mouth wide open, as a worker in white medical garb extends a long cotton swab toward her tonsils. In another, a masked officer and medical workers stand guard in front of an apartment cordoned off with ropes and seals reading 鈥淐LOSED,鈥 as residents look on with frustration and despair.

These are some of the portraits that Zeng Fanzhi, 85, has painted to commemorate three years of China鈥檚 strict 鈥渮ero-COVID鈥 controls, which a year ago. But Zeng, a retired architect living in Shenzhen, is not a critic of the measures, under which millions of people were tested, locked in apartments, or carried off to quarantine centers.

Zeng has spent much of his life in service to the Chinese state, designing monuments in Beijing鈥檚 Tiananmen Square and coal plants for the Ministry of Coal. He鈥檚 a member of Shenzhen鈥檚 state-sponsored artist鈥檚 association and his paintings feature on stamps and win prizes.

The artist has a different perspective from the young protesters 鈥 one shaped by early years in China living through war and revolution, and later years witnessing decades of prosperity and growth. To Zeng, was necessary, and its people鈥檚 adherence to it heroic.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping 鈥渟ays that artistic creation must be from 鈥楾he People鈥檚 Standpoint,鈥欌 Zeng says, explaining his focus on ordinary people. 鈥淭his means art should reflect the reality of people's lives. The subjects of my paintings are aligned with this direction.鈥

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Growing up, Zeng lived through some of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. Born to civil servants who fled for Chongqing, China鈥檚 wartime capital in World War II, Zeng grew up moving from city to city, fleeing the invading Japanese and the Chinese civil war that followed.

The Communist Party鈥檚 victory in 1949 ended decades of strife in China, bringing some stability to the country. Zeng aspired to be an artist and took art school entrance exams in 1957, but failed twice. His parents encouraged him to study architecture instead.

Soon after, the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong, launched the Great Leap Forward, an ambitious but disastrous campaign to transform the impoverished country into an industrial power. Millions starved to death, and students across China spent time in political study sessions.

In 1962, fresh from college, Zeng was assigned to work for an architectural team in Beijing and put in charge of drafting designs for Tiananmen Square and the Avenue of Heavenly Peace.

A few years later, Zeng and his wife, a fellow architect, decided to move to Pingdingshan 鈥 home to one of the largest coalfields in China, nestled among mountains in the heart of the country.

There, for 20 years, they designed coal separation plants, from coal crushers to worker鈥檚 dorms.

By the 1980s, the couple was getting antsy. and a new reformist leader, Deng Xiaoping, was in charge. China was opening up, and opportunity beckoned on the coasts. They begged to be relocated.

鈥淲e felt like we weren鈥檛 being put to our best use, so we want to jump ship,鈥 Zeng said.

College graduates like them were in scarce supply, and jobs were easy to find. They moved to Shenzhen, an experimental economic zone located next to Hong Kong in China鈥檚 south. The 鈥90s saw China鈥檚 leaders experimenting with market capitalism, and Shenzhen was rapidly developing. Zeng began working at Shenzhen University, which back then was located in the distant suburbs and built among fields with muddy roads winding up to the entrance.

In the years that followed, Shenzhen boomed, and Zeng鈥檚 family prospered. Millions came to Shenzhen to work in factories that exported goods to overseas markets. Zeng and his wife designed dozens of Shenzhen鈥檚 apartments and office towers, which rose like reeds out of empty fields.

Newly affluent, they bought an apartment near the center of the city, while their children went overseas for study. Today, Shenzhen has more skyscrapers than New York or Tokyo.

"We鈥檝e seen a lot of ups and downs in our life,鈥 says his wife, Zhao Sirong. 鈥淪henzhen was a fledging city, and we were pioneers.鈥

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It wasn鈥檛 until Zeng turned 80 that he retired from architecture. Finally, Zeng was able to pursue his true passion: painting.

Despite his old-school training, he learned his new trade in a distinctly 21st-century fashion. Day by day, he watched tutorials of master artists online.

Zeng鈥檚 art is informed by socialist realism, a style he encountered growing up in Maoist China. He cites works by famed Russian realist painter Ilya Repin as inspiration, such as 鈥淏arge Haulers on the Volga," which shows 11 men dragging a barge, exhaustion on their faces. It鈥檚 an unflinching depiction of backbreaking labor, the quiet heroism of ordinary people in harsh conditions.

鈥淚t left a deep impression on me,鈥 Zeng said.

Zeng found himself drawn to similar themes. One of his paintings, 鈥淟ife is Not Easy," portrays a migrant worker bundled in scarves, selling vegetables and shivering as snow swirls around her.

Zhao, Zeng鈥檚 wife, complains about his rigorous painting routine. Zeng drives to his studio every morning, painting till late afternoon. The octogenarian works weekends, leaving his wife with only her plants to keep her company.

鈥淲hat I want from my husband is that he walks slower and stops acting like a young man,鈥 Zhao said, chuckling and sighing. 鈥淲hy is he working so hard? I don't understand."

But Zhao still supports her husband's craft because she believes regular activity is key to preventing mental decline. They wonder at young people who spend their days idle, swiping endlessly on cellphone videos and whiling away their savings on outdoor games of mahjong in steamy Shenzhen.

鈥淢y life is still very fulfilling,鈥 Zeng says. 鈥淪ome say painting must be tiring for you. OK, sure, but is gambling tiring for you?鈥

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As the coronavirus spread, Zeng was fascinated by how it upended daily life around him.

First he painted nurses swabbing residents, then children attending online classes. Then, last year, as controls grew strict and Zeng鈥檚 compound was locked down, he spent his days sitting on his balcony, painting , guards standing sentry, and masked delivery drivers tossing groceries over fences.

鈥淭his was an unimaginable event that鈥檚 never happened before in the whole world,鈥 Zeng says.

Zeng and his wife caught the virus last winter, when controls were abruptly lifted. Though his wife recovered quickly, Zeng spent weeks recuperating. as the infected overran hospitals and medication ran out of stock.

鈥淲e were all infected,鈥 Zhao said. 鈥淲e struggled through the past three years, and then things suddenly opened up. We weren't psychologically prepared."

Despite the pandemic鈥檚 historic nature, few depictions of the era exist in China outside official exhibits and state television glorifying the government鈥檚 role in combatting the virus. Under Xi, the state has , leading to some going overseas.

At a Beijing art exposition this fall, one of Zeng鈥檚 paintings was tucked away behind a column. The exposition, he said, deemed it too negative, as it depicted residents confined to their homes.

鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 put it on display,鈥 he said with a chuckle, walking out of his booth and gesturing to the painting.

But Zeng sees his art as commemoration, not criticism. He lived through a 鈥済reat historical event," he says, and he sees his artwork as an observation honoring all the sacrifice and difficulty endured by ordinary people.

For Zeng and Zhao, their government benefits 鈥 including public medical care, subsidized food, free public transit, and a pension of 10,000 yuan ($1,400) a month 鈥 is well beyond what they imagined having when they were younger, growing up in a China scarred by war.

鈥淲e understand the country鈥檚 measures,鈥 Zhao says. 鈥淲e all feel that on the whole, our policy was correct, because if we reopened too early, it could have been like .鈥

Today, Zeng is hard at work on a new series portraying Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which he hopes will serve as positive 鈥減olitical promotion鈥. His latest depicts Xi sitting humbly among villagers. He tentatively calls it, 鈥淐hairman Xi Taking Us on the Road to Prosperity.鈥

鈥淢y work can play a role in promoting the superiority of our distinctive socialist system," Zeng says. 鈥淥ur current era is a great era, and I want to paint paintings that capture this era."

Dake Kang, The Associated Press