The Chinese
Rajesh Punj

Zheng’s Buddha in Cage, Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province, 1998, is more observation than
animation, as a large marble statue of Buddha is photographed at the very edge of the precipice,
against a thick curtain of fog. The seated Buddha is encased in this rib-caged casket is held aloft by
two bamboo beams, that if removed might see the statue topple over the ravine.
Captured in a moment of utter isolation, the devotees have since dispersed and this elegant
monument is in the process of transition to the village below, Zheng’s image subtlety alludes to
meditation as something other than of one’s own choice; as much incrassation as freedom of will. A
Flower Boy at the Roadside, Daqing Mountain, Inner-Mongolia, 1998, has Zheng on the very edge of
China, in Mongolia, for which the landscape is vast and un-tethered. Where the photographer appears
to have encountered a flower-boy, either by chance or design Zheng has the boy pressed against this
idyllic scene of open prairie, the clouds rolling over the horizon. A little perturbed by his new role as a figure in a picture the boy clasps onto these rather unkempt flowers, as he comes to realise that Zheng
is not interested in buying his trade but wishes instead to make him the subject of his photograph; as
an opportune sale for the nomadic boy becomes something else entirely.