Chinese Journal of Literary Criticism

No.2, 2024

Sparking Smoke and Hazy Clouds: On the Mental Picture of Yanxia Li

(Abstract)

Bai Liang

In Yanxia Li (In the Clouds), Wei Wei paints and describes in detail the hometown scenery and emotional memories, the trend of the times and the experience of life, the daily life and the feelings of the individuals during the period from 1970 to 2011. Yanxia Li can be regarded as two rhapsodies, “Yan” (Smoke) and “Xia” (Clouds). Smoke represents the worldly experience, referring to the “cooking smoke from houses,” while clouds represents the virtual sense, referring to the “clouds of history.”