Artists Archives

Jin Xu
Portfolio from Volume 4 Issue 2 
*See update to this article below.

Jin Xu was born and raised in Beijing, China. She received her art degree from Bard College and currently is a graduate student in the fine art program at Boston University, in Boston, Massachusetts.

For the next seven years Wenli communicated with his family only through letters.He was released in 1993 but continued his outspoken appeal for democracy in China and was rearrested in December of 1998. He is currently serving a thirteen year prison term for subverting the government by attempting to register the China Democratic Party as an alternative to the Chinese Communist Party. As a little girl, during the early years of her father's imprisonment, Jin wrote The Waiting and sent it to her father in prison where he hand copied it into his manuscript.

She originally intended to study international relations but when she took an art class, her teachers urged her to continue her education in the art field. Jin has been granted political asylum in the U.S. which means she is not able to return to China. Jin's mother hesitates to visit Jin here because she fears the Chinese government will not allow her back into China.

Jin greatly admires her father's passionate fight for freedom in China and cherishes the letters he has written to her. "My mother faxes his letters to me so that I can read them. My father writes in Chinese characters using small brushes only a few inches long. I have always loved his writing. It is so precise and beautiful." Jin occasionally incorporates fragments of his letters into her artwork as she did in the monotype that is featured on the cover of this issue (Vol 4 Iss2). Though Jin says she does not desire to be a political activist, she finds herself participating in marches and rallies in support of democracy in China and continues to pursue the release of her father. Xu Wenli's manuscript is currently being translated and readied for publication in English
.

When asked how she deals on a daily basis with the possibility of never seeing her father, mother or country again, Jin said she dedicates herself to her work. "My art teacher says fear is the secret of my success. I cannot fail because I have nowhere to go if I do. I can never go home."

The Waiting

I use a piece of bamboo,
made a little boat,
named "The Waiting."
I wish the boat will grow up,
Mom, Dad and I
will get on it.
In the sky blue sea,
there is a boat
moving
forward.
We, Three of us sit in it,
looking into the distance of the sky
and
watching the sea gulls
fly freely.