ZHONG Q​i

The final piece of this series was completed on November 13, 2023. At dawn the next day, I returned to the shooting location from a riverfront inn fifteen kilometers away. When I confirmed that the weather and water conditions of that day could no longer conjure a scene more stirring than what I had captured the day before, the Theater of the Yangtze River™ , a project spanning five years and nine months, officially came to its close.

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The obsession with the final piece, the "Epilogue", had actually taken root in my heart two years prior. I knew with absolute certainty that I needed it. That was why, after finishing all the other works, I deliberately set aside time and set out solely for the river that existed in my mind. At that time, I did not know when I would return; I only knew that I would not come back until I had accomplished what I set out to do.

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During the shooting, I resorted to certain unconventional "tricks", or rather a kind of ritual. When I grew frustrated by the elusive harmony between the weather conditions I longed for and the ideal water currents, a union that seemed perpetually out of reach, I put down my camera, sat cross-legged on the boulders by the riverbank, and entered into meditation. With my eyes closed, I let the ceaseless sounds of the river wind and rushing currents wash over my ears. I tried to forget my own existence, to detach myself from it entirely. Unintentionally, self forgetfulness became the most significant practice I cultivated throughout the making of this series.

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The Yangtze River has, since ancient times, been a river of profound importance. As the longest river in China, it meanders over six thousand three hundred kilometers, draining a basin of 1.8 million square kilometers. It rises from the less developed western regions and surges eastward toward the most prosperous and urbanized areas of the country, nourishing nearly 460 million people across one fifth of China's territory.

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Yet every era bears its own unique predicaments, and every individual encounters new challenges unseen before. When problems remain unsolved, bewilderment and disorientation are inevitable. And so, faced with the chaos within, we each embark on a journey of seeking, inward or outward. The story I wish to tell begins right here, at this very question.

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​Zhong Qi, 2024

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