Bullshit Blind Bull

Lu Xun wrote in his poem In Mockery of Myself: “Fierce-browed, I coolly defy a thousand pointing fingers, Head-bowed, like a willing ox I serve the youngsters.”[ Translation by Huang Hsin-chyu in Lu, Hsun. Poems of Lu Hsun. Translated by Huang Hsin-chyu. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1979.] In the year when the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established, the municipal government commissioned sculptor Pan He to create the Willing Ox (also called Pioneering Bull) urban sculpture to inspire a pioneering spirit in the new generation. The sculpture later became a landmark and civic symbol of Shenzhen spirit. The bronze bull sculpture mounted on New York City’s Wall Street, Charging Bull, created by the Italian sculptor Arturo Di Modica is also a classic among bull sculptures, and its combative, vigorous stance embodies the unpredictable nature of the securities market. The current work will connect the Willing Ox or Pioneering Bull representing the tenacity of the working people in Shenzhen to the “bullish” elements of Wall Street signifying capital and economic prowess, so as to combine two antithetical social concepts in order to present a compelling state of contradiction.