Qu Lei Lei was born a year before me in 1951. We came from the same kind of families, and went through a similar path in our lives. He grew up in Peking and, at the age of 15, witnessed the unfolding of Mao's violent Cultural Revolution, when his parents became victims. He voiced his disgust against the evils of Mme Mao herself, and as a result, he was detained and severely beaten up. Exiled the following year to the depth of the Manchurian mountains, he worked as a peasant and a barefoot doctor, before being enrolled into the army in 1969. There his irrepressible urge to challenge the Cultural Revolution led to two years of investigation when he was closely watched, and had to live in constant fear of great disasters. In 1973, when there was relative relaxation in China, he was able to leave the army and return to Peking. He became a technician in Peking Television.

Painting has been Lei Lei's passion in life since the age of six. But for many years, he was unable to pick up brush and pen. It was too dangerous, he was too exhausted and all one was allowed to paint in those days was Mao's face, or posters lauding the Cultural Revolution. In the end, unable to suppress his yearning to create pictures of beauty, he began, whilst in the army, to sneak into the fields to draw landscapes: he would clandestinely sketch on whatever bits of scrap paper he could find, mostly on the margins of propaganda newspapers.


Finally, in 1976, Mao died and the Cultural Revolution ended. Lei Lei was exhilarated at the infinite possibilities for his art. He had had an eventful and brave life, and that experience became his source of inspiration. His creativity burst into bloom.

In 1978, when I left China for Britain, Lei Lei stayed on. In the following years, as China was struggling to free itself from the tyranny of its past, Lei Lei became increasingly frustrated by the endless attempts to imprison his free spirit. He was swept between feelings of joy and anger, hope and dismay, gnawing fear for the future of his art and determination that no obstacle could ever prevent him from painting at the bidding of his mind and heart again...'

YUNG CHANG - Author of 'Wild Swans'

Preface to A visual Diary by QU LEI LEI
(L.L. Books, 1996)