Strange Tales of a Lonely Studio - Lian Suo by Jing An

“Lian Suo is a famous chapter from Liaozhai Zhiyi, Strange Tales of a Lonely Studio, a collection of Classical Chinese stories by Pu Songling comprising close to five hundred short stories. This specific tale depicts a girl, a ghost, sleeping in a grave for more than 20 years. Fireflies dancing in the night recite her mournful sadness and make her acquaintance with a man, Yang Yuwei. They become a pair of like-minded friends, they read poetry, write poetry, play chess, play the pipa. She is thin and weak and Yang Yuwei pities her. They fall in love with each other. In order to enable her to be reborn, one night, Yang Yuwei performs a ritual. He punctures his arm and makes three drops of his blood fall onto Lian Suo's navel, causing her rebirth. 

I am a female artist who paints with emotion. In recent years I have created a series of artworks from Strange Tales of a Lonely Studio, depicting some of its most wonderful love stories. My artworks try to express the ancient literary classics of love with the perspective of a modern woman. My goal is to capture images from over 300 years ago, the social life of women, psychology, thought and emotion, showing Chinese mythology in fantasy driven art.” – Jing An