"He", an ancient Chinese scholar in an official's high-topped hat and gown, with a never-changing solemn expression, appears like a ghost in public or private places in Western countries. He either stands among throngs of people in an airport lounge, or stands beside a car assembly line in a deserted workshop, or is present in the midst of the Chinese students protesting in Bonn against the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, or sits properly at a dinner table of a German family in neat and formal clothes.
This statue of an ancient man of letters, in fact, has been modelled by Miao Xiaochun out of his own image. Miao Xiaochun calls this double of himself as "He" and has tailored "his" costume by himself. He also puts this second self of him in different public places in order to incorporate "him" into the scenes of his photographs. In this way Miao Xiaochun completed his graduation works at the Kassel Academy of Fine Arts (der Kunsthochschule Kassel) in Germany. At that time he focused his works on the contrast between oriental and occidental cultures through Chinese elements. By mostly visually spatiotemporal docking and juxtaposition Miao Xiaochun highlights the contrasts between east and west cultures, thus bringing up topics on contemporary culture, identification, dialogue between tradition and modernity, etc...
With the spatiotemporal differences caused by the changes in his personal life, Miao Xiaochun's self-portrait as an ancient Chinese scholar, like a embryo, begins its propagation and reproduction. Since his return to the Central Academy of Fine Arts as a teacher in 1999, his works have finally broken the simple framework of binary east-west cultural differences and has entered a new, broader world. The theme throughout his works has gradually deepened, his modes of expression have fully developed, and their connotations have become richer and more and more complex. Once on his own land, "he" quietly watches all the changes taking place here; but "he" only watches, solemn and