This piece of writing starts with an exploration of Bada Shanren, a pivotal figure in this research. Bada exemplifies a duality in character. Although records of his madness prevail, it remains ambiguous whether his mental state was a genuine consequence of his tumultuous life or a façade. This enigmatic quality grants Bada an intricate identity to deftly maneuver, rendering the audience perplexed as to the origin and nature of his paintings’ imagery. His creations exude oddness, and the delineation between animal and human is rendered nebulous; animals consistently seem imbued with human significance and emotions seldom associated with non-human entities—they are seemingly morphing into each other. Bada is a trailblaser in this respect within Chinese art history. His paintings present a conundrum rather than a mere depiction. Allegory in his work can be perceived as a visual cipher that engages the observer in an unsettling exchange of gazes.

Consider, for example, a painting portraying two quails perched on a rock. An initial glance reveals an apparent sense of humour emanating from the birds' expressions. However, prolonged observation unveils a darker, more anomalous aura surrounding the avian figures. The representation of the birds diverges from traditional Chinese paintings, where animals were often depicted in their natural essence without symbolic overtones. In contrast, Bada’s quails are endowed with eerie, human-like smiles and eyes that gaze upward beyond the painting's confines, suggesting an acute awareness of their environment. The birds appear to shy away from the viewer, as if cognizant of being observed, thereby evading direct engagement. However, their contorted forms elicit a sense of unfamiliarity, invoking feelings of estrangement. The exaggerated plumpness of the birds hinders their ability to take flight from potential threats, symbolising Bada’s own encumbered state—trapped by his identity and compelled to withdraw from reality. Furthermore, the quails’ evasive demeanour establishes a dynamic interplay between observer and subject, blurring the roles and creating an enduring interaction that transcends time. This lends allegory the power to allow Bada and his creations to breach the confines of their era and resonate with contemporary audiences, challenging the constraints of linear time and chronology.

The motif of duality pervasive in Bada’s oeuvre and life catalyses an exploration into the realm of allegory, which forms the bedrock of this research. The dynamics of perception—what is observed and how one is perceived—aren't inherently reciprocal. Consequently, traditional Chinese allegory operated to destabilise the binary of subject and object, engendering a multifaceted interplay between transparency and opacity. Owing to this nuanced mode of representation, political critiques could be subtly woven into paintings, serving as an understated yet potent form of resistance against cultural censorship that has coursed through ancient Chinese history. For Chinese artists, the presence of political repression invariably gives rise to an allegorical strand within their artistic defiance.

In the contemporary epoch, marked by an upsurge in cultural censorship since 2013, recent allegorical paintings have sought to craft their political content in an increasingly subtle and elusive manner. This evolution poses interpretative challenges due to the layering of meanings. However, as contemporary Chinese artists create and showcase political allegorical paintings—particularly in the West— they grapple with an additional quandary: the imposition of a Western lens on allegory and the inadvertent embrace of self-orientalising narratives threaten to erode the cultural essence and agency ingrained in these artworks. In this light, it is imperative to approach allegorical paintings with a cognisance of their historical and cultural intricacies, and to be wary of the distorting filters that can obfuscate the richness of their messages.

Since the late 1970s, Chinese painting has been engaged in a global exchange of aesthetic concepts, propelled by a neglect of tradition and a cultural nihilism that emerged post-Cultural Revolution. Traditional art forms were sidelined, finding little to no space in the evolving Chinese art landscape. Simultaneously, a nationalist fear concerning classical traditions surfaced, leading to a dismissal of the covert political elements inherent in art. Political paintings progressively adopted a more forthright approach until the onset of more stringent cultural censorship. In this context, there is an urgency and exigency to identify and conceptualize new methodologies that facilitate the communication of political nuances for contemporary artists navigating this restrictive terrain.

In my own artistic practice, I elect to reinterpret tradition through the lens of allegory, anchored in a nuanced understanding of temporality, inspired by the work of Walter Benjamin. This is not a linear interpretation, but rather an intricate interweaving—akin to curving lines—that embodies the essence of allegory, necessitating the incorporation of a level of disguise in my creations. The allegory I employ is deeply rooted in the historical tapestry of ancient Chinese culture. I embrace a connection to historical memory through the prism of painting’s history, a connection that many contemporary artists eschew due to the prevailing penchant for immediacy over historical reflection. The synthesis of traditional and contemporary representational frameworks is exemplified in the oeuvre of Bada Shanren. His approach, which amalgamates the endeavours of Chinese I-min artists with an ancient implicit nature, transcends the confines of historical temporality, resonating with the present through a way of oddness—a poignant reflection of the contemporary repressive climate. His work embodies both resistance and negotiation, epitomising a potentially optimal approach to confronting the escalating intensity of Chinese cultural censorship. Consequently, the tradition of allegorical painting is repositioned—not as an exotic other but as a trenchant challenge to our perceptions, offering insights that can be harnessed to address contemporary dilemmas.