He is Not a Monster, He is Xiaohe
2025
Performance
This performance art took place at the entrance of the Sino-Africa Wildlife Zoo in Xiamen. Dressed in crocodile costumes, the artist and another performer simulated a fight between two crocodiles, with one eventually defeated and lying motionless. A satirical political adaptation of the song "No Ambition" played on loop throughout the performance.
Through absurd visual confrontation and highly ironic symbols of popular culture, the work commemorates the "cross-strait envoy" crocodile Xiaohe, who died in harsh captive conditions. It transforms an individual tragedy into a public indictment of managerial incompetence and the banality of evil.
By cleverly incorporating internet meme culture, the work transforms a viral interrogation by Wang Shijian (a standing member of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party Central Committee) into a playful and deconstructive artistic tool, serving as a silent resistance to mediocre power. Through studying how Taiwan's political rhetoric, under the influence of short video editing, evolves into satirical symbols within mainland discourse, the artist chooses to stage a visual confrontation at the entrance of the zoo where the crocodile Xiao He suffered, forcing passersby and the zoo administration to confront the hidden wounds.
This intervention leverages the inherent "awkwardness" and "sense of absurdity" of parody songs to undermine the gravitas of official statements, provoking public scrutiny into the true circumstances of Xiao He's death and fostering an informal form of civic protest. The work materializes Wang Shijian's criticism of "no ambition" regarding urban management chaos through the comical brawl of the two "crocodiles," exposing how the death of a living being is gradually being replaced by cheap commercial symbols. Through such expression, the work seeks to lay bare the false grand narratives that reduce living beings to mere "tools for communication," revealing the harsh realities faced by individual lives once symbolic meanings dissipate. Ultimately, the artist uses the words of a political figure to denounce power's failures, transforming political criticism of institutions that "talk nonsense with eyes wide open" into a radical call for social conscience and the dignity of life.