THE first time I met Liu xiaoqing, I was surprised to learn that this thin and small young woman had lived on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau for two years painting wild birds.
"How did you come to that job?" I asked. Liu told me that shortly before graduating from the Arts Department of Qinghai Teachers' University, she had met Yang Ensheng, a renowned watercolor painter from Taiwan. Yang was preparing to publish a series of illustrated books about wild birds on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and had gone to the school to recruit students to help with the work.
According to Yang, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a paradise of wild animals and is especially abundant in wild bird species. First-and second-grade state-protected rare birds number in the hundreds. Due to overhunting and the degradation of their natural habitat, however, the number of birds was decreasing; some of them were facing the danger of extinction. No one had yet catalogued the rare birds in illustrated books. Yang thus reached an agreement with the Northwestern Plateau Ecology Research Institute attached to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to copublish a series of illustrated books.
Yang's plan appealed to Liu Xiaoqing, not least because she realized that it was also an opportunity for her to learn from a famous teacher of watercolor painting. Giving up her plan to become an art teacher after graduation, she joined Yang's field survey team. It was to be the beginning of an indissoluble bond with wild birds.
In order to get some general knowledge about wild birds, Liu first attended classes taught by ornithologists, learning about avian habitats, behavior and body structure. Meanwhile, Yang Ensheng trained her in basic watercolor skills, starting with still life sketches and then proceeding onto bird painting skills. "Only through such lessons and training could I learn to paint birds in both a scientific and artistic way," Liu said.
Because she had originally been trained In traditional Chinese painting, Liu Xiaoqing had to change her style of painting and start from scratch. Yang was very strict with her. "When he was dissatisfied with my painting, he would tear up my work and make me paint it again" Liu said. "His scolding often made my cry. It was for my own good, I know; he wanted me to become competent at the job as early as possible."
Applying herself to the task, Liu Xiaoqing made remarkable progress in her watercolor painting. Yang sometimes even praised her work as possessing a flavor of British painting. Hearing her teacher's praise, Liu Xiaoqing's eyes would turn red-his approval was so rare.
To portray birds in nature more vividly and to become familiar with their actual and to become familiar with their actual habitat, Liu Xiaoqing had to go to the wildness to observe wild birds with the field team, which was composed of the famous Taiwan ecological photographer Chen Jianseng, bird experts and photographers from the Plateau Ecology Research Institute. Liu's job was to observe the wild birds through a telescope and to sketch them.
For Xiaoqing, who had just left school, life in the field was tough. For example, to observe a certain species of bird in summer, the team members had to wait in the camouflage net for several hours, enduring the aggravation of mosquitoes. When the dark mass of insects swarmed down on them, they had to wrap themselves up all over, leaving only openings for their eyes. In order to photograph birds that emerged in winter, the team had to wait out in the field in icy cold weather. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is notable for its changeable climate-four seasons in single day and different weather within the space of five kilometers. it is scorching hot at noon and freezing cold in the night. Sometimes it even snows in summer. In addition the team members did not have regular meals. When they felt hungry, they would just eat some tinned food or dry provisions.
Liu Xiaoqing still has a clear memory of her first venture into the wilderness. "As our jeep bumped along the mountain road 3,000 meters above sea level, I started feeling dizzy and nauseous. When the jeep was unable to advance further, we had to trek on by foot. We marched about 10 kilometers everyday. The strong ultraviolet rays caused the skin on my forehead and nose to peel. At night, lying in my sleeping bag and hearing the wind whistling outside my tent, I felt cold and scared. The events of the day would flash back in my mind and my eyes would fill with tears."
Apart from the harsh conditions, the wilderness also presented various other dangers. When photographers found some birds they would grab their equipment and rush off to photograph their target. Small Liu had to try to keep up with them. It would have been very dangerous if she were to fall behind in the wilderness where beasts of prey hunted.
"Sometimes, hawks would circle over us. I was scared, but later I got used to it," Liu said.
Once, when the team shot pictures at Wild Yak Gully, Liu recalls, the frightened wild yaks charged at them. Thanks to their jeep's high speed, they managed to escape being upended by the yaks.
"We shot some excellent pictures that time," Liu said. "I also painted a beautiful picture depicting some yaks at grass peacefully, some scared ones running madly and also snow mountains in the distance."
Another time, the team shot blacknecked cranes by Qinghai Lake. The photographers wore waterproof trousers to shoot pictures in the water, leaving Xiaoqing on the bank to keep an eye on their equipment. By chance, however, she became trapped in the nearby swamp.
"The more I struggled, the deeper I sunk in. soon the lower half of my body was submerged," Liu recalled. "I cried for help desperately. When my teammates hurried over to me and dragged me up, I was sobbing loudly. Even now, I can still feel the panic."
The frightening moments were counterbalanced by moments of joy and exitement: rafting down the Daotanghe River, watching groups of lathams swimming in the water and beautiful pibegan fox-half yellow and half blue-came out of its hole and ran to distant place. Watching these animals living freely in the wilderness, Liu Xiaoqing said it was as if she herself had grown up with them. Magnificent sights were always before her eyes. The glow of sunset and the boundless stretch of grassland enveloped in the warm air never failed to affect her.
"Looking at the pure blue sky and white clouds, the snowy mountains and the grassland in the distance, I felt my heart being purified," Liu said. "All the hardships I endured turned into heaven-sent happiness."
Even more delightful after she returned from the field, her painting of birds became more vivid. Even Yang Ensheng praised her for capturing the essence of birds and their wild nature.
After the field work, the team started another round of urgent work. Because the plan was to publish one volume each year, Liu Xiaoqing had to finish painting more than 100 species of birds on her own. To finish the work, she often put in extra time, painting more than 10 hours a day. Sometimes she even painted all through the night.
In 1994, the first volume of An Illustrated Guide to Birds on the Roof of the World was published. A second and third volume followed. Most of the illustrations in the books were painted by Liu Xiaoqing.
In September 1995, Liu Xiaoqing left Qinghai tobegin advanced study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but she forever keeps in her memory the experience of plateau life. She said, "I have a special live for birds. I feel that they are the spirit of nature. Humans should protect them carefully. There's a famous saying in ecological circles: 'Today's birds, tomorrow's human beings.' Many birds are facing extinction. I want to portray them so vividly with my brush that people will pay attention and start to be concerned for them."