A Community of Suffering

A Community of Suffering Commentary by Qu Yi Cite Share Show Bible Passage Read by Ben Quash Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore on that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here am I. (Isaiah 52:6 NRSV) Suffering China was created during the Second World War by the Belgian missionary painter Mon van Genechten (方希聖, 1903–74) while he was imprisoned by the Japanese army in the Weixian 濰縣 concentration camp in Shandong 山東, China. The painting depicts more than forty emaciated Chinese bodies, male and female, old and young: they are dying, blind, lame, some carrying heavy burdens, and all staggering forwards. These Chinese faces come from a large number of sketches of local people drawn by the artist during his imprisonment (Swerts & De Didder 2002; Chu 2024). In the crowd, there is also One who silently carries a large cross. He wears a crown of thorns with faint traces of blood flowing from it. He bows his head, stares downwards, and walks with heavy steps. The figures in this painting come from all strata of society, but He seems to pay none of them any heed. However, the two old men in front of and behind Him with their hands clasped together may indicate a hopeful possibility. Their action seems to suggest that the people are not wholly desperate yet because they are praying; and as one among them, He is listening to their prayers. He has not forgotten the suffering Chinese people. Naked pain, heavy suffering, and complete despair are themes that Chinese art avoids. The only exceptions are works known as ‘Images of Refugees’ 流民圖, which portray people left homeless and displaced in the wake of natural or man-made disasters. These works aimed to persuade the emperor to provide relief, to solicit donations from society, or to critique society (Wang 2018). Based on his own personal experience and observation in China, Van Genechten creatively combined this Chinese theme with ‘Christ Carrying the Cross’ to portray a community of suffering, as the people’s servant suffers alongside them and in their midst; ‘where you are, here I am’. In this magnificent work depicting human tragedy, we can see that this missionary painter is also walking with the suffering Chinese, just like the One who ‘speaks’ by carrying the Cross in the painting. References Chu Xiaobai. 2024. ‘The Tangle of ‘Chineseness’ and ‘Modernity’: On the Practice of Chinese Christian Painting at Fu Jen Catholic University (1929–1949)’, International Comparative Literature, 7.1: 39–67 Lorry Swerts & Koen De Ridder. 2002. Mon Van Genechten (1903–1974), Flemish Missionary and Chinese Painter: Inculturation of Christian Art in China (Leuven: Leuven University Press) Wang Yicun. 2018. ‘Research of the Image of Refugee’, Art Magazine [Meishu] 1: 113–117;王一村. 2018. 《明代“流民圖”考》，《美術》1: 第113–117页。