Demystifying Chinese dragon through Art
Shortly after the Chinese New Year in 2021, I wrote the article “Be Water — the Ancient Chinese Way”, introducing China’s intertwined relationship with its waterways through philosophy, culture, and art. As the year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac has arrived, the images of dragons started popping up in every corner of the Internet. I decided write to write this new article demystifying the “dragon” — perhaps every Chinese or non-Chinese had ever asked — what is a Dragon?
As a “water artist”, Dragon in my works is an extension of my representation about water: an abstract form of continuous movement of water — which is what I believe what Dragon is — a (massive) living body of water. I hope to elaborate on the ancient totem through a modern interpretation, crossing the Art and Science, the East and West and to elevate its spiritual value for China through the lens of water
Spiritual Meaning of Dragon
Water is believed to be the medium through which heaven communicates its judgment to the earth. The invisible force that governs the rise and fall of water between heaven and Earth is embodied in the mythical creature, the Chinese dragon or Long.
In imperial China, Dragon the symbol of the emperor, the appointed by the heavenly. Before humans have the knowledge of the “hydrocycle”, we akwnoledge the attributes of the dragon that resemble “water”: by combining the physical characteristics of fish, turtles, snakes, and other animals, all of which are water-dependent life forms. The dragon’s natural habitat is rivers, oceans, and clouds — wherever there is water, there lives the “dragon king”. As a godly figure, like water, Dragon is both benevolent and fearful, capable of making life to flourish and to kill.
60 x 120 cm
Chinese ink and acrylic on canvas
Created in 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland
The dragon is where the Chinese found their spiritual identity over generations: the Chinese often use the term “Descendants of the Dragon” to refer to their ethnicity. The adoration and worship for the dragon not only expresses the civilisation’s early scientific concept of the water cycle and its understanding of the natural environment; it also symbolises the Chinese’s profound “water culture” and its breathtaking hydrology throughout history: (like the dragon) both prosperous and disastrous at times.
What is a Dragon?
Reductionism, also known as “simplificationism”, is a fundamental philosophical idea that had influenced the development of the natural sciences. It holds that a complex system, matter, or phenomenon can be understood and described by dissolving and disassembling its parts. As an example, the movement of the planets in the solar system can eventually be reduced to the Newtonian theory of mechanics to explain.
When the form of Dragon, its complex animalistic features, is simplified to the extreme, it is essentially a “vector”: a moving body of water, like a river. The “dragon’s head” is the direction of the water flow. The artist’s Dragon Script is the purest expression of freedom through a body of water. It constructs dynamic Dragon is creating an abstract calligraphic language, with the vigour and relief of delivering all of one’s control, leaving the rippling imprints in the water (from the Dragon’s movement).
50 x 100 cm
Chinese ink on rice paper
Created in 2023 in Beijing, China
Faith
Creating on a circular canvas, first of all, from a cultural point of view, the circular canvas represents the continuity and unity of life in the Eastern civilization, and from a scientific point of view, the circle is the fundamental shape of the material world, from the atom to the earth. In addition, the circle is the most representative of the sinuous and spiral shape of water, and its shape is more harmonious, free and natural than the artificial straight and angular lines.
80 cm
Chinese ink and acrylic on canvas
Created in 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland
“Faith” is inspired by Buddhist legend of “Longnü” (Sanskrit: nāgakanyā), translated as “Dragon Girl”, who is the daughter of Dragon King and attained Buddhahood in her female animal form. According to “Lotus Sutra”, the “Dragon Girl”, at the age of eight, was already spiritually mature to an extraordinary level and she offered a pearl to the Buddha, which symbolises her life force. Buddha accepted the pearl and she was immediately transformed into a bodhisattva and attained full enlightenment. The story emphasises the authority of faith above all.
Healing & Hope
50 x 60 cm
Chinese ink on canvas (framed in wood)
Created in 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland
Both created in May 2020 during the first lockdown of COVID-19, “Healing”carries sadness and despair, resembling the image of a lifeless body of water, while “Hope” carries joy and ease, like a regenerating system. Unintentionally, the painting resulted in an “Yin-Yang” pair.
“Healing” draws a connection between the wounded water system on earth, which remains to be healed, and the darkness of ourselves that we have to face in solitary confinement. We are 99 percent water molecules. Or, in other words, 70% of the volume of our body is water. We are all bodies of water, thus what we do to our water, we do to ourselves.
“The solution for the Sage who would transform the world lies in the water. Therefore when water is uncontaminated, men’s hearts are upright. When water is pure, the people’s hearts are at ease”.
Book of Water and Earth — Guanzi (720–645 BC), Guanzhong
An important part of healing is the need for the field of “goodness” and “beauty” to override the darkness, which is what “Hope” wants express through the renewal mechanism and rebirth of the water form. To create a new world, we must first create a new dream and this new dream needs to be catalyzed by love.
Everything we think and feel is composed of perceptions. Our life as an individual and collective are moulded around beliefs that are constructed by our perceptions, called a paradigm. As a society, we have become accustomed to apocalyptic futures; we are always preparing to go to heaven or Mars, leaving behind the mess of our current life. To create a new world, we must first create a new dream. This new dream will give birth to a new cultural perception of the human-nature relationship, where all life of the ecosystem is viewed as kin and one cannot live and flourish without another. Only from such a new dream, we can manifest a sustainable future.
Charlotte Qin at Sustainability Week Switzerland (2021)
About the Artist
Charlotte Qin ( 秦 超 穎 ) is a Chinese-Canadian artist based in Geneva, Switzerland. Charlotte’s work evolves around the expression of water and her paintings connect the seemingly distinct worlds, such as art and science, the east and the west, depicting the intimate relationship between humans and nature through water.
Charlotte’s artistic journey has been meandering like water: she graduated from McGill University in 2016 with a degree in Physics, and from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London in 2019 with a double master’s degree in Innovation Design Engineering. She has worked as a consultant and research assistant at CERN, Bell Labs, and the Geneva Graduate Institute; during this time, she began her research, creation, and advocacy work for water based in Geneva, Switzerland, the “city of peace”.
Embodying her Chinese heritage and Western scientific training, Charlotte’s artwork takes many forms, such as calligraphy, painting, sculpture, performance, and scientific visualisation. Charlotte’s artworks have been representing a voice for water at various international venues, including the World Water Forum in Dakar in 2022, the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York City, the 8th World Water Congress in Beijing, China, and the 28th UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, UAE. Charlotte Qin has been collaborating with a number of local and international organisations including the Geneva Graduate Institute, Swiss Water Partnership as well as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
