Ren Hang

During Hang’s incipient career, he was known mostly for nude photographic portraits of his friends. Hang’s work is significant for its representation of Chinese sexuality within a heavily censored society. And for this erotic undertones, Hang was arrested by PRC authorities several times.

His art trajectory was backed by the famed contemporary Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, who included Hang in his 2013 Netherlands show, “Fuck Off 2 The Sequel”, and curated the photographer’s 2014 exhibition in Paris, France.

Questioning the purpose of his work, he once stated that his creation a way to seek fun for both photographer and the photographed.

However, once he had reached fame on an international level, he began to think deeply about his works. The British Journal of Photography quoted him as once saying: “I don’t want others having the impression that Chinese people are robots… Or they do have sexual genitals but always keep them as some secret treasures. I want to say that our cocks and pussies are not embarrassing at all.”

Insiders indicate Hang’s work as softcore pornography for nudity, and sex as a theme was most pervasive in his work, but Hang also worked with other themes. The most famous one was called “My Mum”. Although still under a fetishistic atmosphere, posing with usual props in Ren’s works like animals and plants, Ren’s mother posed as a model not nude, but in a light-hearted way to represent her daily life.

His erotic, playful and casual yet provocative expression made him rise to fame worldwide. He took photos for big brands and famous magazines like Boys Don’t Cry, L’OFFICIEL, GQ Style, Gucci, Totem Collective, Antidote and Vice.

Nudity is not a theme in the artifacts which can be widely accepted by the Chinese old generation. Ren’s works are mistreated by the public as pornography sometimes. Although some articles wrote that Ren used his photographs to cultural jamming traditional misunderstood which treated the nudity as a shame, Ren didn’t believe he was challenging the stereotype and leading a revolution.

For Ren, nudity and sexuality are natural themes which he shot in his works. “Nudes are there since always. We were born nude. So talking about revolution, I don’t think there’s anything to revolutionize. Unless people are born with clothes on, and I want to take their clothes off, then I think this is a revolution.”

Ren said he was not trying to liberate nudity and sexuality since he believed that Chinese young generation was open-minded and less affected by the old-fashioned cultures.

Hang was known to be suffering from depression. He posted an article titled “My depression” on his blog, recording the fear, anxiety and internal conflicts he suffered from. Hang took his own life by jumping from the 28th floor of a building in Beijing on 24th of February.