The exhibition begins with a story from the past.

In 1967, on the cusp of turning thirty, Zeng Xiaolian received a unique assignment after a year away from his work at the Kunming Institute of Botany: he was asked to continue as a botanical illustrator for a special research group involved in the“523”project. This national initiative tasked him with botanical illustration for an expedition aimed at locating herbal treatments for malaria within the vast rainforests along Yunnan’s border. At that time, the U.S. was engaged in Vietnam, and severe malaria outbreaks plagued the war zones not far from Yunnan.
For most of the next five years, Zeng Xiaolian was immersed in the forest regions bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. His role was to conduct field studies of plants identifed by the team following initial surveys, classification, and experiments. He would then submit the sketches, which were finalized and printed along with descriptive text for military field testing.

Additionally, he was assigned two more projects: compiling illustrations for A Flora of Weeds in the Tropics and Alternative Forage for Pack Animals in Tropical Regions. Together with Selected Anti-Malarial Herbs, these works form the opening story of this exhibition.

The“523”mission marked Zeng Xiaolian’s true introduction to and immersion in nature. Yet, this mission held a deeper emotional significance for him, becoming an indelible “old story” that stayed with him throughout his life. Perhaps it was precisely this“chance”assignment that allowed him, amidst a turbulent era that swept everyone along, to escape the hardships imposed by his “background”and the distress and disillusionment of his mentors. Through it, he found a temporary refuge 一 a sense of “calm”and“focus”-away from the demands of reality.

As he wrote in his memoir over 50 years later, “Misfortune hides within fortune, and fortune within misfortune. Both blessings and troubles came my way, bringing two joys and one regret. My first joy was being selected for the“523”mission-I was able to continue my illustration work and witness nature’s remarkable craftsmanship. The second was a blessing in love, as my colleague Zhang Zanying and I became lifelong partners. My regret, however, was letting my tongue slip in a moment of thoughtlessness, bringing great pressure on myself and, unfortunately, impacting my family as well.”

The rainforest of 57 years ago became, in a sense, Zeng Xiaolian’s “refuge from the world” and the origin of this exhibition, the foundation from which this body of work emerged. It was both a “seed” planted long ago and a“message” that arrived late.