Shengtian Zheng is an artist, curator, scholar and professor in contemporary Chinese and Asian Art. He is also the Managing Editor of Yishu. Before joining a panel at the Getty to discuss “the New China” and influences of the Cultural Revolution, he answered a few questions in the Green Room.
Q. What music did you listen to today?
A. The traffic from my hotel window.
Q. Q: What is your favorite word?
A. Curiosity.
Q. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. A Navy soldier.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Bloody Mary.
Q. If you could go on one more journey, what would be your destination?
A. South America.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. My first school tour to a place called the Daju, the Big Foot. It’s a Buddhist cave. It was my first trip to art.
Q. If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would it be?
A. An artist from Mexico named [Miguel] Covarrubias.
Q. What promise do you make to yourself that you break the most often?
A. To go to the gym.
Q. What teacher or professor changed your life?
A. Dong Xiwen; he was a very important artist in the 20th century in China. I studied with him for two years.
Q. What talent do you wish you had?
A. Singing.
Q. What’s the last habit that you tried to kick?
A. Trying to be faster on my iPad.
Q. What’s one thing that surprises you about your life right now?
A. I’m still not sick and I’m getting old.
Q. What do you do to clear your mind?
A. Play a game.
To read more about the panel in which Shengtian participated, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.