On Kunlun Zhang’s ‘Red Wall’ by Daniel Magdalen

“Red Wall” by Kunlun Zhang: This painting records the personal experience and internal turmoil of the artist, Professor Kunlun Zhang. Professor Zhang was imprisoned in China for three months, during which time he experienced physical and mental torture, including brainwashing. The two white Chinese characters mean “persecution.”

Cascading strokes of color blend, into the canvas breathing life,
To show a stirring lived-through world, where light and darkness storm in strife
As China’s anguished soul bewails, through whirlwinds born of wounds unseen,
Its fate enslaved by maddened men, which red ghouls raven from within.

My mind impetuously brings into broad heart-rending display
The silenced agony relived by millions each night, each day…
Unflinchingly withstanding pain, the shackled men of godly thought
With overflowing inner glow are melting hatred’s ice to naught.

Suppression’s monstrous blood-dyed wall is crumbling from its core of lies
When struck by thunderbolts of truth that stun indoctrinated eyes…
Its hellish henchmen all exposed by History’s relentless sun
Are hurled upon the path of flames “out of the barrel of a gun.”

Daniel Magdalen is a graduate student in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, in Romania.