When Covid‑Check Became a Work‑of‑Art
In a country where every sneeze and every swab mean a quick video call with the virus, a 33‑year‑old artist from Jiangsu decided to turn the routine into a living masterpiece.
Meet Siyuan Zhuji
He’s the kind of guy who can juggle paint‐brushes, sculptures, and a tiny camera that fits on his thumb. Since March, he’s been giving the world a front‑row seat to the daily ritual of nucleic‑acid testing – but from the inside:
- Camera stuck in his mouth.
- Shots of teeth, tongue, and a fumbling cotton bud.
- Occasionally peeks through his teeth to catch a nurse in full PPE administering the test.
Zhuji says the idea clicked when he realised that the mouth is the virus’s “front gate.” The repeated tests, he says, are a people‑wide eye‑doctor for that gate.
“It’s the New Normal”
During a chat in his studio, he explained:
“This is how our life is now – a continuous cycle of nucleic testing. It’s a way of life that’s uniquely ours.”
He’s already filmed about 40 tests and plans to keep filming as long as the world demands them.
The Grand Vision
Picture a giant screen – a grid that stitches all his clips together. “Later, it’s a snapshot of pandemic life in China,” he says. He calls the series Hesuan Jiance (Catched‑Covid). It’s his ode to the present:
“This work represents an era. It’s what I want to express. We’re all living this life, and I want to capture it.”
<img alt="" data-caption="A handout photo of artist Siyuan Zhuji, as part of his artwork titled Shengji on the coronavirus disease in China.
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China’s Ongoing COVID Chaos: The Omicron Saga and the Voice of Zhuji
Back in late 2019, a little new coronavirus took Wuhan by surprise. For almost two years, China’s pandemic engines seemed to sit idle—until the Omicron variant rolled in like a drama‑queen, keeping the virus on a relentless, treadmill‑like run.
Testing Takes the Spotlight
- A laser‑sharp alert: Negative is a must—without it, you’re not getting on buses, buses, or the subway.
- Schools, offices, banks, supermarkets—every gathering spot now asks for proof of a clean test.
- And the result? Mass testing furiously twitching behind the scenes, turning the country into a sea of counters and swabs.
Meet Zhuji: Marker‑Master of the Testing Table
In the bustling city of Zhuji, a certain industrious soul is filming his daily test routine. Whether we call him “Zhuji the Tester” or the man with the endless camera, the point is: he’s a living chronicle of China’s Zero‑COVID mission.
“I’ll keep filming until the pandemic’s finally over,” he says, eyes gleaming like a gaze toward an end‑line. “If I die before then, I still promise to keep shooting until I’m gone.”
In a world where the virus has almost become a bizarre neighbour, his recordings serve as a quirky, heroic reminder that humanity is still trying to find its rhythm with the new normal.
