“Tradition” denotes the filtered and precipitated cultural facts that originated in the past and experiences extracted from classic stories that can be studied by the later generations. The reason for which I define Jing Ye’s ink-and-art works as “reforming tradition at the edge of tradition” is because his heritage, physical, spiritual and cultural are rooted in this “tradition” - this is not something one can easily give up or reject. Although one can't choose her/his parentage, s/he still has the capability of changing her/his life. As the saying goes, "Man proposes, God disposes" - the decision to “reform” is reserved for intellectuals.
 
Take his Cultural Revolution series for example. He doesn’t want to regurgitate the events of a 10-year-long political event that occurred 40 years ago in mainland China. He investigates the whole story, captures the essence and applies techniques of imagery to satirise this political farce subtly and inadvertently. When I look at them, myriad thoughts and sorrow well up in my mind. Jing Ye employs traditional motifs of lotus, landscapes, flowers and birds and combines a symbolic “red hat” with manlike, birdlike and object-like graphics, providing commentary on the events and presenting them in a new guise in a delicate and satirical manner. 
 
Jing Ye believes that modern ink-and-wash art should reflect social reality. Of course, this doesn’t mean that ink-and-wash art should be used as an ideological “mainstream tool” or for commercial profit. The honesty, independence, concepts and empathy shown in his works are a detached catharsis based on adequate reading, thinking and preparation. They are the natural outcome from years of hard work.
 
Another series of works created by Jing Ye are "Legends", of which the basic graphic structure is Chinese characters, yet these works are a departure from “tradition”. Through his works, Jing Ye does not strive to carry the tradition of Chinese characters forward, but to endow Chinese characters with meaning and soul. Because Chinese characters in these works are the basic elements of graphics, the original shape of the character is purposely broken to display his appeals in his paintings. Whether tradition or civilisation, the form and spirits of culture and the thousands of years of history of the Chinese language has been separated and transformed into “legends”. They fuse with modern semantics demonstrating the ancient and modern and today's world.
 
Jing Ye uses traditional pen, ink, paper and inkstone to create his works, but the creative symbols and the manner of expression he applies are detract completely from tradition. Jing Ye keeps “tradition” in mind, yet wisely and freely makes use of it to accomplish his creative goals.

Reforming tradition at the edge of tradition - Impressions of Jing Ye’s ink-and-wash works
By Chen Mo

May 2010