Liu Zheng, Two Rich Men, New Year’s Eve, Beijing (1999). Influenced by the earlier work of August Sander and Diane Arbus, Liu Zheng has created an extensive series of contemporary portraits that reflect a dark vision of the people of mainland China. In these works, he seeks to isolate archetypal traits of his countrymen as revealed in unusual situations. Acutely sensitive to what he calls the “unhappy, tragic elements” of Chinese culture, Liu says, “When I am shooting pictures ostensibly depicting moments of relaxed leisure, I am really aiming to show that the persons in these scenes are neither relaxed nor happy.”