ILLUSTRATED:

Journal of Strawberry Generation, Aki Gallery, Taipei, 2009, color illustrated, p. 74

This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity issued by Aki Gallery, Taipei.

"Why shouldn't I do what I want?" Young people in Taiwan born in the post-1980 period tend to be heavily oriented towards "self-realization"; they pay a lot of attention to their appearance, and often display materialistic, hedonistic attitudes. At the same time, however, they frequently have rather fragile personalities, and are not good at coping with pressure. They may look impressive on the outside, but the whole edifice could come crumbling down at a single stroke. These are the people commonly referred to in Taiwan as the "Strawberry Generation."

Young artist Lo Chan-peng's series of "Strawberry" works have begun to attract a great deal of attention in art circles. These works fall into five main sub-series: "Journal of Strawberry Generation," "Youth Diary of Strawberry Generation," "Strawberry Generation - The Night Marching," "Strawberry Generation - The Super Smash," and "The Beauty Ode." Lo uses an ultra-realistic photo-realist style to record the sub-cultures of his generation. These works are more than simply a record of youth fashions; Lo seeks to draw the viewer into an exploration of another side of the members of the "Strawberry Generation," a side that is not usually visible to people who see them as being carefree and irresponsible.

The "Journal of Strawberry Generation" mostly takes young women as its subject matter. Those depicted are mainly the artist's friends, online acquaintances or girlfriends. Their appearance reflects the highly personalized nature of the way young people today dress and present themselves. However, closer examination reveals that their faces are covered with scars; wounds at the corners of their mouths are dripping blood. The effect is shocking; it seems to the viewer that the large pairs of dark glasses the women are wearing are intended to conceal their internal uncertainty and despair, their fragility and insecurity. Their tattoos, which resemble traditional Chinese paper-cuts, have strong cultural significance, hinting at the links with Chinese culture that the artist sees young people in Taiwan as possessing, and at the crisis of identity that they are experiencing in the face of globalization, which creates conflict and contradiction between their internal and external selves. By presenting his subjects in a highly ambiguous way, Lo Chan-peng has been able to record the special cultural atmosphere that the "Strawberry Generation" embodies, and has succeeded in utilizing art to reflect on the nature of the "self" for members of his generation.