Summer is a paradise for cicadas, singing heartily in trees and bushes. Young cicadas break through the soil in the evening after the beginning of the hottest part of the summer. They climb on the low weeds or shrubs nearby and molt to be adults. The cicada slough left behind can be used as medicine, which becomes a seasonal income for Chinese people. It doesn’t take much physical strength or many skills to collect cicadas. Just go to the weeds and branches in the fields and carefully pick them up. Morning is the best time for this activity, and willow trees grown on the riverbank are the best places. Zong’s Pick up Cicada Slough on Riverbank depicts the scene where pedestrians pick up cicada slough at the Ganlan Dam in Xishuangbanna. People look up or down, glancing from the root to the waist of trees. After picking up the lower ones and readily put them into a bag they knock the higher ones down with a long bamboo pole. If the objects are beyond the poles’ reach, they climb up the trees to knock them down. Blue and clear waves fill an expanse of the painting, and on the left the dam is seen to be covered by green plants. On the winding path in the middle, the cicada pickers dressed in Xishuangbanna’s national costumes are in careful search with long poles. Zong’s works are close to people’s life and never stick to one pattern. In his works, we feel the strong flavor of life.

(Edited by Li Hanning & Yang Zhige, 2021)