Wayfarer of distant highlands

The Xizang autonomous region has entered one of its most pleasant, travel-friendly seasons of the year. If he were still alive, artist Li Xiaoke would likely be strolling beneath the sun near the Potala Palace in Lhasa and sipping traditional sweet tea at a corner shop in the bustling Barkhor Bazaar. Or, he would join groups of people trekking the sacred mountains and lakes.

Li regarded Xizang as his "second hometown" and a spiritual sanctuary, says his wife, Liu Ying.

In the late 1980s, Li developed a deep connection with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. He traveled extensively in Xizang and highland areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, reaching the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai where the Yellow River originates, and the Tangula Mountains along the Qinghai-Xizang border, the source of the Yangtze River.

He journeyed to the highlands more than once a year. Yet, he often described it as a distant destination that remained just beyond reach, no matter how closely he attempted to approach it.

His effort to narrow that distance — which he believed represented change, loss and eternity — came to an end in April 2021, when he passed away at age 76.

Since then, his family has held a commemorative exhibition every spring at the Ke Space run by the Li Keran Art Foundation. Li hailed from a prominent artist family. His father, Li Keran (1907-89), is considered one of the foremost reformers of classical Chinese painting in the 20th century while his mother, Zou Peizhu (1920-2015), was a sculptor and dedicated educator.

This year, the Li family is presenting Far Horizons . The Wayfarer — In the Footsteps of Li Xiaoke, running until June 21 at the Culture and Art Center of Fangzhuang, nestled in a quiet neighborhood in southern Beijing.

The exhibition features dozens of snapshots Li Xiaoke took in the highland areas over nearly three decades, alongside prints and ink paintings. His images portray blooming peach trees and vast green fields beneath snowcapped mountains, riverside salt wells, and white-walled Tibetan-style homes perched along mountain slopes.

Li Xiaoke said photography allowed him to express how profoundly the plateau moved him spiritually, and that it was, in some ways, "no less significant than painting".

According to Liu, Li Xiaoke visited the plateau 34 times after his first trip at the age of 44.

"Every time he went there, he felt exhilarated and refreshed as if it were his very first time," she says.