THE BACK: Reveal the Image of yourself<0}

　　<}0{>The very first time when I saw Xu Qin, he’s sitting right in front of a friend’s computer.<0}

　　<}0{>Internet and plug-in mobile Hard Drive, probably the most amazing and convenient inventions of this century, are simply impossible for us to live without them once we learn how to use. Even for a computer idiot like me, it's still inevitable to give a few clicks to chat with others. On the other hand, virus has been spreading everywhere with it's incredibly fast pace and entry, invading in our lives through the above two most common used channels-Internet and portable mobile device. Not much different from the virus in our real life, computer never feels pain but still breaks down without any sign. The break-down of the computer system always cause panic as what the system contains and might bring are way more than what our brain could contains. <0}.

　　Sitting in the shadow of the light with his back against me, this topless artist with a cigarette as well as a weird smile on this face is puffing out loads of smoke while staring at the monitor, making lots of noises with each and every fingers clicking on the keyboard as quick as he can. His behavior is way odder and more riddle than this infected computer itself, just like a riffraff with plenty of time to do nothing and also has nothing to lose.

　　The image of his back ended up appearing in Xu Qin's own work, a one-minute short video clip. In the first 25 seconds, he's still sitting in front of the computer with his back against the audiences as I saw first saw him. Instead of trying to fix my friend's computer which has been infected by virus, this time he's just concentrating on playing computer games. The monitor reflects pale light in front of him and from time to time some weird sounds can be heard from the fighting game he’s playing. After a second blackout, those images disappeared all of a sudden. The only thing remains is the image of a back, which leaves all of us a breath holding silence and a feeling how devoted this player is. He sits still, presumably looking at the monitor with glazy stare and nothing in mind. Electronic waves start to roll down on the screen as they are disturbing the signal, while the camera zooms out, we suddenly find the artist who was playing games turned into the image on the screen. Those characters in that fighting game vanishes, instead, the back of the artist turns in. There’s such a mess in front of the computer with coke bottles, plastic bottles, paper boxes and plastic bags scattered everywhere…... This work is called “Super Player”, which has attended the One-minute Video Exhibition in Amsterdam, Holland in 2006.

　　Later, I heard from my friend that Xu Qin is a genius in fixing problems with computer. Since then, I always ask him to play once again the "Super Player” whenever any of our computers in the office break down, in a good manner of being cost-efficient for us. After a while, the artist seemed to be really busy and I started to come across meeting some other "players"........ however, the first impression is always unforgettable and this typical back of a riffraff still impress me till now. 10 years ago when online writing just started to be popular, a book named “The first close relationship” written by a postgraduate student named “Riffraff Cai" majored in water resource in Taiwan has swept through the net and turned on a huge wave of online dating. Everyone started to fall in internet. This made me realized that "Super Player" is not just telling Xu Qin's own story or representing the life style of this young generation, including housewives, white collars, students, stockholders, etc. Today, our life become more or less relevant to and has been connected with this little screen. As the ending of "Super Player" turns each and every audience the back image which appear in the beginning of this video, but what will appear in the next second, probably even ourselves other than the artist himself.

　　Xu Qin also has worked with some other artists on many short films, “Fly”, for instance, which portrays a world from a fly's perspective; or “39 Seconds”, a story about a guy who jumped off the building and flying; or even “Perceive Me”, a special report mixing script, interview and video clips. The style varies, yet none of them has brought me to this emotional moment as this one did. The point is not how well "Super Player" is done, it is a reimage of my visual perception, resembles replay of the scene when I first saw the artist. I believe in this authentic and real feeling it brings out as they are usually too plain and close to the real life but still very touching.