Wenzhi Zhang’s “New Mankind” sculpture series are aimed to represent the disappointment on modern civilization and the hopeful imagination of the future civilization. The artist tries to overturn the old world, old culture and old mankind with her own artistic imagination and creation. She is determined to realize such a great artistic dream by surreal sculpture figures with "New Mankind” cultural connotations.

　　It is hard to say whether and how Wenzhi Zhang’s great artistic dream is culturally related to the “World of Universal Harmony” in an ideal society including Buddhism and modern technology described in the Box of Great Harmony by Kang Youwei. Even though the artistic dream of Wenzhi Zhang and the ideal society of Kang Youwei featured by “No countries, No monarchs, Everyone Is Equal and the Whole World as One Community” are both Utopian wishes to some extent, we would still have the urge to anticipate and embrace these ideas with enthusiasm and without hesitation. That is because in reality, we’re trapped in various types of paranoia and errors. Life is not always great; sometimes it might even be awful. What’s more, by embracing her artistic dreams, Wenzhi Zhang has created such romantic “New Mankind” with simple but bright colors, enriched and unique artistic imaginations, surreal shapes as well as innovative and active features, which cannot only inspire our endless imagination, but also motivate our enthusiasm for metaphysical thinking. This metaphysical thinking is a philosophic impulsion that is rooted in the nature of humans, yet it is constantly vanishing in the current tide of materialization. It should be noted that such enthusiasm and philosophic impulsion of metaphysical thinking is deeply rooted in Wenzhi Zhang’s works. Obviously, they are sourced from the pursuit of contemporariness by the artist as well as her thoughts on life from her rich experiences. Some people believe that a key problem for modern art is how to avoid being a formalistic romanticist, butWenzhi Zhang simply denies the entanglement of formalism against romanticism by such metaphysical thinking on “New Mankind”, which makes the romanticism of her “New Mankind” sculptures pure, simple and dignified.

　　For years, Wenzhi Zhang has been frequently traveling between China and the rest of the world. This has enriched her cultural experience and broadened her cultural vision. She constructs visual language of the “New Mankind”, explicates the social meanings of the “New Mankind” culture, and experiments with conveying the “New Mankind” sculpture forms with super-surrealism. These experiments are completely in line with her ideal of clashing while integrating Eastern and Western cultures- an ideal that she has practiced for years. It can be easily seen that her “New Mankind” sculpture figures quite vividly present the scenarios and features of the integration and co-existence of Eastern and Western cultures and arts. Her artistic imagination has been greatly benefited from Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing), recording the myths and legends from the ancient times to the Qin and Han Dynasty of China. The images and charms of her works have no doubt remained the traditional culture of Chinese freehand brushwork. There are not only the strangeness and elegance of the Bada Shanren, but also the simplicity, freshness, and frankness of Qi Baishi. The surreal images in high spirits are even the contemporary inheritance of the “Rhythmic Vitality” concept of the ancient Chinese aesthetics. On the other hand, she is able to use symbolism freely to relay information like Joan Miro and communicate with the audience through the natural artistic language that transcends time and space. She is skilled in communicating with people of all ages with raw and direct language styles like Jean Dubuffet. The “New Mankind” series are formed by the abstract point, line, plane, and a burst of color structure. The works are overflowing with the sense of freedom and innocence, thus making the viewer cheerful, just like works of Miro. They can also express the strongest feelings of mankind as well as the sacredness of all worldly creatures like Dubuffet. Obviously, it does not mean that the romantic "New Mankind” artistic style of Wenzhi Zhang is a replication of the styles of Bada Shanren, Qi Biashi, Miro or Dubuffet. It can only indicate that such mixed and internationalized artistic style is the manifestation of the cultural insights of these artists. To some extent, this represents a trend of the human culture in such an age of globalization.