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Zhou Xiaohu

  • About
  • Biography
  • Exhibitions
    • Group Exhibition
    • Project
    • How Art Museum
  • Artworks
    • Installation
    • Photography
    • Video
  • Articles
  • Zhou Xiaohu
  • Birthdate: 1960
    Birthplace: China | Jiangsu
    Gender: Male
    About:
    Zhou Xiaohu (b. 1960, Changzhou) is a pioneer of video animation in China . Zhou began using computers as an artistic tool in 1998. As one of China's most well-known most prolific contemporary artists, he specializes in inducing confusion and bafflement, making viewers question the evidence of their senses and their assumptions about the so-called 'facts'. He has since experimented with stop-frame video animation, video installation and computer-gaming software, whereby the interlayering of images between moving pictures and real objects has become his signature style. Working across performance, photography, installation, sculpture, video, and animation, Zhou's practice reflects the documentation and misunderstanding of history in a digital age.

    The artist ZHOU Xiaohu has attended group exhibitions including the Shanghai Biennale (2000); China Rushes, Hamburger Bahnhof National Museum, Berlin, Germany (2001); Between past and Future, International Center of Photogrphy, New York, USA (2004); the Utopia Machine, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the First Seville Biennial in Spain (2004); Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (2006); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria, and Kunst museum Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2007); the 8th Gwangju Biennial (2010); Not Soul For Sale, Tate modern turbin hall, Londong, UK (2010); Barbican Art Gallery, London,UK, and the National Art Museum of China (2011); The fourth Guangzhou Triennial-Grangdview project, Guangzhou, China (2012); Panorama: Recent Art from Contemporary Asia, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2012); White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia (2013); Harmonious Society, Asia Triennial, Manchester, UK (2014).Zhou Xiaohu Solo Exhibition，MOMENTUM,Germany (2015); Chimera，Zhou Xiaohu Solo Exhibition, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, China (2016). The 2nd Bangkok Art Biennale(2020).
    In addition, ZHOU Xiaohu's animation works have been exhibited at the 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam in Netherland, and the 56th Festival International Film locarno-Video Installation Show in Switzerland. He won the Experimental Video Gold Award in the 36th World Fest-Houston International Film Festival; the CCAA Award (2002, 2006); and Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst Awards (2014).
    Education:
    1989    Sichuan Fine Arts Institute
  • Biography

  • Selected Solo Exhibitions

     

    2019  Me & Beuys·Zhou Xiaohu.Hao Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

    2018  Get lost in the landscape, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China.

    2016  Misinterpret, Zhou Xiaohu Solo Exhibition.Hao Art Museum,Wenzhou,China.

    2016  Chimera， Zhou Xiaohu Solo Exhibition. Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum， Shanghai, China.

    2015  Scheisse， Zhou Xiaohu Solo Exhibition & Video Bureau presenting Zhou Xiaohu， MOMENTUM, Germany.

    2012  Project 35 -Utopian Machine， Richard E. Peeler Art Center， IN， US.

    2012  Position - ZhouXiaohu's solo exhibition, Art-Ba-Ba Mobile Space, Shanghai, China.

    2011  Zhou Xiaohu's Solo Show, ART BASEL 42, Switzerland.

    2010  WORD CHAINS， zhou xiao hu solo show, Long March Space, Beijing, China.

    2009  Military Exercises Camp, Zhou Xiaohu's Solo Show, Biz Art Central, Shanghai, China.

    2009  Concentration Training Camp, Long March Space, Beijing, China.

    2008  Zhou Xiaohu's Solo Show, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA.

    2007  Renown, Zhou Xiaohu's Solo Show, Biz Art Central, Shanghai, China.

    2005  Zhou Xiaohu's Solo Show, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, New York, USA.

     

    Selected Group Exhibitions

     

    2022  MENTAL: Colours of Wellbeing， ArtScience Museum Singapore, Singapore

    2022  In the Line of Flight-for Possible Worlds, Deji Art Museum, Nanjing, China.

    2022  For A Bigger Picture, APSMUSEUM， Shanghai, China.

    2022  Homage-The Golden Age Never Gone, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Art, Nanjing, China.

     

    2021  For Immediate Release, MEET Digital Culture Center, Milan, Italy.

    2021  City on the Edge: Art and Shanghai at the Turn of the Millennium, UCCA Edge, Shanghai, China.

    2021  Back to Back, Center for Cross Culture (CCC), Shanghai, China.

    2021  M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation，M+ Museum,Hongkong,,China.

     

    2020  El Lissitzky's Rooms，Surplus space, Wuhan,China.

    2020  Escape Routes: the 2nd Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok,Thailand.

    2020  Transfor Mation: Beijing Minsheng Modern Art Museum, Beijing, China.

    2020  Waves - collections and documents exhibition of Shanghai Biennale， PSA， Shanghai, China.

    2020  Joint construction, Jinji Lake Art Museum, Suzhou, China.

     

    2019  Third Realm,Museum of Contemporary Photography of Columbia College Chicago, USA.

    2019  Advent: Inventing Landscape, Qianshao Contemporary Art Center, Shanghai,China.

    2019  Elemental Dynamite, Experimental animation festival, Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, Hong Kong, China.

    2019  THEN.The first ten years of the White Rabbit, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

    2019  First Airport Biennale, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, Guangzhou, China.

     

    2018  This is Shanghai, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool, UK.

    2018  Parallelism Shanghai, Ke Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

    2018  Ballade-AnimaMIX Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China.

    2018  Screen Refreshing/Labor, Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China.

     

    2017  Frontier, Re-assessment of Post-Globbalisational Politics, OCAT Shanghai, China.

    2017  Crossing, AMNUA 5th Anniversary Exhibition, Nanjing, China.

    2017  Extension at Sea Joint Exhibition, China art museum Shanghai, China.

    2017  Mirroring, Aegean Place Public Art Project, Shanghai, China.

    2017  Shanghai Galaxy II， YUZ Museum， Shanghai, China.

    2017  The Exhibition of Annual of Contemporary Art of China 2016, Beijing Minsheng Art Museum, China.

    2017  2nd Changjiang international image Biennale, Chongqing Changjiang Museum of Contemporary,China.

     

    2016  Technologies of Violence - Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, Spain.

    2016  The 3rd. Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale, Shenzhen OCT, China.

    2016  Why the Performance? Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

    2016  Time test: The study of international video art. The central academy of fine arts gallery, Beijing, China.

    2016  6+1Public project, Shanghai huaxin center, , Shanghai,Chian.

    2016  Before the Beginning and After the End II - Long March Space, Beijing, Chian.

    2016  Chinese Contemporary Art Collection - Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, China.

    2016  WE, About the power of the Chinese contemporary artist, chiK11 Museum, Shanghai, China.

     

    2015  The invention ceremony, Shenzhuan Road No.5808, Shanghai, China.

    2015  CHINA8, Mülheim Museum, Düsseldorf Museum ,Germany.

    2015  Not on the scene, Nanjing Arts Institute Gallery, China.

    2015  Click-Off: Contemporary moving image art from China

     

    2014  The Second Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennale, Shenzhen OCT, China.

    2014  Parallel Universes, Shanghai Minsheng 21st Century Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

    2014  Casino Weltgetriebe Dorf, Halle 4, Hamburg Oberhafen, Hamburg ,Germany.

    2014  Harmonious Society, Asia Triennial, Manchester, UK.

    2014  Sweet Dew-since 1980， Gwangju City Art Museum, Korea.

    2014  PANDAMONIUM, MOMENTUM Berlin, Germany.

    2014  La Biblioteca Y El Saber,San Sebastian Kultur Zentroari, Spain.

    2014  Without Reality There Is No Utopia - Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA.

     

    2013  Pessimism or Resistance? Taikang Space, Beijing, China.

    2013  Innenansichten - Ökonomisierung des Privaten, Goden Eagle Contemporary Art Center, Nanjing, China

    2013  The Garden of Forking Paths, OCT Contemporary Art, Centre, Shanghai, China.

    2013  Serve the People, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia.

    2013  Spectacle Reconstruction, Center Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen, Hungary.

     

    2012  Discreet Charm of Bourgeoisie, Taipei Yi&C Contemporary Art, Taipei, China.

    2012  The fourth Guangzhou Triennial--Grandview project, Guangzhou, China.

    2012  The Human Condition in Painting and Photography, Deutsches Museum, Germany.

    2012  Edit - Image Fetish and Phobia, ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai.

    2012  Panorama: Recent Art from Contemporary Asia - Singapore Art Museum, Singapore.

    2012  Project 35 - Kunsthaus Centre Pasqu Art - Centre d'Art, Biel/Bienne, New York,USA.

     

    2011  The Art of Deceleration ,Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany.

    2011  My Communism.Top Building. Shanghai, China.

    2011  Daft, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China.

    2011  Sin realidad no hay utopía - Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Sevilla,

    2011  Twenty years of Chinese Image Art, Minsheng Art Museum,Shanghai,China.

    2011  Watch Me Move: The Animation Show, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK.

    2011  40th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands.

    2011  Selections from Projects 35: International Video, New Orleans Museum of Art NOMA, USA

    2011  21st Century: Art in the First Decade, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia.

     

    2010  8th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju Art Museum, Korea.

    2010  Community of Tastes, Contemporary Art Museum Chile/ Sao Paulo, Chile/ Brazil.

    2010  The State of Things, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China.

    2010  Not Soul For Sale, Tate Modern turbine hall, London, UK.

    2010  Double Infinity, Dutch Culture Centre, 800show Shanghai, China. 

    2010  Looking Through Film, He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen, China.

     

    2009  The State of Things, BOZAR Bruxelles, Belgian.

    2009  Bourgeoisified Proletariat, Shanghai Songjiang Creative Studio, China.

    2009  Reversed Images, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA.

    2009  Shanghype! Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, USA.

     

    2008  Chinese Freedom, T Space, Beijing, China.

    2008  eArts festival Shanghai, China.

    2008  China: Construction/Deconstruction, The Museum of Art Sao Paolo, Brazil.

    2008  UNITED in Art, The DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University, USA.

    2008  Insomnia. photographs exhibition, BizArt, Shanghai, China.

    2008  China Gold, Musee Maillol, Paris, France.

    2008  The end has no end, Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai, China.

    2008  Building Code Violation-2, Long March Space, Beijing, China.

     

    2007  IN MY SOLITUDE, AEROPLASTICS contemporary, Brussels, Belgium.

    2007  China – Facing Reality, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Austria.

    2007  Geopolitics of Animation, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo Sevilla, Spain.

    2007  New Asian Waves, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany.

    2007  The real thing, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.

     

    2006  The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia.

    2006  12/Chinese Contemporary Art Awards Exhibition, Shanghai Zhengda Museum of Art, China. 

    2006  38 Solo Exhibitions, Creative Garden 2577, Shanghai, China.

    2006  Building Code Violation, Long March Space, Beijing, China.

    2006  Never Go Out Without My DV cam – Video art from China, Fundación ICO, Madrid, Spain.

    2006  The New Urban Realities, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

     

    2005  Regeneration Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe / Phoenix, USA.

    2005  City_net Asia 2005, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea.

    2005  A Strange Heaven, Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland.

    2005  Focus op China-Tolerance & Identity, The Free Academy of Visual Arts Hague, Netherlands.

    2005  Back into Future,Kunsthalle Faust, Hannover,Germany.

    2005  Mahjong, Kunst museum Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

    2005  Express, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China.

    2005  Parallel Zones,Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, China.

     

    2004  Shanghai Surprise,Lothringer13 – St.dtische Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany.

    2004  The Chinese,wolfsburg Kunst museum ,Germany.

    2004  First Seville Biennial, The Monastery of Santa Maria, Seville, Spain.

    2004  Between Past and Future, International Center of Photography, New York, USA.

    2004  Failure of Beauty/The Beauty of Failure, Miro Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.

    2004  21st World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam Film Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    2004  China, the body everywhere? The Museum of Contemporary Art Marseille， France.

    2004  China Now, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.

    2004  OUT THE WINDOW - Spaces of distraction, The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan.

     

    2003  Left Wing, Left Bank Community, Beijing, China.

    2003  NEW ZONE-CHINESE ART, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

    2003  Dusseldorf art Exhibition 2003,Museum Kunst Palast,Dusseldorf,Germany.

    2003  A Strange Heaven, Rudolfinum Art Museum, Prague, Czech.

    2003  56. Festival International Film locarno-Video Installation Show, Switzerland.

    2003  The 36th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, Houston, USA.

    2003  Aubes-Reveries au bord de victor hugo, Maison de victor hugo, Paris, France.

     

    2002  Video Art from Asia, Nikolaj Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen, Denmark.

    2002  The First Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China.

    2002  Mirage Ⅰ, Suzhou Art Museum, Suzhou, China.

    2002  Golden Autumn, Zagreb National Museum, Zagreb， Croatia.

    2002  Contemporary art from China, Kuppersmuhle Museum, Duisburg, Germany.

    2002  4th Annual Video Marathon, Art in General, New York, USA.

    2002  Money and Value/The Last Taboo, Swiss National Bank, Switzerland.

    2002  Future of the New Asia, Kuanhoon Gallery, Seoul, Korea.

     

    2001  UP-ricing, Hong Kong Outer Space Museum, Hong Kong, China.

    2001  China Rushes, Hamburger Bahnhof National Museum, Berlin, Germany.

    2001  Non-linear Narrative, Gallery of National Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China. 

    2001  Excess  Asia-Pacific New Media Art Festival, Brisbane, Australia.

     

    2000  Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China.

     

    Awards 

    2002、2006 CCAA Award

    2003 The 36th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival-- Experimental Video Gold Award

    2014 Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst Awards


  • Exhibitions
    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      You as Me, Hold the Gaze
      Feb 17, 2023 - Oct 12, 2023
      Curator: Xu Tianyi
      Artists: Markus Lüpertz, aaajiao, LLND, Oreet Ashery, Darren Almond, Hu Yun, Carsten Nicolai, Li Binyuan, Lee Yongbaek, Lin Ke, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Wei, Shi Yong, Lu Lei, Tong Wenmin, Tobias Rehberger, Yang Jiecang, Ye Linghan, Yu Ji, Zhang Peili, Zhou Xiaohu, Li Liao, Lee Bul
      • Group Exhibition, How Art Museum
    • Me & Beuys · Zhou Xiaohu
      Me & Beuys · Zhou Xiaohu
      Dec 12, 2019 - Mar 15, 2020
      Curator: Du Xiyun
      Artist: Zhou Xiaohu
      • Project, How Art Museum
  • Artworks
  • Articles

    • You as Me, Hold the Gaze

      2023-06-13 By Xu Tianyi

      My age, my beast, who will ever

      Look into your eyes.

      And with his own blood glue together

      The backbones of two centuries?

      Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

      The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

      It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

      You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

      However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    • The Logic of Data Cannibalism

      2019-11-08 By Du Xiyun

      The Detective Project-To Chase One's Tail Training, implemented by Zhou Xiaohu in August of 2008 is a premeditated monitoring test. After signing separate contracts and paying the required fees, 10 private investigators from 10 different private detective firms got busy playing the game designed by their employer, Zhou Xiaohu. Each of the investigators immediately began the serious investigative work by following the person appointed by his or her employer without ever knowing that he or she is being investigated and followed at the same time. Only their employers, who are in receiving a steady stream of reports and looking down on them from above, know that this is a loop of information that feeds on itself: everyone is snooping and collecting information about someone, yet everyone is also being snooped on and having their information collected.

      Detective Project-To Chase One's Tail Training was conducted in crowded shopping malls and subway stations. Ten busy investigators were paid according to their investigative abilities according to the contract they signed before the investigation. After aesthetic transformation, the artist Zhou Xiaohu posited the process of the entire operation into the museum, a space for viewing and reflection, which raises a series of questions: Which channels and methods can personal information be obtained without having been publicly disclosed? What is the client's reaction when he finds that he is being investigated and followed by another private detective company? What will happen when the information of the parties is published without their knowledge? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" When the investigator is also the respondent, and when the investigator finds they are also being investigated, and everyone becomes aware that they are both the investigator and the respondent, what subtle changes will happen to the questions asked?

      As circumstances change with the passage of time, the technology implemented in Detective Project-To Chase One's Tail Training has already become outdated, but the basic logic of the situation and the issues addressed all relevant to contemporary life and continue to on in the form of video surveillance, facial recognition, big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence. Of course, it can also be that these prickly topics have been smoothed out by new life experiences…

    [Synopsis] You as Me, Hold the Gaze

    By Xu Tianyi 2023-06-13

    My age, my beast, who will ever

    Look into your eyes.

    And with his own blood glue together

    The backbones of two centuries?

    Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) wrote down the poem The Age (1923) at the beginning of the 20th century. While expressing his visions and hopes for the age, it also shed light on the conflicts between "poet and his time". In another poem he wrote later, it read: "No, I am no one's contemporary". (1924)

    The Age as quoted in Giorgio Agamben's What Is the Contemporary? and Alain Badiou's The Century . In What Is the Contemporary?, Agamben explained "The contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness. All eras, for those who experience contemporariness, are obscure." Badiou, when quoting the poem at the end of the 20th century, pointed out that Mandelstam's "beast" as a newborn and fragile presence was doomed to be transient. What Badiou was trying to break was exactly this "backbone". 

    It is widely acknowledged that the 20th century was a century of division. And to gain insights into such "division" takes not only knowledge of what happened in this century, but also of what the people of this century were thinking. If we merely label things that happened without probing into what the people of the century were thinking, we can neither get to truly know the present nor prevent things from repeating themselves. In this same logic, this century would have nothing to with the "future" since its very beginning. 

    You and I as people of some experience of the contemporary are the minimum unit to constitute the complex and multi-layered veins of time of contemporaneity. Hence we shall not follow linear time to describe the nature of things. The exhibition on view, as celebration of the fifth anniversary of the HOW Art Museum (Shanghai), features over 30 pieces of installations and videos by more than 20 artists both at home and from abroad including Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Zhang Peili, Lin Tianmiao, Markus Lüpertz and Carsten Nicolai. Different from the usual curatorial approach that follows a linear timeline to present the works within museum collection, the exhibition follows the principle of "contemporary is he who firmly holds his gaze on his own time". Under the title "You as Me", "you" and "I" are the core of the dialogue with the space, to fill up the absence of subject and scene, reflect upon the tragedies of the century, build connections between contemporary events and past reference, define time from a sociological perspective, treat the "contemporary" as a dividing point between the past and the future, disrupt and reverse language on the cultural level through social installation, rethink of the cultural representations beyond the physical body to confront the fragmented digital world, and morph into an organic life form that cannot be written off in this digital world. 

    However, the attempt to construct non-linear histories through creative reassemblages of time is in itself trapped in the modern view of history. The underlying narratives among different works are merely judgements based on information fed to us from the outside. You and I need to firmly hold our gaze so as to perceive not its light, but rather its darkness.

    Related Artists aaajiao , LLND , Oreet Ashery , Darren Almond , Hu Yun , Lee Bul , Li Liao , Carsten Nicolai , Lee Yongbaek , Li Binyuan , Lin Ke , Lin Tianmiao , Liu Wei , Shi Yong , Markus Lüpertz , Lu Lei , Tong Wenmin , Tobias Rehberger , Yang Jiecang , Zhang Peili , Yu Ji , Ye Linghan , Zhou Wendou , Zhou Xiaohu ,









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