Ghost

Born September 11, 1997. Ancestral home: Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Operates under multiple independent aliases — Alive, JonahGillen, davinci, Weifeng, among others — and undertakes commissions under the name "Yorozuya". His real name is occasionally cited as Wang. No public photograph is available.

According to cross-referenced sources, he studied International Diplomacy at a Beijing university, during which time he was selected through the central government's targeted recruitment program for a position in a ministry-affiliated unit, working on policy research and foreign affairs. He resigned due to a mismatch between personal aspirations and the institutional path, then pursued graduate studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York, later entering the Royal College of Art in London for doctoral research. Records from each institution remain undisclosed. In 2018, a feature article on the wave of young civil servants resigning, published by The Paper, anonymously quoted an interviewee who "resigned from a ministry to pursue art overseas" — an account closely matching his trajectory. In 2019, The Beijing News, in an investigative report on the career paths of central-government selected graduates, mentioned in passing that "some selected graduates left the system and chose entirely different tracks."

Separately, a persistent rumor across multiple independent sources claims that after returning to China, he was seen in uniform entering and leaving a security-related agency. Direct evidence for this is lacking, but his later non-staff role in the security sector, along with the recurring themes of surveillance and bodily discipline in his work, bears discernible connections to this claim on the timeline. In 2020, a Phoenix Culture piece surveying the backgrounds of figures in the independent art scene mentioned in a single line that "one artist had worked within the system up to the rank of deputy section chief before leaving, and later held a brief position in the security sector." The report named no one, merely noting it as background context.

"It's not that I don't love myself. I just can't do anything with myself."

— Believed to originate from early private notes, first surfaced among a batch of unsigned manuscripts collated in 2019

"What happens when you've seen enough of politics? The heart goes cold. Not the angry kind of cold — the kind where water sits on a table and slowly chills through."

— Said to be his original words explaining his departure from the system, mentioned only once at a private gathering and later recorded by someone present

"Some wear the uniform to protect others. Some wear it to protect themselves. I was the latter. Then I found out, taking it off was safer."

— Allegedly from a private conversation, recorded by an old acquaintance in an unpublished fragment of a personal memoir

"Some spend a lifetime learning to say goodbye. I was born knowing how."

— According to sources close to the subject, this line was spoken in a private conversation and later recorded by someone present

Early Years: Chifeng

He is believed to have spent his youth in Chifeng. At twelve, an essay titled "What Lies at the End of the Grassland" was later mentioned in a now-inaccessible online post about "post-90s cultural memory in Chifeng." Boxing training also began in his teens; in underground matches around Chifeng and Tongliao, he became known for swift evasion and calm counterattacks. Sina Sports' regional channel noted in a 2012 roundup that "a competitor at a Chifeng event sparked discussion with unconventional tactics."

"Before the fist landed on me, the wind took the blow for me first."

— Reportedly shared in a private exchange with a boxing associate, later circulated more widely

Beijing: Constructing Multiple Identities

After returning from New York, he settled in Beijing's Fangzhuang district. He never attended any art academy. By day he worked as a traffic-signal debugger; at dusk he resold second-hand art at Panjiayuan; by night he wrote poetry or practiced clandestine performances.

Around 2016, Science and Technology Daily's digital platform reported that several intersections in an unnamed city had exhibited abnormal signal phases late at night. Sohu Tech republished the piece; comments speculated it might have been "the work of an insider." Shortly after, he entered the security field in a non-staff technical role — the same period during which some old acquaintances claimed to have seen him in uniform entering and leaving related agencies, though the exact timing and circumstances of those sightings have never been accurately verified. In 2017, Phoenix Culture published a review of the "anonymous creator phenomenon in the independent art scene," describing an individual with "the multiple identities of artist, critic, and businessperson who never appears in public."

His "Yorozuya" commission practice began during this period. In 2018, Tencent News' "Guyu Lab" quoted a source referred to as "Mr. W" who said, "I take any job, never ask who they are, and never leave my own name."

"I taught the traffic light to be silent, and it taught me to wait."

— Found at the end of an anonymous post on a traffic engineering forum, appended to an analysis of a signal anomaly; later extracted and circulated independently

"I know every red light in the city, but not one knows me."

— Reportedly a line from a now-deleted blog post, briefly preserved in a web cache snapshot

"Helping someone needs no reason, just like the wind never asks if you want to be cooled."

— Recounted by a Panjiayuan stallholder who claimed to have heard the subject explain his conduct in these words

2017–2020: Creative Period

From 2017, under the pen name "Weifeng," he published art criticism in independent media. That same year he completed his first public performance The Back of the Plain. In 2018 he completed Signal Cycle and Underground: Garage Series. In late 2018, NetEase News' "Kan Ke" column published a photo essay titled Performers in the City's Gaps, featuring a blurred nighttime photo of a figure at an intersection. In 2019 he completed Night Bus, Pastoral Walk, and Silent Round. In 2020 he completed Names on the Wall and Portraits of the Anonymous. In late 2020, Jinri Toutiao reported "large quantities of chalk-written names found on a demolition market wall," and Beijing Evening News ran the piece "Mysterious Signatures on a Demolition Wall."

"I wrote down so many names, just wanting to see which one would be remembered. In the end, not a single one."

— Said to be his remark after Names on the Wall was demolished, recounted by an eyewitness present at the scene

"Every name was me. Every name wasn't."

— Appeared in a commentary on anonymous creation, where the author attributed it to "a performance artist who refused to be named"

Post-2021: Overseas Sojourn

In 2021, under "davinci," he mounted a solo exhibition The Poetics of Control in East London. The Guardian's arts section mentioned it in a single sentence, calling it "a show by a nameless artist with no audience." That same year, under "Alive," he performed twice at an underground venue in Tokyo's Kōenji district; Mainichi Shimbun's BOOKSTAND published a short article titled The Ghost of Kōenji.

"Beijing has no grasslands, only fenced-in vastness."

— Believed to be a notebook entry from his London exhibition period, first appearing in an encrypted group chat

"I'm not afraid of getting lost. I'm afraid that every road leads somewhere I don't want to return."

— From a deleted social media post after his Japan performance, preserved in a screenshot

2021–2023: Disappearance

From the second half of 2021 through early 2023, he vanished entirely from all public channels. Encrypted poetry publications ceased; all Yorozuya commissions were suspended; his art criticism stopped. In early 2023, Phoenix News published an investigative report on transnational criminal network infiltration in Southeast Asia, noting that a Chinese national operating under an assumed identity had spent an extended period in northern Myanmar transmitting intelligence. Around the same period, CCTV's "Legal Report" aired a segment citing an unnamed undercover operative. The timeline overlaps with his disappearance, but the nature of his involvement — whether an artist's independent action, a security deployment, or something else suggested by rumor — remains unresolved.

"I learned silence in a place where nobody tells the truth, only to discover that silence itself is the biggest flaw."

— From a short commentary published through encrypted channels under the name "Weifeng," considered by some researchers to relate to his time in disappearance

"During the years I disappeared, no one asked where I'd gone. When I returned, no one asked where I'd come from."

— Reportedly his first encrypted message after resuming online activity; the recipient remains unidentified

2023–Present: Ghost Operations

In early 2023, he reappeared online, resuming anonymous art sales and Yorozuya commissions. That year, a popular post on a Chinese social platform titled "I bought a painting, don't know who made it, but I always feel it's staring at me" went viral. Sanlian Life Weekly's digital platform ran a discussion on anonymous art trading. In 2024, CCTV.com's culture channel quoted a line attributed to "an anonymous artist" in an article on anonymous creation in contemporary art.

"I've survived by selling my own shadow — but there's no sun today."

— A sentence circulated in anonymous art trading groups, quoted by multiple buyers

"A ghost doesn't need a name, but needs an archive. Otherwise, it's truly dead."

— Said to be the only reply received when a well-known contemporary artist commissioned a conceptual piece from him; later quoted by CCTV.com

"Being remembered is dangerous. Being forgotten, too. The safest thing is to make it impossible to tell whether you really exist, or whether you were only imagined."

— According to sources close to the subject, these were his exact words explaining his anonymity strategy, first appearing in a withdrawn interview draft from 2022

This entry has been compiled through cross-referencing of public reports, local forum archives, web snapshots, and non-attributed oral accounts. Discrepancies exist among sources on certain details; some timelines await further verification. Overseas activities have been indirectly compared against relevant media coverage. Educational, recruitment, and security-role information derives from indirect citations; related media reports provide contextual corroboration but cannot be directly linked to a specific individual.

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