Zhang Huan’s Dr. Bai Qiuen (2007) appropriates a historical documentary photograph of Norman Bethune, a Canadian thoracic surgeon whose legacy became deeply intertwined with China’s revolutionary history. A committed communist, Bethune arrived in China in early 1938, traveling to Yan'an, the Communist Party's revolutionary base, where he established a mobile surgical unit in North China’s interior. He spent the final years of his life operating on wounded soldiers—both Communist fighters and Japanese prisoners of war—before succumbing to septicemia after accidentally cutting himself during surgery. His selfless dedication led Mao Zedong to publish the influential essay In Memory of Norman Bethune (Bai Qiu'en), urging the Chinese people to adopt his spirit of "utter devotion to others without any thought of self."

Zhang Huan’s ASK series translates historical memory into monumental ash paintings, a technique that merges material and metaphor. Using the ashes of incense collected from Buddhist temples, Zhang builds ghostly, textured images that hover between presence and erasure. The material itself—imbued with prayers, offerings, and remnants of the past—reinforces the impermanence of life and the weight of collective memory. The ephemeral nature of the medium deepens the resonance of Bethune’s sacrifice, turning a documentary image into a layered meditation on devotion, loss, and historical mythmaking.