Anecdote: A Unique Vermilion
01: Unfinished Work: Thomas has set up an art exhibition, but Qi Yu’s final piece is not ready. Upon searching for Qi Yu, Thomas finds him in a storage room, building a fortress of fish bones. Qi Yu says he can’t paint, and Thomas suggests they use the fortress as installation art, since people will pay to see his work either way. Qi Yu points out that it’s 2000 pieces, so there’s not much chance of that. Since Qi Yu is decidedly unhelpful, Thomas goes to see what else he’s been up to. The piece currently in the studio is lovely but according to a distressed Qi Yu, it is “missing a color.” When Qi Yu threatens to burn the painting if Thomas tries to move or show the unfinished piece, Thomas gives him three days to finish it.
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02: Missing Color: Thomas is under pressure to guarantee that Qi Yu has a piece set up for the exhibition, but reminds the sponsor that according to Qi Yu’s usual temper, no one can see his work until the exhibition opens. Upon being asked if the painting is finished, Qi Yu is visibly frustrated. Thomas’s offer to go to a friend’s pigment factory is immediately rejected. Thomas knew that would probably be the response, and allows himself to recall a time “when he was still passionate about art.”
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03: Passionate Colors: Thomas and Qi Yu have pieces showing at the same charity event; despite his own usual confidence, he can see that Qi Yu’s work is more unique, though he can’t quite tell why. After having his ego sufficiently busted, he “(lets) himself visit Qi Yu.”
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04: Carefree Painter: Thomas meets with Qi Yu, but Qi Yu doesn’t appear to understand what Thomas means by ‘brands’ and instead asks if he wants to learn from him. But Thomas wants to know what’s going on, so he offers to make Qi Yu even more famous; Qi Yu tells him, “I don’t paint for fame.”
Back in the present, Thomas waxes somewhat lyrical about how he decided to switch to study business so he could be Qi Yu’s manager, that he was stunned with his work, and believed in his talent, but even as he walks Qi Yu is walking away down the beach.
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05: Drastic Measures: With two days left, Thomas tries to sneak into Qi Yu’s studio to effectively steal the painting; Qi Yu informs him that if “that painting moves even one centimeter, (he) will light it on fire.”
Qi Yu has apparently been sleeping on a board in the studio; he’s decided that a conch will be able to provide the color he’s missing, though it will take at least three days to get the paint out. Thomas, distressed, has to move on with the exhibition; he has a plan, but it’s not great.
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06: A Unique Legend: Three days after the exhibition, Thomas sits in the studio and watches him paint. At the event, he hung a frame on the wall and named it and called it a day. Getting closer, Thomas tells Qi Yu that he can’t tell the difference between the ‘claret violet’ from a factory and the color Qi Yu has extracted from ten thousand conches: ‘Tyrian purple,’ used only by ancient royal families.
He tells Qi Yu that technology can create that same color; Qi Yu asks if he remembers looking for the vermilion he was once searching for. Thomas reminds him that he gave up looking for it, and “besides, no matter how much (he tries, he) could never mix a color as great as (Qi Yu’s.)” He wonders how a unique vermilion could even exist, now, and Qi Yu explains that it isn’t just about the ingredients and the labor cost.
“No matter how much these people mix or tweak their pigments, they will always be confined to a set of rules. The color they make no longer comes from a unique bug. Just like how claret violet doesn’t come from a unique conch.”
Thomas considers how old paintings are considered priceless because of scarcity; no one can reproduce the works, and so they are unique. “There’s nothing more precious than being one of a kind in this world. The same goes for color.”
A few months later, at another exhibition, a young artist says that there’s no difference between Qi Yu’s paint and his own. Thomas explains that “Qi Yu extracted (the) singularly unique color from ten thousand conches, completely different from the manufactured one in (his) painting. That’s what makes (the) shade fantastical, and that’s one of the reasons why Qi Yu is legendary.”