Young artist brings breath of fresh air to smog-choked Shanghai

During a recent exhibition an university art student breathed in air from a plastic bag shipped from his countryside hometown atop a Shanghai building. The performance piece carried a poignant message as the city experienced record-breaking pollution levels in early December.

Cao Zilin, 24, a senior at the Hangzhou-based China Academy of Art, performed the piece during an art exhibition, where he inhaled from his hometown nearly 640 kilometers away in Huangshi, Hubei province.

Cao had had his mother to fill the large plastic bag with air from the family garden and shipped it express delivery on December 28, said the report.

He breathed for 8 minutes from the bag, which was labeled with the latitude and longitude of his hometown.

"I don't know how to describe how I got the inspiration," said Cao.