Beautiful, But What Does It Mean?

I feel like I’m missing something with Wang Qingsong’s China Kaleidoscope series (NSFW due to a bunch of artistic nudity). The huge panoramic shots are gorgeous and obviously set up and posed with great care. I don’t quite understand the story though. I recognize a lot of poses from some classic artworks in the final one. Maybe the others are a similar kind of thing (?) or maybe there’s just a cultural chasm that I can’t quite get across. via