If there are images in this attachment, they will not be displayed.
Download the original attachment
Chinese Contemporary Artists--------------grow from single cultural
identity to multicultural identity

Catherine Qu

When we set the vertical timeline for Chinese art history into the
21st century, a lot of terms need to be newly explained, or you can
say, some of them have developed into further contents. Cultural
identity is exactly the one among them. With the increasing cultural
exchanges between the east and west, some of the Chinese artists come
to foreign countries to further their study while some of them, though
lived in China, come to develop a very good command of what happened
in the western art world.

Based on the above situation, we can start to talk about the
cultural identities of these artists. If we divide the dimension of
cultural identity into the following three kinds:

First of all, artists who based their lives and works in China can be
defined to live in the first dimension.

Secondly, artists who are foreigners who set their research branches
in China can be defined to live in the second dimension.

Thirdly, artists who have deep roots in China while migrate to foreign
countries come back to see China in a distance can be defined to live
in the third dimension.

Then we can apply the above divisions to contemporary Chinese art,
we can say that most artists are based on the third dimension. They
have both traditional Chinese and westernized education background and
switch their residences between foreign countries and China. So how do
they see China from switching themselves among being native Chinese,
foreigners, and overseas return group? And what happened during this
process?

Let's take individual examples to find the answer.

Xu Bing, who got his MA from China Fine Art Academy, migrated to the
U.S. in 1990, had a grand individual show through which he rewrote
some of the Chinese characters by English letters. This seems to be an
excellent example. As is known by all, calligraphy had long been a
cherished art form in Chinese art history before the contemporary art
period. Nowadays, with the emergence of electronics, more and more
Chinese people have got used to type characters and show characters by
slide. What's more, few contemporary art works are done by calligraphy
as Zhang Jianjun said:" To be sure, Chinese calligraphy is difficult
for Westerners to understand. However, the Chinese calligraphy world
is very traditional, and has not expanded its own work into
contemporary art. So it is not that contemporary art does not accept
calligraphy, but that the traditional calligraphy artists have not
gone into the contemporary art world." Thus, the calligraphy market
seems to be shrinking. However, there are a few contemporary artists
that use calligraphy as a tactic to translate into their art works
recently and one of them is Xu Bing. I think Xu Bing knew this
situation well, and he himself might be a good calligrapher. That is
because he stood on the first dimension, so he got to learn the
situation. After this, he started thinking the reason for this
shrinking market in the position of a foreigner. He was supposed to
ask himself what was the reason that lied behind this phenomenon. The
answer was easy to find. For the contemporary Chinese art, the biggest
market is the overseas market, and the foreigners cannot read the
characters nor can they get to know the deeper ideas behind them.
That's the information which can be learned from the second demotion.
So Xu Bing developed this new style---------using English letters to
rewrite Chinese characters. This process can be divided into two
parts. In the first place, foreigners did not see the characters as
Chinese, but a mass combination of English letters which they were
familiar with. On the second place, they reorganized them and tried to
make sense on their own interpretation. Through this process, the
English letters turned out to be one tiny part of a Chinese Character,
after this process was done; they were not English letters any more.
It is interesting to learn how Xu Bing developed such a good idea.
Actually, he expressed in one of his interviews that he knew most of
the westerners have a lot of interests in Chinese Calligraphy;
however, they lack access to learn the meaning and content of behind
every character. So he got the inspiration to introduce Chinese
calligraphy to western countries by repacking them. This was for sure
a good transition for the Chinese calligraphy to enter the
international art market.

Gu Wenda, anther calligraphy artist also shared the same skill as Xu
Bing, they both created installations which surrounded the viewer
with facsimiles of Chinese script. By doing so they became tricksters
playing a double conceptual game. They forced their audiences to move
from one culture to another. Their characters were unreadable for both
the Chinese and non-Chinese viewers; it is also unknowable whether the
texts were real or fake for both Chinese and non-Chinese
audiences."The concept of an unidentified Chinese language could have
been interpreted by Chinese viewers to support a myth of lost culture
or history; it could also have been interpreted by non-Chinese as
misunderstandings of exotic beauty."

Another two representative examples can be defined into a different
group as compared to Xu Bing and Gu Wenda, they were done by Qiu
Zhijie and Zhang Huan. Zhijie's work was called Lan Ting Xu. He wrote
a very famous Chinese essay from Jin Dynasty again and again in the
paper until all parts of the paper turned out to be total black. Zhang
Huan's work, which I think can be defined as a performance show, was
done by painting Chinese calligraphy on his head again and again until
his head was all covered. I put the two examples together because I
think they share much of the similarity. Based on the same situation
as Xu Bing, they linked calligraphy to be the material of their
performance show. They liberated art from specific working space like
desk and showed that calligraphy can be a modern material for doing
artwork. Their works were a good transformation of calligraphy art as
well.

Apart from calligraphy field, there are other fields where artists
stand on the third dimension and reflect they artwork on the content
of the first dimension.

For example, "the life of the peasants" is another long lasting
theme both in Cultural Revolution period and the contemporary art
period.

During the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution period,
peasants are always portrayed with PLA soldiers to show the harmony
between two parties as an illustration for Chairman Mao's so called
successful ideology.

In contemporary art field, the contents of peasants' life are
interpreted different. For example, Luo Zhongli's famous oil painting
"father" portrayed famers in such a realism and ugly way which was
attacked at that time for painting peasants into animal-like
appearance.

In the year 2010, Cai Guoqiang, another overseas Chinese
contemporary artist, hold an exhibition on the content of peasants'
life in the newly-built Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. This is such
an unconventional exhibition that I want to spare some time to talk
about. On the first floor, it is an exhibition hall where fifty kites
were audio-video installed. Within the exhibition hall, the wind from
a fan sways gently in the air, and projected onto each kite is the
story of a peasant invention.

What's more, Cai Guoqiang did a good job installing the room with
the simulation sound from the farm where locusts are singing in clear
voice. He multiplies the forms of this art work.

On the Second floor, there is a bunch of robots created by peasant
inventors. They are painting, walking, dancing and doing jobs
everywhere.

On third floor, a lot of planes rested on a fine grass where you are
supposed to find birds flying here and there. As Cai Guoqiang:" I want
to find the creativity of individual peasants in China, their
contributions to modernization, and the reality of their situation
today." These planes also correspond to the slogan outside the museum
which says:"What's important isn't whether you can fly."

The highlight of the exhibition is its theme, Cai Quangqiang showed
a unique insight into peasants life. He not only found the unusual
parts of the peasants and transformed them into such unconventional
and fantastic art forms. In this exhibition, Cai Guoqiang also gave
response to the Shanghai Expo by linking the slogan "Peasants-Making a
better city, a better life." The slogan was right outside the museum
and gives every visitor a shock, which comes with a really impressive
art show.

If we analyze the story, we can found that he interpreted the story
on the third dimension as well. Westerns have interests in Chinese
peasants' life, but again, they did not have enough access to learn.
By giving a eternalized title of this exhibition, and all the
high-tech installations, Cai Guoqiang did a good job in making his
artwork trans-nationalism.

"National flags" is also a field which Chinese artists like to do
something on it. During the Mao Years, the national flag of American
was always portrayed as the enemy that PLA solders would like to
fight. During the first field trip of this class, we went to a
underground museum which was filled with the propaganda from Mao's
times. All the national flags painted in these propagandas showed
strong emotion of hatred.

This emotion was inherited into the contemporary art world. In one
of the exhibition called Supermarket Exhibition which was held in
Guangzhou, the nation flags of the U.S were made into towels. The
artist use this special form to demonstrate his political ideas for
transformation and communication in modern culture

The last field I want to mention is the "TV news program". The CCTV
news program started in the year 1978 under the control of the
communist party. According to this principle, all the news that
announce in the program, should served the party and the communist.
Even the news announcers are carefully selected. The faces of the two
announcers have become national symbols since then. They seem to
represent the governments' statement and orders. So when Li Jianhua
who is a video installation artist based in Shanghai came to our class
and showed us the installation of the CCTV news program. It was really
awesome. When the woman news announcer said:"good night" to the
audience., her voice was cut by the word "night"; the second time, she
voice was cut even shorter, by doing this again and again, Li Jianhua
made this serious news program becoming amusing and iconic. This
showed his rebellion of his original cultural identity and his unique
thinking to transfer Chinese traditional news program to a the world
art market.

To end this paper, I'd like to say that the progress the Chinese
artists made to the international world also made them reflect
themselves more and rebel or revise from their original cultural
identity, they can see their artwork and the process of doing artwork
from a third dimension and make new changes for Chinese contemporary
art. Thus, the Chinese contemporary successfully embodies the
combination of east and west, traditional and avant-guard.

Response to Lynn Pan’s “HaiPai Culture” talk and the Arthub Symposium

Melody Song

Response to Lynn Pan's "HaiPai Culture" talk and the Arthub Symposium

Lynn Pan discussed how Shanghai's visual culture was formed from a
hodgepodge of global influences. These influences came through
different, and often amazing, channels. For example, the work of
Shanghainese graphic designers during the 1920-30s were inspired by
the Berlin Dada movement and George Grosz. Magazines like Vanity Fair
and Vogue, which were published in New York, were one such influential
channels of information in Shanghai.

This idea that "Shanghai visual style" was formed via
interweaving strands of influences that trace into the depths of
history and across geography, is important. The Arthub Symposium also
echoed the idea that there is an "exchange" involved in the formation
of a local art culture --- that art does not suddenly spring out from
an isolated, confined venue, and that it can be seen in a global
context. A major discussion in the symposium was how to define and
view "Contemporary Chinese art." Several speakers stated that we
should remove ourselves from the dogma of the "West influencing
Chinese art" or of the dogma separating Chinese Contemporary art from
the rest of the world. Defne, for example, discussed parallel
histories and occurrences that affected China and Turkish art.

My response to this question of "how to view Chinese Contemporary
art" is similar in that we should take a more global/open approach. I
think exploring the various historical "channels of information" into
China (like the Vanity Fair Magazines that Lynn Pan mentioned) is
worthwhile. It would shed interesting light on the socio-political
situation of China in relation to other countries, and on the identity
of "elite" information seekers and information-proliferators in China
that contributed to the art scene. I also think that we should explore
how Chinese art developed in reaction to similar historical trends in
other countries (like communism, globalization, industrialization).
This would allow us to better contextualize, and ultimately better
understand, Contemporary Chinese art history.

Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen: Art in Opposition

If there are images in this attachment, they will not be displayed.
Download the original attachment
Melody Song

Contemporary Art in China

June 18, 2010
Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen: Art in Opposition

Introduction

This paper will look at how the artist Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen
have used "opposition" to shape their identities and bodies of
artwork. These two artists established themselves as challengers of
existing paradigms and power structures. By setting themselves apart
from establishments like the Chinese government, history, or from
conventional art practices, Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen formed their
artistic identity and thematic drive behind their works. The paper
will specifically explore how the artists' have shown resistance in
the art, what they are opposing, and how this opposition has
contributed to their art creation.

Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen are but two of many Contemporary Chinese
artists who have created an "other" or object of resistance in making
art. However, in this paper I chose to closely examine these two
artists because they both target different power structures, and adopt
different methods in opposing the "other." Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen are
also considered the most provocative Chinese contemporary artists; Ai
Wei Wei is known for his public stance and gestures against the
Chinese government, and Xu Zhen is noted for attacking idea paradigms
such as unspoken rules on how art should be exhibited or the supposed
veracity of documentary films. Finally, I chose these artists because
Ai Wei Wei are is of the older, pioneering generation of Chinese
contemporary artists, while Xu Zhen is of the newer generation. The
paper can thus cover a wide time span of Contemporary Chinese art
history.
Ai Wei Wei

Ai Wei Wei (1960 –) is viewed as one of China's most
controversial artists and well-respected social activist. Despite
being labeled "a dissident to be wary of" by the Chinese government
(or perhaps because he was), his blog attracts 17 million people and
has successfully mobilized popular action. Ai was awarded the
prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chinese Contemporary Art
Awards, founded in 1998 by Uli Sigg1 (Birmingham).

Ai Wei Wei's works have always been political and critical of
power structures. Ai Wei Wei first entered the Chinese Contemporary
art scene (and many would argue, help start it) with his involvement
in the Stars Group and 1979 Stars Exhibition. The Stars exhibit, hung
on a fence between the museum and a public park, dissented against
Museum standards of good or bad art, and opposed the authority of the
museum in being the sole space for art exhibitions ("Ai Wei Wei at
Haines"). After Ai Wei Wei's return to China from New York in 1993, he
continued creating militant and subversive works. His series of
1999-2003 "Study of Perspective" showing his middle finger raised to
the White House, Eiffel Tower, and Tiananmen Square blatantly showed
opposition to symbols of power and elitism (Barboza). In addition, in
2000, Ai Wei Wei curated the shocking "Fuck Off" exhibition in time
for the Third Shanghai Biennale. The exhibition, according to Britta
Erickson in On the Edge, was a reaction against the "structure of the
art world" and a system that follows the judgment of critics and
curators in valuing art. Ai Wei Wei's exhibition was a powerful
statement of defiance against institutions and art dealers, and showed
unconventional art such as a dog skeleton in a glass case supposedly
containing poisonous gas, or a chair filled with meat (Erickson 41).
Through these early works, Ai Wei Wei shaped for himself an identity
of militancy and, especially, of uncooperative attitude towards the
government and authorities.

However, increasingly Ai Wei Wei has focused on creating art
with a more timely and definitive political message, and on social
activism. Ai is very active in blogging (in Sin or Bulog.cn) or
Twittering (Colonello)2. In fact, Ai stated that he wanted to stop
doing art and focus on politics (Toy). His main ideological value, as
revealed in a 2008 interview with the Guardian, is the freedom of
choice. Ai Wei Wei's favorite target of criticism is the Chinese
government, which, according to the artist, has failed to represent
freedom but rather, corruption and autocracy. In the interview, Ai Wei
Wei explains his refusal to attend the Bird Nest Stadium Opening
Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics for precisely this reason. He
did not believe that China changed ("Ai Wei Wei: why"). Ai Wei Wei had
co-designed the Bird Nest Stadium with the Swiss architectural firm
Herzog & de Meuron, but pulled out his support (and name) from the
project in a blatant public gesture against the Chinese authorities.

One of Ai Wei Wei's recent political projects is the 2007
"Sichuan Earthquake Names Project." By using his popular blog as a
communication platform, Ai Wei Wei investigated how government
corruption contributed to the collapse of many school buildings3. In
addition, because the government refused to publish a list of the
names of killed students, Ai Wei Wei mobilized researchers and
volunteers to do this task. The Names Project discovered the names of
5,190 students. Ai Wei Wei's project shed a sharp, illuminating light
on corrupt government practices. He opposed the government's actions
on trying to veil the situation (Toy).

Another of Ai Wei Wei's social activist works is his auction of
a bag of Sanlu Milk Powder in cooperation with Vitamin Art Gallery4.
The money from the auction was used to buy coats and supplies for
people appealing grievances to the government. Ai remarked that he was
able to "turn a small [art] matter into a relief aid fund for rights
defending." (MacKinnon).

To Ai Wei Wei, "protect[ing] the right of expression is the
central part of an artist's activity." In order to do this, he
fiercely critiques the government and other power structures through
this art or social work (Colonello). Voicing himself and his opinions,
to him, is a responsibility as a human being. As stated in his
interview with The Guardian, "it is not a choice, [but] it's the way I
live" ("Ai Wei Wei: why"). Resisting repression is the driving force
and purpose behind Ai Wei Wei's identity and art. And in order to
achieve this mission, Ai Wei Wei has embraced means other than art
such as blogging and guerilla investigations5.

In addition, this higher social purpose imbues Ai Wei Wei's art
with deeper meaning. Ai's art holds a message beyond simply creating
something aesthetically beautiful. The art is imbued with power
because it refers to specific events and ideas6, and reacts against
specific injustices such as the Sichuan earthquake in his "Snake
Ceiling" work7. There is more concrete meaning behind the art that
viewers can reference to. Furthermore, Ai uses criticism against the
government as a platform for creation and contribution. Through
"destructive" or aggressive actions of criticizing the government, Ai
also "creates" and "builds up" the political arena. Ai has helped
pressure the Chinese government to become more transparent and
accountable. For example, after the "Sichuan Earthquake Names
Project," the government was pressured to change the official casualty
numbers. Another example is the Sanlu milk powder auction. The work
critiqued the government's corruption, and at the same time, made
concrete aid to those appealing to the government.

Although I mostly dwelled on Ai Wei Wei's opposition to the
Chinese government, it is important to note that he has other targets
of resistance as well. Ai Wei Wei is a complex and nuanced artist. For
example, Ai Wei Wei's 1990s series of painting and smashing ancient
urns with a Coca Cola logo or with bright pop-like colors critiqued
how society has no place for valuable history: no museums were willing
to accept the vases which dated back to the 3000-5000 B.C.; the
priceless urns were considered trash. Ai Wei Wei also dealt with the
divorce between reality and fantasy in his "Fairytale 1001" (2007)
project by making something fantastical into reality8. He does not
only engage in political opposition, but looks at the contradictions
we hold in life itself and our daily experiences. This sense of
humanity and maturity in Ai Wei Wei's work has evolved over time. At
first Ai took more crude means to provoke (such as raising his middle
finger to the White House or smashing urns), but it seems Ai is now
more nuanced and subtle in his art (his "Map of China" (2004) does not
scream controversial commentary on China and Taiwan).

One may ask, if Ai Wei Wei is solely motivated by social
activism and resistance to autocracy, why does he not give up art
completely as blogging and social media have proved more effective
than art in moving the masses9? However, I believe that despite all of
Ai Wei Wei's hype on how he does not believe in art for arts sake, he
also knows that there is value in beauty. I personally respect how the
political content of his pieces do not compromise the aesthetics of
his creations. The Chandelier (2002), which supposedly satirizes the
Chinese government taste in aesthetics, is beautiful. So is Ai Wei
Wei's Snake Ceiling (2009) work. The black and white colors of the
backpacks give a solemn, funereal impression. This, in conjunction to
the snake-like coil of the work, powerfully evokes the monster-like
Sichuan earthquake that devoured school children. It is true that
social media is more effective in mobilizing people. However, I feel
that there is still something that can be embodied in art and
transferred to the viewer – something more gutteral and resonant in
the soul – that can't be done through other means. Art can be
powerful, and I believe that Ai Wei Wei realizes this.

As I have argued, militancy and resistance have largely shaped
and motivated Ai Wei Wei's works. However, Ai is also a very complex
and nuanced artist. The lens of opposition is only one way (and
ideally it should be used with other lenses of examination for greater
honesty) in studying this controversial figure.

Xu Zhen

Xu Zhen (1977 –) engages in video, performance, installation,
and photography works. Unlike Ai Wei Wei, he is less politically
driven, and challenges cultural taboos (such as sex) and paradigms in
the art world. His target of resistance is simply, the "norm" or what
is considered socially orthodox. According to his 2006 interview with
Lu Leiping, Xu Zhen's mentality in making art "was the same as a
hooligan going out for a fight. Hooligans have attitude! Hooliganism
is a way of life, an attitude towards life" (Leiping). Xu Zhen engages
in art with a fighting attitude.

Xu Zhen's works "1.86 Meters" (2005) and "Starving of Sudan"
(2007) challenge the foundations behind documentary works. It is an
attack on the accepted practices of the art world. The "1.86 Meters"
piece is a documentary film that shows Xu Zhen climbing to the summit
of Mt. Everest and sawing off 1.86 meters (also Xu Zhen's physical
height) of the mountaintop. The supposed tip of the mountain was
"moved" to the gallery space, where the displaced chunk of ice was
supplemented with drawings, texts, and related materials. However, the
whole event was fictitious and shot in Xu Zhen's studio. Thus, this
work challenges the unassuming trust viewers give to documentaries.
The audience was falsely led to believe that Xu Zhen had really
climbed the mountain. According to art historian Lu Leiping, the piece
"overturn[ed]" and "disrupt[ed]" accepted social and historical
principles. Because the event of Xu Zhen climbing the mountain was
fictitious, audience members also began to challenge Xu Zhen's
published 8848.13 meter height of Mount Everest (Leiping). The
audience did not know what to believe and what to listen to with a
grain of salt.

Xu Zhen's "Starving of Sudan" (2007) challenged the autonomy and
objective "non-presence" of a documentary photographer when he is
photographing his surroundings. Xu Zhen recreated the famous 1993
photograph of a Sudanese child about to be preyed on by a vulture by
Kevin Carter. As soon as the photographer clicked the shutter, the
vulture carried the child away. This photo challenged the ethical
responsibility of the photographer. Xu Zhen highlighted this moral
tension, as well as the nonchalance of the audience in viewing such a
situation, by placing an African American child (watched by his
mother) next to a stuffed vulture. According to Lee Ambrozy, audience
members in high heels would grin "how cute" to the child, and leave
(Ambrozy).

Xu Zhen also challenged the art world paradigm by curating
controversial exhibits. Xu Zhen was co-founder of BizArt, a non-profit
artist support group, which pioneered new art forms and art
experimentation in China. The "Art for Sale" exhibit (2007) recreated
a supermarket of altered or invented consumer products that people
could purchase cheaply (Bepler). The exhibit challenged the
traditional view of art as removed from daily life. It also challenged
the image of art showed in galleries as priceless or unattainable to
the average person. Xu Zhen's experimental "Twin" exhibition or "Fang
Mingzhen & Fang Mingzhu" (2002) challenged the art world rule that no
two same pieces or similar works can be displayed in the same gallery.
The gallery was composed of two mirror-image spaces that showed
similar, very slightly altered, works. Xu Zhen's performance piece
"March 6" also upturned the exhibition dynamics of audience and art
piece. 200 students and workers were each employed to follow one
person, at two meters distance, throughout the entire exhibit. The
audience members were "watched" by the art (the performance artists),
reversing their role from being the viewer to the viewed (Leiping).

Xu Zhen not only challenges the institutional practices and
norms in the art world, he challenges basic assumptions in daily life.
A key example is "In Just a Blink of an Eye" (2007) which challenges
gravity itself. An performer would remain frozen mid-way in a fall.
This was achieved through the support of hidden iron rods. The piece
"Never Falls" (2006), a larger-than-life coin, never stops spinning
and therefore, never falls ("Xu").

What does opposition and "hooliganism" do for Xu Zhen? Like Ai
Wei Wei, Xu Zhen's militancy against the status quo is a major driving
force behind his works. Overturning the norm is a major source of
inspiration for him, often moving Xu Zhen to experiment with unusual
art media (e.g. performance) and subject matter (e.g. sex). I
mentioned how Ai Wei Wei engages in creation through destruction; by
critiquing the government, Ai sometimes impacts the government's
actions for the better or he creates social projects that make
concrete change. Xu Zhen also "builds up" through his opposition. Xu
Zhen stretched the boundaries of the art world with regards to subject
matter, philosophy, and media through his experimentations. Xu Zhen
also forces the audience to open their minds to new kinds of art and
ideas, just as his "March 6" work allowed the audience can become the
art themselves.

One major difference between Xu Zhen and Ai Wei Wei's objectives
in "resisting something" is who they are making art for. I feel that
Xu Zhen's art is very self-absorbed. He makes a project if he feels
"it is interesting." In fact, in an interview Xu Zhen says that is the
sole reason why he made a video bashing a cat on the floor (Xiaoyun).
Xu Zhen makes art for himself, and is controversial for his personal
satisfaction. Ai Wei Wei, on the other hand, is increasingly motivated
to make art for the people. He quotes "there is no art for arts sake"
(Colonello). Ai Wei Wei believes that, if he is to continue art, it
must be political so that it will help society and people. This may be
why Ai Wei Wei's recent artworks like the "Snake Ceiling" are very
specific in reference and meaning, connecting back to critique on the
Chinese government. Xu Zhen's art, unlike Ai Wei Wei, explores his
personal interests such as "sex" (a provoking topic in itself).

Conclusion

Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen are both driven by militancy in their art
creations and identity. Ai Wei Wei is more politically focused; his
predominant "enemy" is the Chinese government. He opposes power
structures that restrict freedom of expression. Xu Zhen mostly
challenges idea paradigms and unspoken rules in the art world and in
daily life. Opposition has been the thematic link, source of
inspiration, and motivator throughout both Xu Zhen and Ai Wei Wei's
pieces, be it video, performance, or installation. Opposition in the
form of art has also allowed the artists to "contribute" to their very
target of resistance. Ai Wei Wei is contributing to the increased
accountability and transparency of the Chinese government through his
social critiques and political art. Xu Zhen widened the field of art
and exhibition by questioning its boundaries. He also tipped over idea
paradigms, even if just for a moment, like that of gravity via his
art.

I understand that analyzing both artists solely through the lens
of "dissidence" and "resistance" is too simplifying. Ai Wei Wei, for
one, is motivated to do art not only for political action. He cares
for aesthetics as well. Simplifying the artists' very target of
resistance, such as the government for Ai Wei Wei, would also be
incorrect. However, looking at how defiance and opposition have
shaped the identities and works of these artists is important. This is
because, I believe, our identities are to a considerable extent formed
from setting ourselves apart from our surroundings10. "Not being
something" can define one's identity just as "being something" is. In
addition, I believe that opposition against something – the very
mentality of "fighting" – can serve as powerful drivers of action and
fuel for art creation. As it has been for Ai Wei Wei and Xu Zhen, it
may serve as a purpose in life or role as an artist. In order to
deeply understand Xu Zhen and Ai Wei Wei, looking at how they have set
themselves apart from the norm and power structures is integral.

Works Cited
"Ai Weiwei at Haines Gallery." Happenstand. 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 17 June
2010. <http://www.happenstand.com/sanfrancisco/events/3484-ai-weiwei>.

"Ai Weiwei: Why I'll Stay Away from the Olympics' Opening Ceremony."
The Guardian. The Guardian, 7 Aug. 2008. Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/07/olympics2008.china>.

Ambrozy, Lee. "Xu Zhen: Impossible Is Nothing." Artreview.com. Web. 18
June 2010. <http://www.artreview.com/forum/topic/show?id=1474022:Topic:576706>.

Barboza, David, and Lynn Zhang. "The Clown Scholar: Ai Weiwei."
ArtZineChina.com. ArtZineChina.com. Web. 18 June 2010.
<http://www.artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid180_en.html>.

Bepler, Sine. "ShanghART Supermarket." ShanghART Gallery Shanghai. 26
Nov. 2007. Web. 18 June 2010.
<http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/texts/id/794>.

Birmingham, Lucy. "Who Is Ai Weiwei?" ARTINFO. ArtInfo, 10 Aug. 2009.
Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32223/who-is-ai-weiwei/?page=1>.

Colonello, Nataline. "An Interview with Ai Weiwei." ArtZineChina.com.
ArtZine China, 10 Aug. 2008. Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://www.artzinechina.com/display.php?a=499>.

Leiping, Lu. "Xu Zhen: Provoked and Provoking Art." ShanghArt Gallery.
ShanghArt Gallery, June 2006. Web. 18 June 2010.
<http://china.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/texts/id/786>.

Ma, Wendy. "Picasso of China or Voice of Dissent: Who Is Ai Wei Wei?
Profile « Art Radar Asia." Art Radar Asia. 22 Sept. 2009. Web. 17 June
2010. <http://artradarasia.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/picasso-of-china-or-voice-of-dissent-who-is-ai-wei-wei-profile/>.

MacKinnon, Rebecca. "Ai Weiwei: On Taking Individual Responsibility."
RConversation. 22 Jan. 2009. Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2009/01/conversation-with-ai-weiwei.html>.

Ng, David. "Artist Ai Weiwei Makes Rare U.S. Appearance to Talk about
Digital Activism." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2010.
Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/03/artist-ai-weiwei-makes-rare-us-appearance-to-talk-about-digital-activism.html>.

Toy, Mary Anne. "The Artist as an Angry Man." The Age. The Age, 19
Jan. 2008. Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/the-artist-as-an-angry-man/2008/01/18/1200620207518.html?page=fullpage>.

Xiaoyun, Chen. "An Interview with Xu Zhen." ShanghART Gallery
Shanghai. 2001. Web. 18 June 2010.
<http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/texts/id/588;jsessionid=3791e639e82b1079977bac0a05c1>.

"Xu Zhen - Selected Works." James Cohan Gallery. Web. 17 June 2010.
<http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/xu-zhen/>.

want my soul to come out of my mouth

A conversation between Alexa Haas and Lisa Lim

>早上好！
～早上好。

>Haha are you nervous? Don't be nervous.

~Haha I am nervous. I don't know what I will say. I think ever since I
started getting serious about a film career I've been scared of that
one day where I would be interviewed and what I say really matters.
>No, you shouldn't think of it like that. This is really casual, don't think of it as an interview, I mean an interview is really just a conversation. I just want to know about your experience and thoughts this semester.
~But in relation to art, right?
>Well, this is for your art class.

~Yea, but I think what I am scared of going into this is that I think
I have to talk about everything at once in order to express anything I
am thinking.
>I know, I know, that's why we decided it would be better for you to record this conversation than write an essay…So where should we start?

~I guess…we could start from the first exhibit we went to. The
Propaganda Poster exhibit. Because looking back now, it seems like I
didn't really know anything then. I mean, that is day one, so. Well,
it was called "Art is History," which I personally had always believed
too. Once when I was taking psychology, which I failed, my professor ~
Professor Coons ~ wrote this one thing in the course reader. We never
talked about it in class or anything, but when I read that line, it
seriously altered they way I looked at society and people and film and
art especially. Ugh, I wish film and art were seen as the same thing,
but they are such different businesses. But they are so…!! They are
recording the same history!!! If you look at film in China after the
Cultural Revolution, it tells exactly the same story.

>Wait, tell me first about what your professor said? Or wrote I mean.

~Oh sorry sorry, it was something like…wait, I want to say it exactly
how it was: Myths and…legends….oh, "Myths, legends and fairytales
allow us to glimpse into those hidden concerns that are shared by
whole cultural groups." I mean, I've been reciting this sentence to
people for years, for three years since I took that class. It's like
on my facebook haha. Sometimes I say it and it feels like it loses
it's meaning. Like I just said it, and I'm like no wait, that's dumb
because that doesn't really have to do with anything.

>No, no, it makes sense. It is true. Do you think we can just reword it and say, "Art allows us to look at concerns shared by a peoples?" I mean who is telling today's myths and fairytales if not art? Like, is it politics…or…?
~Like maybe its newspapers too.

>Haha yea, I mean, well...actually, that's true. Actually, it is newspapers too. I think the media is telling its own myth too, maybe the myth the authorities want you to believe.

~God that sounds so ridiculous when you put it that way, for someone
to want to force you into believing a myth a certain way. But the myth
of the authorities doesn't express the hidden concerns of the people.
So it is really the art that does. Like the hidden concerns are in
reaction to the authorities' myth. The propaganda art museum is an
interesting place to begin, because no one was saying what they were
actually thinking. But it still expresses so much about that mindset
of that time.

>Mm, definitely, "the boundless power of people!" 努力努力！

~No that's that exactly it. Its like all about The People. Like, ughh,
I wish I could say it so simply! I am quite obsessed with the concept
of 'man and nature.' Like I seriously dig the concept of A Harmonious
Society of today's China. But listen, listen.

>I'm listening!!
~haha I know I just want to fully convey this thought to you: okay
so…Okay…Alright, so traditional Chinese paintings. Let's start there
and then go to now, okay?
>Haha okay, I'm with you, chillax~*

~So! Chinese traditional paintings. In the beginning of this semester,
the way people looked in the paintings quite bothered me. They weren't
particularly, I don't know, beautiful I guess? But then one day when I
was in the Forbidden City this guy asked me and my friend to come into
his studio, which was right inside the Forbidden City, to look at some
artwork that him and his art classmates made. They were studying
conventional form like traditional Chinese paintings. He said to me,
"look, look you see, the person is so small in the scene. It
represents the harmony between man and nature…" and I was like,
"ohhh!" that was a big realization for me. That is a concept that
doesn't exist anymore. The person is always emphasized.

>mmm…Lynn Pann showed us a painting during the HaiPai time, of a man etched in with full detail but his clothes are painted broadly in traditional smooth one-lines. She said that it was a painting in light of the Western model because of all the detail paid attention to the human figure. HaiPai.
~Ughhh everything is in light of the western model, it is so
frustrating!!! The western model suuuuucks.
>Don't you think it is necessary though to dissect the human before realizing themselves in accord with nature?

~mmm…that's quite a beautiful thought. Like exploring the oceans
before going to space. I think maybe that step is necessary, actually.
But I hope we are getting out of it and focusing on other things now.
Doesn't it seem like Chinese artists focus more on nature than the
authorities do? I think it is possible for a people to move forward
without their government. Wait…this is what I wanted to say. Tradish
Chinese paintings to propaganda art. they are complete opposites from
each other. And I think that mindset still exists today in today's
advertisements. Like for the expo especially. Like people perfectly
lit up by the sun, perfect conditions for people. Big smiling faces so
featured.

>Mm, I'd agree, it is an interesting connection. It makes it seem like maybe people in China haven't really changed in what they want. Because they are still advertising that big smiling face. Do you think that is what Yue Min Jun is poking fun at with his signiture smiling face.

~Ugh, you know I used to really like him. I mean, when I was signing
up for this class, I just typed in 'Contemporary Chinese Art' into
Google Images, because I actually had no idea what that would
entail…and I saw him. Or his work, I mean lol. I really loved him at
first seeing him, I felt like I understood the work on first viewing,
I felt like it made sense that it was Chinese Contemporary Art. Even
though then I was SO naïve, haha, it's ridiculous. I like didn't even
really know what happened at Tiananmen Square at that point,
god…that's so sad. I mean I had a general idea! Ah! Don't judge
me!...Anyway, when I first saw his work I thought it was a comment on
Chinese culture. I saw it quite positively. About real happiness, and
gay outings, and a comfort with the body ~ because I think the first
painting I saw was a painting of men in their slinky bodies laughing
with each other in their underwear. Now I see his paintings like
everywhere, like lots of fakes actually. Like in the fake market, they
have a lot of re-do's of his paintings. Isn't that interesting?
>I mean, he's been painting that face for more than a decade now. Like that's sort of absurd, don't you think? You think he would have had some like, life changing experience since then or something, that would make him look upon things differently. Even his compositions are pretty much consistent.
~Barbara said we could see it that he figured out a marketable icon,
and has just been making money off of it since then. And then JJ asked
us if we would want it hanging in our house, and we said yes, because
it is really happy. But I don't think I think that anymore.

>Propaganda Museum. Chinese Paintings.

~Mmm, I know, I think that really what lasts from each era is the art.
I mean maybe the newspapers will be kept on record, but I don't know,
I don't think it is taken as seriously as the art of a time. What is a
<<collective memory>>? You know, it is the images and songs of a
time.

>But you know, just because traditional Chinese paintings expressed harmony between man and nature, doesn't mean people in that time lived in that principle. So art can't really represent time.

~But what about "the Garden as the setting for a good life" ~ it was
more embedded in the everyday life of people in that time. Wasn't the
garden a necessary part of a family's house. I feel like that
represented an accordance with nature. Like right now, cities are so
gray and removed from nature. Mm but I guess I actually don't know
enough about how people actually acted in their everyday during that
traditional Chinese painting period, but like, I think it became like
a practice. I mean, like those students in Beijing are still painting
Chinese paintings in the same way right now, but maybe without fully
understanding the principles. Or I mean, they must. But those
propaganda posters encapsulate it all about that time. Even the lies,
and especially the fantasy of the time.
>Did you see Zhang Dali's: A Second History ? That book is in Defne's library in the student lounge…?

~Mmm, I've looked at it. When Gu Zheng, the photographer/Fudon U.
professor came to visit he showed us some pictures from that book. Mao
digging a hole with a fellow comrade, whom he later denounced, so the
picture was modified to be just Mao digging alone. So crazy…

>Ya, I know. That book is like, incredible.

~Gu Zheng introduced to me the idea of reality vs. 'posed reality.'
Like he personally really enjoyed going into the street to take
pictures, in response to propaganda photos. People look at a
photograph to confirm something about reality. And he thought that the
street is a stage for the truth of everyday life. He found the work he
was producing to be very political because he was showing real daily
life in a way that the authorities try to hide.

>Yea China did that again in order to prepare for the expo. It's like cleaning your room before the maids come, because you don't want to be thought of messy. They want to appear a certain way.

~Yea but you can't pose people in real life the way you want them to
be. So taking pictures of real daily life is really the opposition of
a <<forced image>>. Naturally, I started thinking about film, because
it is so often all posed. But that is not all true, because right now
there is a strong movement of shooting on location, heavily
improvised, low-budget, independent films – all around the world
including China. But it is always true of Hollywood. Hollywood's
representation of life is as fantastical as propaganda art. I thought
about how China Film Bureau only imports twenty foreign films a year.
Most of which are Hollywood movies. So this is how the Chinese people
view American society really. This semester, I got with a Chinese guy,
BinBin. And he like completely misinterpreted what people are like in
America. I think he thought we were like out of a Hollywood movie. It
was like, ridiculous. He told me he liked me then immediately went in
for a passionate-ass kiss. Like it could be so simple! I asked my
Chinese friends if this was normal Chinese behavior, and they said,
"no it means he is a bad person." Haha. But we had sex later in the
year, he put like the craziest cheesy song ridden with electric violin
on repeat, and it must have played like 90 times that night. It
reminds me of a quote from this Brazilian movie, Eu Sei Que Vou Te
Amar : "Do you think love has always existed? No…there was no love in
Babylon…Love was invented by American movies to make money."

>Mmm…I think the Chinese are rather fond of the Hollywood mindset, but I think that is because Chinese itself is just a very sentimental culture. Especially the language. I think the Chinese, culturally, perceive that fantastical happy world as something that is attainable. Like look at "harmonious society."
~Defne put it like, "a perversion of emotions."

>mmm…but there is another thing about Hollywood's influence on China. I mean, just that American mindset. In the 90s, mimicking consumer culture, mimicking the way American movies look even, let's think about China in the 80s. How would you describe the way art of the 80s looked in like, let's say, three words:
~mmm…Earthy – like I think of a lot of black and brown,
mmm…oil…annnd…idealistic. Mmm but it is defiantely a backlash to all
the propoganda art like Gu Zheng. And now I'm thinking about JJ's
symbols of nature, the moon and rocks and soil.

>Yes, yes, yes. And you were talking about man's relationship to nature before. I think the artists of the 80s in their idealism thought they understood how to get to a utopia. There was this fallback onto nature. A reemphasis of the elements and of spirituality. But then came the anti-spiritual pollution campaign and then the June 4th incident. And then started the economic reforms, the mimicking of western culture.
~mm, mm. and why is Chinese sentimentality so funny in English, I
think has to do something with the spirit as well. That the Chinese
language has such a beautiful emphasis on the heart, the body and the
mind, and the harmony between them. This is where the American mindset
fails. Spirituality and like even the word, 'meditation' is funny in
English. It conjures up images of like guru hippie, drugged-up…I don't
know. I think people find it quite insincere.

>And if you look at the composition of the Hollywood movie, where is the emphasis? On the people.
~Why are people always the subject?

>It is just what interests people.

~Well like in the 90s, all of political pop art and everything. People
became so like self-involved. It was just a very cynical time, where
like irony was emphasized. Does the environment ever become the
character?

>Do you think right now is the least spiritual generation for China because of these 'Hollywood' influences?

~mmm….no. no no no. I am really liking the direction of Chinese art
today. I think, a lot of Chinese artists have had this same
realization subconsciously. I think people see where human
civilization is heading in all this urbanization, and they are scared.
So I think maybe in reaction to the economic reform of the 90s, and
human self-obsession there was a move from the body as a landscape
(like Xu Zhen's Rainbow 1998) and then now there is a fallback on
nature again.
>At the very beginning of 2000s, Yang Fudong has this picture called, "The First Intellectual" and it says that on this photo of a bloody man in a torn up suit standing in the middle of the road holding a brick. It is a funny picture. But I think it is about a guy who has a realization that there is something fundamentally wrong with human society. It is like a reawakening, as though we had become monkeys in a society again and people are realizing it doesn't have to be this way.

~Yea, I think there are a lot of artists going back to promoting
reverence for nature. I think that is one of the key things askew with
modern human society. Even my art is heavily reflecting this emphasis
on nature, because I am also concerned. My favorite artists I have
seen is a couple: Ji Wenyu and Zhu Weibing. They have a few pieces, do
you know them? ahh I love them. They have this one piece called "Enjoy
Flowers" (2006) where they have these cloth sculpture men with their
hands folded in front of them looking at a tree with pink flowers on
it. It is so sweet and warm. I really feel good looking at it. They
also have another piece where all these businessmen in suits are
holding this big giant pink flowers. And both pieces have no specific
arrangement, they are like dolls of a set.
>mmm, yes I think we are in an idealistic stage right now. ~Harmonious Society~ 大同世界 ～It is a Confucian idea – "big same world." I think a lot of Foreigners think the concept of a harmonious society is funny but, I don't think the Chinese do. Like "Happy Street," the Dutch pavilion at the expo, is supposed to poke fun at the idea of a Harmonious society. But harmony to the Chinese "refers to harmony at every level, from the cosmic world of the two ultimate forces, to the social, interpersonal, and individual biological level of the human body." (57, Dragons of Tiananmen, Jeffrey F. Meyer) It is the idea of utopia. China is trying to figure out how to get there.
~Mm, maybe it is those happy advertisements that people find funny. Or
they find China to be really fucked up. I think people have bad
connotations with the word: "communism" because of the way it is
taught in school. It has such a bad history tied to it. So a
"harmonious communist society," is a funny idea to foreigners. But, I
agree, 'harmony' is not a funny idea. Wait, I think also the reworking
of museology and exhibitioning is part of this idealism. It is really
quite beautiful. Like The Long March, which is, literally a long
walking march of an exhibit, retaking Mao's steps on the Long March.
It is the idea of realizing looking at art doesn't have to be
concentrated into a room, and be a one-way transaction.
>Wait I actually have the curator's notes on that exhibit right here in my folder.
~Oh good, good.
>"The Long March looks to integrate the production, consumption, and interpretation of art in a single scene, three issues which have traditionally remained separate. It looks to overcome the traditional distance between viewer and creator, to close the gap between "host" and "guest," and to seek a new understanding of space. In this way, The Long March will merge exhibition with creation and allow consumption and production to interact."

~Mm mm, also like at Double Infinity they wanted to encourage you to
play with a museum collection, in order to backlash against that
"usually untouchable" feeling at museums. But it's weird because when
I went back to Double Infinity a few weeks later, that parking rug
that they said we could walk over was off limits. And the security
guard would point to the floor and be like, "do you see what you just
did?"

>People are still so used to the conventional model. So..if we were to look at right now like a story, what point would be at right now?

~I don't know, I think I might be a little too optimistic. I think
this time represents an ideological shift. People are rerealizing
themselves as nature again. I hope I hope anyway. I think the expo, to
my very pleasant surprise is trying to show to the world this
classically Chinese concept of harmony between man and nature. There
is a statue in front of the Chinese Pavilion called "Never Ending
Life" bye Yang Jian Ping. JJ is friends with her he said, and he told
us to note the sizes of the animals and the leaves and humans. They
are all the same. I think this is so important! I hope it is important
anyway!! It makes me happy!
>Do you think it is only represented in art or is it moving to the mainstream? How will people get this concept if it is only in the art?

~Mmm, again I think I am quite optimistic. Even if it was just the
West looking upon Chinese Contemporary Art, then the West will learn
this concept, and that is where it is especially lacking. Also, I mean
Avatar did extremely well worldwide, especially in China. This idea is
the main feature of the movie: reverence for nature and the human
body, harmony. And doesn't that mean that this idea is starting to
move into the mainstream? I think it is, I think it is, I hope it is!!

>Haha, that would be quite wonderful, indeed.

~Wait…before we part, I just want to tell you a dream I had about Ai
Weiwei. It is funny: The first thing I remember is that he lifts this
smashed automobile with panda pictures onto a tow truck with his bear
hands and shear strength. I looked over at him and he had dyed his
beard bright red. He was looking back at this old man, who he had
appeared to be helping. The truck drove away and the pieces he just
threw on began tilting off the tow truck, so I started running after
it yelling back to Ai Wei Wei, ahh look!! Ahh!! Ai Wei Wei started
running after it too, looking back at the old man laughing. I
understood that this is what they wanted, to destroy these pieces. I
stopped running and a dog came toward me and I started giving it
kisses, and Ai Wei Wei with his red beard told me "Don't eat him!"
haha that's the end of the dream.

Self-interview by Alexa Haas.

Lisa Lim is an alter-ego whose name is formed by: Alexa>Lessa> Lisa
(this is what my martial arts teacher called me) and Lim, her mother's
maiden name

Inspired by
Transexperiences

A conversation between

Chen Zhen and Zhu Xian

Ishmael, David Quinn

Chinese Contemporary Art & the Economy:

Christina Xiong

Chinese Contemporary Art & the Economy:

the Emergence of a New Individual Thought

Coming back to Shanghai after my first visit 10 years ago feels
like both a reality check and a confirmation of my own instincts on
how the city "should" be like. Shanghai, now a city of lights, is no
longer one with hordes of bikes and family-owned stores. In place of
these traces of the past, are towering buildings, all of which stand
guard at the base of the city's tallest structure, the World Financial
Center. And yet, this symbol of urbanization, prevalent throughout
several developed Chinese cities, does not surprise me at all. China
is currently the world's fastest growing economy, and as expected, its
social patterns and structure of the local environment should
transform with respect to the new opportunities created. However, what
are the effects of this globalization on art? Is there no opposition
towards China's new market-driven economy and receptiveness towards
Western ideas?

Personally, I would've thought that artists, free thinkers who
use creativity to express thought, would stay true to their thoughts
and views. However, as a Hong Kong artist from the Guangzhou
Discussions pointed out, "Today, everything, including art forms, is
based on the image of society and that's a problem" (Yu Hsiao Hwei).
Certainly, no one can deny the fact that Chinese Contemporary art, in
recent years, has been "tailored to meet the needs of the investment
market" (Zhao Li). However, is this a bad thing? Does commercializing
art necessarily take away an artist's personal expression and
individualism? I believe that although China's rapid economic growth
has "restructured the relationships among artist, artwork, exhibition
space, and audience" (Erickson), the obsession with the conceptual
value of art and money has also inspired many new expressions of
emotions and values within Chinese Contemporary Art.

Like any other time frame throughout the history of Chinese
Contemporary Art, the artists of the 90s created pieces that were
responsive to the major events taking place in China at the time.
Unlike the avant-garde artists, who criticized the political regime
and questioned what it meant to be an individual artist, the artists
of this new modern art movement and their works were impacted by
strong economic reforms and the presence of Westerners (Yu Hsiao
Hwei). Although Deng Xiao Ping's reforms under the Four Modernizations
were launched early in the 80s, China's contemporary art market did
not expand much until foreigners coming into China started collecting.
As Britta Erickson, guest editor for Yishu, mentioned, galleries
representing Chinese contemporary artists but headed by foreigners,
started opening up both domestically and internationally in the 1990s
(Erickson).

ShanghART Gallery, for example, was one of these galleries. On
my visits to Moganshan Rd., I noticed that ShanghART's Main Gallery
featured group exhibitions where the works of featured artists shared
a common theme, such as the concept of a bed in the "All About the
Bed" Exhibition. Many of the represented artists held their private
studios in some of the spaces outside ShanghART's Main Gallery. As I
walked by, one of these spaces caught my eye, Zhao Bandi's Bandi-Panda
store. At first, I was surprised to see how actively involved the
artist was in selling and marketing his creations, to the point that
his Bandi-Panda designs are now an entire fashion line! Squared flyers
also advertised his upcoming 'couture' fashion show in Beijing. If
this isn't a sign of commercial art, I don't know what is!

The idea of artists' works being displayed at privately-funded
galleries, such as ShanghART Gallery, and museums was the first
commercial indication of the modern art movement. In the past, art was
created mainly either for "self-cultivation and self-expression"(Yu)
or for the enjoyment of the emperor and elite. However, ever since the
1992 Guangzhou Biennial, the first exhibition of its sort in China to
be privately-funded by businessmen, the purpose of art has become
redefined to encompass art collecting and international appreciation.
The use of galleries and museums became not only an official way to
get prospective buyers to see valuable works, but also a way for
artists to promote their art.

But how is the proliferation of galleries related to the nature
and subject of artists' works? And how come penetration of the Chinese
contemporary art market came so late? The fact that the Chinese
contemporary art market was relatively small during the 80s did not
prevent leading avant-garde artists from "producing substantial and
enduring works under the idealistic banner of 'art for art's sake'"
(Smith). In other words, a good economy is not necessary for art to be
meaningful. The key takeaway from the 90s modern art movement is that
through a developed economy, Chinese Contemporary art was given more
opportunities to become meaningful in a different, more commercial
manner that is "global, but particularly local"(Smith). What artists
before the 90s lacked were commercial outlets by which to build
foreign interest and support. Through the efforts of foreign
collectors, who spread the works at the international level, Chinese
contemporary art has been able to achieve recognition beyond the
boundaries of its own country. Currently, Chinese collectors and even
the government, who once showed interest in only "classical paintings,
ceramics, and furniture" (Erickson), now recognize the value of
contemporary art.

In the Guangzhou Discussions, Pi Dao Jian said, "Western art
critics used their vision to come to China and select works. These
works very quickly brought success to the artists, bringing a success
that they had never before imagined. This influenced many artists.
Economic power made a lot of weak-willed artists turn from trying to
produce true art to trying to please the market" (Yu Hsiao Hwei). But
what does Pi Dao Jian mean by "true" art? Is he implying that
individual artists themselves have become more materialistic, that the
actual quality of their work has become mediocre?

An actual connection between generating monetary value and
contemporary art is more apparent in the practice of art collecting.
Art collecting in China is not a completely foreign idea. During
imperial rule, the emperor and nobles commissioned artists, who
created works not only to hone the image and status of the royal
family, but also to entertain and satisfy educational pursuits (Yao).
As a result, "true" private art collecting has come to involve both
expertise and a sense of personal enjoyment, as each work served to
communicate with collectors, often provoking much thought within each
individual. However, unlike "true" art collectors, today's buyers tend
to treat contemporary art as liquefiable assets, ones that can be
bought and sold for a profit. Due to the extent of these transactions,
a secondary market, mainly dominated by auction houses, such as
Sotheby's, Christie's, and Poly-Auction House, has become prominent.
One of the more interesting aspects of the auction houses is their
role in furthering these exchanges. Because of these auction houses'
ability to put up collections for sale, the prices of several Chinese
contemporary art works have escalated, spurring the global demand for
more.

This growing influx of Chinese Contemporary Art entering the
market is indicated by the reported "440% rise in prices of the field"
between the years, 2001 and 2007(Castets). As Zhang Xiao Ming
mentioned in one of our lectures, the prices of some big-name works,
such as Zhang Xiao Gang and Yue Minjun multiplied twice-fold,
triple-fold or even more within that period. She gave an example with
Zhang Xiao Gang's Blood Line: Three Comrades, which sold above
estimates for USD $2,112,000 at Sotheby's New York Contemporary Art
Asia (Castets). According to Simon Castets, writer of "Everyday
Miracles: National Pride and Chinese Collectors of Contemporary Art",
"in 2007, Yue Minjun's The Pope sold in London for USD $4.3 million",
which was well over the auction record for any contemporary Chinese
artist previously (Castets). With the art market's obsession over
facts and figures, there was a lot of concern over whether Chinese
artists, much like the average Chinese collectors, have surrendered to
the forces of commercialism.

Artist, Pi Dao Jian expressed disillusionment over the condition
of this new modern art movement. In the Guangzhou Discussions, he
said, ""In the past, each city had its own particular enchantment.
Such cultural enchantment is slowly being lost and this is a problem.
In addition, modernization has brought with it the desertification of
the soul, the drifting apart of human relations & separation of man
from nature" (Yu Hsiao Hwei). From these words, it seems that Pi Dao
Jian is referring to artists' abuse of this new phenomenon (the
emerging interest in Chinese Contemporary Art) to seek personal gain.
But is he entirely correct?

Certainly, the increased demand for Chinese contemporary art has
had a lasting and still-continuing impact on the nature of artistic
production. On the same visits to the ShanghART gallery, I walked into
one of the individual galleries, the Yard Gallery and immediately
identified one of the works we saw in class: Wang Guangyi's Great
Criticisms series, Pepsi edition. Although I didn't realize it at the
time, this piece was probably one of the many prints of the artist's
original series. By basic business rule, if buyers are willing to
offer money in exchange for all or as many of your products, then you
would be inclined to make more of them to meet demand. Such has been
the case for top artists, such as Wang Guangyi, who has produced many
editions of these series, each featuring a different name brand.
Individual galleries, such as the Yard Gallery, have become "eager to
stock quantities of less expensive works" (Erickson).

In order to feed this demand, many artists don't even do much of
their work themselves. Zhou Tie Hai, considered many to be a
mastermind of "emergence of Western modernism", is an excellent
example (Allen). I first came upon Zhou Tie Hai's works at his solo
exhibition, the Dessert Collection held at the Shanghai Contemporary
Art Museum. After doing some research on his notable digitalized
replicas, I realized that much of the process, such as creating and
altering the images, was actually done by his staff. Does this mean
that Zhou Tie Hai has not stayed true to his art? I would say that the
creativity in the concepts behind the art, all original ideas of his
own, must count for something. Even though the commercialization of
art has seen a lot of repetition in the works being displayed, I
believe that it serves as a constant reminder of the artist's ideals,
if not his work's popularity.

Perhaps one example that follows along the lines of Pi Dao
Jian's disillusionment is Feng Mengbo's Built to Order Series. In this
series, Feng accepts orders of customized oil paintings from buyers.
The interesting thing is that in addition to choosing between default
backgrounds of Chairman Mao and the artist's Quake-based Q4U, buyers
can add as many alterations as they would like (Erickson). By nature,
people are influenced by the cultural and external factors that they
were raised in or live with. Thus, it is hard to imagine the huge
economic developments occurring in the country not having an impact on
the works of artists. But to what extent have artists catered to the
expectations of this new movement? What kind of art is considered a
"hot commodity" and worth investing in? What makes Zhang Xiao Gang's
"A Big Family Series" worth as much as it was bought for?

This question of how art is being valued in the world of art
collecting has always been very irrational, especially in auction
houses. Today, it is quite common to see a similar work from the same
artist, maybe even produced around the same time period, being sold at
Sotheby's for a much larger sum than it is bought at an exhibition
gallery. While this can be attributed to the image and reputation
associated with being displayed at an international auction house, I
believe that much of this phenomenon also has to do with the trust or
belief that value does exist. In her lecture, Zhang Xiao Ming stated
that in determining value, what works in the USA may not work in China
because China's art world is influenced by a whole range of entities.
Thus, the value of a work can be very subjective because this group
consists of not only critics, curators, collectors, galleries,
archives, and auction houses but also the Ministry of Culture of the
P.R.C. or simply, the government.

According to Christie's Asian contemporary art specialist,
Ingrid Dudek, "It is a stereotype that only Westerners buy Chinese
contemporary art" (Castets). Because of this international
recognition, brought upon by commercial outlets that eventually led to
Western support, Chinese contemporary art has undergone 2 major
changes domestically. Firstly, it has gained the support of government
and Chinese collectors. Because Chinese Contemporary art was so
engrained in the Western perspective of China's identity, the
government saw it as an expression of national pride. Not only has the
government limited regulations on the business of art, but also
commissioned artists to produce works and sculptures. Examples include
Ai Wei Wei's involvement with the architectural planning of the Bird's
Nest for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and more recently, artists such as
Wang Guang Yi and Zhang Huan, who created sculptures for the Expo.
Another group of artists from Shenzhen's Dafen Oil Painting Village,
known for their local Chinese copy painters, were asked to paint the
largest-ever re-creation of the Mona Lisa at the Expo (Spiegler).

This use of both well-known and local artists in shaping China's
image at an international event serves the purpose of showing China's
prowess and capabilities through global and yet, local art. In the
end, the government has come to embrace Chinese Contemporary art as a
"culture vital to the credibility China wishes to attain as a holistic
nation amongst the leading global powers" (Smith).

Thus, is it possible for commercialized art to emerge as a
source of inspiration and new ideas for artists, and not what Pi Dao
Jian makes of it, a cultural loss? Upon exploring the future of
contemporary art, Karen Smith claims that people have come to place
more value in the "vibrant local scene", which boosts local confidence
and promotes "profound aesthetic engagement" (Smith) . In today's
investment-driven art market, artists are motivated to follow market
trends and produce works that sell. Following the same logic, is
Chinese contemporary art then really "constrained" by economic
currents if curators, government and are looking more into what
individual artists can offer in terms of personal expression and
aesthetics?

I believe that this emergence of a rising group of artists who are
"turning into a more individually defined approach to style and
urbanity" is the second major domestic change to contemporary art in
China(Castets).

As a result of the nation's economic reforms and the opening of
the Chinese art market internationally, artists have gained
significant exposure to new ideas and conceptual ways of thinking.
This new modern art movement became the basis for explorations and
artistic responses to areas, such as mass consumerism, and "the value
of money and its relation to art". One of the more unique art
exhibitions was "Art for Sale", which was featured at a supermarket in
Shanghai. At "Art for Sale", customers were able to purchase
"minimally priced works of art", from T-shirts of famous pieces to Liu
Wei's Pigs' Trotters and Jewelry (Erickson). As we've seen in the
video in class, this direct way to reach out to viewers, as customers,
was an art itself in that it demonstrated the transaction between
buyer and seller in a world of consumerism.

The fact that "Art for Sale" was held at a supermarket also
indicates the trends taking place in the relationship between art and
public spaces. According to Beatrice Leanza, a participant of the
"Localism and Social Engagement in the City" panel discussion at
Double Infinity, "Shanghai art is being displayed more in places where
people go with commercial ideas". This is clearly seen in one other
art work that I found very interesting, Wang Jin's Ice, which took
place at a shopping mall. In order to demonstrate the "cooling of
consumerist heat", Wang Jin created an installation composed of blocks
of ice, each with a consumer good, such as music players, and jewelry,
inside (Erickson). However, within the opening hours, packs of
customers attempted to break the ice, hoping to acquire the product
inside (Erickson).

Ever since China's rise to a major economic power and tendency
towards consumerism, artists began to question the value of money and
art. However, just because these artists were interested in exploring
money and its relation to art does not mean that they do art solely
for money. The economic current became a source for more expression of
thought. In order to ridicule and poke fun at the importance placed on
'monetary value' and 'expected return' of an art piece in the world of
art collecting, Zhou Tie Hai actually issued himself out as a grade B
share (Erickson). This was meant to provoke the audience's thoughts on
the value of an artist. Even our professor, Jian-Jun Zhang, in an
"email interview" with me, stated that the destruction of homes,
especially the traditional shikumen houses in Shanghai, became the
inspiration for him to address "the issue of the fading away of the
old/traditional" in his "Vestiges of a Process: Water" project.

According to Britta Erickson, who wrote "Contemporary Chinese
Art: To Get Rich is Glorious", "money brings the various factors
involved in the art world - including artists, dealers, private
collectors and museums - together into a web where activity in one
arena exerts a push or pull in another"(Erickson). During the 90s,
this idea of a global interaction exposed artists to the "workings of
the financial infrastructure" and prompted many to explore the
relationship between money and art (Erickson). As a result, their
responses to commercialized art, reflected upon the many diverse forms
of expressions today, from video, audios to installations, have led to
a new formation of individual thought.

Works Cited
Allen, Daniel. "Asia Times Online :: China News - China's Contemporary
Art Goes Global." Asia Times Online :: Asian News Hub Providing the
Latest News and Analysis from Asia. Web. 13 June 2010.
<http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IF14Ad02.html>.
Castets, Simon. "Everyday Miracles: National Pride and Chinese
Collectors of Contemporary Art."Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese
Art 6.4 (2007): 51-57. Print.
Erickson, Britta. "Contemporary Chinese Art: To Get Rich Is Glorious."
Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 6.4 (2007): 8-16. Print.

Koppel-Yang, Martina. "The Surplus Value of Accumulation: Some
Thoughts." Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 6.4 (2007):
17-18. Print.

Li, Zhao. "Seeing Through the Macro Perspective: The Chinese Art
Market from 2006 to 2007."Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art
6.4 (2007): 19-22. Print.
London, Barbara. "Views on Contemporary Chinese Art." The Reader, Print.

Smith, Karen. "The Future: In Whose Hands?." The Reader, Print.

Spiegler, Mark. "Re: Chinese Copy-painters Come to Zurich." Web log
comment. Artworld Salon. 16 July 2007. Web. 14 June 2010.
<http://www.artworldsalon.com/blog/2007/07/chinese-copy-painters-come-to-zurich/>.
Tinari, Philip. "Original Copies: Philip Tinari on the Dafen Oil
Painting Village. - Free Online Library."News, Magazines, Newspapers,
Journals, Reference Articles and Classic Books - Free Online Library.
Artforum International Magazine, Inc. Web. 14 June 2010.
<http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Original copies: Philip Tinari on the
Dafen Oil Painting Village.-a0169913085>.

Yu, Hsiao Hwei. "Guangzhou Discussions." The Reader, Print.

Yao, Pauline J. "Superfluous Things: The Search for "Real" Art
Collectors in China." Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 6.4
(2007): 58-61. Print.
Yu, Yu Christina. "Exhibition Culture and the Art Market." Yishu:
Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 6.4 (2007): 23-28. Print.

Zhang, Jian-Jun. E-mail interview. 15 June 2010.

Contemporary Art History: According to the Internet in China

Amy Chou
17 June 2010
Contemporary Art History: According to the Internet in China

In an age where technology dominates most of our daily lives and
the Internet's knowledge seems to be ever bountiful, it's no wonder
that so many people never question the information found online. In
China especially, where the population's Internet users spend 70% of
their leisure time online and government censorship is still
prevalent, the information that people can find about the relatively
new contemporary art scene in China is limited. Also, the fact that
the history of contemporary art in China is still in the making,
people seeking information on the subject will settle for whatever
they can get their hands on. With China rising as an economic power,
the contemporary art market in China is suddenly booming. More and
more foreigners are turning their eyes towards Chinese contemporary
art and alongside this new trend is the trend for people to write,
academically or not, about it. What little information that there is
out there in the web is very precious, and because of that, many
people do not stop to wonder about the writer's credentials and
whether or not the information is accurate.

With the condition of few publications on the topic of
contemporary art in China and the condition of government censorship
of things deemed threatening to the government, what kind of
contemporary art history can someone in China gather using only the
internet? What kind of timeline can they build if they do not use a
virtual private network or a proxy? Their knowledge of the subject
will clearly be fragmented and the chances that they will run into
false information are also very likely.
Through Google, I searched "Chinese contemporary art history." I
looked through the results to see what the sites had to say about the
subject. The first thing I noticed was the difference in birth dates
of contemporary art in China. Surprisingly, according to
Wikipedia.org, it gave a general statement saying that the birth of
Chinese contemporary art was during the 1980s, instead of giving an
exact year as the site is usually known to do. According to both
Melissa Chiu on bigthink.com and Julia Coleman on findarticles.com,
they site the birth of Chinese contemporary art to be 1976, after the
death of Mao Zedong. According to an article on cnn.com, the
contemporary art began after Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world
in 1978. The other numbers I found all gave the general number of the
1980s.

A person who has no background in the subject of contemporary
art or art in general would most likely not wonder about the
credibility of each article's author. In fact, that person might take
the first date he/she sees and accept that date as the true birth of
contemporary art in China without question. After looking into the
backgrounds of the author's of each article, I found that the most
credible people were Melissa Chiu and Julia Coleman. Melissa Chiu is
the museum director of Asia Society and Julia Coleman is an art
historian and co owner of Chinese Contemporary Gallery in London.
Although many people may assume that anything from CNN is credible
since it is a famous news station in America, those people are wrong.
The author of the CNN article is Cathryn Meurer, and according to her
work experience on linkedin.com, her expertise lies solely in the
medical field, not in the art field.
By searching "Chinese contemporary art history" in Google, the
results I got were all missing key information in the history of
contemporary Chinese art. The most obvious information missing was on
the Star Star Exhibition, or the Xingxing Exhibition. I tried looking
up "Star Star Exhibition," "Xingxing Exhibition," and other
combinations of the words with different spacing, but nothing related
came up in the search results. It was only when I was searching for
pictures of Wang Keping's works did I stumble upon an article on
zeestone.com talking about the Star Star group because Wang Keping was
part of it. Through my class on contemporary art in China, I have
direction in my search. For someone who has no background and no
direction, that person would most likely never find out about the Star
Star Exhibition that took place in 1979 and its phenomenal impact on
setting the stage for the development of contemporary art in China.

The article on zeestone.com is written by Hilary Binks, who,
according to Google search results, has edited and written many
articles on Asian art, which makes her a credible source. Her article
on the Star Star group is extremely detailed, but unfortunately, the
only way to find this article is to know of the particular topic or to
accidentally stumble upon it. Binks states that the Stars group was
denied official art space in the China Art Gallery in Beijing, so on
September 27, 1979, the Stars group hung their works on the railings
outside of the gallery. Their daring exhibition was closed by police
on the 28th and declared illegal on the 29th. On October 1st, the 30th
anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the
Stars group marched in protest under a banner stating "We Demand
Democracy and Artistic Freedom". They were granted official gallery
space in Huafang Studio, Beijing from November 23rd to December 2nd,
1979. The group members listed are Huang Rui, Ma Desheng, Yan Li, Wang
Keping, Yang Yiping, Qu Leilei, Mao Lizi, Bo Yun, Zhong Ahcheng, Shao
Fei, Li Shuang and Ai Weiwei.

The last campaign from the Communist Party of China, known as
the "Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign", according to Wikipedia.org,
lasted from October 1983 to February 1984. It was the state
government's attempt to stop the spread of Western influences and
their liberal ideology among the Chinese populace. During that period,
artist once again felt the scare of the Cultural Revolution and either
went into hiding until the campaign was over or left the country
altogether. For the Stars group, Binks states that the group disbanded
due to political pressure in 1983 and most of the artists began to
leave the country then.
After the sad lack of results about the Star Star group and
mediocre results for the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, the
results for the "85 New Wave Movement" are surprisingly abundant. One
result on bookrags.com, a site which claims to be an online
encyclopedia, states that the 85 New Wave Movement was a time when
over 2000 of the nations avant-garde artists organized themselves into
groups—Pond Society, Xiamen Dada, Northern Art Group, Red Humor—and
began holding their own exhibitions, holding conferences, and writing
articles about their own work. The site states that the peak of the
movement was in 1989 with the China Avant-Garde exhibition. The
movement also ended in that year. Not mentioned on the site is that
the China Avant-Garde exhibition was also known as the "No U-Turn"
exhibition stating the artists desire that contemporary art in China
progress forward with the exhibition.
In the article Memories of 1989, on artzinechina.com, Maggie Ma
wrote that the "No U-Turn" exhibition was monumental in that it
included 297 pieces from 186 artists from around the country and it
was the first exhibition to show performance art. Artists whose works
did not make it into the exhibition still showed up and performed
their performance art works. Zhang Nian performed his "floating egg"
piece on the second floor of the National Gallery and Wang Deren
performed his piece by throwing condoms into the air. The most
memorable performance art piece was Xiao Lu's using a revolver to
shoot into her installation "Dialogue." The news of the exhibition
spread to the West and an article of the exhibition came out in Time
magazine titled "Eggs, Gunshots, and Condoms".

Zhang Nian and his "floating eggs" performance piece.

Tiananmen Square June 4th movement, ppl leaving 1989
While scanning the articles from my "Chinese contemporary art"
search results, my eye often caught the phrases "cynical realism" and
"political pop." Those two were the only two movements sited in my
results to take place during the 1990s. Other movements such as the
new generation realism and experimental/apartment art are ignored.
According to the article Move over Mao: Do China's artists serve a new
master? by Meuer on cnn.com, cynical realism and political pop came
about from the "collision of capitalist and communist ideologies". The
article Cynical Realism on artrealization.com states that the West
attributes the rise of cynical realism to the "disheartenment and
post-1989 gloom among the avant-garde that resulted from a dearth of
an arts community." It stated that the closings of landmark
exhibitions such as the China Avante-Garde exhibition at the National
Gallery of 1989 and the frustrating political climate left artists
bitter. The article also gives the Chinese view on how cynical realism
came about by saying that the artists were depicting the views of
China from a Western perspective. The most well known artists in the
category of cynical realism are Fang Lijun and Yue Minjun. Both of the
artists would use their own faces in their works displaying
exaggerated laughing and smiling expressions. The faces in their
paintings all look like they're mocking what's going on in the
paintings.

Execution, painting by Yue Minjun.

The political pop movement is not mentioned as much and as in
detail as the cynical realism movement, so someone would have to
specifically type "political pop" into the Google search engine in
order to get more specific information. A brief description of
political pop art on artandculture.com, the anonymous author states
that the works of famous political pop artist Wang Guangyi are both
celebrating and mocking Mao, the Red Guards, and capitalism. Wang puts
Cultural Revolution propaganda with capitalist company names such as
Coca-Cola and HP.

Wang Guangyi's painting Great Castigation Series: Coca-Cola, 1993.
Approaching the 21st Century, the art scene in China began to
change. Slowly, but steadily, galleries and exhibitions were opening.
Some were still forced to shut down, but many were staying open.
Information on important art exhibits that took place in the 21st
Century can only be found by specifically searching the names of the
exhibitions. Simply looking for "contemporary Chinese art history"
will find you nothing.

One historically significant exhibition was held in 2000 called
the Fuck Off Exhibition by Eastlink Gallery in a warehouse in
Shanghai. The literal translation of the Chinese title to English was
"Uncooperative Approach," but the organizers preferred a blunter
sentiment. The information on aapmag.com states that the exhibition
was curated by Feng Boyi and Ai Weiwei, and the purpose of the exhibit
was to counter the Shanghai Biennale. The Shanghai Biennale was
organized by the government and it wanted to show the world its
openness to the West with its display of contemporary art and the
first time official display of video. The artists that participated in
the Fuck Off Exhibition believed that the government did not push the
limits of openness far enough. A famous example from the Fuck Off
exhibit is of Ai Weiwei's series of photographs documenting his middle
finger pointing at Tiananmen or the White House. Several of the works
were deemed inappropriate by the Shanghai police. Most notorious was
Zhu Yu's "Eating People," where Zhu photographed himself eating a
cooked fetus. The work caused an international stir. The exhibition,
which opened on November 1, 2001, was shut down on November 7th.

Ai Weiwei's Study of Perspective – Tiananmen.

Another important exhibition called Post-Sense and Sensibility:
Spree was organized by Qiu Zhijie. Luckily, Qiu has his own website
and elaborates on the meaning of Post-Sense and Sensibility and what
the exhibitions were about. Qiu collaborated with many different
artists to create an interlocked performance piece where one artist's
work standing alone would be incomplete and could not be reproduced.
The exhibition was held in Beijing Film Academy in 2001 and its
purpose was to oppose the idea of exhibitions. Qiu stated that the
idea of exhibitions links back to colonialism and it results in
artists focusing on how to compete with other artists rather than
creating works for the sake of art. Instead of seeing a typical
exhibition, what the audience saw was the process of installing the
exhibition. The installation process involved the audience and it
focused more on the on-the-spot experience rather than the concept
behind each work.

The more recent trends of video and other computer technology in
contemporary art can be found documented on www.bjartlab.com/ and
www.wangjianwei.com/. The only problem is how to find these sites
through Google without knowing the author's of the sites.
The situation of the lack of available information on the
Internet already leaves contemporary art enthusiasts destitute, let
alone the people who are just curious. Adding on the layer of
censorship only worsens the situation. Yishujournal.com, an important
site with reliable sources and detailed information solely focused on
art in Greater China is blocked. Findarticles.com and even an American
news site cnn.com are all blocked. The only available article online
about the Star Star Exhibition is also blocked. The only information
about the Lost Generation of China is on knowledgerush.com, a simple
online encyclopedia, is blocked.
Without being in the art scene, taking a class, or talking to
professionals in the field, I do not think an everyday person would be
able to build a fairly solid timeline of contemporary art in China.
There would be many key events and people missing. The information
available online often only focuses on one aspect of contemporary art
in China, rather than having one cohesive Wikipedia page with every
single aspect included.

On Photography- Christina Xiong

I'm intrigued by the use of photography as a medium for "imagining the
future". As Chang Tsong-Zung suggests, Chinese contemporary
photography cannot be interpreted in a single way; it can be read in
many different contexts because people, with their distinct
backgrounds and perspectives, all bring a different narrative to this
visual art. Throughout my own life, photography existed as a way to
make, preserve and recollect memories. From taking pictures for our
class yearbook to creating snapshots of scenery in Yunnan,
photography, to me, served the purpose of reminding myself of youth,
of places I've been to and what I've experienced as a human being.
During my visit to the Expo, I waited "in line" to take pictures, only
to be cut by the local Chinese, who would take photo after photo,
until they were all satisfied with each smiling figure holding a peace
sign in the image. This marks the Chinese obsession with not just
creating memories, but creating ones that only highlight beauty, which
is, in this manner, often unnatural and forced. Yet, is this act of
creating or "forcing" a beautiful memory an attempt at false identity?
On another aspect, can it also represent a sincere desire to progress?
It is this optimism that characterizes the Chinese's imagination of
the future.

According to Chang Tsong-Zung, the use of digital photography to
alter and distort "reality" has made it harder for all of us to reach
a consensus on the intentions of certain photographic images. In other
words, the role of Chinese contemporary photography is constantly
evolving, from an information provider to one that expresses the
ideals of the aspiring Chinese. But even though it is constantly
changing, there is still some "reality" in these images. While an
outsider, like myself, may think of them as deceiving at first, the
images are not fake in any manner, because the intentions of the
Chinese to "progress" and "modernize" is real. I believe that Chang's
aim is to reinforce the idea that we must not judge by first
impressions. Photography, like many any other art forms, is influenced
by historic events that are taking place, the human experience. This
"imagining the future" as concept of the continuing process of
improvement is not much different.