China’s Art – The Promise of an Exciting Future

Response to the article “All the Country’s an Art Exhibit” from The October 13th Newsweek Magazine (P. 54 – The Arts)

Whenever I think about China recently, my first thought is 2008 Olympics, then the spitting Chinese, and then the notorious melamine. However, after I read this article, I realized China is much more than that. One of the biggest trends in China now is hosting contemporary art shows. Although the shows’ themes are not particularly interesting, many of its works are. For example, in one of the shows with the theme of “Modern World”, there was a colorful parade of giant steel dinosaur sculptures with grinning human faces. This is the trademark image of Chinese painter Yue Minjun. The unnatural combination of a human head, symbolizing intelligence, and a dinosaur’s body, symbolizing savage strength, perhaps suggests that in modern days our animal instinct, hedonism and greed, is overtaking our human instinct, kindness and sensitive. I have this impression because of the queer smirk. Maybe, Yue was foreshadowing the rampage in Wall Street’s credit system would eventually lead to a crash, which we nowadays witness. In another show with the theme “Cultural Revolution”, there were dark, sinister images of doll-like women performing surgery on a dog. In the images, there was also a sentence saying, “Comrades, we need to improve” and the motto of Chairman Mao. Chinese has always worshipped Chairman Mao and claimed to have a great live under his leadership, but the images conveyed a contradicting atmosphere.

I am very concerned with this trend because it changes my view towards China. Before, I stereotyped Mainland Chinese to be uncreative, susceptible and lowly educated. However, the Chinese artists awakened me. Their eccentric and innovative arts showed their creativity. In addition, there is quite a strong flavor of “Chinese” in their arts. I am relieved to know that during globalization, Chinese preserves their dear cultural heritage. Lastly, the political connotation behind their arts, such as Cultural Revolution was mostly dreadful and the world has many dangers, demonstrated their education.

I see now China is not a bulldog chasing westernization absentmindedly, but an eagle that surveys the world and picks its prey (what to change). Although there are still negative aspects in China, like censorship, the recent melamine scandal and many others, China is definitely developing and improving in many aspects. Besides, government influence is not always undesirable. If the U.S. government has intervened in Wall Street’s business before, many damages we witness now may be avoided. All in all, China’s growth excites me and I have to say “Go China!”