Artistic interventions in contemporary China

Abstract

This concluding article examines the ways in which Chinese artists depict, decipher, and react to urbanization in contemporary China. It summarizes several important themes in the cluster of articles included in this special issue of China Information. First, Chinese artists navigate the complex relationship between art and society, namely the tension between the individual aspirations of artists on the one hand and the limits of tolerance in Chinese public culture on the other hand. Second, the artists feel compelled to negotiate with and make sense of the Janus-faced reality of China: rosy images of a forward-looking society as painted by the official media in contrast to the plight of marginal social groups who have not been able to benefit from China’s march to prosperity. Third, the artists attempt to find the right balance in artistic expression between localism and globalization, namely, between the indigenous roots of their art and the pressures and opportunities afforded by the global capitalist economy and the international art market.