Art Now in China

Back from Beijing with a slightly clearer head despite the sand/dirt/shit-infested air there. Last year, my trip to China was about seeing history. This time around, I saw more of the city's present culture. Beijing may be less developed than Hong Kong, but the SAR lags behind when it comes to the arts. I'm not talking about showing famous artists in galleries (that's just part of it). I'm talking about developing talent from an early stage to nurture the city's place in the global cultural landscape. This can be applied to the visual arts and music. I can't comment on dance or theatre since my knowledge in those fields are limited, but I suspect it's the same.

My host took me to Dashanzi Art District. There, the military buildings turned art galleries are home to some contemporary Chinese artistst. For the most part, the art didn't impress me. But I thought it was interesting to see Chinese artists use Western techniques. I wonder if the subpar technique is due to the little access to Western art that the Chinese have had until recently. Regardless, it was nice to feel and see something happening. What it is exactly is unclear.

Although there are many things I love about Hong Kong (the ability to communicate, convenience, not having to jaywalk through eight lanes of traffic, quirks, better food), I found myself jealous of Beijing. Despite the smelly squat toilets, air pollution, spitting and rudeness, Beijing is cooler than Hong Kong. Beijing is the poor unclean bohemian, who although schizophrenic, is about to make some brilliant artistic breakthrough. Hong Kong is the emotionally stable and attractive yet self-indulgent banker. Would I prefer to be an unclean schizophrenic bohemian over an emotionally stable attractive banker? I'm not sure, but I would definetly prefer talking to the former over the latter.

If you go to Beijing, check out Bed Tapas and Bar. Decent mojitos, nice staff, great decor of traditional Chinese furniture, minimalistic concrete "stuff" in the Hutongs and they were spinning the Lazy Dog discs on Sunday night.

Photo: A "shop" in Dashanzi's 798 Factory turned Gallery building. The woman was selling art books.

Comments

[rachael]

have you seen andy doro's photo blog?
http://www.sheepish.org/andy/
that's why i'm convinced about what you say about the state of art in beijing.

[Andrea Chiu]

That's a cool blog. But his photos are from Shanghai. I've never been there so I can't really comment on culture there, but I've heard that in general, it's more commerical there and Beijing is more grassroots.

[mike armitage]

hey andrea, great photos. i like your posts. keep writing.