Most of the time I think of capitalism as an obvious perpetrator of culture-cide, but in the case of the arts, things become more blurred. Even though 798, a military factory transformed into a once affordable artists community, seems to have gone high buck, the art showcased there still presents the strongest visual culture I’ve seen so far that is distinguishably “Chinese.”
Last week I stumbled around a few galleries and studios and while a lot of the art was culturally indistinct, good deal, maybe even a majority of the pieces were China-centric. I’m no expert on Chinese classical art, but sufficed to say that they had an aesthetic that echoed the classical, but which broke away from classical forms in terms of materials or subject. I saw classical symbols and materials twisting into new forms, self-aware and emboldened.
More heartening than anything though, was the fact that a lot of the artists actually had something to say about China itself – and that people were buying it. I won’t get into a protracted discussion of whether or not sold art is in some way tainted, because that’s for the artist to decide. And everyone selling art at 798 must have made up their minds by now. After all, even Leonardo needed patrons.
So maybe glossy boutiques and over-furnished coffeehouses are an incurable cancer that eventually afflicts any artists-colony-turned-yuppie-colony, but the malignancy here has yet to be seen. Hopefully the hipsters overrunning New China won’t just turn out to be a scourge of culture-consuming tourists, but zealous investors in arts and other staples of cultural discourse.
hipsters are invading china? thats fucking terrible.
ReplyDeleteon a more serious note: how much of the culture-cide would you say has been because of western influence if not entirely? also have you noticed extensive western influence in other mediums of art? music, movies etc.
just so you dont fall behind in "american" youtube culture... watch in order
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54yESyq6Io
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw
I wouldn't say that hipsters have so much "invaded" china as the concept has. There is a word roughly equivalent in chinese used to describe the sort of vacant, material-obsessed lifestyle of an entitled young person with a conflated view of their own creativity and too much disposable income. My definition of hipster might be different than yours, but if hipsters express themselves through stuff, then the tools of expression are definitely available.
ReplyDeleteAs for the second part of your question, I'm not sure how to separate a western format like film or television from the content it displays. There is something just as western to me about a television show as there is something chinese about shadow puppet theater.