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This talk gives
a general
outlook on
contemporary
Chinese art and
cinema that has
attracted a
critical
attention from
both Chinese and
Western scholars
in the past
decade
(1995-2005). As
China is rising
as a new
economic power
in Asia, the
work of
so-called
Chinese
“avant-garde”
artists and
filmmakers needs
to be examined
in the context
of China’s rapid
transformation
from a Maoist
socialist state
to a country
that embodies “a
new kind of
ruthless
capitalism” in
Slavoj Zizek’s
observations. If
a process of
capitalistic
globalization
has benefited
China’s economy
and integrated
its contemporary
art and cinema
into the “world
system,” it also
generates deep
anxieties among
“avant-garde”
artists and film
directors of a
younger
generation whose
work is
vigorously
critical of that
omnipresent
global
capitalism.
In many artworks
created by this
younger
generation, we
detect a notable
tendency toward
nationalism and
a knowing
expression of
“post-socialist”
trauma, which
can be deemed as
a response to
the impact of
globalization on
Chinese society.
Through an
analysis of most
representative
works by Chinese
artists working
in different
media, such as
painting,
installation,
photography,
video and film,
I’ll try to
clarify a
coherent
development in
contemporary
Chinese art and
cinema since the
mid-1990s to the
new millennium.
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