China Image

Contemporary Art, Intangible cultural heritage, Culture Memory

Artworks usually reflect the current cultural trends and political environment, which are mostly products selected to match the cultural trends and political environment. Artworks related to China in the Western modern art market are always associated with politics, with an undisguised political orientation. This orientation reflects both the fear of socialism and the eagerness of colonization. Although most of these works are produced by Chinese artists, most of them are with Western stereotypes toward the East. Rather than being an expression of Chinese thought and culture, it is better to say that they are the internalization of oriental stereotypes. These works are more like a series of sexual fantasies about China as a consumption symbol, projecting dissatisfaction with current life onto a distant country. However, these artists with Chinese backgrounds are also happy to do this business. With the globalization of the economy, the cultural and art industry is also globalizing (D’Alleva 98). It sounds fancy to pursue exhibitions and art activities worldwide, but behind it is the reality of funds and networking. An emerging international artist who has no networking can do little to fill the art industry with their works. Attributing everything to talent is unrealistic. The "talent" of these Chinese artists is to cater to the trend of Western political opinion at the time, using brushstrokes to depict mistakes and reveal a superficial core. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the West started to herald the Coming Collapse of China. The West believed China would inevitably be conquered by capitalism. Their works are obsessed with singing praises for capitalism but abandon the role of artworks, which should reflect problems and promote social development. These stereotypical works are also divided into three levels: the first level consists of red anti-socialist propaganda posters; the second level contains weird collages that imitates The Garden of Earthly Delights (Bosch); and the third level seems to criticize social issues but has not undergone solid investigation. Most of these artists' class identity is more famous than their artworks. Most of them benefited from the system at that time. Now they are frustrated with their business because they have given up a huge Eastern market.

In the eyes of some artists, the only thing worth depicting about people is their sexual characteristics. They prefer to depict an ugly and poor world full of thieves and prostitutes, claiming that is the real China. Some artists will add some outdated details to increase the authenticity of their fantasy; for example, the Xinjiang incident or poverty alleviation policy. If they take advantage of the social issues to increase the depth and authenticity of their works, it is also a win-win deal. Artists get exposure, and problems are promoted and solved. Confusingly, they always focus on some outdated and solved problems. This is because of the arrogance and expansion of the power of these artists. The halo they have given them is rampant, as they enjoy the feeling of being praised as geniuses. As a genius, they got praised for whatever they did. They take it for granted and condense their outdated prejudices in their works without detailed research, and enjoy the power to look down the audiences and subjects in the works. Audiences subconsciously consume them, and subjects are gazed at with prejudice and participate in spreading them. English as the dominant language for globalizing this image to the world. Art is not divided as high or low, but these art products trample on the Chinese people, culture, and national image in the name of art. 

Frankly speaking, the Western world and the Chinese world consume completely different cultural products. In China, art was considered service for the people, not a tool for the capitalist to consolidate its discourse power and wealth. Due to its long history and vast territory, there are countless examples to choose from. Based on my previous artistic practice, I started with a modern artist and an intangible cultural heritage. Wu Guanzhong is one of the representatives of modern Chinese art painters. His works combine Western modern art and traditional Chinese ink painting. He combines the lines of modern art with the shapes of Chinese ink painting to depict Chinese mountains, rivers, villages, and houses. The lines of modern art come from his early education in Paris, and Chinese ink painting comes from love for his hometown. Due to the background of the times, artists either pursue only modern art or insist on retaining the traditional ink painting. Wu should have been more influenced by Western modern art because of his early education. Because of his love for the motherland, he decided to return to China in 1949: the founding year of PRC, and began art teaching. Since the Chinese art group preferred the Soviet realistic style at that time, Wu's modern art teaching was not smooth. It was not until the Reform and Opening Up in 1978 that Wu's combination of Chinese and Western styles became popular. This popularity had a great impact on children's aesthetic education and the cultivation of future artists. Wu’s works are easy to understand, novel, friendly, and comfortable to an all ages audience. From children to the elderly, everyone can appreciate them. His "Beauty of Bridges" was selected as a textbook illustration be the company for generations' growth. Through Wu's autobiography and interview, he has a standard to value the quality of art. No matter the subject or style, the essence is the true feeling. It is the artists' motivation and what could touch audiences. The audiences could be as big as all mankind, could be as small as the creator himself. The emotion travels through time, distance, language and culture. The value of it never changed. What the artists want to provide to the audience is always good; resistance to unfairness, praise for justice, love of hometown, compassion for the fragile. 

Intangible cultural heritage refers to various traditional cultural expressions that exist in an intangible form and are passed down from generations of all ethnic groups, such as clothing, performance, food, medicine. The formation of intangible cultural heritage is related to when, where, and how people live. It is a common memory that runs through our daily life and a code of culture, region, climate and national character. They did not appear out of thin air and isolated from the people. Instead, they are closely related to local industries and local agricultural development. For example, the local climate is very suitable for the growth of Banlangen in Yun, Gui, Xiang, the key dye materials of Laran. The same is true for the development of Cixiu. The local climate in Su, Xiang, Shu, and Yue is very suitable for the development of sericulture. My hometown is an industrial city, so the local art academy is more adept at public art and large metal sculptures. It is a common memory that runs through our daily life and a code of culture, region, climate and national character. (Liaoning Daily). It interweaves with history, as the evidence supports the development of Chinese civilization. 

Hanfu is the most active and representative example of Chinese cultural heritage now. Hanfu is the traditional costume of the Chinese nation. It carries the Chinese dyeing, weaving, embroidery (Qinghai Minzu University Library), and inherits more than 30 Chinese intangible cultural heritages and crafts (People's Daily). They include textures and technique of textiles; laran, jiaxie, jinxiu, silk (Husanxing). Starting from early Chinese clothing, Han, Tang, Song, as well as modern times, such as Qipao all belong to this category. Hanfu is an overall clothing system that includes clothes, headwear, hairstyles, facial decorations, shoes, accessories. Hanfu has also influenced the entire Chinese culture scope through the legal system. The national costumes of Asian countries such as Japan, North Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bhutan have drawn on the characteristics of Hanfu. There is a huge market based on the population. The 2024 Hanfu Trend White Paper released by JD Fashion shows that the Hanfu market size reached 13.7 billion yuan in 2023. The market size of the Hanfu industry is rapidly increasing, the brands and commodities are rapidly replenished and enriched (Beijing Youth Daily). Hanfu is for all ages covering various scenes, from daily life to important festivals. Chinese people used to be obsessed with Western luxury goods and considered wearing luxury dresses fashionable. Now they are proud to wear Hanfu. The appeal of luxury goods in the Chinese market is waning, especially in the first half of 2024. On July 23, LVMH Group released its performance report for the first half of 2024. Sales revenue in the Asian market led by China, fell by 10% year-on-year. On August 30 of 2024, Louis Vuitton announced that it will officially close its store in Shenyang Zhuozhan Shopping Center on October 15, and its services will be transferred to the Shenyang MixC store. Recently, Burberry released its first quarter report for the fiscal year of 2025, showing that in the three months ending June 29, the retail sales fell 22% year-on-year to 458 million £, and same-store sales fell 21%, of which sales in the Chinese market shrank by 21%.

The Hanfu festivals are all over the country, such as the Luoyang Hanfu Huazhao Festival: Second Month 15 of the Chinese calendar, and the Wuhan Jiujie Huazhao Festival: Second Month 13-17 of the Chinese calendar. They are all related to the traditional Huazhao Festival. In the past, girls hung out at the Huazhao festivals to appreciate the flowers and worship the flower god, praying that they will be as energetic and beautiful as flowers. They have a picnic, plant flowers, dig wild vegetables, and make flower cakes. Huazhao had already taken shape in the late Tang Dynasty, as can be seen from 春江花朝秋月夜，往往取酒还独倾 (Baijuyi, lines 38). Huazhao celebrates the birthdays of 12 flower gods and the rest of the flowers in China. The restoration of  Huazhao in various places has also greatly stimulated the local tourism economy. During the 2024 Wuhan Jiujie Huazhao Festival, the average daily traffic reached 160,000 people, and the peak daily traffic exceeded 200,000 people. Traditional culture gives tourists great enjoyment in hearing, vision, taste, and smell. People traveled thousands of years ago to celebrate the spring with their ancestors, and at the same time planted a natural love and yearning for our own culture in the next generation. Perhaps thousands of years later, future generations will continue to celebrate this festival in different forms, because this is the understanding, recognition, and development running in the culture. 

Prosperity and Loot

Chinese Cultural Relics Overseas, Cultural Appropriation, History Stolen 

The recently popular video game Black Myth Wukong takes the Central Plains as its geographical background. Chinese culture, scenery, architecture, history, art, and opera run through it. While playing the game, players will also take an online Chinese cultural journey. Tianmingren will lead the player to a fascinating Journey in the central plains. According to incomplete statistics, 27 cultural attractions are from the Central Plains. Lingji Bodhisattva in Chapter 2 aroused everyone's curiosity. The story of chapter 2 also revolves around his head lost and recovered. Why does he lose his head? Where did his head go? It is known that Lingji Bodhisattva doesn't exist in real Buddhism, but the temples mentioned above have been severely looted during the western forces invading China. UNESCO estimates that at least 1.6 million Chinese cultural relics have been scattered around the globe in 200 different museums in 47 countries, not to mention private collections (UNESCO 3). According to incomplete statistics, there are about 130 million books and cultural relics from China in the UK, 2.3 million in the US, 2.6 million in France, 3.6 million in Japan. German major museums keep around 300,000 Chinese cultural relics. However, more than half of the artifacts were destroyed during the Second World War (Xu). There are around 23000 rare national treasures such as Chinese calligraphy and painting, ancient books, jade, pottery, porcelain, bronze, and sculptures in the British Museum (The British Museum). The Guimet Museum of France has more than 20,000 Chinese cultural relics (Musée Guimet), and the National Library of France has more than 30,000 Dunhuang cultural relics (International Dunhuang Programme). There are at least 3.6 million Chinese cultural relics in Japan (Ministry of Education of the Republic of China), mainly looted during the war of aggression against China from 1931 to 1945. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has at least 12,000 Chinese cultural relics and artworks, covering almost every field of ancient Chinese art (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The Royal Ontario Museum of Canada has more than 43000 rare Chinese collections (ROM). There are even more than 10 large coffin tombs in there(ROM). 

Why are these invaders keen on stealing the relics and even coffins of other's ancestors then displaying them in the museums? Where did they leave the bodies? Throw them on the ground? These cultural relics have stood there for thousands of years, even the country has changed dynasties and turmoil countless times, but they are still preserved. Why did these invaders steal such an astonishing number of cultural relics in a short period? They do not understand the cultural significance behind them, they only regard them as trophies. These cultural relics answer who we are, where we come from, and where we will go, just like the developer of Black Myth said in the interview: at first we want to create everything by ourselves, then we realized we are morons if we are not utilizing what our ancestors left us with (One on One). These cultural relics carry our profound history, splendid culture, and diverse art. They record the living conditions of our ancestors: economic, political, and cultural environment at that time. They verify each other to form a complete theory. They connected the distant past with the infinite future, answered the three questions of life, and are our past and future. However, these invaders looted at will, and what couldn't be taken away or seemed to have no value: textiles and paper, were directly destroyed. How many cultural relics were ruined during the turbulent transportation and wars?

Dragon's Den boba has sparked a discussion about cultural appropriation. There are many cases of the appropriation of Chinese culture, but it has never caused widespread public discussion. Is it related to the recent sanctions on Chinese electric vehicles by Canada, which led to the counter-sanction of canola oil exports? The Canadian government decided to sanction the non-existent electric vehicle industry and lost the world's second largest canola oil export customer. Around 2016, most products and cultures related to China were basically negative. People's indifference and even contempt for it are obvious. At the same time, cultural appropriation is rampant in the dark corners. European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate and even underground self (Said 3). They belittle this culture, but they want to "make it better" to make a profit. D&G Chopstick Ad, Mamianqun and Dior, lunar new year or Chinese new year? The Chinese New Year is calculated based on the Chinese calendar, which is a combination of the lunar calendar and the solar calendar. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC also accepted the name of Lunar New Year in 2021, because they hope the world can widely accept this festival rather than a certain country's festival, and everyone will celebrate the arrival of the Spring Festival together.

A new study has revealed that the iconic lion of Venice may have originated from the Tang dynasty of China. It reminds me of The Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China, the documentary of BBC in 2016. It claims the famed Terracotta Warriors found within the tomb of China's first emperor near today's city of Xi'an may have had their genesis in Ancient Greece. Greek artisans could have been training locals there in the Third Century BC (BBC). The more extravagant ethnocentric claims involve not only presenting contemporary or recent advantage as virtually permanent but interpreting that advantage in terms of the evolving aspects of European society alone, at least since the sixteenth century and often long before (Good 154). Ancient Greek and Roman culture holds a disproportionately important position in the imagination of the West and is deeply rooted in the historical writing of the West. For example, the US was projected as the heir of ancient Greek and Roman democracy when it was founded. Some white Americans who traveled in Italy were fanatical about ancient Roman worship and believed that they were the orthodox heirs of them. It is comparable to Japan's repeated expressions of its inheritance of Chinese culture in history. For example, Professor Kojima Tsuyoshi of the University of Tokyo proposed in 中国思想与宗教的奔流宋朝 that today's Japan can be said to be the heir of the historical culture of the Song Dynasty, and today's China is not the only orthodox heir of Chinese classical culture (Tsuyoshi). He tried to prove that Japan is the orthodox heir of Chinese culture from the perspective of history and culture. It can only mean that they accepted and integrated into the Chinese cultural scope at that time, what they retained and continued was only the Chinese culture at that time, not the Chinese culture that is currently developing and diversifying. During the Tang Dynasty, Japan was completely tangized, just as it insisted on completely westernizing and pursuing leaving Asia to join Europe in modern times. Because of their subsequent development, they lost the continuous injection of Chinese traditional culture, increased and enriched the connotation of their own national and cultural development. Especially on language and writing, they have completely deviated from the scope of Chinese culture, absorbed and adopted the cultural genes from other countries especially Western countries. Although their culture looks like Chinese traditional culture, its essence has been transformed into other tracks. In terms of their current cultural characteristics, it can be said that they are Japanese culture with Chinese traditional cultural characteristics, rather than Chinese traditional culture in the true sense.