Today I visited an up and coming artist, Yan Bo, at his studio near Sanlitun. He makes art about “first experiences”: his first girlfriend, his first time swimming, his first nap beneath clouds. He likes when things feel new, and his paintings are filled with experimental touches that provide the viewer with that same “newness.”
After talking to him for half an hour, I realized that he was one of the very few people I had encountered who spoke only the truth and seemed to know exactly what I meant when I asked him about the “there must be more than what we can see in the relationship between artists and the government” dilemma. He told me that the government clearly supported Factory 798 despite the many controversial and political paintings it housed because it knew that they were created out of a desire to make money, and not out of true dissent.
For example, a queer art exhibition I heard would be happening tomorrow was canceled at the last minute by the government with threats of punishment if they continued as planned. Sounds like the Chinese art world isn’t as free as almost everyone I talked to told me.
Yan Bo was optimistic though. When I asked him about the continued commercialization of the art world, he said that people with money will pay for things they think are good, whether it’s good because they think of it as an investment, or whether they are truly touched. He said that we can’t expect everyone to act from the heart and that even things that are seemingly bad can become something good. For example he said that nuclear energy used to be equated with evil and tremendously devastating powers, but 50 years later, it’s used as a cleaner method of creating energy. A slightly exaggerated parallel, but still, I see his point. Pouring more money into art will only help artists and the cultivation of truer art in the long run. I mean what would many of the famous Western artists we praise now have done if they didn’t have rich patrons or the newly rich interested in investing in their art? As much as I’d like to wish that the art world consisted solely of artists who created from the heart and of patrons who bought the art with pure intentions without greed and dishonesty, such a desire is like hoping for an entire world without greed and dishonesty.
–Miyuki
According to a senior government official I interviewed, attitudes toward condoms have changed drastically in China since 2003. In the past, possession of condoms could be used by the police as evidence that the person was a sex worker. Nowadays, condom use is promoted in hotel bathrooms (see above), roadside billboards, and hospitals. The sale of condoms has also become much more open, possibly even more open here in Beijing than in most parts of the United States. In a trip to a Beijing Wal-Mart two weeks ago, condoms (including flavored ones!) were displayed at the checkout counter in place of where gum and candy usually can be found in American grocers. On top of that, boxes of condoms were one of the weekly specials at the Wal-Mart, and buying one large box of regular ones got you a complimentary smaller box of flavored ones. Stay tuned for more on William’s Chinese condom adventures.
After a 16 hour plane ride, getting my temperature checked twice for Swine Flu and walking through heat detectors, I arrived in Beijing exhausted but excited. My groupmates Amanda, Mary, Will, Ben and our advisor Professor Huang were already at the Piao HOME Inn in Wangfujing, at the center of Beijing.