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Studies of women's art in the current century are redressing past invisibilities by involving diverse groups of women. However, new questions have been raised; how do we appreciate women's artworks across cultural boundaries? How do we undermine the gender binary that has caused an imbalance in culture and in the art world? This thesis is concerned with these questions and studies eight installation works produced by eight women artists from Britain and China, with analysis that opens up more possibilities in a transcultural context. To achieve that, I provide a semiotic analysis to the selected artworks that is guided by a phenomenological feminist standpoint theory. These artworks are categorised into three principal themes: the female body, domesticity, and reproduction for a systematic interpretation. The analysis is enriched by semi-structured interviews with each artist as well as exhibition catalogues, art reviews, and scholarly publications. Throughout the analysis, the concept of entanglement also comes into play - I seek the common grounds while reserving the differences between the selected artworks. The result is termed 'touchpoints'. I identify six touchpoints in this study that bridge the selected artworks to reach across the themes and also enable greater understanding of the dialogue between sociocultural differences. This thesis thus provides one way of reading the selected artworks and challenges the current sociocultural binaries inherent in gender/power relations through the production of transcultural knowledge.

An insurance contract is a contract of utmost good faith. The nature of the insurance bargain makes the duty a commercial necessity. Duties of disclosure and representation, which were two fundamental components of the principle of utmost good faith, operate in different ways in England and China. The insured and insurer in these two countries bears distinctive good faith related obligations pre- and post-contractually. English insurance law exercise considerable influence in most common law countries and some civil law jurisdictions. The separation between utmost good faith and the duty of fair presentation, with the abolition of the avoidance remedy, under the Insurance Act 2015 could influence other jurisdictions to alter their remedies. This thesis examines the application of the civil law notion of good faith and the common law duty of utmost good faith. It covers the operation of insured’s pre-contractual duties of disclosure and representation in both countries. The thesis considers the insurer’s duties as well as the continuing duties and the effect of utmost good faith taking in account the recent legislative changes on fraudulent claims and late payment. The thesis further examines the legal status of brokers and their disclosure duty in China and England. Finally, it also provides special considerations on consumers and micro-businesses.