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An introduction to the overall book

This chapter examines the emergence and reception in China of ‘body art’ (shenti yishu or routi yishu) – one of the most extreme and controversial artistic trends of the postsocialist era – as a transcultural phenomenon. This chapter frames ‘body art’ in 1990s-2000s China within the atmosphere of cynicism which prevailed in the years after the events of 1989 and the heightened role of the market in the cultural sphere. The chapter argues that the notion that it behoves the Party-state to protect the bodies and minds of the people from harmful cultural spectacles represents a residue of Mao-era socialism in the postsocialist era. To investigate the reception of ‘body art’ by the Chinese art world, this chapter analyses a performance by woman artist Zhao Yue (b. 1981) entitled Gezi (Lattice, or Grids, 2007) and discusses the debate this work elicited among Chinese art critics. Its analysis reveals body art from China as a cultural trend where postsocialist biopolitics and gendered cultural identities intersect with transcultural flows of artistic experimentation, thus highlighting key tensions that animate the intellectual life of contemporary China.

This book examines how China’s new generation of avant-garde writers and artists are pushing the boundaries of vernacular culture, creatively appropriating artistic and literary languages from global cultures to reflect on reform-era China’s transformation and the Maoist heritage. It explores the vortex of cultural change from the launch of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in 1978 to Xi Jinping establishing his leadership for life in 2018. The book argues that China’s new avant-garde adopt transcultural forms of expression while challenging the official discourse of Xi Jinping’s regime, which promotes cultural nationalism and demands that cultural production in China embodies the essence of the "Chinese nation". The topics range from body art, women’s poetry and boys’ love literature to Tibetan fiction and ceramic art. The book shows how the avant-garde use the new digital media to bypass government censorship, transcending China’s virtual frontiers while breaking new ground for an emerging public sphere. Overall, the book provides a rich picture of the nature of China’s avant-garde art and literature and the challenges it poses for the Chinese government.