Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art - Volume 11, Issue 1, 2024

This article explores Duoluojie around Chinese university campuses, which are informal adaptations of streets to serve the needs of university students and promote creative economies. From reviewing the meaning of ‘being a university student’ in the Chinese context and how this has transformed in the past decades, we seek the origins and emerging literature of Duoluojie. Duoluojie in this article is considered as a creative approach to regenerating urban spaces with grassroots interventions from university students and local communities. It is rooted in but also beyond the street-vending economy. Duoluojie, as a unique phenomenon, serves as a vital connection between the university and the city, bridging the gap between campus life and the external urban environment. Reviewing two Duoluojie regarding failures and successes, we wish to open up the discourse on its future in relation to current debates and theories on urban regeneration and place branding.

This article examines the popular practice of water calligraphy (dishu) across Changsha, Guiyang and Chongqing to demonstrate its aesthetic potential. Specifically, it suggests that dishu can be interpreted as a new expression of calligraphy and an exemplary case of living aesthetics. To demonstrate this, this article discusses the author’s on-site observations and conversations with water calligraphers alongside the longstanding aesthetic principles of traditional calligraphy and the experimental works by Wang Dongling (b. 1945) and Song Dong (b. 1966). Moreover, by adopting a socio-geographical and historical lens, it views water calligraphy as a living, familiar and slow practice against China’s spectacular and fast urban rhythms. Overall, this article demonstrates that water calligraphy can contribute to the discourse of living aesthetics by favouring sensual encounters within the familiar, collective and slow-paced everyday. Last, this article can contribute to shaping a new aesthetic paradigm that favours the living in a non-western context.

Digital technologies such as digital production and online marketplaces have generated revenue growth and sustained work in the music and game creative industries. However, there is little research on how digital technologies impact contemporary craft. Here we present the results of a twenty-month AHRC research project which explored the role of digital technologies for craft in China and the United Kingdom. The research was undertaken prior to the mass adoption of online tools such as videoconferencing, which became necessary due to enforced social distancing during the recent pandemic. It provides an account of the craft ecosystems in China and the United Kingdom as they started to embrace digital technologies – ecosystems which inevitably evolved with craftmakers’ enforced migration online. This article reports on mixed-methods research stakeholder surveys, workshops and quick ethnographic studies conducted to capture how digital technologies were used across the craft making journey from Planning and Inspiration through Materials and Preparation to Production and Making. Comparing the differences and similarities between China and the United Kingdom enables us to better understand the potential of digital technologies for craft. For example, live streaming, an emerging digital technology at the time of the research, was already a popular way for craftmakers to engage broad audiences in China, whilst UK craftmakers tended to use personal websites, e-mails and newsletters. Craftmakers’ knowledge has necessarily shifted to encompass the digital, often at the expense of precious making time. On the one hand, digital tools and processes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have transformed many craft skills from making by hand to making by computer; on the other hand, social media and online marketplaces have changed the relationship between craftmakers and consumers and may shape which crafts flourish in the future.