Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art - Current Issue

In Chinese contemporary everyday aesthetics, the concept of collective aesthetics plays an indispensable role. This notion, as manifested in the daily life of contemporary China, originates from the unified paradigm of socialist ideology established in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. It is reflected in the everyday behaviours and lifestyles of the Chinese people and exerts a significant influence on interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, this form of collective aesthetics continues to evolve and adapt in response to ongoing political, social and cultural developments. This article explores the collective aesthetics present in contemporary Chinese art, focusing on representative works by Zhang Xiaogang, Yu Hong and other artists. These artworks represent the collective aesthetic sensibility and provide a critical framework for examining the emergence, evolution and development of everyday aesthetic imagery, including specifically blue uniform, grey sofa, white doily and green wall.

This article explores the emergence of neo-folk art in contemporary China through the viral figure of Ding Zhen, a young Tibetan man whose grassroots fame on short-video platforms was rapidly appropriated by commercial and state interests. Bridging media studies, ethnic representation and platform governance, the study conceptualizes ‘neo-folk art’ as a hybrid cultural form shaped by vernacular creativity, digital infrastructure and ideological curation. The analysis unfolds across four dimensions: (1) the transformation of folk art from revolutionary minjian to digital remix; (2) the co-construction of Ding Zhen’s fame through meme logic, fandom and affective economies; (3) the platformed landscapes of Shangri-La as tools of visual governance and (4) the negotiation of folk aesthetics in the curated environment of the Chinternet. Drawing on textual analysis of viral content, user-generated remixes and official campaigns, the article shows how ethnic identity, authenticity and algorithmic visibility intersect to produce new forms of symbolic capital. Rather than viewing folk expression as residue or revival, the article argues that neo-folk art functions as a mode of infrastructural folk imagination – a performance of tradition shaped within the logics of platform capitalism and state media.

The Chinese 1980s was marked by a ‘colour revolution’, in which the theoretical discourse of colour, epitomized by the field of secai xue (‘colour science’), provided the foundation for a range of theoretical discourses as well as the transformation of social life. This article takes up the changing configuration of colour in the early reform period by drawing connections between the revitalization of aesthetic theory on the one hand and, on the other hand, the expansion of commodity production and consumption. In the former case, the article examines the role of the perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim, whose rapid dissemination and translation in the Chinese 1980s, including by none other than Li Zehou, allowed for a reconceptualization of the subject of aesthetic perception, in which a receptiveness to colour played a central role. In this frame, the receptivity of the subject to colour came, for Chinese theorists, to authenticate an understanding of the subject in universalist, humanist terms, in place of the class-based theorization of aesthetics that had prevailed in the Maoist period. In the second case, this theoretical understanding came, in turn, to license the expanding commodity economy of the same period. The popular periodicals that emerged in connection with new sectors such as fashion, most notably Shiyong meishu (Applied Arts), invoked theoretical discussions around colour in its relation to the aesthetic subject in order to celebrate the expansion of the commodity economy. In the popular discourse, commodity production and consumption in the reform period would, in contrast to the assumed frugality of the Maoist past, provide for the needs of China’s new consumers, above all through the sensorial experience of colour in the course of everyday life. By taking colour as its thread, then, this article sheds new light on the theoretical, aesthetic and lived dimensions of post-socialist China.

This study explores the portrayal of amateur, non-specialist writers from grassroots contexts in contemporary China through documentary films of the 2010s, focusing on Yu Xiuhua, Chen Nianxi and Fan Yusu. The analysis centres on how these films construct an aesthetic of the ordinary, framing their subjects’ everyday lives as both authentic and marketable, oscillating between validation and fetishization. By underscoring the tension between privacy and the demand for authenticity, these films make non-specialist authors’ everyday lives a key feature of their public recognition. The analysis carried out in this article reveals a politics of recognition where it is amateur workers’ ordinary background that makes them extraordinary in the eyes of viewers from other backgrounds. Ultimately, the article interrogates whether such representations empower marginalized voices or reduce them to commodified symbols of grassroots authenticity.

In an era of rampant consumerism, what kind of relationship are we forming with everyday objects? This article explores two photographic projects created at the dawn of China’s economic and social transformation. The first, Impermanent Instant by Li Jun, is a photographic series produced between 2008 and 2013 and republished in photobook format in 2023. In this work, the artist documents the disappearance of everyday objects within his own home. The second project, Everything Illuminates (2012) by Jiang Pengyi, presents objects photographed in darkened domestic environments after being coated with phosphorescent liquid. The acts of appearance and disappearance serve as strategies to uncover both the ordinary and extraordinary experiences shaped by our interactions with material objects in daily life. In addition to exploring everyday aesthetics, this article adopts a formal approach and draws on photographic theory to analyse both works, highlighting how they offer profound reflections on the intrinsic characteristics of the photographic medium. Through the lens of everyday aesthetics and photographic theory, this article examines how these two photographic projects prompt reflection on the relationship between humans and everyday objects within the broader context of contemporary China.

This article examines how contemporary Hong Kong artists have embraced ‘smallness’ as a critical aesthetic strategy in the post-handover era, turning away from monumentality and overt political commentary to engage with the social textures of the everyday. Focusing on the practices of Lee Kit, Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen and Lam Tung Pang, the article explores how quiet gestures, mundane materials and ephemeral forms offer alternative modes of artistic subjectivity and political presence amidst Hong Kong’s evolving postcolonial condition. Building on Winnie Wong’s theorization of smallness, the article proposes an expanded framework that interprets smallness not as a symptom of constraint, but as a deliberate and generative mode of engagement. Connecting the notion of ‘smallness’ with Ackbar Abbas’s concept of disappearance, the article argues that these minor practices form an aesthetics of negotiation and survival that unsettles dominant representational paradigms, while foregrounding intimacy, contingency and community. Through close readings of artworks and analysis of the Fo tan artist community, the article situates smallness as both a formal strategy and a relational ethos that redefines the function and politics of contemporary art in Hong Kong.

This article examines the development of China’s cultural diplomacy through the lens of documentary co-productions. It explores how earlier forms of state-led communication, previously dominated by top-down messaging and abstract national imagery, are increasingly replaced by emotionally driven, people-focused narratives. Through the case study of a co-production documentary series Homestay China (2019), the article argues that co-production represents a recalibrated form: one that trades ideological assertion for curated affective encounters. Framing the discussion within Jacques Rancière’s concept of the distribution of the sensible, the article examines how co-production’s visual and narrative strategies reframe China’s political messaging as ordinary, intimate and shared. Ultimately, the article argues that while co-productions may appear to decentralize narrative authority and encourage intercultural dialogue, they remain structurally enclosed by the logics of cultural diplomacy. The presence of foreign guests functions less as co-authorship but legitimizing witness. What emerges is a soft power practice that invites emotional resonance with a pre-staged setting. Such practice positions global audiences not as participants in mutual exchange, but as observers of a benevolent and modernizing China.

The neighbourhood of Thames Town, in the suburban area of Shanghai, is famous for its architectural reproductions drawn from British urban history. The real estate company promoting the neighbourhood insisted on the quality way of life and the place’s authenticity that could be found there to attract buyers. A discourse of authenticity which has generally been criticized by many commentators groomed in a western scheme of thoughts dominated with particular conceptions regarding authenticity, originality and imitation. The case of Thames Town introduces a peculiarity in its promotion and its design of an authentic place: it relied on the idea of sensitive and sensorial experience, shaping the thought that authenticity is something to be lived, to be tasted. According to these discourses, Thames Town, characterized by a design so refined, ought to create an emotion in the visitors and the experience of an authentic travel out of China. Yet, the lived experience of the residents is not as colourful as the real estate company intended it to be. Nonetheless, the particularity of the space enables them to be as imaginative and creative in the way they decorate and organize their home. This contribution aims to analyse the different representations of the neighbourhood: from the image of an authentic foreign place made by the developer, which promises a real and extraordinary travel to the visitors, to the uses and habits of residents, grasped through an ethnography lead in Thames Town, and revealing their daily experience of cultural otherness and self-identification through designed spaces.

This article examines the intersection of ritual practices and urban transformation in Shanghai, specifically focusing on the sacrificial burning of paper offerings by residents of vanishing lilong neighbourhoods. It underscores the significance of fire and rituals as transformative elements in spiritual and communal life, highlighting their role in connecting the living with ancestors and fostering community bonds. Despite modern regulations limiting these practices, rituals continue, albeit in more discreet forms. The study argues that the selective preservation and commercialization of Shanghai’s history prioritize certain narratives, erasing the lived experiences of ordinary people. By exploring the social and symbolic meanings of these rituals, the article suggests that they serve as farewells to a disappearing way of life, reflecting broader themes of loss, memory and identity amidst rapid urban change. Partly drawing on personal experiences, the author discusses the notion of spiritual drift, where urban transformation results in dislocation and necessitates new forms of community. Ultimately, the research highlights the importance of maintaining a living culture that connects people and remains relevant to contemporary life, rather than merely preserving the past as a static constellation of symbols.