Projects tagged "China"

Ai Weiwei’s Colored Vases: Clever Artwork Or Vandalism?
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 2006
Exhibition visitors have expressed feelings of uneasiness or even pain and nostalgia when seeing Colored Vases by Ai Weiwei1. The 51 vases that make up the artwork are originally treasures from the Neolithic Age (5000–3000 BCE) and the artist has dunked them in common industrial paint. Why did Ai Weiwei do it?
Favorite 
3
Whose Utopia? 谁的乌托邦
Practitioner:
Cao Fei 曹斐
Date:
Jan 1 2005
Whose Utopia? was made by the Chinese artist Cao Fei and filmed at the OSRAM lighting factory in Foshan in the Pearl River Delta in southern China during 2005 and 2006. It was commissioned as part of a project entitled ‘What Are They Doing Here?’ that was run by the Siemens Art Program from 2000 to 2006 and involved Chinese artists undertaking six-month-long residencies at industrial facilities across the country.
Favorite 
3
A Straight Journey: days and nights in their kingdom
Practitioner:
Masamojo
Date:
Apr 23 2015
A Straight Journey is a documentary of Chinese homosexual people. It is the first time for Chinese gays and lesbians to make their debut and speak out via one of the largest Chinese Internet service providers. Two Chinese photographers Masa and Mojo took a journey across 11 China's cities making portraits of 48 gays, lesbians and their families from 2014-2015.
Favorite 
1
Study of Perspective (& Stools)
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 2014
The son of an exiled political dissident, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s work is inherently political. Since 1995 Ai Weiwei has been traveling the world, photographing himself flipping off iconic monuments of power in his Study of Perspective series.
Favorite 
3
How Feminists in China Are Using Emoji to Avoid Censorship
Practitioner:
Chinese feminists
Date:
Mar 30 2018
Shortly after the close of this year’s International Women’s Day, China’s Twitter-like service Sina Weibo shut down Feminist Voices. With 180,000 followers, the group’s social media account was one of the most important advocacy channels for spreading information about women’s issues in China, but in an instant, it was gone. A few hours later, the private messaging app WeChat also shuttered an account for the group.
Favorite 
4
"100 Sexual Questions from Children" , interactive sex education exhibition
Practitioner:
Maylove
Date:
May 16 2021
"100 Questions About Sex from Children" is an annual touring sex education exhibition founded and curated by Se A, a leading advocate of inclusive sex education in China. Since its launch in 2021, the exhibition has been held in major cities such as Shenzhen and Guiyang, with plans to expand into regions where sex education and gender awareness remain underdeveloped.
Favorite 
4
Experience Getting Old Before Getting Married
Practitioner:
Simple Wedding Movie
Date:
Apr 12 2021
Simple Wedding Movie is an organization in China that cares about love and marriage and offer marriage service. It made a short video with the theme: experience getting old before getting married. Most people would get married in a young and beautiful age. During that time, they are young and beautiful. Because of that, young couple may more likely to have passion and love for each other.
Favorite 
7
Documentary --- The Two Lives of Li Ermao
Practitioner:
Jia Yuchuan, Li Ermao
Date:
Dec 1 2019
The documentary film "The Two Lives of Li Ermao" recorded the bumpy life experience of a transgender Li Ermao and her unique and moving story. "Others only live one life, I live two." Looking back, the "two lives" are not only the emotional disillusionment and the swing of identity that Li Ermao has experienced in the past 17 years, but also her helpless but accurate summary of her life.
Favorite 
0
menstrual pad mutual aid boxes
Practitioner:
Chinese University Students
Date:
Oct 30 2020
Since 2020, university students across China have launched a grassroots initiative to combat menstrual stigma by placing “menstrual pad mutual aid boxes” in campus restrooms. These boxes, often accompanied by signs reading “Take one if you need it, donate if you can,” provide free sanitary pads to anyone caught off guard by their period—offering both practical relief and a symbolic challenge to the cultural silence surrounding menstruation.
Favorite 
5
“Rice Bunny” (米兔) #MeToo Code on Chinese Social Media
Practitioner:
Chinese Netizens
Date:
Apr 5 2018
Women in China are covertly resisting government crackdowns on discussions over their Me Too movement with a clever workaround. The phrase “rice bunny” (米兔), pronounced as “mi tu,” has popped up on social media networks after censors removed posts that mentioned sexual harassment or the hashtag #MeToo. While those phrases are heavily monitored, Rice Bunny isn’t.
Favorite 
6
"Stand Up, Sisters (《姐姐妹妹站起来》)": The Miserable Past of Chinese Prostitutes
Practitioner:
Xihe Chen (陈西禾)
Date:
Jan 1 1951
"Stand Up, Sisters" tells the story of a rural girl who journeys to Beijing for a family visit, only to be deceived and forced into prostitution, suffering unthinkable hardships. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, these women are rehabilitated. The narrative reaches its peak with her and her younger sisters' victorious achievement of self-reliance.
Favorite 
1
The Earth is Bleeding
Practitioner:
Shu Yong
Date:
Nov 4 1998
Shu Yong is an artist who has been passionate about environmental protection in recent years. "The Earth Is Bleeding" was created in 1998. The creation was carried out in a studio of more than ten square meters.
Favorite 
0
Local artist stages demonstration inspired by protesters in China
Practitioner:
Yolanda He Yang
Date:
Dec 11 2022
Late last month, Chinese citizens took up a creative means of protest over the nation’s strict “zero-COVID” policy. In a place with little tolerance for large public demonstrations, protesters have been holding up blank pieces of paper. Their ingenuity inspired a local artist Yolanda He Yang to stage a public art demonstration to subtly communicate their dissent.
Favorite 
1
Love Queer Cinema Week (aka the Beijing Queer Film Festival)
Practitioner:
Students of Beijing University, Beijing Queer Film Festival commitee
Date:
Dec 1 2001
Founded 19 years ago, the Beijing Queer Film Festival (aka Love Queer Cinema Week) is one of the grassroots film festivals in China focusing on independent queer film screenings and cultural exchange activities. We aim to expand public discussions on sexuality / gender identity / gender expression, we aim to give a platform to sexual and other minorities in China and the World, and we celebrate diversity.
Favorite 
2
Heritage loss and the Importance of the Past
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 1995
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) by Ai Weiwei is a highly provocative work of art. This series of three black and white photographs portray the artist holding a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty urn that, frame by frame, he drops, it falls, and shatters. As much a work of photography as a work of performance art, in each still an unaffected Ai looks directly at the camera aware of his destructiveness.
Favorite 
1
Nongfu Spring Market
Practitioner:
Brother Nut
Date:
Jun 1 2018
The 9,000 bottles of water on display at an art gallery in Beijing last month appeared identical to those of Nongfu Spring, one of China’s most popular spring water brands, with one jarring difference. Inside each bottle was brown, murky groundwater collected from a Chinese village.
Favorite 
2
Tibetan Self-immolation Portraits
Practitioner:
Liu Yi
Date:
Jan 1 2013
Beijing-based artist Liu Yi is working on a series of black-and-white portraits he knows will never be shown in a Chinese gallery. His varied subjects — men and women, young and old, smiling and pensive — have one thing in common: They are Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest repressive Chinese rule.
Favorite 
2
Cancer Baby's Kimo Kawa House
Practitioner:
Lu Yang
Date:
Apr 12 2014
Lu Yang attempts to bring the negative notion of Cancer cell into a “Kimo Kawa” object of love and/or pain and hopes to open a dialogue that brings awareness to the acceptance and tolerance of living with cancer cells.
Favorite 
0
Sima Qian: China's 'grand historian'
Practitioner:
Chinese historians, Carrie Gracie
Date:
Oct 7 2012
Sima Qian: China's 'grand historian' By Carrie Gracie BBC News, Beijing Speaking truth to power has always been a high-risk strategy in China. Its rulers tend to prefer flattery, and writers who forget this do so at their peril. China's "grand historian" - 2,000 years ago - was one of many who have paid a terrible price.
Favorite 
3
Art as a Mirror: Zhang Huan’s 'Family Tree' and Its Reflections on Cultural Identity
Practitioner:
Zhang Huan
Date:
Oct 11 2000
One of the most critical artists on the contemporary art scene is Zhang Huan. His works are of great social insight and unique in how he applies his artistic expression. He thus makes them an almost visual feast with a peek into the multilevel structure of modern society. One such work is the masterpiece "Family Tree," which shows how art can mould our social cognition through multilayered symbolism and profound imagery.
Favorite 
3
I've Got Nothing To Say
Practitioner:
Anonymous Girl in China
Date:
Feb 23 2024
Feb 23 2024, on the streets in Henan, China, a girl holds a big sign with the black text "I've got nothing to say" on a white background, walking around in city center and malls. She live-streamed her walk and her account was banned after a few hours.
Favorite 
2
'Wolf Warrior artist' strives to use new art to spread truth and inspire patriotism
Practitioner:
Wuheqilin
Date:
Jun 18 2020
With delicate composition, striking details and strong emotion, five editorial posters drawn by Wuheqilin have attracted some half million followers to his account on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like social media platform. His political views expressed in his art have led to some netizens dubbing him the "Wolf Worrier artist."
Favorite 
4
"Waste" Sculpture
Practitioner:
Zhou Zhenfeng
Date:
May 15 2016
In 2016, Zhou Zhenfeng, who was a student at a college in Hebei at the time, discovered that there were a lot of waste tires in the streets and alleys. Zhou Zhenfeng learned that tires are made of infusible or refractory polymer elastic materials. It takes hundreds of years for these materials to decompose in the soil to the extent that they do not affect the growth of plants.
Favorite 
1
600 Days of Sanitary Pad Mutual Help Boxes in Universities: Stagnation, Perseverance, and Exploration
Practitioner:
Chinese University Students
Date:
Jun 13 2020
From October to December 2020, Chinese university students nationwide launched a viral movement to install “menstrual pad mutual aid boxes” in women’s restrooms—free, wall-mounted containers stocked with disposable pads on a take-one, replace-one basis. Nearly 250 campuses joined within weeks. Some sustained their boxes for over a year, while others saw them vanish after bureaucratic pushback, logistical hurdles, or dwindling volunteer resources.
Favorite 
2
Yang Li: The 'punchline queen' who offended Chinese men
Practitioner:
Yang Li
Date:
Jan 24 2021
China's "Punchline Queen" Yang Li is no stranger to controversy. The 29-year-old is now one of the country's most well-known comedians, having risen to fame in recent months on a Chinese television show called "Rock and Roast". Every week, in front of a national audience of millions, she addresses controversial gender issues using a style unfamiliar to many Chinese viewers - stand-up comedy.
Favorite 
5

Pages