Projects tagged "China"

Remembering
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Sep 10 2008
In 2009, the dissident artist created a work to honour the thousands of children who died in the Sichuan earthquake. He recalls how the project, Remembering, angered China’s rulers – and changed his career for ever This is an edited extract from The Start podcast
Dying to Breathe: The Unseen Cost of Gold Mining
Practitioner:
Sim Chi Yin
Date:
May 15 2015
Photographer Sim Chi Yin spent more than three years documenting a Chinese gold miner who is suffering from the deadly lung disease silicosis. Despite the odds, his loving relationship with his wife has kept him alive much longer than anyone expected.
The Many Faces of Yue Minjun
Practitioner:
Yue Minjun
Date:
Dec 5 2012
By NAZANIN LANKARANI PARIS — Five years after his rise to the top of the Chinese contemporary art market, Yue Minjun has something new to smile about. Best known for his large-scale paintings depicting his own smiling face, Mr. Yue, who is based in Beijing, has long been a star of the Chinese contemporary art scene, having achieved commercial success through a highly singular aesthetic.
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.
My World Is In Your Blindspot
Practitioner:
Tenzing Rigdol
Date:
Jul 1 2014
This is a series of paintings reflecting the struggle and sacrifices made by the Tibetan people for independence. The author is Tenzing Rigdol, who is a Tibetan and influenced a lot by the Dalai Lama and traditional Tibetan culture. The paintings are full of Tibetan cultural elements. For instance, the characters created in the paintings are Tibetan monks, who are the typical representatives of their culture.
How Song Dong's "Waste Not" Elicited Much Sympathy
Practitioner:
Song Dong, Zhao Xiangyuan(Song Dong's mother)
Date:
Jan 1 2005
Song Dong's Waste Not consisted of a single installation comprising over 10,000 commonplace, domestic items of daily life that had been used and amassed by the artist’s mother (Zhao Xiangyuan) over fifty years.
Take a Photo, Save a Child
Practitioner:
Jianrong Yu
Date:
Jan 25 2012
On January 17, 2011, Hong Yuping (洪玉萍), from Fujian Province, contacted Yu Jianrong (于建嵘), at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), about her family’s plight and requested assistance: In June 2009, their son, Yang Weixin (杨伟鑫), then age six, was abducted from their hometown, Quanzhou, and they had been searching for him ever since.1 In early 2010, Hong had recognized Yang Weixin in a photo of three children begging outside a Xiamen train statio
Occupy Men’s Toilets
Practitioner:
Five young feminist activists: Wu Rongrong, Zheng Churan, Wang Man, Wei Tingting, and Li Tingting
Date:
Feb 19 2012
The “Occupy Men’s Toilets” movement, initiated by Chinese feminist activists including Li Tingting (Li Maizi) and Wu Rongrong, emerged in 2012 as a creative, non-violent protest against gender inequality in access to public facilities.
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.
Protection of the Ocean
Practitioner:
Wan Yunfeng
Date:
Apr 10 2019
Two pairs of dusty, pastel-orange roller skates. A ram's skull. Several meters of tangled, bright red rope. They aren't the sort of items you'd find in the great fashion houses of Europe or on North American catwalks. But, for unconventional Chinese designer and performance artist Wan Yunfeng, they are perfect. From his small apartment in eastern Beijing, Wan makes fashion that only he wears.
LGBT activists ask strangers for hugs in China protest at Weibo censorship
Practitioner:
Chinese LGBT activists
Date:
Apr 19 2018
A social experiment testing the public’s reaction to gay people in China has gone viral. The blindfolded activists stood in public wearing T-shirts that said “I’m gay would you hug me?” and video of the protest then spread rapidly on Weibo, a hugely popular social media platform in China. The social experiment follows a recent announcement by Weibo to ban gay content on its platform of 400 million active users.
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.
Call for Remove Homophobic Chinese Textbooks
Practitioner:
Chen Qiuya, other LGBT human right activists
Date:
Nov 1 2015
In November 2015, Chinese LGBT activist Chen Qiuyan met with government officials in Beijing after months of campaigning to have the Ministry of Education remove textbooks which identify homosexuality as a mental disorder. In 2001, the Chinese Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its list of recognized mental disorders, after the Chinese government decriminalized consensual homosexual acts in 1997.
"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.
Tear It Down, They Said. He Just Kept Building.
Practitioner:
Chen Tianming
Date:
Jan 1 2025
The structure teeters over fields of knee-high grass, looking like a cross between a camping tent and a giant wedding cake. Eleven stories of dark red wooden rooms, diminishing in size as they ascend, balance atop one another, seemingly held together by only the thicket of cords that stretches from the peak to the ground.
Taking Feminist Battle to China’s Streets, and Landing in Jail
Practitioner:
Young Chinese Feminists
Date:
Feb 2 2012
The young Chinese feminists shaved their heads to protest inequality in higher education and stormed men’s restrooms to highlight the indignities women face in their prolonged waits at public toilets.
"Say No to Pig Hand": Anti Public Transport Sexual Harassment
Practitioner:
Leilei Zhang, Xie Shuang, Miss Shi, Miss Hu
Date:
May 17 2017
Leilei Zhang was harassed on a public bus when a man gripped her hand, glared at her and refused to let go. With the determination to raise public awareness, Leilei began a crowd-funding campaign to raise money for what could have been China's first public anti-sexual harassment advertisement. She approached the authorities of her home city, Guangzhou, but it did not want to take on the advertising for fear it would panic the public.
Interwoven Threads: The Art of Community and Sensory Expansion
Practitioner:
Sebastián Mahaluf
Date:
Sep 1 2023
Sebastián Mahaluf stands out as an artist deeply engaged in weaving the complex threads of human connection, community, and the interplay of personal and collective experiences. His notable work, "CONTRADICTION AND TENSION," showcases his approach to art as a participatory experience that bridges individual perceptions with communal narratives.
I Have Never Eaten These Tiny Grapes by Zuoxiao Zuzhou: 'China's Leonard Cohen' Calls Out Political Corruption
Practitioner:
Zuxiao Zuzhou, Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 2013
Zuoxiao Zuzhou is a Chinese singer whose accented, croaky voice is hardly ever in tune. But for his fans he's the voice of a generation — one of the very few voices who dare to speak out. After a collaboration, Cowboy Junkies member Michael Timmins called him "China's Leonard Cohen."
China’s Creative Acts of Protest: Memes, Puns and Blank Sheets of Paper
Practitioner:
People of China
Date:
Nov 28 2202
In Shanghai, a vigil grew into a street protest where many held blank sheets of white paper in a symbol of tacit defiance. In Beijing, students at Tsinghua University raised signs showing a math equation devised by the Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann, whose surname in Chinese is a homonym for “free man.”
Leftover Women
Practitioner:
SK-II
Date:
Apr 6 2016
They are disparaged as “free-willed” women, “stubborn,” “picky,” “incomplete.” But a video by an East Asian beauty brand that went viral over the past week has upended the conversation on China’s sheng nu, which translates literally into “leftover women” — those who happen to be over 27 and unmarried. “People think that in Chinese society an unmarried woman is incomplete. You feel like an outsider,” says one young woman.
Echoes of Defiance: Xiao Lu and the Impact of 'Dialogue' on Art and Society
Practitioner:
Xiao Lu
Date:
Jan 1 1989
Xiao Lu was one of the most influential women in contemporary Chinese art, better known for provoking performance art works and sharp social commentaries. Her works address sensitive social and cultural issues that counter mainstream attitudes and values. In 1989, she put her work "Dialogue" up for exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
Protest in Inner Mongolia against CCP's Mandarin-only Education
Practitioner:
Ethnic Mongolians in China
Date:
Sep 1 2020
Thousands of ethnic Mongolians have protested across northern China in opposition to Beijing plans to replace the Mongolian language with Chinese in some school subjects.
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.
Rare protests against China’s ‘zero covid’ policy erupt across country
Practitioner:
Lily Kuo, The Washington Post
Date:
Nov 27 2022
Protests erupted in cities and on campuses across China this weekend as frustrated and outraged citizens took to the streets in a stunning wave of demonstrations against the government’s “zero covid” policy and the leaders enforcing it.

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