Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:23:55.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Governing Art Districts: State Control and Cultural Production in Contemporary China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2014

Yue Zhang
Yue Zhang*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago. Email: yuezhang@uic.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contemporary Chinese artists have long been marginalized in China as their ideas conflict with the mainstream political ideology. In Beijing, artists often live on the fringe of society in “artist villages,” where they almost always face the threat of being displaced owing to political decisions or urban renewal. However, in the past decade, the Chinese government began to foster the growth of contemporary Chinese arts and designated underground artist villages as art districts. This article explores the profound change in the political decisions about the art community. It argues that, despite the pluralization of Chinese society and the inroads of globalization, the government maintains control over the art community through a series of innovative mechanisms. These mechanisms create a globalization firewall, which facilitates the Chinese state in global image-building and simultaneously mitigates the impact of global forces on domestic governance. The article illuminates how the authoritarian state has adopted more sophisticated methods of governance in response to the challenges of a more sophisticated society.

摘要

当代艺术家在中国社会长期处于边缘地位, 因为他们的观念往往与主流意识形态相左。在北京, 当代艺术家一度聚居在位于城市边缘地带的 “画家村”, 并且常常面临被迫拆迁的命运。这种情况在过去的十年中发生了巨大转变, 政府开始扶植当代艺术的发展, 并将处于 “地下” 状态的 “画家村” 命名为 “艺术区” 。本文对这一重大政策变化进行了探讨。作者指出, 在全球化背景下, 中国社会日益多元化, 然而, 中国政府通过一系列新机制保持着对当代艺术群体的控制。这些机制在中国社会与外部世界之间设置了一座 “防火墙”, 它使得中国国家机器在树立了一个更为开放的外部形象的同时, 削弱了全球化力量对其内部治理的影响。本位以当代中国艺术为切入点, 揭示了威权政体如何通过运用更为微妙的管理机制, 实现着对一个更为多元、复杂的社会的治理。

Keywords

contemporary Chinese artsart districtartistic freedompolitical controlstate autonomyglobalization当代中国艺术艺术区艺术自由治理国家自主权全球化
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 219 , September 2014 , pp. 827 - 848
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Chicago. A residential fellowship granted by the Institute enabled the completion of the project. The author would also like to thank Doris A. Graber, Anthony M. Orum, Susan Levine, Robert Bruegmann, Lynn T. White III, Stanley N. Katz, Paul J. DiMaggio, Stephen G. Engelmann and Andrew S. McFarland for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.

References

Barmé, Geremie R. 2000. “Artful marketing: who buys it? Contemporary Chinese art at home and abroad.” Persimmon 1(1), 23.Google Scholar
Chen, Chien-Hsun. 2002. “Property rights and rural development in China's transitional economy.” Economics of Planning 35(4), 349–363.Google Scholar
Chen, Xiangming. 2009. Shanghai Rising: State Power and Local Transformations in a Global Megacity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Cole, David. 1987. “Artists and urban redevelopment.” The Geographical Review 77(4), 391–407.Google Scholar
Croizier, Ralph. 1999. “The avant-garde and the democracy movement: reflections on late communism in the USSR and China.” Europe-Asia Studies 51(3), 483–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Currid, Elizabeth. 2007. The Warhol Economy: How Fashion, Art and Music Drive New York City. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Currier, Jennifer. 2008. “Art and power in the new China: an exploration of Beijing's 798 District and its implication for contemporary urbanism.” Town Planning Review 79(2–3), 237–265.Google Scholar
Edelman, Murray. 1995. From Art to Politics: How Artistic Creations Shape Political Conceptions. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Peter, Rueschemeyer, Dietrich and Skocpol, Theda. 1985. Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Held, David, and McGrew, Anthony G.. 2003. “The great globalization debate: an introduction.” In Held, David and McGrew, Anthony (eds.), Global Transformation Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1–50.Google Scholar
Ho, Peter. 2000. “Contesting rural spaces: land disputes, customary tenure and the state.” In Perry, Elizabeth J. and Selden, Mark (eds.), Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Routledge, 101–122.Google Scholar
Ho, Peter. 2008. “Land markets, property and disputes in China.” In Spoor, Max (ed.), The Political Economy of Rural Livelihoods in Transition Economies: Land, Peasants and Rural Poverty in Transition. London: Routledge, 200–224.Google Scholar
Huang, Rui. 2008. Beijing 798: zai chuangzao de “gongchang” (Beijing 798: the creative “factory”). Sichuan: Sichuan meishu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Koehane, Robert, and Nye, Joseph. 2000. “Globalization: what's new? What's not? (And so what?)” Foreign Policy 118, 104–120.Google Scholar
Lee, Ching Kwan. 2007. Against the Law: Labor Protest in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ley, David. 1996. The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ley, David. 2003. “Artists, aestheticism and the field of gentrification.” Urban Studies 40(12), 2527–44.Google Scholar
Li, Cheng, and White, Lynn T. III. 2003. “Dialogue with the West: a political message from avant-garde artists in Shanghai.” Critical Asian Studies 35(1), 59–98.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Richard. 2006. Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Migdal, Joel, Kohli, Atul and Shue, Vivienne. 1994. State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Molotch, Harvey, and Treskon, Mark. 2009. “Changing art: SoHo, Chelsea and the dynamic geography of galleries in New York City.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 33(2), 517–541.Google Scholar
Nathan, Andrew. 2003. “Authoritarian resilience.” Journal of Democracy 14(1), 6–17.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance: Contentious Politics in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenfeld, Alla. 2001. Art of the Baltics: The Struggle for Freedom of Artistic Expression under the Soviets, 1945–1991. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Sassen, Saskia. 2001. The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Savitch, H.V., and Kantor, Paul. 2004. Cities in the International Marketplace: The Political Economy of Urban Development in North America and Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Mary, and Martin, Randy. 2006. Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sellers, Jefferey M. 2002. Governing from Below: Urban Regions and the Global Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Rachel E. 2010. “On the frontlines: making decisions in Chinese civil environmental lawsuits.” Law & Policy 32(1), 79–103.Google Scholar
Sun, Meng. 2010. “The Production of Art Districts and Urban Transformation in Beijing.” PhD diss., University of Illinois at Chicago.Google Scholar
Wang, Weisi. 2009. “Dangdai yishu tui bianyuanhua, Luo Zhongli dailing dangdai yishu huigui zhuliu” (Contemporary Chinese arts de-marginalization, Luo Zhongli leading contemporary Chinese arts back to the mainstream), Jingpin gouwu zhinan, 24 November.Google Scholar
Zeng, Yan. 2008. “Wanwu shengzhang: Songzhuang 1994–2000” (Everything grows: Songzhuang 1994–2000), Sanlian shenghuo zhoukan, 18 November.Google Scholar
Zhou, Shangyi, and Breitung, Werner. 2007. “The 798 art district in Beijing, China: production and reproduction of culture in a global city.” Geographische Rundschau International Edition 3(4), 56–62.Google Scholar
Zukin, Sharon. 1989. Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar