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Arts & Entertainment

The Lens Widens on the New China

A photography exhibit at the Getty Center reveals how after decades of artistic repression, the great wall of censorship is crumbling in the East.

Nudity may not be a word usually associated with Chinese art. Neither is the term freedom of expression. But after decades of artistic repression, the great wall of censorship is crumbling in the East. A good place to view this emerging cultural change is through the Getty Center’s current exhibition, “Photography from the New China.” Eight photographers present views of their country in provocative, experimental and sometimes sexually explicit fashion. 

For example, in Peking Opera: Self-Portrait and The Web Cave, photographer Liu Zheng recreates old-fashioned turn of the century sepia prints using partially clad or totally bare figures. By blatantly using nude figures, Zheng defies taboos and in a sense, mocks China’s Cultural Revolution, when such lurid displays were forbidden.

Another unique use of the flesh can be seen in Huang Yan’s Chinese Landscape—Tattoo. Imitating the revered art of ink painting on silk, human torsos literally become the canvas for Asian landscapes.

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Many of the works are linked by dominant styles in current Chinese photography, including performance for the camera, preoccupation with the body and use of family portraits. A prime example of the latter form comes from Song Youngping, who paid tribute to his aging parents by documenting their daily lives. By posing a grim-looking Mom and Dad in their wedding gown or saggy underwear, Youngping evokes an unsettling view of elders in their declining years.

Perhaps the most whimsical artist, Wang Quinsong, routinely employs stylized advertising tactics to expose the powerful influences of Western commercialism, globalization and capitalism on Chinese culture, as seen in his large-scale work New Women 2000. For a piece called Preschool, Quinsong shows the impact of consumerism on China’s youth. As a dim Fu Manchu-bearded instructor with blue tinted hair points to a chalkboard tacked to a tree, chicly dressed toddlers sit among items associated with Western culture, including toy French fries, an E.T. doll and a bottle of Dad’s Root Beer.

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And in another huge mural, Can I Cooperate With You?, the artist references a 7th century Tang dynasty hand scroll, depicting a meeting between Tibetan and Chinese nations. In the ancient drawing, three dignitaries greet Chinese officials. In the new version, we see a Caucasian male sitting in a rickshaw surrounded by Asians holding fans imprinted with McDonald’s and Coke logos.

Born in the '60s, this motley crew of avant-garde artists has responded to the rapidly changing world around them in unique ways. Some trained in traditional art schools, while others found sanctuary in a bohemian colony on the outskirts of Beijing called East Village. Rong Rong captures glimpses of this edgy neighborhood in a series called East Village, Beijing No. 8. In one photo, a quartet of black and white stills, a vertical slit in a piece of metal shows the nose, ear, tongue and fingers of fellow artist Zhang Huan. 

Huan also posed himself as the central figure in a series of nine compelling images called Family Tree. He had three calligraphers paint layers of poems and songs on his face until he became completely saturated in dark blue ink. As a result, this linguistic mask creates a suffocating effect on the viewer, perhaps mirroring the Chinese artist who felt choked under his country’s repressive regime.

Visitors to the New China exhibit must first pass through another fascinating display of Asian photography from Felice Beato, who covered landscapes, architecture, conflicts, and daily life in the late 19th century.  The two showings offer a rich, dramatic contrast of photographic styles and historical moments for anyone curious about the always-mesmerizing Far East.

“Photography from the New China” is on view until April 24.  The museum is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles, California 90049. For more information, call 310-440-7300 or visit its website

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