Das Ringen um "China" in der chinesischen Gegenwartskunst

What is actually so Chinese about Chinese contemporary art? Where does its international success come from, and what kind of role should it play in China? Since its entry into the global contemporary art system, China’s art world has been intrigued with questions like these. In contrast to previous publications on artists and their works, this book focuses on the Chinese art critic Wang Nanming, his ‘post-colonialist art criticism’ and ‘critical art’. It uses approaches from within the history of ideas and critique of ideology to observe various discourses surrounding him, e.g. those blaming Chinese contemporary art for merely satisfying Western orientalism, or those dealing with the search for a socio-political and avant-garde representation of an allegedly real China. Contextualising those debates within modes of Chinese self-assertion shows the similarities with other discourses led by intellectuals, as well as the distinct peculiarities of worrying about Chinese contemporary art.