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Chinese whispers

If Glasgow School of Art is going to have artistic collaborations with China, it needs to guarantee space for political criticism, says an art world insider.

lasgow School ofArt recently announced a new association with the (‘entral Academy of line

Arts. Beijing. which promises to be the frrst of

many collaborations. Students now enrolling in Beijing will come to Scotland in 2006 to complete their degrees. and get what (iSA director Sheorra Reid terms ‘a unique springboard to careers in the creative industries worldwide‘. This certainly sounds worthwhile. (‘hina is increasingly recognised as a player in the globalised art market. No longer the object of ()rientalist fantasies. its artists speak the lingua franca of ArtTM: conceptually-

based installations. deconstructions of notions of

identity etc. (‘hinesc artists are now exhibiting around the world both under government control and outside it. As (‘ai (‘iuo-Qiang's I‘Ttlllttttlt‘k’c‘l exhibition and ‘black rainbow‘ event at this year's lidinbur‘gh Festival showed. art can provide a trseftrl space for the negotiation of our

different cultural traditions. (‘ai’s ‘Black Rainbow" over

lidinburgh (‘as'tle used fireworks (for which his home province of l‘ujian is farnotrs) to create a poetic representation of the global climate of fear successfully evoking a sense of the unnatural and unnerving.

()n one level then. the dual factors of increasing global interconnectetlness. and raised awareness of regional particularity make artistic collaboration with (‘hina a natural and welcome development - artistic vocabularies are now shared enough to function without ‘translation‘ while retaining their local flavour. But (iSA's plans are not unproblematic. The ongoing post-Cold War thaw in relations with (‘hina is

motivated primarily by its astonishing powers of

economic production and. increasingly. consumption. In this climate. (‘hina’s suppression of dissenting voices at home is too easily overlooked. Recent reports indicate that human rights abuses in China are not declining as its economy grows. What is termed a 'smokeless war' is being fought by the (‘hinese state against those of its citizens who speak otrt against it. Amnesty lrrternational’s briefing for the 5 September liU—(‘hirra summit highlighted areas of particular concern.

including the increasing restriction of freedom of

expression. especially via the internet; and the continued practice of ‘re-education through labour“ as punishment for 'behaviour" (rather than specified crimes) deemed illegal. ()f course. proponents of norrnalising relations with (‘hirra argue that globalisation is the answer to these problems a liberalised market economy will produce citi/ens who demand political recognition. and gradually see their standard of living rise. One reason why (‘hina is vitally important to the globalisation‘s future as a political project is that it remains to be seen whether such changes will occur. or whether instead its blend of radical market freedom and social control will survive the social upheaval wrought by capitalism. There is no better emblem of this question than (‘hina's

10 THE LIST 7() ()(:l I5 Nov 900:")

THE CHINESE STATE IS FIGHTING WHAT IS TERMED ‘A SMOKELESS WAR' AGAINST ITS CITIZENS In this

‘(ireat l"ir'evv‘;rll' which prevents (‘hinese intemet users from accessing ‘radical‘ news websites. including those provided by the BBC and (ioogle.

(‘hina‘s attempts to control what its citizens can read or say via the internet may yet prove to be a despairing attempt to hold back an irreversible process of change. l)isturbingly. however. Westem rrrulti-nationals fighting to establish themselves in (‘hina have shown that they

are willing to assist in censorship if that is a condition of

doing business. It was reported in June that Microsoft‘s MSN service in (‘hina was blocking blog entries containing words such as ‘freedom' and 'derrrocracy‘. (‘iSA‘s initiative needs to be understood in light of the fact that all universities see themselves as competing for market—share ~ with Asian students being particularly valued consumers. But it would be unfortunate if this

obscured the problems that attend any rrormalising of

relations with (‘hina » namely the risk of tacitly approving a political reality irrirnical to what art has come to stand for in the West: creativity. questioning. freedom. The staff and students of the (‘entral Academy of Fine Arts were

June IQX‘). testimony to the interrelation of art and political critique. Yu Dongyue threw paint on Mao's portrait in Tiananmen Square and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He remains in jail. context (‘ai‘s smoke ‘rainbow‘. as a demonstration of arts ability to make visible the tensions and fears which hang over our world. takes on an extra poignancy and pointedness. But how is the value of strch a gesture to be weighed against the human rights abuses in (‘hina‘s ‘smokeless war"? Art can be a means for the ‘civilising‘ of unacceptable states of affairs. making them respectable. It can also be a space and a means of critique. Let‘s hope that the (‘iSA’s collaborative projects with (‘hina encourage the latter.

Dominic Paterson is Lecturer in History of Art at The University of Glasgow

prominently involved in the protests of

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