Word: shanghais
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...also satirizes his countrymen's headlong race to make money, the native of Daqing, a grim oil town in China's northeast, doesn't view his shiny new millionaire status with much irony. "What's wrong with laughing?" Yue demands with a serious face, digging into a Shanghai eatery's rendition of braised pork shoulder, a quivering delicacy synonymous with nouveau riche fulfillment. "China isn't all dark anymore. We should be happy...
...sale. Overall, leading auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's auctioned $190 million in contemporary Asian art last year, compared to $22 million just two years before. "This is just the beginning," says Swiss art dealer Pierre Huber, who in September oversaw a debut contemporary Asian art fair in Shanghai. "For so long, people did not know about Asian art. But now the world is turning to Asia, and what they see is amazing...
...police, that allows its artists the most room for self-expression. Yes, direct criticisms of the Communist Party are taboo, and the culture cops occasionally shutter avant-garde exhibitions. Nevertheless, ironic depictions of Chairman Mao and not-so-subtle critiques of official corruption or urban alienation fill Beijing and Shanghai galleries. Some artists, particularly those who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, playfully twist that era's socialist-realist propaganda art - think heroic laborers, red-cheeked peasants and stalwart soldiers lifting banners with brand names or consumerist messages. Best known among these political popsters is Wang Guangyi, whose painting...
...year-old Zeng Fanzhi, whose portrait of a masked man with a cauterized visage sold for $1.63 million in London last month. "Then, suddenly we were told, 'That's finished, you will love money now.'" Puffing on a Cuban cigar at a five-star hotel's café in Shanghai, Zeng gazes at the other patrons. Next to him, a man in red silk pajamas leans over to slurp coffee from a dainty cup resting on the table. Nearby, a prostitute in a leopard-print minidress has arranged herself in an armchair, presumably waiting for a customer. "People...
...Some Asian artists blame the consumerist hype on foreign collectors who impose their tastes - and dollars - on locals. "The foreigners already have an idea of what they expect from Chinese art, and they are more interested in works that have obvious Chinese symbols," says Shanghai artist Ding Yi, whose Mondrian-inspired geometries hardly betray his nationality. "It's very seductive," acknowledges Li Liang, the owner of Eastlink Gallery in Shanghai. "You know that if you put things up that look Chinese, they will sell well." But others worry that this impulse will only encourage soulless facsimiles with little cultural resonance...