Past As Future: the Discourse of Chuantongin Twentieth

JCCA 6 (2+3) pp. 167–186 Intellect Limited 2019

Pi Li Sigg Senior Curator of M+, Hong Kong

Past as future: The discourse of Chuantong in twentieth- century China1

Abstract Keywords This article discusses the approaches of Chinese intellectuals and artists to tradi- t radition tion throughout the twentieth century. Tradition in China is understood, on the one Chinese intellectual hand, as a notion born in a framework constructed by twentieth-century Chinese history intellectuals and their realm of senses and concept of time, on the other hand as a contemporary Chinese notion driven by modernity and capitalism to anchor a work of art to a distinguish- art able point of time. Hence, the article will first review a series of debates on old and National Essence art new culture that have taken place since the May Fourth Movement. It will then theory move on to discuss how contemporary artists made peace with tradition since the twentieth-century ’85 New Wave, a new era when artists are also subject to market forces of supply China and demand. 1. Translated by Xin Wang.

This article attempts to comb through the various discourses on chuantong (‘tradition’; ‘classics’) throughout the twentieth century in China, and to explore the formation and transformation of the concept due to shifting cultural and political demands. The concept of chuantong emerged time and again against the backdrop of nineteenth century’s colonialism, and the political conflicts and cultural collisions informed by it; as a result, the discourse on chuantong for the majority of the twentieth century revolved around Chinese

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painting and literati art, and only expanded gradually towards contemporary art practice after the 1980s. This article, therefore, also attempts to showcase contemporary Chinese art under the multiple influences of globalized politics, economics and market, and the various manners in which tradition functions as symbol, material and methodology amidst the flux of conceptualism.

A fine art revolution: The reversal of ‘Chonggu’ (‘veneration of the past’) Chuantong is a very familiar cultural term. According to Cihai (large-scale dictionary and encyclopaedia of Standard Mandarin Chinese), it is defined as ‘ideas, culture, morality, fashion, art, institutions, and behaviors that have been passed down through history. It is usually inherited as historical and cultural heritage, the most stable elements of which fixed and manifested in all aspects of social life’ (Cihai Dictionary 2009, Chuantong entry). The Cihai definition is a modern one, which closely relates to its western meaning. The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, defines chuantong as ‘a belief, custom or way of doing something that has existed for a long time among a particular group of people; a set of these beliefs or customs’ (Oxford English Dictionary 2012, tradition entry). However, the ancient meaning of chuantong is very different from its modern one. A few examples from ancient texts illustrate this disparity: ‘Since the Wu Emperor of the Han Dynasty vanquished Joseon, more than thirty chiefdoms established diplomatic contacts with the Han empire; each chief- dom claim and pass down monarchical sovereignty’ (Fang 2018.: n.pag.). ‘The Confucian pedagogue passes down the classics, accompanied by teachings from luminant scholars’ (Hu 2009: n.pag.). What these texts demonstrate is the historical usage of chuantong as a verb, which denotes ‘inheritance and perpet- uation’ with references to power and the preservation of scholarship across generations. It approximates the Latin origin of the English term ‘Tradition’ – traditto, which implies inheritance. The transition of chuantong from a verb to a noun might be a result of imported wasei-kango terms. The modernization of its definition perhaps traced back to the May Fourth movements, no earlier than the early 1920s. Clear modern definitions of chuantong occurred in the 1930s. In 1936, Carson Chang writes in The Future of China’s Culture:

The Chinese regard the classics of Confucius and Mencius as ideologi- cal principle, absolute monarchy as political principle, and folk creeds, such as veneration of ancestors and Taoism, and exotic religions, such as Buddhism from India, as religious principles. These principles can be termed as ‘traditions’. (2012: 5)

In classical treatises on painting, the concept closer to the modern definition of chuantong is in fact the ‘classical spirit’. In the famous analysis by Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322),

the classical spirit is essential to painting. Without it, skillful execution achieves little aesthetic value. Today’s painters consider themselves capable as they master the meticulous application of the brush and rich colors. However, what they fail to understand is that the lack of classical

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spirit only leads to decadence, which plagues the work to the extent of unworthiness. My paintings appear simple and straightforward, but those who appreciate it understand its proximity to classical ideals, thus hold them in high regard. This principle can be shared among those in the know, and will fail to reach those without such an understanding. (Bian 1958.: n.pag.).

Zhao Mengfu’s ‘classical spirit’ refers to the philosophical taste or style characteristic of earlier masters, specifically those exemplified in pre-Song paintings. In Zhao Mengfu’s view, Song painting, particularly as a practice backed by the Imperial Painting Academy, places too much emphasis on technical skills; he hopes that landscape painters shall follow the idioms of Dong Yuan and Juran, and figuration informed by the Tang Dynasty style Zhao Mengfu, Dong Qichang and the four Wangs (of the Qing dynasty) all advocated for the classical spirit, making only nuanced distinctions between the various degrees to which they revive, imitate, study and transform these classical models. They share the ideology of elevating the classical tradition as the ultimate paradigm, which illustrates an important tenet in classical painting theory: the ancient masters set the supreme standards for cultural practice and lifestyle alike. Outside the realm of art, we find ample evidence for this veneration of the classics in political and cultural practices as well (such as the idiom that considers ancient periods superior in moral conduct). In general, throughout Chinese history it is often believed that olden times are golden, and the ‘Three Dynasties’ (Xia, Shang and Zhou) in particular are widely heralded as the ideal social and political paradigm. Reforms are therefore oriented towards the idealized past, frequently citing classics for moral justification. This view of history has established a unique temporality that always places the past above the present, and hence imbues chuantong with connotations of loftiness/ sublime. The past-oriented, classics-venerating perspective on history began to change in the nineteenth century. The collapse of the Ming dynasty and the takeover of the Manchus (rulers of the Qing dynasty) profoundly impacted the Han intellectuals. Through reflections on the painful and traumatic transformation, Qing scholars opposed the empty discourse of spiritual Confucianism and pursued instead classical studies and practical learning. Within the context of Confucian philosophy, the spiritual debates escalated to such an extreme that only classical texts proved reliable sources of jurisdiction. This sense of rationalism led to a heavy archaic focus in Qing scholarship, which attempted to reconstruct classical antiquity as the exemplary paradigm. However, Qing scholars, through their rigorous research, realized that the idealization of the Three Dynasties was simply a result of compounded historical projections that were poorly justified. Accompanying this revelation was the onset of colonialism and a series of devastating failures beginning in the Qing dynasty. This reality dealt the first blow to the philosophy of revering the past. By 1873, the Jiangnan Arsenal’s department of translation had already introduced Darwin’s theories of evolution to China, but initial interest was sparse. It was not until 1898, when Yan Fu translated Evolution and Ethics to great acclaim, did Darwin’s theory of evolution become fully explicated in its humanitarian and political implications. Another reason for the wide reception of Evolution and Ethics was the exacerbating colonial condition in which Chinese intellectuals found themselves. In particular, the failures of the First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki deeply wounded the Chinese, as

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Japan had long been regarded as a small, weak neighbour. Against this backdrop, the theory of evolution was combined with and magnified by the salva- tion quest of the nation. One of its influences was the adoption among Chinese intellectuals of the evolutionary view of ‘the survival of the fittest’. According to the analysis in Evolution and Ethics, life, society and even politics are products of constant evolutions. Therefore, following the argument of evolutionism, ‘past’ and ‘classical times’ connoted crudeness and ignorance, and ‘future’ began to signify infinite possibilities and came to symbolize a positive imaginary. As ‘future’ gained traction and the ‘classics’ waned in comparison, the idea of ‘revolution’ was born. The October Revolution in 1917 allowed the Chinese intellectuals to imagine a sudden leap forward to the future as a viable option and the idea of ‘revolution’ began to take hold (Wang 2018: 220). We can thus further understand the arguments from Kang Youwei, Lv Cheng and Chen Duxiu regarding the decline of Chinese painting and artistic revolution in 1918:

Chinese painting has declined to the extreme by our time. Not only has it declined, the genre of figuration has virtually gone extinct. The remaining few famous artists only imitated the worst of the four Wangs, Shi Tao, and Kun Can; their coarse and sparse brushwork are as flavorful as wax. How could these works be our heritage and compete with (the art from) today’s Japan, Europe, and America? Even in the case of the four Wangs, Shi Tao, and Kun Can, who preserved some of the Yuan elegance, they do not represent the authentic Tang and Song practice; they pale in comparison to the Song, and there’s no debates about that. Except for Hui, Jiang, and the two Nans, whose works are wonderful and manifest classical spirits, the rest are all lost causes and there is nothing notewor- thy. Wu Mojing is a singular case, and Giuseppe Castiglione was trained in the Western tradition; one day great masters shall emerge combining both Western and Chinese styles. Chinese painting shall perish if it only adheres to the past and refuses to transform. How could there not be brilliant, resolute artists within this nation who shall rise to the chal- lenge and usher in a new era of painting by combining the Chinese with the Western? I hope it happens in our time. (Kang 1999: 24)

Kang Youwei’s notions of ‘competing with Europe, America, and Japan’ and ‘combining the Chinese with the western elements to usher in a new era for painting’ clearly exemplify the evolutionary perspective of ‘the survival of the fittest’. His analysis above is frequently cited by art historians to illustrate the ways in which realism became regarded as a scientific method that may transform Chinese art. But the most thought-provoking point here is that Kang rearranged the relative hierarchies among past, present and future, establishing the future (new era) as the objective. Similar ideas were raised in Lv Cheng’s ‘An artistic revolution’, particularly in its premises for ‘old and new’, ‘general trend’ and ‘revolution’.

Where does the path of revolution begin? One approach is to articulate the parameters and essence of art, so that the general public understand its raison d’etre. Another lies in explicating the origins and gene- alogies of painting, sculpture, and architecture since the Tang Dynasty […] so that the general public understand what defines the arts rooted

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in this country. Still another involves explaining the transformation of European and American art, and the truth of the various schools today, so that the general public may understand the general tendency of the developments in the art world. Still another is to apply the theories on the essence of art to qualify various kinds of art – East, West, old and new – and to understand their true merits and shortcomings in service of aspiring artists, so that they may each magnify the paths/ styles chosen. (Lv 1999: 27)

Lv Cheng’s theory on the revolution of art inherited Lu Xun’s modern definition of fine art in his opinions on promoting fine art and Cai Yuanpei’s modern definition of the application of art in his replacing religion with aesthetic education. These definitions set fine art apart from both refined intellectual leisure and the folk arts that pander to vulgar, populist taste. The fine art revolution was destined to happen on such premises. But Lv Cheng’s approach was not yet radicalized, as he focused on the analysis of chuantong as much as on an understanding of the west to critique the vulgar vernacular paintings and to establish a new type of fine art that uplifts the morals. In comparison to Kang Youwei and Lv Cheng, Chen Duxiu took the more radical path, which was evident in his response to Lv Cheng:

In order to change Chinese painting for the better, we must fully eradicate the four Wangs. Because we must apply the spirit of realism in Western painting in order to transform Chinese painting. This imperative is analogous to writers who must resort to realism to transform classical techniques for his own purposes and magnify his own talents, rather than copying from the past. Painters must also apply realism to magnify one’s talent and make one’s own paintings, without falling into the ruts of the ancients. The Chinese painting during the Northern and Southern Song dynasties, as well as those in the beginning of Yuan, exhibited realist tendencies in delineating figures, beasts, architectural features, and plants. Since the literati took hold, the emphasis was placed on the spiritual energy rather than likeness. This style was advocated by Ni Zan and Huang Gongwang towards the end of Yuan, further promoted by Wen Zhengming and Shen Zhou in the Ming dynasty, and became aggravated through the Wangs of Qing dynasty. (D. Chen 1999: 29)

Chen Duxiu and Kang Youwei shared the opinion that Song Academy paintings prioritized realism; both also rejected literati paintings completely. Kang Youwei placed his emphasis on combining the Chinese and western to create a new era for painting, whereas Lv Cheng argued for prosperity of each style in its own right, but Chen Duxiu was resolute in eradicating the literati and borrowing from western realism, thus assuming a much more radical position. Around the time of the May Fourth Movement, classical antiquity, literati art and the chuantong that they represent had been placed directly in opposition to revolution and progress. Chuantong acquired connotations of ignorance and the lack of scientific spirit, rather than the cultural paradigm that it used to engender.

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National essence: The past as a source for liberation Kang Youwei’s idea of ‘combining Chinese and western styles for a new era in painting’ and Chen Duxiu’s argument for a ‘fine art revolution’ played prominent roles in China’s early modern art history, particularly due to the emphasis placed on the spirit of realism that was further developed by the likes of Xu Beihong and Jiang Zhaohe. This style cohered with what Mao Zedong advocated as ‘art for the people’ in his ‘Talks at the Yan’an Forum on literature and art’, and became the mainstream socialist artistic style since 1949. But it did not define the entire discourse of early twentieth century, which, upon closer examination, reveals a richer spectrum for the debates over tradition and revolution. In the 1920s, several painting associations were established in Beijing and Shanghai in the name of ‘Chinese painting’ and ‘National Essence’. These include the Chinese Painting Research Association (Beijing, 1920: Jin Cheng, Chen Hengke, et al.), The Shanghai Preservation Society of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy (Shanghai, 1927: Huang Binhong, Zhan Yishan, et al.) and the Chinese Painting Association (Shanghai, 1931: Huang Binhong, Ye Gongshou, et al.). These painting associations stood in opposition to Chen Duxiu’s point of view. In the discussions of the 1920s, the most notable phenomenon was the emergence of such terminologies as ‘Chinese painting’, ‘national painting’ and ‘national essence’. They collectively recognize and defend the values of literati art, and therefore acquired the moniker ‘the school of national essence’. These terminologies reflected the real disputes between Chinese and western values in the contemporary discourse.

I cannot recall the date accurately, but since the day the so-called ‘national painting’ became a discipline in Chinese schools, ‘Western painting’ – like other fields of studies – had also been adopted and embraced into the curriculum. Therefore the term ‘national painting’ emerged in response to the circumstances, initially serving to distinguish from ‘Western painting’ in the same way domestic goods emerged in response to overseas goods, and national language in response to foreign language. When the terms were first established there were no relative hierarchical values assigned to them. (Tong 1999: 138)

In the beginning of the twentieth century, a vocabulary represented by ‘national essence’ was created by Chinese intellectuals that encompassed terms such as ‘national craft’, ‘national literature’, ‘national theater’, ‘national museum’, ‘national medicine’ and ‘national cuisine’. A sense of satire can be detected in Tong Guang’s essay, which resonated with Lu Xun’s Appropriationism (1934). He writes:

regardless of other matters, in terms of art alone, the recent trend is to ship some antiquarian objects to Paris to exhibit, which ultimately mounts to nothing (Lu 2013: 283); there are also these ‘masters’ who tour some combination of old and new paintings in several European countries in the name of ‘magnifying the nation’s light’.

Lu Xun’s critique of chuantong had a profound and lasting impact in China; one can say that he singlehandedly turned ‘national essence’ into a derogatory

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term. But Lu Xun’s satirization had drastic differences from the idea of the ‘nation’ that concretized around 1900. What we now term as ‘nation’ was a concept that gradually came into being towards the end of the Qing dynasty. Chen Duxiu recalled that not until after the Siege of the International Legations did he realize that the world consisted of individual countries. Beginning with the Reformists, the discourse on the modern nation was a vital one at the turn of the century, rippling outwards from politics and historiography. Apart from political reform, Liang Qichao’s ‘A new study of history’ turned historical narrative from one describing courts, emperors, officials and generals (the old study of history) to one focusing on the nation and its citizens (the new study of history). In his own words, the objective was to ‘narrate history from the perspectives of the citizens – bearers of the new history’. Concepts of the nation and the nationals developed from this idea, and so did the ideas of ‘national studies’, ‘national literature’ and other chuantong-related concepts of the nation. For instance, in his 1914 essay ‘The disadvantages of studying abroad’, Hu Shi listed national studies, cultural history and history studies as the three disciplines of upmost importance. He writes:

national literature serves as a sharp tool for cultural introduction, and the classics and historical literature provide glimpses into the ancient civilization of our nation; studies of history inform us of the glories of our nation’s past, thus inspiring patriotic love for the country.

But Hu Shi’s take on chuantong was dialectical. For instance, he also writes in ‘The disadvantages of studying abroad’ that ‘It is not fair to say that we should no longer treasure China’s traditional culture. Rather, China’s traditional culture is no longer compatible with today’s world’. Even for flag bearers of the New Culture Movement such as Hu Shi, the so-called national studies and national history stemmed from nationalist identification. In his 1919 essay ‘The significance of the new tides’, Hu Shi advocated for ‘investigating problems, introducing theories, reflecting on national history, and reinventing (our) civilization’ (Luo 2013: 19–54). We can clearly sense that terms such as national painting and Chinese painting, and the establishment of associations such as the Chinese Painting Research Association, were closely associated with Hu Shi’s thoughts on historical reflections. Deep down, these are motivated by national identification and the need to rebuild Chinese culture under the pressures of a national crisis, rather than generated through pure forms of conservatism. An apt example can be found in Jin Cheng’s argument that ‘there’s no such thing as old and new in painting’:

Everything in the world may be debated along the lines of old and new, except for the practice of painting. Famous hands have been abun- dant since the Tang Dynasty, and each establish their fame not through disparaging prior styles as old painting, but through rigorously following the paths of prior masters and expanding their spirit. They deeply understand that without the old there would not be anything new, and the new comes from the old; when the old is transformed, it is both old and new, but when the new is pursued for the sake of newness, it is essentially outdated. The preoccupation with the ideas of old and new leads to cluelessness at the brush. If we derive new knowledge

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from revisiting older wisdom, venerate the masters and their teachings, neither transgress nor forget, and follow established traditions, the poetic spirit can be attained […] but if one learns painting only to feign the classical spirit and to dazzle his contemporaries under the assumption of innovation, he is in fact just pursuing fame and not worthy of addressing learning, let alone that of painting. (Zhang 2017: 27)

Jin Cheng’s argument that ‘there’s no such thing as old or new in painting’ naturally collided with the arguments for a fine art revolution, and Jin did not hide his disdain for the fine art revolution theory:

Through thousands of years our nation’s art has achieved significant success and has been esteemed by the whole world. However there are ignorant kids who do not understand that our national essence should be preserved and promoted; think-skinned, they advocate for art revolutions, but are in fact art traitors – are they not ashamed when reflecting upon themselves late at night?

Chen Hengke (Chen Shizeng), a colleague of Jin Cheng’s at the Chinese Painting Research Association, aligned with Jin on defending the value of traditional painting, but he in particular preferred literati painting. In 1921, the Tokyo University of the Arts Professor Seigai Omura visited China and met with Chen Shizeng through the introduction of Jin Cheng. Later Chen Shizeng translated his volume The Revival of Literati Art, accompanied by Chen’s own essay ‘The value of literati art’, as a book titled Studies on the Chinese Literati Art, published by the Zhonghua Book Company in 1921. In these two essays, Chen Shizeng meticulously detailed the values of literati art. In ‘The value of literati art’, he writes:

What defines the literati painting? It should reflect the literati character and be imbued with the literati taste. Not restricted by the artistic techniques of a painting, the artist must generate literati thought beyond it; it is along such terms that the literati art is defined. […] Its disinter- est in likeness or verisimilitude testifies to its progressive nature. […] In the case of a single artist’s development, after the stage of painting likeness, he most certainly would develop methods that transcend likeness, pragmatic concerns, and the boundary of nature. […] Western painting can be said to have achieved the zenith of likeness. Since the 19th century, [the Western painters] have studied the theory of light and color in the spirit of science, and experienced the very details of objects. Nevertheless, the more recent Impressionism went against this progres- sion, prioritizing subjective view over objective representation. Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism followed suit, and such conceptual transformation sufficiently testified to the insufficiency of likeness. (S. Chen 1999: 67)

It can be inferred from this analysis that Chen Shizeng, in articulating the values of the literati art, did not simply operate from a closed-off cultural perspective. On the contrary, he demonstrated understanding of western art, including its modern trajectories in Cubism, Futurism and Expressionism. Chen Shizeng graduated from a French missionary school and studied in

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Japan. Jin Cheng, on the other hand, went to study in England in 1902 and, while there, visited museums broadly; he helped establish what is known today as the Palace Museum. Both Chen and Jin were southern intellectuals who pursued political careers in the north; both were political and cultural elites. The essence of their advocacy for the revival of traditional Chinese painting lies in the objective of saving the nation through culture. Here a dilemma emerged for Chinese artists and intellectuals: the pains of colonialism instilled in them a deep hatred of the west, but they also looked towards the west for magical solutions; in their critique of chuantong they searched for a pure form of tradition. This complex mentality is best captured in Zhou Zhaoxiang’s writing:

Culture, politics, and the economy are often correlated; isolated progress rarely occurs. Political and economic ills do not yield elegant culture. Regardless of the old and new, what matters is the compatibility with our nation. Blindly adhering to the past is as inappropriate as blindly pursuing newness. One hopes that the intellectuals in this country shall plan China’s politics, economy, and culture holistically, examining the past while creating the future to establish the suitable cultural foundation. The notion of now, as a concept of time, is extremely ephemeral; if we oscillate and hesitate, divided between absolute conservatism and trendy populism without any standard, then we lose our foundation and suffer the detriment of China within global culture. (Zhang 2017: 29)

Clearly the national essence school at the time cannot be equated with the conservatives, for even though they both opposed the fine art revolution, the former possesses potent progressive energy. Chen Shizeng, Jin Cheng and Zhou Zhaoxiang did not particularly criticize or valorize the four Wangs, whom Chen Duxiu vehemently attacked. As articulated already by Jin Cheng, ‘if one learns painting only to feign the classical spirit and to dazzle his contemporaries under the assumption of innovation, he is in fact just pursuing fame’. This illustrates that that their emphasis on the Chinese painting tradition lies in cultural revival rather than conservatism; the current chuantong must be tran- scended to restore a purer past. The mentality of Chen Shizeng and Jin Cheng was by no means singular, and was in fact closely aligned with Zhang Taiyan’s idea of ‘reviving the past as innovation’ and Liang Qichao’s idea of ‘resorting to the past for liberation’.

Passive traditions and the victory of Xu Beihong Curiously, while his advocacy for ‘reflecting on national history’ sparked the artistic school of ‘national essence’, Hu Shi himself changed directions around 1921. In 1921 he stated that reflections on national history were only an academic enterprise ‘without the effect of arousing patriotic spirits and emotions’. He also advocated for ‘breaking the chains and spitting out the national waste’ (1963), arguing that ‘anything narrowly nationalistic has conservative characteristics, leading to the tendencies of celebrating existing culture and resisting external cultural influence’ (1930). One may detect from these statements, and from Lu Xun’s satirization of the national essence, that Chinese intellectual circles fundamentally turned towards a more radical cultural path. The process began in the 1920s and developed well into

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the 1930s. Around the times of the New Culture Movement, the remaining respect for tradition had been diluted. One cause of the dilution was the introduction of various western thoughts, but the much more direct impact came from Yuan Shikai’s restoration of a royal regime, and the realization amongst the activists of the New Culture Movement that any overpromotion of the past might threaten the sovereignty of the Republic. Gradually they turned to more radical anti-tradition camps. In his later years Hu Shi summarized that rationale at the time: ‘over celebration of Chinese tradition may fan reaction- ary thinking’. Among the contemporaries of Hu Shi and Lu Xun, more radical proposals were presented. For instance, in his 1933 essay ‘The way out for Chinese culture’, Chen Xujing promoted complete westernization. He believes that China’s

established traditions are so entrenched that nobody was willing to humbly accept fundamental Westernization. […] Since the stagnation of culture was a result of traditional thinking’s oppressive effects on individual developments, individualism must be encouraged. This will not only passively break the shackles of traditional thinking, but will also actively stimulate cultural progress. The main cause for the rapid development over the past two, three centuries in the West was the development of individuality. (X. Chen 2004: 53)

The radical turn in cultural solutions in the 1930s compelled the Modernist artists to reflect comprehensively on the notions of tradition and Chinese painting.

Nowadays, those who criticized Chinese painting often bore two main reasons. On the one hand, they claimed that Chinese painting was not in line with scientific methods, taking the example of the imprecision of contours, the lack of contrasts between light and dark, the inconsist- ency in perspective, and the monotonous choice of color. As a result, they attempted to combine the techniques of Western painting with our Chinese painting, in order to achieve an eclectic style. On the other hand, they claimed that the materials employed by Chinese painters were too simple and inadequate for depicting the objects, and rushed to replace them with Western materials. I don’t reckon those reasons consequential, for they merely lingered on the precise depiction of object. Resemblance or likeness is not a fundamental subject in the arts. It is the reflexive revolution triggered by the object that is important to the arts.[…] The shifts in the attitude towards the arts are the most important. The attitudes of today’s average Chinese painters can be summed up as imitation, emulation, and fantasization, […] but far removed from life. […] So we ought to change such attitudes, from imitation to reality, from fantasy to instinctual perception […] in search of new poetics, new sentiments, […] and to present new realms of painting. (Ni 1930: n.pag.)

The so-called national painting in China has been primarily plagued by its obliviousness to time and nature. What do we mean by this obliv- ion? The majority of the Chinese paintings can be characterized as a

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preservation of tradition, an imitation of older masters, and plagiari- zation of predecessors. Since Wang Wei (699–761) invented ink landscapes, most Chinese paintings afterwards were done in ink. The Four Wangs of the Qing Dynasty inadvertently established a school of painting, and many soon labeled themselves progeny of the Wangs. When Shi Tao and Zhu Da gained popularity recently, the Chinese painters of course began to align themselves with their lineages. (Lin 1933: n.pag.)

Compared to the art revolution theory of Chen Duxiu and Kang Youwei, Ni Yide’s art attitude and Lin Fengmian’s critique of obliviousness placed more emphasis on the spiritual dimension of art. Both underlined the necessity of a revolution within the discipline of art, so as to create ‘newness’ and forge a ‘future path’. In short, Lin Fengmian and Ni Yide were primarily concerned with establishing an artistic modernity. Their theories could have found ample application in new experiments, but with the onset of the Second Sino- Japanese War, the problem of art quickly shifted from one concerning modernity to objectives of revolution and survival. Against the backdrop of national survival, nationalist identification and political propaganda became primary objectives in the artistic discourse, whereas Lin Fengmian and Ni Yide’s ideas became terminated and overshadowed. Under the pressure of national salva- tion, traditional values of art were completely rejected. On the one hand, this rejection stemmed from the fine art revolution advocated since the May Fourth Movement; on the other, Mao Zedong and the Communist Party depended on art for propaganda, which entailed a much more accessible format. Much scholarship has been dedicated to discussing these developments; here I will simply list a few examples below:

Literature and art for the landlord class are feudalist literature and art. Such were the literature and art of the ruling class in China’s feudal era. To this day such literature and art still have considerable influence in China. Literature and art for the bourgeoisie are bourgeois literature and art. People like Liang Shiqiu, whom Lu Xun criticized, may talk about literature and art as transcending hierarchies, but in fact they uphold bourgeois literature and art and oppose proletarian literature and art. Then literature and art exist to serve the imperialists--for example, the works of Zhou Zuoren, Zhang Ziping and their like--which we call trai- tor literature and art. With us, literature and art are for the people, not for any of the aforementioned groups. We have said that China‘s new culture at the present stage is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal culture for the masses of the people under the leadership of the proletariat. (Mao 1942: n.pag.)

Today, art requires realism. Though the leisurely landscape paintings achieved such eminence in history, it is impossible to use them to educate the masses; they serve no positive purposes. (Xu 1949: n.pag.)

The decline of Chinese painting can be traced back to six, seven hundred years ago, alongside the decay of China’s feudal society. […] We should

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especially expose and criticize the subjective literati painting and the formulated dogmatic painting during the decline of the feudal society. (Li 1950: 35–38)

The arguments cited above roughly presented the logical development of the critique of literati art since the 1940s. They maintain that traditional art is essentially a product of feudal hierarchies and hence does not belong to the people. Arts in the context of national crisis must focus on education and propaganda, renouncing narcissistic exploration of form and moving towards more pragmatic realism to increase its reach. It can be argued that both Lin Fengmian and Xu Beihong derived their critique of tradition from the New Culture Movement, but Lin Fengmian focused his critique on the artistic language form within, whereas Xu Beihong continued Chen Duxiu’s fine art revolution and foregrounded the social functions of art. The scale of history tipped towards Xu Beihong and Li Keran after 1949, and as a result obscured the internal critique generated by Lin and Ni, particularly the elite’s path of revival advocated by the national essence faction. The re-thinking of tradition within Chinese art in the 1980s began first and foremost with undoing this obscurity.

From Chinese painting to conceptual art: Reevaluating the axes of Chuantong The problem of tradition was investigated along different axes in the avant- garde art movements beginning in the 1980s. One such axis was the revi- sionist art history that gradually reinstated the artists previously labelled as representatives of feudalist art and literature. Along this axis, one may observe certain epiphanies from the artists; Li Keran, for instance, has changed his perspective drastically by the end of 1980:

My paintings are rooted in the soil of my homeland and its tradition, and are nurtured by the objective world. People call my paintings the ‘Impressionism of Chinese painting,’ but I cannot agree. I had a few years of experience studying Western painting, and to this day, I still admire the Western masters. However, it is my fundamental recognition that China has its own glorious cultural system and unique forms of representation. We learn from the other in order to reflect on and enrich ourselves. We should be deeply ashamed if such learning leads to self- belittlement and the denouncing of tradition. (Li 1987)

While Li Keran changed his perspective on re-embracing the tradition, in the eyes of more radical critics, his conceptual return and artistic practice were far from enough. Two years before Li Xiaoshan had already proclaimed in his famous tirade My View on Contemporary Chinese Painting that ‘Chinese painting has come to its demise’. He rejected Pan Tianshou, Li Keran, Huang Zhou, Li Kuchan and the followers of these masters because ‘they did not transcend the confines of Chinese painting and were only interested in discover- ing new subject matter’. Instead he championed the artists Liu Haisu, Shi Lu, Zhu Qizhan and Lin Fengmian, for they expanded new aesthetic experiences and contributed to the modernity of ink painting. Such judgements from Li Xiaoshan reflected his judgements and definition of tradition:

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The transformation of the concept of painting marks the beginning of its revolution. We must understand and evaluate contemporary Chinese painting with this argument in mind. New concepts of painting do not originate from thin air, but are rather most certainly developed through absorbing superb elements from tradition. The so-called artistic heritage of course does not consist of dead stuff; it allows us to choose freely and selectively, extracting what’s useful for a specific moment and rearrang- ing the elements to meet the demand of the times. The superb cultural heritage of Chinese painting lies in the spiritual concretization of space, time, and the observer. (Li 1999: 418)

In fact, Li Xiaoshan’s arguments closely resembled Lin Fengmian’s critique of Chinese painting, which was expressed half a century ago; it is also possible that Li Xiaoshan inadvertently revived Liu Fengmian’s ideas, thereby bridg- ing part of the ’85 New Wave to the never finished Modernist project of the early twentieth century. From another perspective, Li Xiaoshan’s perspective on tradition and history also possessed typical ’85 New Wave characteristics: passionately expressed yet overgeneralizing. In the backdrop of Li Xiaoshan’s arguments was a crucial turn in art historical research in the 1980s, when a group of art historians started to cleanse the research mythology of vulgar sociology and Marxism to re-examine history and tradition. Led by Pi Daojian, these art historians championed the historical view that ‘the history of art was essentially an on-going struggle between realism and non-realism’. Shui Zhongtian, on the other hand, re-examined the twentieth-century discourse and debates over the Chinese painting revolution. These paved the way for reintroducing ideas of national essence and restoring the classics after half a century of their rejection. In the meantime, the scholarship of overseas art historians such as James Cahill was gradually introduced to China and interacted with the local scholarship, prompting renewed research in Dong Qichang and the four Wangs. These overturning of older cases in art history also led to reevaluations of twentieth-century art, and Lang Shaojun was the most radical practitioner in this aspect. In his essay ‘The four traditional masters of the twentieth century’, he re-acknowledged the importance of Wu Changshuo, Pan Tianshou, Huang Binhong and Qi Baishi, while arguing:

They all matured or established themselves during the vehemently anti-tradition cultural movements, and their successes were indeed thought provoking. Furthermore, the social and cultural revolutions of the 20th century all emphasized on supporting the lower strata of the society and promoting the unorthodox, popular arts while mostly rejecting, negating, and destroying the culture of the upper class, the orthodox tradition, aristocrats, and the elites. While the Four Masters sampled widely from lower class, vernacular, and unorthodox sources, they mostly aligned themselves with the traditional elite culture (the literati culture that prioritizes demands from the scholar-officials). Their immense success was closely related to the cultural elitism maintained and pursued in their practice, including the compatibility with traditional artistic spirit, the philosophy on nature that harmonizes men and the universe, their scholar-official-like language paradigm, pursuit of internal expression, and their strong, independent personalities. All of these qualities are in line with traditional elite culture as they

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maintained quite some distance from the thriving popular ink paintings. Doesn’t this inspire deeper thinking about the infrastructure of modern Chinese art and culture. (Lang 1999: 494)

Lang Shaojun’s arguments not only subverted the political judgement that equated literati art with feudal garbage, but more importantly, against the backdrop of ’85 New Wave’s pursuit of the artistic avant-garde and admira- tion for the west, he transformed chuantong from an obstruction to progress into a rich source of inspiration by essentially linking tradition to elite art. Li Xiaoshan’s theories paved the way for the modern ink painting, while Lang Shaojun’s research inspired practices such as the new literati art and urban ink painting in the 1980s and the 1990s. Even though Lang Shaojun and Li Xiaoshan’s arguments were considered groundbreaking in the field of ink painting, the repurposing of tradition was evolving along a much more radical axis in the context of avant-garde art.

For the progressive Chinese artists, Zao Wou-Ki is clearly too old and decadent to imitate, though he also despises the so-called terrible, ‘underground’ country; these are different generations, after all. Zao Wou-Ki’s development in France in the 1950s fell basically in the same category as the ‘May Painting Society’ in Taiwan and the modern painting in Hong Kong in the 1970s. That is to say, these painters who dedicated to the Orientalism or modernism all sought inspiration from I Ching, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Zen Buddhism in Chinese philosophy. What they gained from it, if anything, was far from its essence, for their engage- ments were basically on aesthetic and formalist terms, which essentially constituted a kind of self-deceptive rationalism, because ‘Dao’ and ‘Zen’ are fundamentally non-aesthetic and non-formalistic. Ironically, those who captured the essence of these Eastern philosophies were some Westerners. The Easterners only arrived at the annotation, the expression, and the interpretation of the doctrines, and Eastern art was merely a translation – rather than authentic expression – of its spirit. In a certain sense, it was Postmodernism that became the incarnation of Zen in its own sense without bearing any superficial markers of Zen. (Huang 2016: n.pag.)

From the perspective of Huang Yongping, the so-called modern painting championed by Li Xiaoshan, the Eastern philosophy behind these modern paintings, and the concepts of Dao and Zen were all but self-deceptive rationalism in aesthetic and formalist terms. Huang, however, approached Zen as a methodology, and here lies the impact of his arguments. He represents the ultimate result of the ’85 New Wave, namely, the rise of conceptualism. From this moment on, Chinese painting, literati art or even ink would no longer dominate the discourse on tradition. As mentioned earlier in this article, beginning at the end of the nineteenth century, tradition was bound together with Chinese painting to brace the impacts of western culture. Much of the struggle between tradition and modernity was one played out between China and the west, between civilizations. Now, with the emergence of conceptual art, mediums such as installation, performance and photography no longer register the disparity between eastern and western cultures, but are rather hallmarks of art in the age of globalization. As a result, the discourse

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on tradition transitioned accordingly, and what motivated this new turn is often the tension between the global and the local. In comparison with prior ages, the most prominent distinction of the arts since the 1990s was their involvement in the global art market. Artists are not only the subject of artistic language and conceptual reckoning but also individuals actively participating in the vanity fair.

Negotiating with tradition in contemporary Chinese Art In his ‘Negotiating with tradition in contemporary Chinese art: Three strategies’ (2012), Wu Hung mapped out three categories for Chinese art’s engagement with tradition since the 1990s. Distilling Materiality, the first category, refers to the host of Chinese artists who, beginning with the medium of ink, had abandoned the imagery to directly work with materials such as ink and paper. Examples include Yang Jiechang’s One Thousand Layers of Ink series (1989–98) and Zhu Jinshi’s Facing the Wall. Along this axis, many unusual Chinese materials were preferred by artists, including silk (Qin Yufen, Xu Bing, Liang Shaoji), cotton yarn (Lin Tianmiao, Chen Qingqing), gun powder (Cai Guoqiang), jade (Shi Jinsong), bamboo (Zhu Jinshi), porcelain (Liu Jianhua) and embroidery (Hong Lei). Translating Visuality, the second category refers to the transition from refining the essence of Chinese painting to replacing traditional medium with heterogenous materials sourced from different times and locations, resulting in an ironic fusion of various temporalities. Examples include Wang Jin’s PVC dragon robes in his Dreams of China series and Zhan Wang’s stainless-steel literati rocks. Refiguration, the last category, is defined by

the goal to ‘re-figure’ reality and perception – restructuring an existing object with its own property, and in so doing re-orienting the view- er’s visual perception and mentality. Also differing from conventional practices of appropriation, refiguration does not produce a new work independent from the source material. Instead, it transforms the source material and in this way allows the artist to transform its life from within.

Examples include Ai Weiwei’s Table with Two Legs on the Wall (1997) and Qiu Zhijie’s Copying the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion 1000 Times (1990–95) (Wu 2012: n.pag.). Beginning in the 1990s, Chinese art began to appear on the international stage and in the progress of globalization. Tradition is no longer considered a baggage carrying connotations of regression and savagery, but has rather come to define and distinguish the artists’ own identities. In this context, artists are often expected to highlight their identity, and tradition has read- ily become a leverage. The three categorizes mapped by Wu Hung establish a hierarchy among medium, form and concept, each marking a different depth and direction in contemporary Chinese artists’ engagement with tradition. But Wu Hung’s summarization ignored another form of negotiating with tradition that has emerged in the past ten years – namely, using tradition as a visual/ imaging technology. This approach is most commonly seen in works of moving images. It began with Yang Fudong’s Strange Paradise, itself a homage to Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Town, which explored the spiritual world of the Chinese literati. Later, in his more ambitious series Seven Intellectuals in the Bamboo

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Grove, Yang Fudong explored the literati trope of the Seven Intellectuals by fusing the literati aesthetic with modern, psychologically charged cinematog- raphy, thus creating his own genre of ‘literati film’. If we consider Yang Fudong as an example of introducing the literati ethos into moving images, Sun Xun and Qiu Anxiong represent another direction in which tradition was co-opted into visual technology. Qiu Anxiong’s New Classic of Mountains and Seas found resonance between traditional mythology and modern life, whereas Sun Xun mined ink for the visual tension characteristic of a new cinematic language. Wu Hung discussed Qiu Zhijie’s Copying the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion One Thousand Times towards the end of his essay, as an example of re-figuration held in high regard by the author. The brilliance of Qiu Zhijie lies in the fact that, while he deployed calligraphy as a traditional element, he doubly negates both its tradition and the vulgarization/popularization.

For the classical literati, calligraphy was never a dependable career, yet it reveals the temperaments of their lives. Within the classical forms of calligraphy, the original hand of the literati is a kind of measure of one’s artistic identity and attainment of internal perfection. For this reason, the text of the Orchid Pavilion is presented as an unsurpassed classic that epitomizes the value of a certain unself-conscious, carefree spirit that ultimately denies formal elaboration. As a verb, writing does not denominate a particular thing, but rather is a recollection of a certain state of the body and soul. Through reconstructing this state, the practice of calligraphy has been simplified into copying characters, so that the marks of the ink are simply created by blind movements of the brush tip, and the in traces change from the purpose of writing to the consequence of writing. In this way, writing becomes an endless self- investigation into the limits of the imagination. This investigation causes one to forget the routines of daily life and almost entails a slight mania. This marks an escape from the excessive sense of purpose in modern affairs and, therefore, relates to imagination. […] only after the formal traces are concealed will the image of calligraphy itself appear. If there are no formal traces of writing, only then will a consciousness of classical standards truly attain clarity. (Qiu 2003: 293–94)

Qiu Zhijie’s satirization of tradition’s vulgar application can be regarded as a continuation from Huang Yongping’s conceptualism, and represents the revolutionary approach of still younger artists. For instance, in 2010, artist Liu Wei created photo-collaged landscapes consisting of fragmented body joints and buttocks. In addition to the sharp contrast between buttocks and literati landscapes, the work’s monumental scale further extends its satirization by evok- ing the gigantic ink paintings adorning the walls of political institutions, bank lobbies and conference rooms. It satirizes the blind nationalist sentiments and the official bureaucracy’s false worship of the past, both new cultural products at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The satirization of chuantong has also been developed into a radical methodology. The earliest such examples can be traced to Ai Weiwei’s series of manipulations on ancient ceramic pots. These include documenting the dropping of a Han dynasty urn, or painting these antiquarian objects with industrial colours. Ai Weiwei’s destructive use of tradition can be seen essentially as a continuation of the cultural nihilism of Duchamp and Dada. Zhao

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Zhao’s Repetition (2012), on the other hand, crystallized satire, critique and destruction into a more extreme, symbolic gesture. After collecting fragments of ancient sculptures from antique markets, he polished away any recogniz- able sculptural elements and exhibited the final results as piles of bare rocks in the gallery. Repetition can be understood through the confined references to historical iconoclasm targeting Buddhist statues and cultural destruction during the Cultural Revolution. But more broadly speaking, they perpetuate the Buddhist idea of ‘reincarnation’: after being stripped of any surface resid- ual of tradition, the rocks can now return to the state of blandness and to initi- ate new traditions. It serves as an excellent metaphor on art’s relationship to tradition.

Conclusion: The past is the future Looking back on the development of Chinese art in the past century, one may be deeply impressed by the remarkable progress made during the twentieth century. During the New Culture Movement (1919), Kang Youwei and Chen Duxiu abandoned the legacy of the four Wangs; Xu Beihong and his contemporaries followed up with an emphasis on an east–west reconcilia- tion and scientifically informed realism. The style promoted and practiced by Xu Beihong aligned with Mao’s ideology for art, which was publicized during his talks at the Yan’an Forum and defined a new paradigm for the art of new China: one that distances itself from the literati style serving the feudal system and instead follows the imperative of ‘art for the people’. In light of this historical tendency, both traditional literati art (Chen Hengke, Jin Cheng) and modernist attempts (such as Lin Fengmian and The Storm Society) became obscured from the mainstream for half a century. During the New Wave art movements of the 1980s, Li Xiaoshan proclaimed that ‘Chinese painting has come to its demise’; rejecting rigid techniques and sterilized aesthetic standards, he championed the continuance of Chinese painting through modernism. A closer look at the artistic discourse of the 1980s reveals the academic field’s rediscovery of Pan Tianshou, Huang Binhong and Wu Changshuo; Lang Shaojun even championed the imperative to ‘rebuild Chinese elite art’, stand- ing in sharp contrast to the ideology of ‘art for the people’. The 1980s was also marked by the introduction of overseas practice of Chinese modern art. Zao Wou-Ki, Liu Kun-Sung and the modern ink practice from Hong Kong in the 1970s may seem compatible with Li Xiaoshan’s criteria, but were met with derision from Huang Yongping. For Huang, these practices represented a form of self-deception on the limited basis of aesthetics and formalism. He and Xiamen Dada intended to engage with the essence of Eastern philosophies (Dao and Zen) on non-aesthetic and non-formalist terms, and to merge these traditions with conceptual art. Huang Yongping and Qiu Zhijie represented the expansion of the reckoning with tradition into the realm of conceptualism. In their perspective, the nexus between Eastern philosophy and conceptualism points to the most viable path of engaging with the past. The debates over tradition versus elitism and tradition versus conceptualism continued from the 1980s into the twenty-first century. Various types of ‘tradition’ became inexhaustible new resources. But we must also realize that, in the twenty-first century, China’s nationalist ideology and the globalized art market will only complicate the discourse of tradition more. During the twentieth century, China experienced unprecedented, seismic shifts, just like other parts of the world. These changes happened with such

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speed and intensity that it became impossible to look ‘back’ for viable models; the search was oriented towards the future and the west, which represents progress and future. The debates over tradition – either the fine art revolution or the revival of national essence – established a linear, progressive temporality. Past, present and future are all lined up along its axis. This is arguably the most revolutionary result of twentieth-century conceptual art. The establishment of this linear narrative, combined with aspirations for the future, fundamentally subverted and divided art historical ideologies. If we examine these debates closely, we will realize that they are not perfectly exclusive, but are rather infinitely entangled. The conceptual history of chuantong in the twentieth century is one that oscillates in the prolonged process of doubt, critique, revival, negation, transformation, refiguration and re-engagement. Through analysing this conceptual history, we may understand the dynamics in which past, present and future complement one another in the art discourse since the twentieth century. The artists, who always plan and speculate from the stand- point of now, define their engagement with the past and tradition through their aspirations and imaginations for the future. In this sense, the past indeed implies the future.

Glossary Chuantong 传统 Chonggu 崇古 Cihai 辞海

References Fan, Ye. (2018), Houhanshu. Dongyi Zhuan. Wo (The Official History of the Han Dynasty, The Eastern Yi People, Japan), Beijing: National Library of China Publishing House. Bian, Yongyu (1958), Shigutang Shuhua Huikao (A Study of Paintings from the Shigu Hall), Nanjing: Zhengzhong Shuju. Chang, Carson (2012), The Future of China’s Culture, Changsha: Yuelu Academy. Chen, Duxiu (1999), ‘Revolutionizing imperial painting, an artistic revolution: A response to Lv Cheng’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Chen, Shizeng (1999), ‘The value of literati painting’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Chen, Xujing (2004), Solutions of China’s Culture, Beijing: China Renmin University Press. Hu, Yinglin (2009), Shaoshi Shanfang Bicong. Jiuliu Xulun (Notes from Shaoshi’s Mountain Villa, Introduction to the Nine Rivers), Shanghai: Shanghai Shudian. Huang, Yongping (2016), ‘Xiamen Dada – A type of postmodernism? 1986’, Artintern.net, 16 June, http://review.artintern.net/html.php?id=65666. Accessed 11 September 2019. Kang, Youwei (1999), ‘An introduction to the Wanmu Cottage collection’, in S. Lang, and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag.

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Lang, Shaojun (1999), ‘The four traditional masters of the 20th century’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 2, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Li, Keran (1950), ‘On the reformation of Chinese painting’, People’s Fine Arts, 1:1, pp. 35–28. —— (1987), Dense Forests and a Long Brook on High Mountains, Postscript on the painting, Beijing: Collection of Beijing Art Academy. Li, Xiaoshan (1999), ‘My view on contemporary Chinese painting’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 2, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Lin, Fengmian (1933), ‘Our hopes for the future of Chinese painting’, Prospect, 1:1, n.pag. Lu, Xun (2013), Collection of Essays by Lu Xun, Shenyang: Wanjuan Publishing Co. Ltd. Luo, Zhitian (2013), ‘The special manifestation of nationalism in modern China: A case study of Hu Shi’s globalism and anti-tradition thought’, in Luo Zhitian (ed.), The Undercurrents in a Turbulent Time: Nationalism and Politics of Republic of China, Beijing: China Renmin University Press, pp. 19–54. Lv, Cheng (1999), ‘Fine art revolution’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Mao, Zedong (1942), ‘Talks at the Yanan Forum on literature and art’, Marxists, 2 May, https://www.marxists.org/chinese/maozedong/marxist.org-chinese- mao-194205.htm. Accessed 11 September 2019. Ni, Yide (ed.) (1930), ‘New Chinese painting’, in Essays on Arts, Shanghai: Guanghua Book, n.pag. Qiu, Zhijie (ed.) (2003), ‘Statement on assignment No.1’, in The Boundary of Freedom: Series of Critiques on Chinese Contemporary Art, Beijing: China Renmin University Press, pp. 293–94. Tong, Guang (1999), ‘Discursive discussion on national painting’, in S. Lang and Z. Shui (eds), The Selected Works of Fine Arts in 20th Century, vol. 1, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature & Art Publishing House, n.pag. Wang, Fansen (2018), Thinking as a Way of Lifestyle: Contemplating Modern Chinese Intellectual History, Beijing: Beijing University Press. Wu, Hung (2012), ‘Negotiating with tradition in contemporary Chinese art: Three strategies’, Mplusmatters, 13–15 December, https://www.mplusmatters.hk/inkart/paper_topic10.php?l=en. Accessed 11 September 2019. Xu, Beihong (1949), ‘On landscape painting’, New Construction, 1:12, n.pag. Zhang, Tao (2017), ‘On the Chinese Painting Research Association and the relationship between Jin Cheng and Zhou Zhaoxiang’, Art in China, no. 3, pp. 27–29.

Suggested Citation Pi, L. (2019), ‘Past as future: The discourse of Chuantong in twentieth- century China’, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 6:2+3, pp. 167–86, doi: 10.1386/jcca_00002_1

Contributor details Pi Li is the Sigg senior curator of M+, a visual culture museum in Hong Kong. He previously served as the deputy executive director of the art administration

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department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, 2001–12); the co-founder and director of Boers-Li Gallery (2005–12) in Beijing, former Universal Studios-Beijing in Beijing. Exhibitions Pi Li curated include Right Is Wrong: Four Decades of Chinese Art in M+ Sigg Collection at Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and Bildmuseet in Umea 2015 and 2014; Under Construction at Tokyo Opera Museum in 2002; Moist: Asia-Pacific Media Art at the Beijing Millennium Monument Art Museum in 2002; Fantasy Zone at Art Museum of DongA Daily in 2001 and Beijing Modern Art Center in 2002; Image Is Power at He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen in 2002. He was the curator of Media City Seoul in 2006. He has also served as curator for the Shanghai Biennial in 2002; and Allôrs la Chine at Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003. Publications include From Action to Concept (2015), Farewell to Moralism (2018). Pi Li earned his Ph.D. degree in art history from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Contact: M Plus Museum Limited, Units 608-613, Level 6, Core C, Cyberport 3, 100 Cyberport Road, Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected]

Pi Li has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

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